Bournonville

Last summer, Freestone participated in a one-week ballet intensive called Bournonville, Ballet With the Masters, at Imagine Ballet Theater in Ogden. Bournonville is the Danish style of ballet, taken from the French tradition in the 1800's and incorporating lots of fast footwork, turns and jumps, jumps, jumps. This year, he was invited to do Bournonville again, and we pretty much looked forward to it all year. The teacher above, Henning, is Danish and lives in Toronto. He told the dancers last year to "Eat a banana every day, even if you don't like them. It's good for you." I can't tell you how many bananas Freestone consumed this year, each one prefaced by that statement in Henning's voice. "Eat a banana every day..."

On Thursday of Bournonville week, Carol Browning hosted a fancy reception at her beautiful estate. We love being part of it. We had three or four extra boys staying at our house all week, depending on the day. We took them all to the reception with us, all dressed up.

Elliott, Carol Browning and Rhys Hudson, our dancer from Houston who will dance as a trainee in Boston with our friend Henry Winn next year. He was in Boston Ballet's professional training division this past year.

Rhys, Elliott, Freestone and Mac

After the final Saturday night performance at the Egyptian Theater in Ogden. Elliott, Henry, Henry's dad, Jhaelyn, Val (Henry's mom), Carol Browning, Rhys, Freestone and Fernando, a BW trainee.

Friday night we had a bunch of dancers at the house painting their shoes in the Bournonville style with the white triangle and sewing on white elastic, while discussing philosophy and "spilling tea" about their ballet colleagues. I love being in the midst of all of this.

Lucky slice after the final performance.

Each morning after dropping off Freestone, Mac, Elliott and Rhys at Grounds for Coffee, I picked up Ethan at Frontrunner and took him to the studio, until the other boys convinced him to stay at our house for the rest of the week.

Every night, there was ukulele accompanied by Ruby's Ghanaian drum and singing. These kids are the absolute best. Rhys, Mac in a onesie :), Elliott, Amelia and Freestone

At the Browning reception: Elliott, Rhys, Elijah from BW, Freestone, Amelia and front and center, Ethan. The kid has stage presence even when he's not on stage. And when he is, watch out! I saw him wink at his mom during the performance. Ha ha

Mind you, this was concurrent with Clytie's recital week, so at the time of the reception, Golda, Araceli, Ptolemy and Tziporah were at their Clytie performance. Scott and I had gone to it the night before, but the second night was Araceli's last performance, since she isn't doing ballet next year, and Scott wanted to see it. He stopped in at the reception briefly, then went to see Araceli and the other kids dance. Golda had taken over a modern class when the teacher had a baby, so she was there as a teacher. Anyway, Xanthe was only in Cast B and wasn't in that performance, so I took her to the reception as my "Plus One."

Ethan, Mac and Elliott with Carter in the background trying to find vegan food in our kitchen on burger night. Oops!

Elliott and Carter discussing Plato's cave. :) I love these boys so much.

Golda got in on the action

The performance was SO FUN! The first half was the different chosen dancers doing variations from the ballet Konservatoriet and other Bournonville ballets. Freestone and Mac were chosen to do one of the variations, and Freestone looked so good!!! Mac did too, of course, but I had to keep my eyes of Freestone the whole time. He has improved exponentially since last year's Bournonville. Grandma and Grandpa and Coco and Bill were probably bored during the first half, but the second half was Konservatoriet, the Bournonville ballet, which hasn't been performed in its entirety ever before in North America. It's a shame it's become so obscure, too, because IT IS FUNNY! Jeff Rogers was the main character, an old widower/ballet master looking for a beautiful or rich new wife. Jeff stole the show. He was hilarious. Tziporah and I were laughing our heads off the whole time. I was laughing at Tziporah too, because she thought it was so funny. Freestone was one of the corps, and played a waiter for part of it. At one point, Jeff threw a goblet in the air for Mac, the other waiter, to catch. I could see what was coming. He was going to throw the next goblet to Freestone. Scott and I exchanged a glance. Nobody said there would be sports! har har. I could see Freestone gear up with a look of concentration n his face. Jeff tossed the goblet, we held our breath, and he caught it! It was so funny.  The ballet is terribly athletic and incorporates a ton of mime and character. It must be exhausting, and they pulled it off in ONE week. Unbelievable.

Some ballet moms, Teri Mumm and Kathy Needham. We talk a lot. They're my support system and information hub.

Someone was introducing everyone and saying, This is Kathy, Mac's mom, this is Teri, Elliott's mom, this is Circe...everyone's mom. I'm sure I beamed. Can I tell you how much I love that? I love that.

Margrete, Rhys, Mac, Elliott, Freestone, and Elijah

and Amelia, Freestone's crush from Imagine

and her adorable little brother

Jhae and Henry giving Carol Browning a little master class in port de bras. And that wrapped up the best week ever. We loved having all the ballet boys at our house. It was so interesting to have a glimpse of Freestone's ballet life; the boys' work ethic, their personalities, how much they can eat, the humor. Oh, the humor! The boys are so funny.  It was also informative for me to talk to Rhys about the ballet world, him being already a trainee and having gone through what Freestone is beginning to go through moving up through the ranks. I'm sad the week is over, but there are plenty more guests and experiences coming at us faster than we can take in. Onward!

Ballet West Spring Show

Everyone is wearing gingham these days! I felt left out, but not enough to go to a store. Then I found this in Araceli's closet! I wanted to look half-decent for my date with Scott (and like 10 of our kids) to Freestone's BW performance.

This was Tziporah after the show. She had a black eye from school and she'd been asleep for the whole second act. Poor kid!

The rest of us were alive and well! It is so exciting to watch Freestone onstage! He has been at BW for a year and a half now. It's incredible to see the progress, though not surprising, given how very driven he is. He has taken double classes all year with the goal of getting into the Professional Training Division, PTD. He got accepted for next year, which is pretty exciting! Mst of his friends are already PTDs, so he feels like the designation legitimizes him. Starting in September, he'll go to ballet from 1:30 to 6:45 every weekday and 10-3 on Saturdays. Unless there are rehearsals for a show or master classes, or YAGP. There's always something extra. Freestone is basically never home. This week, the week after the spring show, is his week off. I love having him around! The first day, he sais, "I can't live like this! There's nothing to do! It's only been ONE day?!" Granted, he is working at my store and has actually had some social life, but it's hard to come down from that intense schedule. He's usually at Ballet West from either 1;30 or 3:00 to either 6:45 or 8:15, and he's normally extremely punctual and likes to stay late. If he rides the bus or train, it take three times as long to get to and from, so we try to drive him, but he often rides public transportation.

Anyway...the spring show was so fun!!

Saturday morning, I relaxed with my boy for a few minutes before dropping him off at warm-up class on my way to Laura's funeral. He's a fun kid.

My gorgeous, glamorous parents at the Saturday matinee.

Mr. Jeff right before he pretended to hit Freestone on the head with his bouquet of flowers.

And Mr. Jeff pretending to be nice. Ha ha! Freestone worships Mr. Jeff. He is an icon. He and Mr. Nicolai are such colorful characters. Freestone has a lot of excellent teachers, but those two seem to conjure up the most stories. They're just very demanding. Of Nicolai, Freestone said, "He's a terrible teacher, really, but somehow, we all improve in his class and we have fun." He's not a terrible teacher, though, and Freestone knows it, but that's a perfect description. Scott and I watched his class. He grunts or waves his hand and everyone knows exactly what to do. His Ukrainian accent is thicker than the coffee he drinks with his cigarettes, but somehow all the students get him. He'll sashay over to a student during class and sneer something like, "Jonas did it better." And suddenly, that student has fixed whatever was wrong. A genius disguised as a "terrible teacher." 

After the last show, Scott and I took Freestone across the street to Squatter's. He ordered an apricot Hefeweisen. What a card! He got water.

And this was Freestone three years ago. It kills me! This is even before the stage that Mr. Jeff calls Freestone's "Little Porker" stage. So much has happened to that little mind and body!  And so many good things are in store.

Nutcracker

Auditions for Ballet West Nutcracker were before Clytie's this year, so I thought it would be fun to have all the kids try out, just for practice. Ptolemy isn't old enough for Clytie's, so he might as well try out for BW for the experience. Xanthe was looking forward to being in Clytie's Nutcracker, but nervously agreed to audition for BW, just to brush up on her audition skills. Freestone was obviously going to try for BW, since he wasn't at Clytie's anymore, but we were worried there wouldn't be a part for his height. Araceli ended up being sick the day of the audition.

So we went with three kids and low expectations. When results came in, I got an email that said Freestone had made it. BW created taller parts for the older boys, and he was a Butler and Mouse Minion. I didn't see anything about Ptolemy or Xanthe, so I thought they didn't make it. I told them, and they were disappointed, until we went through all the great reasons why it was better that they didn't make it.

So when I read the email later and discovered that ALL THREE KIDS were in, Xanthe and Ptolemy were mad. You can't win! I felt really bad for Xanthe.

A few weeks later, Clytie's auditions came up. By then, Clytie had called me and asked if Freestone would be willing to be the Nutcracker Prince. Would he ever! He was on cloud nine about it from September to Thanksgiving. So I was hoping that Araceli and Xanthe would make it into the production, since we were already doing it. I was pretty confident that Xanthe would make it. She didn't. Vilina didn't either! I really wanted her to have the experience. And Araceli didn't make it either. We were 0 for 3! Auditions are never what you think they will be. At this point, I felt even worse for encouraging Xanthe to try out at BW. Not only was she scared of the other dancers, now she didn't get to do her home school.

The next day, Sarah called me and said that they had a special part for Araceli, and would she be the Mouse King. Mouse King is always a chosen part that they kinda give to someone in particular. And she would be fighting Freestone in the Fight Scene! What a riot.

Needless to say, Nutcracker season, beginning in August and ending Christmas Eve, was utterly insane. We usually had between 6 to 8 rehearsals a week, on top of the 37 dance classes we have weekly in our family. I just laugh! For most of the weeks, Ptolemy and Xanthe had opposite days for rehearsals, since Ptolemy was a Party Boy in Party Scene and Xanthe was a soldier in Fight Scene.  Freestone just rehearsed when he was at ballet. And then Leslie or Sarah rehearsed Celi and Freestone for Clytie's whenever they could fit it in, in addition to fight scene rehearsals with the mice. We were at Ballet West every night, which isn't unusual, since Freestone dances there six days a week, but for Nutcracker, the kids often had one or two hour rehearsals, and it didn't make sense to go home. Scott and I both enjoyed driving them in and then sitting in Starbucks reading or something. We carpooled a little bit with the Jenkins, but for the most part, we have enough logistics of our own without throwing another family into the mix.

The week of Clytie's Nutcracker, it would have been a miracle if we hadn't made any blunders. Alas, a miracle did not occur. Thursday, opening night, our entire family was at the theater in Ogden. I was thinking how amazing it was that we were all able to be there together. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized Xanthe had missed a rehearsal at Ballet West! I quickly died and then emailed Heather, the ballet mistress. No sooner had I emailed her than I realized the Ptolemy had also missed a rehearsal! I cannot believe it didn't occur to me. I completely spaced it. Fortunately, Heather has a "three strikes" policy, and we were more than OK. I still hate when I make mistakes! Out of hundreds of rehearsals, I think we did OK. Plus, I have no idea how the kids would have gotten to Salt Lake if I'd remembered the rehearsal.

Even Main Street Music got in on the Nutcracker spirit.

Ridiculously, blogger won't let me upload pictures from my Google Photos more than one at a time, so I had to screen shot all these photos. Lame.  Anyway, I was a ballet mom instead of a teacher for the first time ever at Clytie's and I got to be on the props committee. I was backstage the whole time. I loved it. It was a hoot watching Freestone and Araceli swordfight.  I was worried Araceli would win the fight. She is headstrong and competitive and doesn't care about convention. Freestone, on the other hand, will go to great lengths, at his own personal discomfort, to make sure nobody is hurt in any way.  I breathed a sigh of relief when they stuck to the choreography.

More BW lobby photos. We went to so many performances! Because of Freestone's scholarship, we have to log volunteer hours, so Scott, Golda, Ruby, Araceli and I all got turns at the Academy table, the boutique and chaperoning. All those volunteer gigs come with free tickets, so we were lucky enough to see almost all of Ptolemy and Xanthe's performances. Freestone ended up doing 4 or 5 extras and understudying for many more.

An iconic Dopp moment: The Mouse King and the Nutcracker Prince.

Scott and I are in the BW Guild, so we get even more volunteer opportunities. This time, it was selling charms to raise money for the new Nutcracker costumes. This year, the sets and costumes were new, and turned out wonderfully.

At Clytie's, Stella and Freestone got scolded for PDA backstage. Oops! They had a pretty good run!

We hosted our traditional Nutcracker Lunch on opening day.

So many fans

I love being involved with Freestone's ballet world. LOVE IT!

This was his first year as Nephew, or as Jeff Rogers says, "the little porker." Or maybe that's his PArty Boy costume. I can't remember.

Celi and Kayden were dating, and Freestone and Stella were a thing, so the four of them had some fun times over the holidays.

I probably have about a thousand more pictures from Nutcracker this year. It was a lot, but it never seemed like it. It was just fun. Ptolemy loved being part of the boys' club, and Xanthe overcame her fear to be a great soldier. She made lots of friends. She was disappointed not to dance with her close friends at Clytie's, but it was a growing experience. You can't make every audition. When you do, you enjoy every second!