Opening night

A full house at the Kennedy Center continuously interrupted tonight's opening of the Kirov Ballet's production of La Bayadère with not just applause, but outright cheers. Headlining tonight's cast was international star Diana Vishneva as the temple dancer in the title role, with Kirov principals Andrian Fadeyev as Prince Solor and Viktoria Tereshkina as Princess Gamzatti.

Meanwhile, I've had a long, long, hot shower; I've taken half a bottle of Motrin, my feet are iced and elevated, and as soon as I wind down enough, I'll be off to bed.

I'll be anxious to see if there's a review in tomorrow's Washington Post. The Post had photographers at this afternoon's dress rehearsal, so maybe there'll be something.

There is no better seat in the house for a ballet than to be on stage with the dancers. Even with front row orchestra seats and a pair of opera glasses, there's no way to see and appreciate the subtle details that go into performance. I could see the intense concentration on the face of a ballerina behind the smile and the glistening glow of her bliss and determination to be dancing. I saw the subtle quivering of the fabric of the trousers of a danseur as he struggled to stand perfectly still in a ballet pose, all the while holding a woman up in the air over his head. I noted the little droplets of sweat that collected at the ends of little tufts of a dancer's neck hair. I observed the critical eye with which the dancers watched and mentally critiqued their colleagues' performances and the occasional slight raising of an eyebrow.

Here are a couple of pictures of my costumes this year. The first picture is with my dresser while I wear my first act Brahmin outfit; the second is with a fellow super in our second act costumes—we look a little tired, cause we'd just come off the stage after a long and grueling period of standing still. While I don't know about him, I know that my feet had gone numb in my too-tight ballet slippers!