backstage at the ballet

I feel that I should be writing something reflective here specifically to close out the year, but it turns out that 2012 will end much of the way 2012 went, that is, with my mind in a constant gallop, never pausing to stop. It was a good year, though, and I hope to reflect on it and the future privately over the next few days.

I want to thank all of you for reading, for your kind comments, and support. I wish you all the best in 2013. So, so much love to you. I can’t help but have Kate Bush in my head tonight:

I just know that something good is gonna happen
I don't know when
But just saying it could even make it happen.


These photos are completely unrelated to everything that I’ve written above, but they’re quiet and ghosty in a way that I feel is appropriate for the last night of a big year. A few weeks ago Geoff & some friends & I went to see the National Ballet’s performance of Giselle, which was so beautiful. We happen to have a friend who works in the costume department, and he was lovely enough to take us backstage for a little tour after the show. Since the bulk of the costume work is done off-site, it was mostly laundry machines and wigs and some still-sweaty tutus, but it was such a privilege. I asked him, wide-eyed, how much he loved his job.

Giselle’s costume

Parts of the costumes were appropriated from a production from the 1960s, and some of the older skirts had handpainted details.

Veils of the wilis

Giselle’s tomb

The photos below are far, far more incredible than my snapshots, but I wanted to share them here because they are so incredible. They were taken by Daniel Neuhaus for a Toronto Life feature on Giselle rehearsals. They really make me wish I could go back and see it again, and this time not from the very last row in the Four Seasons Centre (the seats that come with a vertigo warning. Not bad for $25, but I can dream of seeing a ballet from a little closer up...).

So many flower crowns! Obviously this is the ballet for me.