Wednesday, May 20, 2015

American Ballet Theatre's 75th Annual Spring Gala 2015

ABT had their 75th Annual Spring Gala at The Metropolitan Opera House May 18, 2015. To honor their 75th anniversary there was a show and an exhibition created by Vogue's Hamish Bowles which included ABT costumes and embellished pointe shoes. You can view some photos and read about it here.

Below are some of the dancers making their way into the event. Being a ballet dancer has to be the best job in the world. I'm so excited for my friend, Scout Forsythe (photo below). Scout and I danced together before she was accepted to ABT Studio Company and she made a quick move to apprentice then ABT Corps de Ballet. This is a huge accomplishment in a short amount of time!

Scout is pictured first and is wearing a dress by designer, Nicole Miller. She looks amazing!!!

Also, pictured are Misty Copeland (ABT), Lauren Post (ABT), James Whiteside (ABT), Ashley Bouder (NYCB), Maxim  Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko (ABT), Isabella Boylston (ABT) and Elina Miettinen (ABT).


Monday, May 18, 2015

Day 8 YAGP NY Finals 2015 and my weekend.

Okay, so first of all...I am SO sorry for the delay for putting up the rest of my YAGP blog.  I had such an amazing time at the YAGP 2015 NY Finals.  It was so great just to be seen and to take class from these incredible directors of schools and companies.  

On Friday I was able to take class at Eliison Ballet School. It was so nice to be able to take class from Miss Forrest and to take class with all of my EB friends.  Class started at 12pm and was combined with the boys.  After class we had pointe class with Miss Forrest for about and hour.  After pointe we had a lunch break and then some girls had rehearsal for the Flames of Paris variation with Mr. Ellison.  It was mainly for two specific girls but the rest of the girls stayed and worked on the variation in the back.  I stayed as well.  It was nice because I already knew this variation from working on it in the past.  This variation is rough on the toes because of all the toe hops! After working on the variation I stayed after and talked to Mr. E for a bit.  We talked about the gala the night before and some other things. One of the great things about him is that he is so easy to talk to. Thank you Mr. Ellison for welcoming me into class while i was in town and making me feel like family!

After the day at Ellison was finished I headed to my friends apartment to get ready for the David Hallberg Legacy Gala.  My friend Melissa and I got ready and headed over to Lincoln Center in a taxi.  We got there right on time.  Once we got to the theater we sat with some of our other friends in the fourth ring (also known as the peanut gallery because it's so far away!)  David Hallberg gave a short speech before each piece.  He is such a beautiful speaker!  One of my favorite pieces from the night was the Diamonds Pas de Deux.  


Once the gala finished, me and a few of my other friends took some pictures in front of the Bvlgari/YAGP sign.  Here is one of me with Erick Garnica. Eric and I trained together back in San Diego and we are good friends.  He now attends Ellison Ballet year round. Afterwards a few of us went to go find food.  We couldn't decide where to eat so we were basically wandering around for about 30 min. in heels. :-/


On Saturday is was really nice outside.  It was in the 80's.  Melissa, Emily and I went to tan at the park.  Well I didn't get very tan... (what else is new) oh well haha! My mom calls the paleness a studio tan. It was still nice to be outside.


On Sunday I went to go take Mr. Ellison's 12:30 pm class at Steps.  It wasn't too crowded since most of the YAGP crowd was gone. Theo and Juliette were also there.  It was nice to be able to take a class from Mr. E while I was in NY.  After class I waited to say goodbye to him.  =( As usual, I didn't want to leave.

I walked to steps because it was nice out, not as warm as Saturday, but still nice.  The trees were starting to bloom!













Alvin Ailey Place.


Here is me taking a selfie on my way to steps.
On my way to Steps.







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My flight was at 6am Monday morning so I attempted to go to bed at a decent hour but since I was staying with friends that was hard to do.   I ended up going to sleep a little after 12.  I set about a million alarms for around 3am.  I eventually got up and got ready to leave around 4am.   At around 4 I headed downstairs to grab a taxi.  I walked up to the busier avenue and there were a few taxis that went by before I got there.  I then crossed the street and saw some lights a couple of blocks down, hoping for a taxi to come by. I was lucky and got a taxi pretty quickly.   I ended up getting to the airport decently early because there was no traffic.  I think I got there around 4:30am or so.  Once I arrived I checked my bags and headed through security.  Once through security I headed towards my gate and grabbed some coffee and food along the way.   I took a window seat on the flight since it wasn't too long and I wanted to try and sleep.  Once I landed in Chicago I made my way to my gate. (This airport was huge! I think it was Midway).  My layover was about an hour . I loved being in NYC but it was great to get home. I'm already excited to return in June for my summer intensive with American Ballet Theatre. But before that I will be performing in Ballet Arte's production of Swan Lake. I will blog about the final rehearsals and the shows. I will be performing Odette and Odile ! Thank you for reading! Love, Robbie