The Classical Girl

World Ballet Day 2022!

by

Arts-loving readers, mark your calendars: World Ballet Day 2022 is Wednesday, November 2nd!  To celebrate, enjoy my ballet-centric novel, A Dancer’s Guide to Africa, for FREE, all week long! Click HERE. Also, check out the Ballet Theatre Chronicles, HERE.   World Ballet Day has started, and HERE is the all-important link to watch the livestream! … Read more

The dazzling Dvořák you’ve yet to hear

by

So you’re acquainted with Antonin Dvořák’s buoyant, instantly accessible “New World Symphony,” are you? And you loved it? Yay, you are part of an enormous fan club that has a spectacularly broad base of listeners. So, what other compositions of Dvořák’s do you like? {{Silence}} Ah. I get it. I was there too, once. But … Read more

Returning to Big Basin Redwoods State Park

by

This week marked a few auspicious events for me and my favorite place on earth, Big Basin Redwoods State Park. First, the park’s recent reopening allowed me to visit and hike (on limited trails) for the first time in two years. Second, this week marks the two-year anniversary of the severe storm that produced mega … Read more

10 ballet flicks you’ll love

by

  Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the height of summer, and if you’re like me, you’re feeling a vacation-y torpor in the air, alongside the heat (or maybe as a result of the heat). You want to do something indulgent for yourself in the evening when it’s light for so long that you feel … Read more

Honoring Maureen Snead — sister, mother, friend

by

  This weekend our extended family is gathering to honor the life of our sister, Maureen Snead, who passed away on April 8th of this year. Today at her Celebration of Life, I read a little (okay, it’s long for “little”) thank-you note I penned. It’s not a eulogy or an obituary — it’s a … Read more