5 on Friday - Set 108

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

I'm in a ballet frame of mind this week, so here are five rather dreamy pieces I've always loved.


1 - Dulcinea variation - Don Quixote, composed by Ludwig Minkus


Danced by Svetlana Zakharova



2 - Peasant pas de deux - Giselle, composed by Adolphe Adam


Danced by Natalia Osipova and Vyacheslav Lopatin

The main piece of music I'm showcasing here ends at the 2:50 mark.




3 - Kingdom of the Shades - La Bayadere, composed by Ludwig Minkus


Danced by Paris Opera Ballet

I just get the shivers when this piece starts. This piece, once begun, is somewhat of an ordeal for the first line of dancers. Once it begins, we're watching something incredibly special.



4 - Entrees des fees (Fairies entrance) - Sleeping Beauty, composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky


Danced by Paris Opera Ballet

I especially love the way this scene announces with fanfare that we're about to be treated to a cherished piece of dance history. Not only are the fairies arriving at court accompanied by courtiers in the story, but they carry the history of this piece from the 19th century to us now, in a chain of performances that has been passed down and down across time.

The music I'm showcasing begins at the 5:07 mark.



5 -Morning Dance - Romeo and Juliet, composed by Sergei Prokofiev


The piece I'm showcasing here ends at the 1:41 mark.  Of course, longtime readers of this blog will know that the tragic music soon following is what I listened to while writing my vampire novel.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've got a busy weekend.

Tonight, after an extremely challenging week at work, I had a dress rehearsal for tomorrow's choir concert. It went the way dress rehearsals generally should go - not so super fabulous that we won't be paying close attention to all the spots that sounded shaky tonight. It's a strange-but-true thing - a really great dress rehearsal usually results in a flat performance.

Tomorrow morning I'll be hopping on the bus and heading for Spring Garden Road, to have an afternoon at the ballet courtesy of Empire Theatres and Opus Arte Ballet in HD.

I've had this picture as my screen saver at work all month, waiting until tomorrow:










It's the Kingdom of the Shades sequence from La Bayadere, where the entire corps shows us what its made of.

"The shades (usually thirty two of them) enter down a zigzag ramp coming down the back of the stage. They take two steps into an arabesque in plié, then two steps to pose in tendue derriere (the pose shown.) This short phrase of movement brings all of the shades on stage in single file. They zigzag down the ramp, then continue down the stage. The lead dancer has to repeat the phrase an incredible number of times, with the same leg every time." - Ballet Encyclopedia

"Like a patient drillmaster, original choreographer Marius Petipa opens the piece with a single, two-phrase theme in adagio tempo, repeated over and over until all the dancers have filed onto the stage. Petipa gives it a long time to creep under our skins. The choreography is considered to be the first expression of grand scale symphonism in dance. The subject of The Kingdom of the Shades is not really death, although everybody in this scene except the hero is dead. It's Elysian bliss, and its setting is eternity. The long slow repeated-arabesque sequence creates the impression of a grand crescendo that seems to annihilate all time." - Wikipedia















Ooo! I can't wait! Especially since Cuban wonder Carlos Acosta will be dancing, as well as Marianela Nuñez and Tamara Rojo.











After the ballet, it's hurry-scurry home, get changed and drive my husband and me to my choir concert, where he'll watch from the audience.














This was taken at the last concert in February, by my cousin's wife, Heather. Saturday's performance starts at 7:30 at Grace United Church, 70 King Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

And then Sunday I'll head out to have lunch with the writers, and afterwards I'll be giving the workshop at our monthly Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada meeting. It's called A Date With Creativity.

So what are you up to this weekend?









Nikki says Hey! I hope your choir concert goes really well! Hope you enjoy the Ballet too!

Akelamalu says Wow Julia, you have got a busy weekend ahead and an exciting one to boot!

Dorte H says Good luck to you with concert and everything - and remember to take care of yourself.