Moscow Nights filled with Bolshoi Dreams

After our first weekend in Russia (and seeing TONS!), I was really excited to start our second week of classes! I finally felt settled in, and was having so much fun being here! I also was starting to get kind of used to the raked floor (the floors in the ballet studios here are at a slant, so it takes alot of control and balance to dance on them!)! We had a new teacher on Monday, and I really loved her class! She corrected alot, and worked us really hard! Not only that, but she is BEAUTIFUL to watch! Even when she just marks the combinations! That day, we had Ballet Gymnastics which is just a REALLY intense stretching class! We also take character and repertoire every week!      That week, we got to do alot of fun things!

          On Monday, we were taken to see the Bolshoi perform! AHHH! sooo exciting! They performed 3 different ballets! It was SO beautiful! I am about as classical as they get! I love the classical ballets like Giselle and Sleeping Beauty, but even so, I absolutely LOVED seeing them perform these ballets; especially Chroma!

       The Bolshoi's dancing is everything and MORE that people say it is! I cannot believe the technicality and artistry of the dancers and company as a whole! As if seeing the BOLSHOI perform in MOSCOW was not exciting enough, I got to see my friend Artem perform that night in the final piece! He was as wonderful as I remember! It was definitely a night to remember!

       On Thursday, we had 2 exciting and unexpected things happen! First, the Russian Culture channel came and filmed our classes that day! It was pretty exciting, even though it was kind of intimidating having a camera RIGHT in your face all the time! They interviewed 2 of our teachers, and three students after class! I was one of the girls that they interviewed, and I was really nervous! I am not exactly the best at speaking; one of the reasons I love ballet is that I can express emotions and tell stories with my body, not words! But it was pretty cool getting to see all of us on TV that night! We also went out to dinner that night, as we usually do on Thursdays, but this time was different because we got to go on a dinner cruise on the Moscow River! It was so exciting! We had to take a long, and HOT bus ride to the port, but when we got on the boat, we all had a BLAST! It was SO much fun! We got to see Moscow from a different view, and had so much fun dancing and playing in the rain!


       Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the host family! Friday night, my host family took me to see the Victory park in Moscow, and we had a nice, home cooked Russian meal at their cute apartment in Central Moscow! The next day, we went to a Soviet Statue Garden, and then to the Modern Art Museum! It was really cool, and we got to see some really cool artwork! I guess all of those hours and days in Art History class were worth my time, because I finally feel like I can explain my taste in artwork and know what I like!
        After that, I was SO excited because my friends Kyra and Haley texted me (on our Russian phones! ;)) from their host family and asked me to go with them to see Stanislavskiy perform Swan Lake! Their host family "dad" is a soloist in the Bolshoi Theatre, and got 3 free tickets to see the performance, and wanted them to invite someone! I was thrilled that they thought of me first!)) <--(P.S. that is a smiley in Russia! ) It was so much fun! First, he took us to the Grishko store, and we got some really fun stuff there! After that, we went to the performance and were surprised to see their host "mom" in the orchestra pit! She is a violinist, and we had NO idea she was performing that night! I DID, however, know ahead of time this time that my friend Josh was performing in the show, and was super excited to see him again! The show was AMAZING, just as we expected, and it was just a GREAT night and weekend in general!))
   


Until next time,
XOXO
Tatum <3

(Originally posted August 2, 2011)