Toronto

I spent a week in Toronto visiting Ma and checked out some new things.

On Sunday, we joined a few of my Iroquois friends at Woodbine racetrack, thanks to Lisa who works for the racing association. She got us in to the press box and the Steward's room, where they check videos of each race before calling the results official. The main race of the day was the Pattison International, featuring horses from all over the world. The day was cold but clear and there was a lively crowd. Unfortunately we did not win on any of our bets. 

We had dinner on Monday night with the Yangs and Huangs and they mentioned there was a new open air mall in Don Mills so we went to check it out on Tuesday. It's kind of strange to have this type of mall in a place with cold winters. Unlike most of the ones in California, this one had mostly driveable streets. The stores lean more upscale, with lots of eating places, movie theatres and a public square. They are building an apartment building next door. We had lunch at Fabbrica, an Italian restaurant run by celebrity chef Mark McEwan. The food was really good and Ma particularly enjoyed the heirloom tomatoes that came with the buffalo mozzarella. The almond cake was also particularly good, small, a little crispy on the outside and not too sweet. McEwan also has a high end grocery store in the mall (like a smaller Gelsons or Whole Foods). 

On Wednesday, we went to Roy Thompson Hall to hear the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Beforehand, we had dinner at Luckee, another restaurant by a celebrity chef, Susur Lee. The restaurant is in the Soho Metropolitan Hotel and has a casual but striking decor, with cafe type tables and chairs in a modern Asian inspired setting. Fang Fang joined us and we tried three of the dim sum dishes and three larger plates. While the dim sum items were incredibly beautiful, the flavours were good but not exceptional. For example the savoury fried sticky rice was shaped like a golden pair with a small piece of dried fruit as a stem. The main dishes, however, were spectacular. The 'char sui' was sous vide beef cooked for two or three days and so tender it almost literally melted in your mouth, with an intense rich flavour. The cod was flaky and perfectly cooked with a delicious sauce. The mi fun with crab had a lot of good sizes chunks of crab. On our way from the restaurant to the hall, we ran into a happy crowd of baseball fans after the Jays saved their series with the Royals by winning a game (although they ended up losing the series). The symphony hall was quite nice and we enjoyed the program, although the cheap seats we had did not have very balanced sound. 

On Thursday, we went to check out the Pompeii exhibit at ROM. But first, we met up with Cynthia and Lynda from the Italy trip! We had a lovely lunch at the cafe in the Gardiner Museum. It was fun to see the Pompeii exhibit laid out a little differently and with the context of having been to Pompeii. We also stopped in to see a small exhibit of export art from China, suggested to us by Cynthia. It was quite interesting to see the Western influence on the Asian style art. They had some paintings done on pith paper which puffs up when wet, so it gave the pictures a slightly three dimensional effect. 

Mariinsky, traditional and modern

I had the opportunity to see the same company twice within a couple of weeks, and it made for an interesting comparison. The Mariinsky performed in Orange County at Segerstrom Hall in Raymonda in late September and then came to LA (after a detour to Berkeley) for Ratmansky's 2002 version of Cinderella. I didn't realize it at the time but it allowed for an interesting comparison of this premier company in two very different pieces.

Raymonda is a classic although not much performed in its entirety in America.  There is a women's variation that is beautiful and famous and often being performed on its own. An over simplified synopsis of the story is that Raymonda is pursued by a foreign prince while her true love is at sea. The foreign prince is clearly portrayed as Arabic, sinister and overly dramatic. I find the Russian companies to be not ones for much facial expression. When applied to this particular ballet, it made the story-telling a little weird, because the dancer portraying the evil prince is emoting mightily by waving his arms around rather dramatically and trying to drag Raymonda to dance with him. Meanwhile, Raymonda is standing around like a teenage girl going, "whatever". No one in her entourage expresses much alarm at this sinister stranger popping up constantly.

One thing this ballet did have going for it is that the Russian corps are the best in the world. They are completely cohesive with strong technique and exceptionally crisp movement qualities. Much of the corps work here is in the form of character dances and I've never enjoyed them as much as I did here, or have I seen them performed so well. The dancer in the role of Raymonda was beautiful, with a light floaty controlled quality and she did the famous variation gorgeously with those famous Russian arms. I must add that Segerstrom is a terrible place to see dance. It's many oddly placed tiers and horizontal layout means that almost all of the seats are quite far from the stage, even at high price points.

When the company came to LA, they brought Ratmansky's early version of Cinderella. This was a different version than the one he created for the Australian Ballet, and which was recently seen in rehearsal during World Ballet Day 2015. They also brought Diana Vishneva, who is already a legendary ballerina. The staging was very modern with minimal sets (although strangely two columns in the middle of the stage) and simple costumes (the Prince wearing pants does come across as more dignified than the typical tights, although one does miss the flash of the traditional tunic). The overall story is the one we all know however the way he handled the famous shoe incident made the whole thing feel kind of pointless (ha, at first I wrote 'pointeless' by accident!) because the shoe is not represented by her putting on pointe shoes during the transformation but by sparkly pumps that she is never seen to wear. The fairy godmother is dressed as a tramp and never transforms into a glamorous version of herself. The season fairies are not distinguished in any way by their dancing (their costumes are colored appropriately). There is no real ball dance for the corps, which is a huge waste of talent! The clock music sequence is danced as a solo by Cinderella, again a waste of a beautiful corps scene.

But luckily we had Vishneva. Her dancing is so fluid and natural. She was beautifully partnered by Konstantin Zverev and their pas de deux were the highlight of the evening. And in the end, the columns fly away and we do get a chance to see the two of them dance unencumbered.

Dance camp in Saratoga Springs

This year's dance camp was in Saratoga Springs, NY. I was supposed to go to Saratoga in 2011 but Hurricane Irene derailed my plans. I had heard about what a great little town it was so I was excited to be able to go finally!

This time, Mei came with me, which was extra exciting! The teachers at this camp are Danile, Kathy and Randall, same three as my very first camp. The studios are in the complex of the National Dance Museum and are really nice and spacious. The camp attendance this year was quite low, about 24. It made for a more intimate setting, but also meant missing out on the scale of a bigger group of people. In addition to Carol from LA (a fellow Westside Ballet dancer) and Patsy (formerly of LA now living in Connecticut), we had a violinist, a conductor, an artist, and people from around the northeast, Pennsylvania, Ohio and parts south.

This year I stuck with the 3A level, which I think is a good slow level appropriate for my learning speed (when it comes to physical activities, I'm kind of slow). Our variation this year was Bluebird from Sleeping Beauty with Kathy and rep was from Act 3 of Coppelia with Danile. Randall choreographed his own pas de deux to music from The Mission (which he's used before). I loved the pieces we danced to. Variation was nice and short but with lots of fun (challenging!) details to pay attention to and interesting (challenging!) port de bras. Rep was a blast, lots of moving around in patterns, interactions between boys and girls, but with simple steps so that we could focus on our timing and placement with each other. Plus Mei and I got to do some mime!!

This camp had very few PDD partners. Two young guys, one still in high school, and a tango dancer. Kaleb, the high school kid danced with the taller girls. He was a total sweetheart, happy and friendly kind of like a puppy dog. He could still use some finishing when it comes to partnering (not that I'm so good, but compared to Henry from last year who was only a year older, he was less experienced). He hopes to attend university for a dance/psychology major.

Another camp highlight was technique class taught by Miranda Weese. She is a former principal dancer with NYCB and PNB and her class was great! She had these insane fifth positions (perfect heel to toe) and gave us some great pointers about tendus (so simple yet so hard) and extensions. I loved her combinations because I've got some Balanchine trained teachers so I was reminded of class at home. Heidi is going to try and get her to have a larger role next year at camp.

Saratoga Springs is the home of a major racetrack, also a hot springs and the summer home of NYCB, so the town is full of horse and pointe shoe sculptures. It was really fun to find them all over town. The main street is filled with shops and restaurants and we found a lot of great places to eat (Thirsty Owl Wine Bistro particularly Monday for 1/2 off tapas, Duo for Japanese, Forno Italian). On our final night party, we heard music coming from all over the place. They have a great ballet shop with one of the more amazing pointe shoe fitters I've ever seen-she was a dancer with NYCB and was the founder of the Bunheads accessories company. 

Boston and Cape Cod

I just spent a wonderful week visiting D and his family, including a weekend in Cape Cod. The house we stayed at is a guest house belonging to a family friend of Julie's and was quite palatial and beautiful! We were not strictly speaking on the Cape but in Marion, MA just on the mainland side of the bridge that the locals consider to be the official boundary of the Cape. The weather was perfect, warm and humid but with a nice breeze. The guest house is part of a private community with its own beach. D picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to Marion, meeting Julie and the kids at a local Thai restaurant. The Boston area is known for a lot of good ice cream places and we discovered Oxford Creamery nearby. The place was packed when we got there after dinner. It was hard to decide on a flavour but I went with Death By Chocolate (which seems like a popular flavour in this part of the world).  On Sunday, Julie's mom and stepdad joined us. We hung out at the beach and went to the local dock where people jumped off into the water, including one guy on a bike. Lots of people anchor their boats out past the dock (the tide level changes a lot) and with the beautiful grand beach front houses with their flag poles and Adirondack chairs the whole scene was ridiculously picturesque! For dinner we went to Turk's, which was recommended to us as the place to go for seafood. The place was densely packed with a restaurant on one side and a recently added sushi bar on the other. The food was delicious! After dinner we went back to Oxford. This time I got black raspberry, another iconic local flavour, basically an intensely berry flavored ice cream with a purple colour.

On Monday, Julie had to leave early for work so D and I took the kids to the dock one last time. Although the water was at low tide, Austin did quite a few jumps off the dock! We headed across the bridge to Cape Cod proper, to check out Woods Hole and Falmouth. We met up with a friend of D and Julie in Woods Hole and had more ice cream, at Jimmies. Both towns are really cute with a great New Englandy feel to them, lots of local shops with picturesque facades. Because we had Taco with us, everyone wanted to pet him and ooh and and ah over him.

Back in Boston, D and the kids and I went to see the Hokusai exhibit at MFA. The wood block prints were beautiful but we were all shocked at how tiny the Great Wave print is. Also that it was part of the Fuji series! At the end of the exhibit, there was an explanation of how wood block prints are made. 

I also went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Our book group read The Art Forger this past year and I wanted to see the setting of the story (and of the famous unsolved theft). The museum is completely unlike any other. The art was hung as Mrs Gardner desired, covering the walls or displayed on tables. Furniture fills the rooms in slightly odd ways. Where a stolen item was hung, the empty frame remains with a small sign indicating what used to be there.

On my last day, D and I took Taco to Arnold Arboretum. What a beautiful park! And the weather was perfect, sunny and not so humid. I then went to meet my friend Diane who had just moved to Boston about 6 weeks ago. She and her husband had finally got their furniture moved in a few weeks ago and were starting to explore the area. After lunch, I met D and the kids in Harvard Square. We wondered around a bit (including one more stop for ice cream) before I had to head to the airport for home.

Here are some photos from the trip,

Maui

I spent a week back in Maui with Joyce and Joel. This trip came about because Shih Ah Yi and Huang Shu shu had planned to spend a week with Bryan and Vivian, but turned out Vivian was pregnant and due at about the time they planned the trip. Apparently, it was not worth trying to reschedule so they asked me if I was interested in using the week with two one bedroom units! I had 24 hours to let them know. I blasted an email to a bunch of people and Joyce and Joel responded yes!

We had a great time, spending a lot of it at the hotel pool, which was huge, and included a little waterfall pool, kiddie slide and pool, and hot tub. We took a snorkel boat trip to Molokini Crater and Turtle Town, saw a mama and baby humpback whale with their male escort as well as a bunch of other whales. Many of them had already left for Alaska so we were lucky to see the stragglers.

Among the places we ate are:

Cheeseburger in Paradise (good old standby)
Duke's Beach House (at the Honua Kai Resort)
Aloha Mixed Plate (open air dining with typical Hawaiian plate dinners)
Roy's (upscale dining at Kaanapali Resort and golf course)
Star Noodle (located in an industrial park, no ocean view! and with an innovative noodle menu by a former Top Chef contestant)
Ritz Carlton Kapalua (lobby lounge serves sushi and rolls with live music in the evening)
Ululena (best shave ice)
Longhi's (at the Wailea shopping center, also located on Front St in Lahaina)
Lafferts Ice Cream (at the Wailea shopping center)
Leilani's (at Whaler's Village)
Slappy Cake's (make your own pancakes and other yummy breakfast foods)

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Blurb in the IIDA newsletter

The local IIDA chapter published a blurb about me in connection to a student award I won years ago!

Headshot photo from recent siblings photo session, which made me realize I would benefit by carrying a reflector around with me at all times to ensure my face is properly lit.

The blurb was slightly edited, which makes me think I would benefit from a professional editor as well.

:)

ABT's new Sleeping Beauty

This past week, ABT brought a brand new Sleeping Beauty to Orange County, where it premiered. Alexei Ratmansky was the brains behind the new creation, although it might not be accurate to say he was the choreographer. Instead of coming up with brand new choreography, Ratmansky chose to try and recreate as much of the original 1890 Petipa production as he was able to piece together through annotated notebooks from the early 1900s. The costumes were inspired by Leon Bakst's style for the Ballet Russe from the 1920s.

I went to see the Sunday matinee with Hee Seo as Beauty, Cory Stearns as Prince Desire and Marcello Gomes in character form as Carrabosse. One of the most readily apparent differences in this choreography compared to what we are used to seeing in classical ballet is the moderated movements. Passe turns and pirouettes are at the calf or lower, rather than pulled up as high as possible, chaine turns are on demi-pointe rather than full pointe. Jumps are lower to the ground. Arms are also held low. Movements are much slower and more fluid. Pirouettes are landed down on flat rather than completed on pointe or demi with the leg held at passe so that the dancer seems to almost fall off in the middle of the turn. While some of these changes were confusing (and looked odd), there were also quite a lot of additional flourishes in between steps that added interest to things like pique turns (almost like an ornament in music). Overall, I felt the change in form and pacing made for a more fluid dancing style. The company did a fantastic job overall with their unity, particularly with the 80 dancer Garland Dance. I felt that Hee Seo was not quite sure of herself at the beginning but became much stronger by the end. I loved her port de bras, so expressive. There is not much for the Prince to do (which is a shame with such great male dancers in the company), however his solo in the Grand Pas includes assembles and brises which Stearns peformed very cleanly and beautifully. Our Bluebird had a wonderful light and fluid jump that made it look like he was truly flying, but in an elegant manner, not frantic.

The costumes were spectacular. Bright contrasting colours, sparkle on almost every possible surface, plus embroidery, or laser cut patterns, or pleating added for texture and movement. Hats and wigs are in abundance. I'm not a huge fan of wigs, although these were at least more sedate, compared to the Bolshoi ones that I've seen in their video taped version. There were some wonderful drops used in changes of scene, like the dropping wisteria petals as the castle is put to sleep, and the lacy forest branches when the Prince is led by Lilac Fairy to the castle to wake the princess. Lighting was used to wonderful effect to portray the change from the dusty gloomy sleeping castle to the bright warm light after the awakening kiss.

This production has a huge cast of children and the ones who performed on Sunday were wonderful. Very professional and polished.

It was truly a treat to see this production during its premier. We so seldom get that opportunity here on the West Coast.