hi, i'm jenn

A few months ago, my friend Elaine sent an email out with an invite she had received to the White Hot Gala for the National Ballet. As young folks in the city, we were offered tickets for about $30 to the event. We were also told that there would be the opportunity to do our own [secret] performance… And you know how I love to perform.

There were  [apparently] 2 classes in May to learn the dance. We managed to miss them both. But yesterday the reminder email had a link to a video of the dance — so I practiced in front of my 12″ powerbook until I thought I knew the number passibly well. I had butterflies in the cab on the way to the performing arts centre (I would have taken the subway but that extra run through meant I was running late – kept getting stuck the “hard part”).

Arriving at the Performance Centre was a little intimidating — I was surrounded by women in dresses (both cocktail and full-length gowns) and men in tuxes. When they said it was a Gala, they weren’t kidding! Whoops. I was seriously under dressed (but not in jeans. phew). There was a drumming crew outside welcoming us in, and then we climbed up to the tippy top (Ring 5 baby!) to take our seats.

The performance was wonderful – six different numbers (5  pas de deux, one solo) that were all quite different and beautiful. I think back to my days sitting through dance competitions — there was nothing more painful than watching bad ballet. But this was just a pleasure. And at just about an hour, it was great for my Thursday evening shortened attention span. Not to mention, even from the very top you can see how defined the ballerinas’ bodies are. Amazing.

Then the real fun began – there was food and drink to be enjoyed by all. Yes, an open bar – with Grey Goose Vodka martinis! So I was loosened up just in time to hear “History Repeating” — our cue that our dance was coming up next. Elaine provided great moral support while I danced my heart out (since no one was dancing around me). Since we were near the top (Ring 4) at that point, we could see people below us dancing as well which was useful when I forgot that the “shopping cart” was the next step. And then it was over. I was relieved and happy.

We spent the next few hours enjoying the food and drink. I might have behaved like a starving college kid when I thought they were taking away the food and double fisted on the Spring Rolls, but I blame the post performance high for making me ravenous (yes, that is just a scape goat).

We ran into friends of Elaine’s, and the four of us danced until the DJ announced that it was the last song. And then we cheered for “one more song”, which we didn’t get. Sigh.

I can’t wait for the chance to dance at the Ballet again!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 9:22 am and is filed under friends, life, randomness, toronto. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.