Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
The Classical GirlI know what you’re thinking. “It’s winter. It’s the dead of winter. We’re in the grips of the coldest of cold winter this week, and The Classical Girl is talking about … poison oak? She’s in the Northern Hemisphere, right?” Turns out poison oak is a thing, any time of the year. Even in long-dead … Read more
There is this moment In Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker where the party host, Dr. Stahlbaum, connects two electrical cords and the Christmas tree in the family’s San Francisco living room lights up. Everyone oohs and aahs because in-house electricity was a new-fangled thing in 1915, the year in which the production is set. The irony is … Read more
You might notice more white space on this blog. Less words. That’s on purpose. Space feels great. It’s a hard commodity to come by as we approach the holidays and the end of the year. Everything gets squeezed in, condensed. More food than usual. More family time than usual (leading, admittedly, to … Read more
I was thrown back in time recently, through music, while attending the San Francisco Symphony. The piece in question was a perennial crowd-pleasing warhorse, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Now, if you’re thinking, “been there, done that,” yeah, so was I. I’d chosen the concert not for the Tchaikovsky but for the opening work, Grieg’s Piano … Read more
Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Ballet Theatre Chronicles! Book 1, Off Balance and the final book, Other Stages, are only 99 cents. Books 2 and 3, Outside the Limelight and Ballet Orphans are only $2.99. Just click on their titles! Everyone’s asking: will there be a World Ballet Day in 2025? On October 16th, the answer became YES!! Please join me … Read more