At the ballet

Last night the girls in my family all went to see the Russian National Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty. A-mazing! Princess Aurora was magnificent dancing the Rose Adagio, but perhaps my most favorite was the Lilac Fairy herself, and even though Aurora was amazing, she had nothing on the Lilac Fairy. I'm not sure which dancer was on last night (there are several who dance the part of the Lilac Fairy), but she had the longest neck and arms and legs I've ever seen. They went on and on, maybe for another 50 miles. Talk about swan necks! And her arms were so graceful whirling across the stage; she was magical to watch. This performance was the first professional ballet performance I've seen since taking adult ballet classes (the last one I saw was A Midsummer Night's Dream in high school, which still remains my favorite ballet) and I loved the fact that I recognized many of the steps and knew the names of them - attitude, attitude en pointe into an arabesque, pirouettes en dedans and en dehors. And I could appreciate how difficult the pirouettes and chaines turns were (because I could hardly do them in class!), but the dancers made them look so easy and effortless.