23 December 2005Hi everyone and welcome to Hanne’s dancing diary from New York! We’ve settled into downtown Tribeca on the island of Manhattan—that's right at the heart of New York city! We can see the Empire State Building from the corner one way, and can see the Statue of Liberty from the end of our street! Can’t get much more “New York” than that! I’m looking forward to sharing my New York experiences—especially the dancing ones—with you on the website. Just click on the front page to see what I’ve been up to! Well... New York just has so much to offer on the dance scene. Little over a week after arriving, I met up with an old friend from my dancing days at Ecole (!) and we went to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. This wonderful predominantly African-American company is so exciting to see in action! They did four short works—with my favourites being ‘Revelations’ one of their classics from the 1960s, and a new work with three amazing male soloists dancing to Bach’s cello music. This company really shows “the joy of dance”. Their obvious joy in dancing makes the audience enjoy the performance all the more. Remember that when you’re dancing everyone! Former Jazz Factory student and teacher Amity Arena came to stay for around 10 days on her way through New York on her travels. A great excuse for me to see more dance! Together, Amity and I went to see the Broadway musical ‘Hairspray’ which was quite hysterical—loads of 1950s style fun! Perhaps the highlight so far was a trip that Amity, India and I made to see ‘The Nutcracker’. A real Christmas-time tradition in New York, is the New York City Ballet’s production of ‘The Nutcracker’ at the Lincoln Centre. This same production has played every Christmas in New York since 1954. The cast includes 50 students from the School of American Ballet dancing many of the roles, as well as another 42 company dancers. It has an on-stage snowstorm and amazing costuming—from beautiful snowflakes to a terrifying army of mice! The highlight is a 12 foot Christmas tree which grows to 40 feet during the production—the full height of the stage! As it grew bigger and bigger, everyone was cheering and clapping—I’m so hopeless I was crying it was all so beautiful! India even had her photo taken at interval with one of the Snowflake’ ballerinas. Haven’t got to any dance classes myself as yet, as I’m still trying to sort out childcare arrangements, but have managed to get into a bit of yoga to try to stay in shape! I’d love to hear your news any time. Remember... hannelarsen@mac.com. I haven’t got the internet at home yet, so I may be slow to reply, but I promise a reply will be coming. Happy Christmas everyone! I miss you, but know that Kim’s looking after you! Keep dancing! All my love, Hanne x |
2nd April 2007 |
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