pas de deux

When I was in the 2nd grade, a ballet teacher arranged to hold classes in a room off the library after school. I didn’t know much about ballet as a six year old (in fact, I remember spelling it as “ballay” until I was corrected by a girl in my class), but my father signed me up. I was so excited when we went to Malabar to buy my slippers, black leotard, and pink tights, and wore my little outfit around the house constantly. Once the classes started, though, I was deeply unhappy. The teacher criticized my posture constantly, embarrassingly, harshly; she probably knew instantly that dance was not in my future. Putting my arms “round like a picture frame” was just so boring, and I was shocked and disappointed that I couldn't stand en pointe or do the splits after my first class (again, I didn’t know much about ballet or about how the human body functions; again, I was six years old). The first time I played hooky in my life was because of ballet class: I scampered straight home after school one day and told my parents that the class had been canceled (they knew I was lying). I probably would have liked it better if there had been tutus to prance and jump about in.

I do love ballet now, of course, although I don’t have the opportunity to go to performances very often. Yesterday a library colleague offered me a ticket to the National Ballet of Canada’s performance of The Sleeping Beauty with real-life wife and husband Heather Ogden as Princess Aurora (above) and Guillaume Côté as Prince Florimund, which was so generous and kind (thank you, Elena!), and so exciting after watching this video on the Toronto Standard last week. It was a glorious, lush, gorgeous performance, and tears sprang to my eyes multiple times. I hope I can go back soon. For now I will admire these pastel daydream (so blissfully blood and turmoil and sweat-free!) photos of some of the company’s dancers, from principal dancers to the corps.

Incidentally, I have giant bag of broken pointe shoes from the National Ballet in my basement. It’s a long story, and I am only temporarily storing them for a friend, but I wonder how many of these dancers used them.

Elena Lobsanova

 

Andrea Olteanu, photographed by Sian Richards

Jackson Dwyer

Greta Hodgkinson

Heather Ogden, photographed by Aleksandar Antonijevic

Brett van Sickle

Shaila D’Onofrio

Shino Mori, photographed by Sian Richards 

(Shino played the White Pussycat in last night’s performance—so good!)

Sonia Rodriguez, photographed by Aleksandar Antonijevic

Stacey Shiori Minagawa

Ryan Booth, photographed by Sian Richards

Tina Pereira

Patrick Lavoie, photographed by Sian Richards

Jenna Savella

Jillian Vanstone, photographed by Aleksandar Antonijevic

Jordana Daumec

Kathryn Hosier, photographed by Sian Richards

Krista Downson, photographed by Sian Richards