Ballet week!

So as previously stated, last week was also full of ballet, and I'm not talking about lessons. Actually I had fewer classes than usual, since the 19th of March is a public holiday in Spain.

Getting to the pointe, right before my slightly embarrassing interpretation of Christine I couldn't help but try to développé in that dress. Firstly, because it was nice and kinda Giselle-like in my head (yeah, you can call me crazy if you want); and secondly, because I had to wear my ballet slippers with the costume, since I had no other white shoes. Yay! Dancewear for the win!

Also I was  portraying a very realistic Christine, since she was a ballerina and a singer at the Opéra de Paris. See? I should have won the Best Actress Award or something. Instead, my friend (the Phantom; a super good singer) and I got eighth place out of sixteen. But I received a pretty white rose from my classmates which made me happy.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Ballet week!

The Royal Ballet (♥) has been specially adorable (♥♥♥) during these past days. First of all, they made a worldwide cinema relay of Romeo & Juliet. I absolutely LOVE them for doing this. I always want to see them dance and I never can because I live so far away (this must change). The thing is, I could see them live and it was amazing. Romeo & Juliet is one of my favourite ballets ever. It is just glorious. I really believe that Kenneth MacMillan was a genius, and the Royal Ballet can perform his works in such a flawless, wonderful way. The dancers were perfect. I found a particularly convincing Bennet Gartside as Tybalt, performing one of the most furious sword fights I've ever seen against Federico Bonelli, who played Romeo. Oh, Federico. I saw him live at the ROH some months ago and he was a perfect Prince Florimund (he signed my tiny pointe shoe too!). Now, as Romeo, he was spectacular. Strong, dreamy. The way he stared at Juliet's eyes right before their first kiss was sensational. Speaking about Juliet, Lauren Cuthbertson touched the whole world the other day. I honestly believe that it was a huge privilege to see her dance. So innocent, so emotional, so tragic. So tecnically flawless. They say I am a crybaby, but I cannot help whining every single time I see this ballet. I just can't! And I know it, so I always make sure there is a bag of tissues around.

Let's move on... though I could talk about the Royal Ballet for hours.

Oh wait, the next thing I want to talk about is actually... the Royal Ballet! Because, nice reader, the Royal Ballet rocks and last week they did something else to prove their awesomeness to the world. The Royal Ballet Live took place on Friday and it was basically a documentary on a day at the Royal Ballet, from the daily class to all the rehearsals... all of it broadcast live to the whole world via YouTube. Isn't it the most amazing idea ever? Well, for me it is. I had always dreamed of watching an entire class with professional dancers, and on Friday I could finally do it. It was so inspiring! Also, all the rehearsals were an absolute joy to watch. Well, the whole thing. It was just plain awesome. Did you read that, ballet companies?

The only thing was, I had to work at Munusal the whole day, so I had to divide my screen like this:

Have I already said that Marianela is lovely?

I also put one of my earphones on and I used my other ear to listen to my fellow translators. You can imagine the scene: translating from English into Spanish while my editors were speaking in German, my colleagues in Spanish most of the time; two girls in Romanian... and also listening to the Royal Ballet Live. Thankfully my simultaneous interpreting lessons taught me how to multitask!

Keep dancing!

Nerea.