Sugar Plum Dreams

When I hear even just a few notes of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker score, I cannot help but twirl.  Though my ballet skills have surely tarnished since my youth, the music reawakens my urge to arabesque and pas de bourrée across my kitchen floor.  Tom Cruise may play air guitar in his undie to Bob Seger, but I put on my imaginary tutu and stage a mini production of my favorite holiday ballet. 

I Hope You Dance {this weekend}

This weekend has been perfectly lovely. It's one of those weekends where I make up songs, where I twirl in the kitchen, where I skip down the sidewalk. Perhaps it's the touch of summer in the air, perhaps it's my glee with the end of the semester, but I am simply ebullient this weekend. I feel like dancing. I want to dig out my point shoes and spin. Ah, giddy, joyous, freeing dance.

Two Icons

Though I can't help but first think of him as the artist Aleksandr Petrovsky from my beloved SATC, he is the ballet dancer par excellence, Mikhail Baryshnikov.

I recently discovered these divine images by iconic photog Annie Leibovitz and I am enchanted by her characterization of him. Can you imagine the conversations between these two creative geniuses? To be a fly on the camera lens....

images borrowed from Vanity Fair

Ballet Therapy

Though an art historian by training, dance has always been my first love. I began studying ballet at age 4 and practiced my pirouettes, jetés, and pas de bourées until the end of high school. For reasons that I can't exactly remember (I think at the urging of my orthopedic surgeon), I stopped dancing abruptly in college. I have missed ballet every day since.

Last night, my passion for ballet was reawakened. Thoughtful hubby treated me to an evening with the Bolshoi Ballet's production of Don Quixote. Admittedly, I knew little of this ballet. But, as the red curtain was drawn up, and the dancers entered the stage, I was reminded why I adore this art. The beauty of ballet is that you do not need to know the story, the dancers, or the music---it is wordless art that requires no prior knowledge, no formal education. It simply requires awareness and openness.

Ballet pulls me in like a vortex. I warned my husband that ballet triggers an almost trance-like state in me, and last night was no different. While the entire production was perfectly suited to each note of music, while each costume elegantly and artfully suited the movements, Act II was especially transformative. I was brought to tears by something sublimely beautiful (and I am NOT a tear-gusher kind of gal). The red and black Spanish dresses swirled across the stage like a bullfighter's cape, the dancers having as much control over their costumes as they did their bodies. Each pause, outstretched arm, pointed foot matched every precise note. For me, attempting to verbalize the scene almost takes away from the intrinsic beauty of it all.

What do you love? What inspires you visually to the point of tears? Remind yourself and treat yourself to this little pleasure. Take a moment to nurture your soul and surround yourself with beauty.