The Ballet

We had a splendid time. Our first event of the day was a pre-performance talk with Christopher Wheeldon. Grace met him afterwards and asked him to sign her program. He was very gracious and attentive with her even though there were lots of "important" people waiting to speak with him. He said he loved her name and told her about one of the first pieces he choreographed about Grace Kelly.
Then it was off to the matinee performance. It was the first Grace had seen professional dancers, and it had been a long time for me. What I loved about all the dances we saw is that they were all very different. We ended up seeing 3 in the afternoon and 3 in the evening. Grace liked Red Angels the best in afternoon and I liked the Barber Violin Concerto. Estancia, Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet, premiered this week at SPAC, and it was interesting to watch it after we heard him describe the process of choreographing it. After the performance, we had a couple of hours to kill before the evening events so we got an early dinner and then decided to hang out on the lawn. Grace started to dance in the grass and I got my camera out. I think she was inspired, and I was so grateful that all was going as I had hoped.
The evening pre-performance talk was a NYCB principal dancer named Tyler Angle. He is known to be one of the best dancers in the world, and is especially known for exceptional partnering. He's a Central PA native. He also was very gracious and we learned a lot from him.
The evening performance was beyond words. We had excellent seats. I have no idea how we got such great seats. There must have been a last minute cancellation or something. But it made all the difference in the world in terms of feeling the dance rather than simply watching. Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain was life-changing for me. That's all I could think of when it was over--that I would never be the same after watching it. Grace loved the last piece, Stravinsky Violin Concerto which was a Balanchine piece that involved the whole cast.
We made our way back to the car and Grace said, "Mom, I loved spending time with you today."
Melt my heart. I loved spending time with you too, Grace.
The thoughts of the day kept me awake until we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's...some time past 2AM. It was worth every mile.