The other day I was having a look at older
posts in this blog and it is really amazing to see that some things that seemed
impossible some years ago, now are not only really simple, but also I almost do them unconsciously, like a totally
normal thing.
Sometimes you can find swans in the river ;)
I still remember the first time my ballet
teacher asked me to tombé, pas de bourrée
across the floor around four years ago. It might sound simple to any dancer,
but it is not easy at all for someone who just (re)started dancing, for real. And
then I bumped into this
post in which I was super happy because I had my front splits, which I now do
on a daily basis, kind of overstretched. And then my Timehop App reminded me that other
time when I congratulated myself for being able to hold my balance in passé for a couple of seconds. Now I can
hold it for as long as I want (or as long as my calves want, depending on the
day), as well as balances in attitude derrière or in arabesque (well, this one
is a little trickier, I must admit!).
What I mean with all this is that no matter how
hard anything you try to do is, if you persevere and work hard, you will get to
a point when you master it, even if you need years of practice.
So work hard and keep dancing! Never stop
dancing!
I'm back! Wow, it's been a while since the last time I posted here! Almost two years and my life has changed a whole lot. I'll try not to give too many details, because these two years have definitely been crazy and I don't want to get you (too) bored.
Let's see where we were! During that previous post I was living and working as a Spanish teaching assistant in Paris. Well, even though I was offered the possibility to keep working at those high schools, I decided that it wasn't what I really wanted to do, so a month later I came back to my village in Spain and started my own translation business. Just four or five months later I was already working (and enjoying) full time, so I can't say things aren't going well!
Regarding my ballet training, I obviously left my ballet academy in Paris and got enrolled in a great school in León, the closest city to my village in Spain. When I got there, my teacher suggested I should go to the advanced level with the advanced girls and boys (yikes!), so I did. And I have to admit that during the first months I was super lost in class, but after a while I got used to it... and now, starting my second year at an advanced level, I am feeling great and actually dancing awesome stuff. My classmates are a bunch of lovely and talented people and I am learning so much from them. In June we did two performances with actual excerpts from the scene of the shades from La Bayadère (so I actually got to wear a white tutu!) and a contemporary piece set to inspiring music by Ludovico Einaudi.
Rehearsing La Bayadère - Photo (c) Abocados
So far this year, in addition to our 5 hours a week we've done an intensive advanced course that consisted in 9 dancing hours over three days with one of the greatest experts in pedagogy of dance in the country. That was exhausting, but so rewarding. My lovely teacher has recently told me that she's really amazed by my progress, so right now I couldn't be happier!
Contemporary piece - Photo (c) Abocados
Moi in London.
Also, I have travelled quite a lot since the previous post. In April I went to Madrid to see Le Corsaire by the English National Ballet, with Tamara Rojo as Medora and that was definitely a night to remember. I've also been to London three more times. During the first trip I ended up assisting to the West End Live 2013 by chance, which made me develop a strong love for musical theatre. So since then I've enjoyed many musicals and ballets there. I've seen Phantom of the Opera twice (a total of five times in my lifetime), Wicked three times, Evita, Swan Lake in the Round by ENB and I fulfilled my life dream of watching the full Manon ballet live, performed by the Royal Ballet. My favourite ballet ever with one of my favourite ballerinas ever, Marianela Núñez. My God, that was special.
So that is pretty much all for now. It's nice to be back.
I hope to be able to keep writing here now that my timetable is a bit more stable.
So yesterday I was in pointe class. It was so long and intense.
We were doing some really difficult combinations, set to the Rose Adagio music, as well as to Aurora's variation music from Act III of Sleeping Beauty.
Awesome..., but yeah, you can imagine: our feet were hurting a lot and we were so, so tired. That was honestly the first time in my life that I needed a ballet class to finish already (even if I was having LOTS of fun). There must have been a moment of total despair, because the teacher looked at our faces and said:
I know, I know. It is difficult and it hurts. You know what? I have this little student. The other day we were in class and I realized she wasn't going on pointe. She kept dancing on demi-pointe again and again. So I asked her about it (Nerea points out: in a cute voice talking in French):
—But... what happens? What's wrong? You can't go en pointe? Did you hurt your feet? —No, madame... but... —Then what...? Just tell me, it's okay...! —I... I forgot... to put the... the cotton in my pointes... —But how come? When you put your pointes on you always put some padding in them...! —I know, madame... but this time I... I forgot! —Okay, okay, don't worry... but remember the cotton for our next class!
So there you go. Don't forget your cotton. Or whatever you put on your toes to make pointe work just... bearable.
And keep dancing anyway!
Nerea.
So it's already been about a week since I came back from another trip to London. This journey was easier and more pleasant than the last one, since I was able to travel by Eurostar instead of by bus.
You may wonder why I would want to go to London again after only three months since my last visit. Well, actually February 21st was Tamara Rojo's last performance at the Royal Opera House, with the Royal Ballet (the company she left in order to become English National Ballet's new artistic director). And you know that I really, really love her as a dancer, so I couldn't miss it. Plus, she was going to dance along with Sergei Polunin, one of the most amazing dancers of his generation, who shocked the dance world when he left the Royal Ballet last year.
So yeah. I had to ask for a free day at school, because I always work on Fridays and the performance was on Thursday. I also work on Thursdays, but I managed to find a train at 15:15, so I rushed from work to the train station all dressed up for the gala at the ROH. I met my friend Rosa next to the ROH shop. We had been talking for ages via Facebook, but we had never seen each other in real life. She's also a big Tamara fan, so we had decided we would go together to her last performance with the RB. It was amazing to share this experience with her!
The performance itself was amazing. It was a Frederick Ashton mixed bill, which included La Valse (which I had already seen in October during the ROH Gala, and for some reason I liked it better back then), Meditation from Thaïs (which was beautifully performed by Leanne Benjamin and Valeri Hristov), Voices of Spring (by the lovely Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell, who were perfect and a joy to watch), Monotones I & II (not my favourite pieces, but still they are perfect to show the beautiful lines and technique of the Royal Ballet dancers) and Marguerite and Armand (the piece Tamara and Sergei were going to dance, which was created on the legendary ballet couple Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev). The audience was waiting for the last part to arrive, and when it did, it was breathtaking. Literally. Since Armand met Marguerite until she died in his arms I couldn't even hear the audience breathe. An absolute silence. And... oh, Sergei and Tamara. Oh. That was beautiful. Perfect. You got me. I feel so privileged for having seen you both dancing live. Thank you.
And it is clear that London loves Tamara. They love her so much. That endless flower cascade, that thunderous applause, those meaningful tears. She can never have too many. She will be sorely missed at the Royal Opera House... and no wonder, because she is one of the greatest ballerinas of her generation.
The only thing that makes me sad is that in her country -in my country-
people don't appreciate her. It is so sad that she had to leave Spain
in order to become the star she deserves to be.
Tamara and Sergei taking their bows. She's holding some of the thousands of flowers they threw for her farewell.
Anyway!
I can't wait to buy the DVD of that final performance! Opus Arte has
already confirmed that they will release it at the end of the year or in 2014. I
am so happy! It truly was a night to remember.
Also,
after the show we waited for the dancers at the stage door. I got Yuhui
Choe's autograph and I also was in the presence of Kevin O'Hare, Dame
Monica Mason, Carlos Acosta, Lauren Cuthbertson, Bennet Gartside (who
signed a beautiful photograph for me) and others... And of course, we met Sergei Polunin and Tamara Rojo, who signed programmes and took pictures with people.
With Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin. ROH stage door after Marguerite and Armand.
I spent the next days in London with Rosa, visiting museums (we went to the Tate Modern, to the Victoria & Albert and we visited the British Museum twice). We went to The Globe, Shakespeare's theatre, which was so great. We were assigned a very funny old lady as our guide and we were able to attend a little demonstration of how people used to get dressed during the Elizabethan era, as well as some sword fighting theatre rehearsals. Lots of fun! We also wandered around Covent Garden (we bought Royal Ballet's Onegin posters and a pair of new Bloch pointe shoes for me) and we had a walk at Portobello Road, where she bought a red scarf (Little Lotte!) and I purchased an old vinyl record of the Original London Cast of The Phantom of the Opera. Finally, we went to the Royal Albert Hall and to the English National Ballet's headquarters (but we didn't go in, we just walked around - we're not stalkers!). Oh, and last but not least... we met James McAvoy at the stage door of Macbeth, where he is performing now! He really is the sweetest! We got his autograph and a picture with him.
I also had some time to spend with Chris, whom I hadn't seen since his last visit to Paris in December. We had a coffee at Prêt (well, I had a hot chocolate) and then we went for dinner at Pizza Express, next to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. He really is some good company! We'll see each other again in March. We have tickets for the Paris Opera Ballet, to see a Roland Petit programme at the Palais Garnier. I can't wait!
And finally, on Monday, the day I had to come back to Paris, I met Alejandro, a Spanish Twitter friend who lives in London. He invited me for lunch and then we went to the Casino at Leicester Square, where we had free drinks because he's a friend of the place. It was very nice to meet him and her friend Esther in real life!
So that was pretty much my second trip to London of the season. I honestly hope I can go to live there very soon. It really is a magical city!
Nerea.
PS.: I think the hostel we stayed in deserves a little comment. Horrible place (there was no space!), but lots of fun, I have to admit!
About a month ago, Kristen of the amazing Adult Ballerina Project invited me to answer some of her questions for a "Ballerina Profile" post on her blog.
Moi as Kitri! - Photo by Carlos Ochoa
So I thought you would like to read the interview... and I really hope you like it because it was lots of fun. Thanks a lot to Kristen; make sure you check out her blog. It's designed to create a community of adult dancers who share a passion for the art!
I guess one of the most exciting parts of ballet is that you can go to any place in the world, take a class and be able to understand the teacher, even if you hardly speak their language.
The thing is, I do speak French, so I thought ballet classes would be quite easy to follow... especially since almost the whole terminology is always in French (even in Spain). But NO, nice reader! Things are not that simple. And you know why? Well, because in France a tendu is not the same thing as my Spanish teachers used to say! Here, a tendu is called a dégagé. And things would be fine if that was the only difference. But NO, because the word tendu also exists. A tendu in France is the fact of not pliéing when doing a movement. For example, you're in first position and you want to go on pointe: without bending your knees, you just go to demi-pointe and then to pointe. That would be a relevé en tendu. And I have to say I actually find it very practical: very precise!
Then there are many other things that have changed. For instance, I have never heard my teacher use the word passé. Never ever. She says something that sounds like jarret or jarré or something like that. If you're French I'd be thankful if you could help me with this one!
Also... it seems that our arms are never in fifth position. They are in couronne, which is a rather cool word. Oh, and jetés are no longer just jetés: they are now battement jetés. And grand battements are usually just battements. And pas de chats have now became sauts de chat! And I've heard my teacher say pique (/pik/), instead of piqué (/pik-ay/), but I'm still not sure if she says so just to fit words better with the music.
And then there are lots of new words. For example, a déroulé is this thing we do to practise with our pointe shoes and break them in. Starting in first position, plié, demi-pointe, pointe, tendu (like, straightening our legs) and then demi-pointe and heel to the ground in tendu.
Still, even if I am a little bit confused, I am loving every single second of class and I feel I am learning so much. I am really happy to have found this school and these amazing teachers. They are an absolute joy to take class with!
Also, one month left to see this live! - Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin in Marguerite and Armand.
An awesome studio with an awesome ballet teacher who also teaches awesomeness at the Paris Opera Ballet. She's brilliant, funny, clever and a really beautiful dancer. I feel really, really lucky, nice reader. And dancing again feels great. I missed it so much!
It looks really good. The teachers are all from the Paris Opera Ballet; there are even some étoiles teaching. Also, they take teaching adults seriously! And there is live piano music! So I can't be happier right now.
I leave you with something that happened yesterday in pointe class.
*Piano plays Don Quixote coda music*
Teacher: Okay! Don Quixote music? Well then, we're gonna do the 32 turns!
Class: HAHAHAHAHA!
Teacher: I'm serious!
Class: OH, OKAY.
And then we turned. Or something!
To be honest, we weren't doing fouettés, nor pirouettes. Just normal turns in fifth position. But some REALLY FAST TURNS! By the end of them I was so dizzy I couldn't see properly. MUST.WORK.ON.SPOTTING.
Love this pic of Polina Semionova and Cory Stearns from ABT rehearsing Don Quixote in Barcelona. Photo by Renata Pavam.
So I told you a few days ago that I was attending my first ballet class in Paris.
Well, it hapenned before I went to London. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not. Which, now that I think of it, probably means that I didn't (?)... or not much, at least.
New leos make Nerea happy, though!
The thing is, I felt the level was too high for me, maybe. Well, not exactly too high. I guess I could have got used to it after two or three classes. Barre was nice, fast, challenging. I liked it. It made me feel like I was dancing again after such a long time.
But there was this moment that I didn't particularly enjoy: even if the teacher was nice and a beautiful dancer, when we got to the centre, she showed quite a long combination (not particularly hard, but really, really long), and by the time it was our turn and (of course) we messed everything up, she said something like: "okay, what do you want me to tell you? that wasn't even worth commenting. Now you don't get to repeat it".
What the what, nice reader? I mean, seriously! If none of your students can do something right, it's probably because you didn't explain it properly, isn't it? And how the hell do you want them to learn if you don't let them repeat the whole thing after they mess everything up?
Ever since I went to study at the University of Westminster almost
three years ago I knew that city had something different. Something perfect. I
went to London last Saturday and I arrived back in Paris this morning. I still
am quite unsure if the previous five days of my life were real or if I was just
dreaming. Let me explain you the whole thing from the beginning.
So about two weeks ago I was in Paris, looking forward to
the holidays because teenagers are not always very easy to deal with… and then
Chris asked me via Twitter if I was doing something special for those days. He kindly
said he had a spare standing ticket for Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House (all
the tickets for this production are sold out since months ago), so… after
struggling a lot to find and affordable way to get to London in time, I finally
found a cheap night bus ticket and got really excited for my journey. Right
after that I said on Twitter that I was visiting London soon, so I ended up
arranging meetings with lots of amazing people, like Zebra (I know what your real name is, of
course, just privacy reasons and stuff!), Nina and Dave (who told me I should go to the ROH Gala on Tuesday and was
kind enough to phone the box office and book a cheap ticket for me!).
So with those amazing plans in mind I got ready for my trip
on Friday night, right after I finished some really hard lessons at the high
school. Going from Paris to London by bus is not an easy job. It’s a nine and a
half-hour-long trip, during which you can’t sleep properly, mostly because you
need to go up and down the vehicle many times, in order to show your passport
at the border or to get in the boat which crosses the English Channel.
Anyway, so after a super long trip where I met a nice
Belgian guy, I finally got to London Victoria at 5.30 am. It was absolutely
freezing in and outside of the station, but I had to wait at least until the sun
rose to be able to phone my friend Sara, with whom I’ve stayed these days
(thank you!). So I waited for three hours sitting on a cold chair at the
station, covered with my coat and the towels I’d brought in my suitcase… and
still I think I’ve never been that cold in my whole life.
But a few hours later it didn’t matter anymore. I went to
Sara’s house, which is big and great, and she’s lovely; I slept for an hour, I
got dressed to go to Covent Garden, had a delicious lunch with Chris (well, it
was actually dinner for him) while talking about languages (especially Russian
and also about my problems when it comes to speaking two foreign languages at
almost the same time), and then we went to the Royal Opera House to see Swan
Lake. We arrived quite early, so he showed me the building and we went to the
box office, where he suddenly remembered that you can do backstage tours at the
ROH, so I booked a ticket for Wednesday morning (what a great decision, you
guys!).
As for Swan Lake, it was beautiful. Alina Cojocaru was a
sweet, childish Odette, yet an extremely sexy and seductive Odile. I have to
admit I was really looking forward to seeing Act III because Alina is normally
so lovely and adorable that I couldn’t imagine her as a fierce black swan. But
yes, of course, she did it, and it was extraordinary. Federico Bonelli was on great
form as prince Sigfried. He’s got such a beautiful technique! And he’s also
really nice: he helped Chris solve the technical issues with my mobile phone
while I was having my picture taken with him.
Alina Cojocaru, Federico Bonelli and myself. ROH's stage door after Swan Lake.
In other news, I have to say that it is absolutely worth it
buying standing tickets at the ROH. You get a full view of the stage for a
really good price and you can rest your arms on a barre, so you don’t get tired…
as long as you aren’t wearing high heels, of course. I will do it again at some
point, for sure.
The ROH is also a beautiful place to meet interesting
people. The night I went to see Swan Lake I met Lee, and it was a pleasure to stand with him and
Chris waiting for the dancers at the Stage Door. I also met Thomas, a German
doctor working in Cambridge who was sitting next to me at the theatre, who
invited me to a glass of champagne and with whom I had a very interesting
conversation on opera, ballet, languages and working abroad. I saw him twice
again during the week, but we’ll get to that part of the story later.
Picadilly Circus by night.
I hadn’t got anything scheduled for Sunday, so I ended up walking
around the city, doing some improvised sightseeing and taking many photos. I
took the Tube and started at Notting Hill Gate, walked next to Hyde Park until
I got to Oxford Circus and Regent Street (were I had a delicious Kit-Kat
McFlurry). Then I walked down Regent St to Picadilly Circus, took Haymarket
Street and took a picture of Her
Majesty’s Theatre (the venue for my favourite musical of all time: The
Phantom Of The Opera)… so you can imagine how much I wanted to go inside that
building! From there I went to Trafalgar Square, which was really crowded
because they were celebrating some kind of music festival. Later on I took the
street that goes down to Westminster. I stopped next to Downing Street to take
a picture and got asked by a French tourist if I knew what that place was and
why there were so many people looking at that fence. After explaining it to
her, I went straight to Westminster Abbey and to the Houses of Parliament… and finally I crossed the
bridge until I got next to the London Eye. Then I thought it was time to go
back, so I walked again to Trafalgar Square and took a different path to get to
Picadilly Circus. This
time I walked around the West End to see the venues for the rest of the
musicals, such asLes Misérables
(maybe in a desperate wish to find Sierra Boggess walking around, since she is
now the leading lady in that production). I also went to China Town and to
Covent Garden one last time to take a picture of the ROH at night. Then I was tired, so… time for some
sleep.
On Monday I wanted to see Nina, but she got stuck at university,
so we decided to meet the day after. No problem! Change of plans, then. Luckily
Thomas phoned me. He said he could come to London in the afternoon, so I waited
for him next to the statue at Picadilly and there I met a guy who wanted to
invite me to a cigarette (but no, sorry, I don’t smoke) and also a really nice
Italian guy who was in London to go to a concert with some friends. We had
quite an interesting conversation! When Thomas arrived he told me we should go to
see a musical. Quite shocked, since I wasn’t expecting to have such an exciting
evening, I said I loved Phantom, so he invited me to see the show… and I
invited him for dinner in exchange. You cannot even have a remote idea of how
much it meant to me to see Phantom on a Monday. On a Monday evening! The day
when the amazing Anna O’Byrne leads the show. Anna O’Byrne! Like… only one of
my favourite musical actresses of all time (along with Sierra Boggess)… playing
my favourite musical role of all time, Christine Daaé?! Seeing her LIVE?!? Come
on, just look at her in this video; isn’t she just perfect?
Of course, the production of [The Brilliant Original] Phantom
is simply sublime. The cast is incredible, the music is wonderful and the story
is heartbreaking… No wonder it’s running since 26 years ago. I cried a little, as
usual.
The beautiful and talented Anna O'Byrne!
Anna portrayed a phantastic young Christine. I specially
loved it when she sang Whishing You Were Somehow Here Again. It’s such a
beautiful, emotive song with an unbelievably hard ending… and she made it look
so effortless. She was also really kind when we waited for her at the stage
door. She talked with us for a while and we had our pictures taken with her and
everything was perfect. Except for the picture maybe, which is quite dark.
After the stage door I had coffee and more conversation in
Covent Garden with Thomas, who told me (among other things) that he had
attended one part of Wagner’s The Ring the day before at the Royal Opera House.
It was a six-hour-long show, but he said it is really worth it seeing and that
the ending is especially amazing. Then we went back home.
Finally Tuesday morning! I got dressed quite nicely for the
ROH Gala that I was attending that night. Then I went back to Leicester Square
and had lunch at Burguer King (because that’s a big place where I could easily
find a seat and get connected to the Internet comfortably… and also because I
think it’s very classy to go to a junk food restaurant all dressed up for a jet
set gala). An hour later I went to Picadilly Circus to finally meet Zebra, who
was really, really nice. We walked towards Covent Garden and visited many
ballet shops which were amazing and I still can’t believe I had never been to
any of those before. Beautiful leotards, shrugs, leg warmers, skirts, tutus,
flat and pointe shoes… just perfect! We need more of these shops in Spain! And
then Nina sent me a text message, so we met her at the ROH shop (it was great
to see her again after a year!) and we went for a walk around Covent Garden
while talking about the ROH and its productions, its dancers, its friends,
other tweeps and stuff. Fun talk, yay!
Zebra and Nina had to leave quite early, so I said goodbye
and waited for Thomas to arrive to Covent Garden. I told him I was attending
the gala that night, so he decided he wanted to come too. We went to the box
office at the ROH and somehow we managed to get a ticket for him. We had dinner
around there and at 7 pm we headed towards the ROH shop, where Dave was waiting with my
ticket for the gala. I was really looking forward to meeting him in real life,
and even though we could only see each other for a little while (since the ROH
was really crowded that night), it was really cool!
The gala was sublime. I was sitting on one of the cheapest
seats of the house, so I obviously didn’t have the best view of the stage… but
I found it really good actually! I couldn’t see the back of the stage, but I
was so close to it that I could perfectly see what was going on at the wings,
see the dancer’s faces and even hear them breathe, which may sound quite
creepy, but it’s a good way to realise that they were actually there! And also,
since I was so close to the stage I could see the rest of the audience from a
very good perspective. This means I could see Her Majesty, the Queen (yes, she
was there!) during the whole show.
So let’s talk about the gala itself! It was a mixed
programme with lots of dancing and arias from operas, with video interviews
with the staff of the ROH, their artists, their employees, their friends (including
Dave!)… a rather special evening. To be honest, I didn’t know what I was going
to see, since I hadn’t been able to read the programme before the show started.
I absolutely had no idea I was going to see almost all of my favourite dancers
together in only one night. Back in Spain I have a very good friend (and former
ballet classmate) with whom I always talk about the gorgeous Natalia Osipova. This
friend of mine went to see her last Saturday in Barcelona, in the role of Kitri
(Don Quixote). She told me she loved it! And no wonder she loved it, because
Osipova is amazing. What a surprise when I saw her there, dancing Ambar with
Edward Watson! And then Alina Cojocaru and Carsten Jung danced a quite joyful pas
de deux by Neumeier (Liliom); then we got to see Ashton’s La Valse, by the
artists of the Royal Ballet, which was spectacular, with the stage full of
dancers. Later, Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae danced a new pas de deux by
Alastair Marriott, In the Hothouse. Oh, and I also finally got to see MacMillan’s
Farewell pas de deux, from Winter Dreams, wonderfully performed by Nehemiah
Kish and Roberta Marquez. As regards the operas, I found particularly stunning Dvorak’s
Song to the Moon (Rusalka, Act I), sung by Angela Gheorghiu, and also Bizet’s Habanera
from Carmen (also sung by Miss Gheorghiu). But my highlight of the night would
probably be After the Rain, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon with Arvo
Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel music (which I absolutely love) and superbly danced
by principal dancers Marianela Núñez and Thiago Soares… just glorious. I must
admit I was teary eyed by the end of it.
The gala finished with a fast and amazing Jubilee pas de
deux choreographed by Liam Scarlett (I think that man is a genius) and danced
by Laura Morera and Federico Bonelli… and also with Giacomo Puccini’s Te Deum,
from Act I of the opera Tosca, sung by a splendid Bryn Terfel. Right after that,
the Queen went onstage and Laura Morera gave her a cute flower bouquet… and the
whole audience sang the National Anthem (God Save the Queen) together. That
was… just wow. You know I’m not British but… seriously, wow. That was honestly one
of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen live.
Singing God Save the Queen!
Woah. That was so amazing! Too many incredible things had
happened in four days. Too many unbelievable things for me to be able to get a
good sleep! Anyway, Wednesday was my last day in London. My bus was leaving at
21.30, and even though I still had one trip left to the ROH in the morning, I
wasn’t really expecting much of it. I was wrong. Oh, how wrong I was!
The backstage tour at the Royal Opera House was magical. Our
guide was a young and funny woman who led us throughout the building while
telling us fantastic secrets about its construction and also about the
foundation of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera. We were lucky enough to get
a seat on the best stalls of the theatre while they were building the set for Sigfried.
I found it very funny when the woman said: “and there, do you know why there
are flowers on that balcony? Because yesterday night we had a gala here and the
Queen was sitting there!” And everybody went “woah!” And I thought: “yes, yes,
there she was! I could see her during the whole show!”
The Royal Opera House
And then we got to see the set for act three of Swan Lake,
which is so cool, with all the mirrors and everything, and we watched a DVD on
how they build sets and they bring them to the ROH, and we went to the place
where they make the costumes and props and we could touch many of them and try
them on… and then… then we went to the dancers’ part of the building and… we
watched a rehearsal for the next triple bill. And that was just tutu much, you
guys. Tutu much I say! There they were, just two metres away from me,
rehearsing with Liam Scarlett and Wayne McGregor! Marianela Núñez, Sarah Lamb,
Eric Underwood, Edward Watson, Yuhui Choe, Ricardo Cervera, Olivia Cowley… and
all the others were also around there, just chilling out, relaxing, warming up
and chatting. Surreal. But obviously that’s how it is! I mean, I was just
absolutely amazed for being there and being able to watch!
And then it was over, I was still in shock and I went to
meet Chris for the last time. We had coffee, chocolate, tea and an apple juice.
It was very nice to see him again and I’m already looking forward to our trip
to the Opéra Bastille together in December! We said goodbye: he went to see a ROH
Insights programme while I took the Tube back to the Victoria Coach Station.
In the bus back to Paris I met a Welsh guy who was sitting
next to me and I still don’t know if I forgot all my English at once, or if his
accent was simply impossible to understand. We had some drinks together in the
boat and he ended up being a really good travel companion. With a nice
conversation trips seem shorter, huh? When we arrived to Paris I had to help
him buy Métro tickets because he couldn’t speak French, which is quite a
problem if you come here alone and your English is hardly understandable by the
average people! Anyway, I got home at 7.30 am., went to bed until 12 pm and
here I am, writing this hyper long text because I don’t want to forget anything
that has happened during this wonderful trip to London.
And that was all, nice reader. Now I have to say that if
you’ve read the whole thing, you truly are nice, nice reader. Thank you!
See you soon, when I talk about that ballet lesson I took in
Paris!
I am in Paris! I arrived here almost a month ago and I am already working as a Spanish Language Assistant at two high schools near the Opéra Garnier... which is so cool and also kind of unbelievable! I'm starting to get used to this life: new home, new friends, new food, new things to discover...! It's truly amazing!
As for my experience as a Spanish teacher, I must confess I was really scared during my first week. I still am (a little bit), but things are going better than expected. My students are mostly adorable and you can tell they want to learn lots of things. I guess I was lucky!
Tomorrow I'm going to my first ballet class since the end of June (that's a four-month-long break!). I'm probably attending three hours a week. I'd go to the studio everyday, but life in Paris is expensive, you guys. I'm a little bit nervous, you know; it's a new studio and a class in a foreign language (which I do speak, but whatever!). So I hope everything goes well!
Also, here in France we have holidays very soon, so I'm going to London next Friday to see the Royal Ballet in Swan Lake and, hopefully, Les Misérables and/or Phantom of the Opera, which are awesome musicals that happen to have the most beautiful casts right now at the West End. I'm obviously going to meet some tweeps while I'm in London, so if you're around and you want to meet up, just let me know!
I have some other plans for the future: for instance, I'm going to see Don Quixote by the Paris Opera Ballet in December, at the Opéra Bastille, which is next to my house here in Paris... and I also managed to get an amazing ticket with the best view ever for Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin's farewell from the Royal Ballet, which is taking place in February at Covent Garden (yes, that's another trip to London!).
And that's all for now. I'll try to keep writing now I have time and news!
