I had never been to the ballet before but I had always wanted to go. You know how it goes: you either don’t have the time, or the money, or when you ring for tickets they’re sold out in the category you can actually afford. My dreams of being a ballet-spectator were put on hold.

But no more. Last Saturday I had a ballet date with my great-aunt. We went to see the Moscow City Ballet’s version of Swan Lake and let me tell you: it was glorious.

The picture above is principal Liliya Oryekhova who danced the double role of Odette/Odile in our performance. I was a bit concerned for her very (I mean really very) thin arms whenever prince Siegfried would hold her by the wrist though. But what she did with those arms was magnificent. Her technique, elegance and the pure intensity with which she danced was absolutely captivating. She outshone every other dancer on that stage, even the ridiculously clean corps de ballet.

My favourite part however was when Oryekhova did Odile in Act III. That smile on her face that was equal parts mean girls/diva/Poison Ivy was brilliant. Talk about embodying a character. Brava!

Have you ever been to the ballet? Which ones would you like to see? On my to do-list are The Nutcracker (such a classic) and anything Nijinska-choreographed I can get my hands on (we saw an extract from Les Noces in art history and it was so fascinating).

I’ve been in a dance kind of mood for the past two days. Somehow songs that I have danced to before or I would like to dance to keep turning up on my friends’ facebook walls. Is it a sign?

Below is my favourite dance from last year’s Belgian/Dutch So You Think You Can Dance.
Choreography by Laurent Flament.

Only three of us actually live in digs here in Antwerp. The others all commute to school every day. So yesterday Emelien and I thought about making a weekly cooking date with ourselves and Mona.

The first weekly dinner was at my place. Look at that amazing kitchen! It’s apparently been remodeled last year and I can tell you: it’ a joy to cook in.

All at work. Lots of vegetables to be diced for the spaghetti sauce.

Somehow cooking together is a lot more fun than just cooking for yourself. Mind you, I love cooking either way but somehow it was a bit more lonely tonight to be in that kitchen on my own.

Can’t wait for our next cooking evening. Also: me doing most of the cooking and then leaving the dishes for them is a good arrangement as far as I’m concerned… (They volunteered by the way. If there was another towel I would totally have taken my responsability… Hehe).

Dishes and a lovely hair-flip.

Okay, maybe the title is just slightly exaggerated. Just.

I had my first dance class of the course today. All four hours of it. Now I have to be honest and explain that we didn’t have a full-on class as it was after all the first one and our teacher wanted to take a look at the level everyone’s at. However from next week onwards it’ll be four glorious hours of contemporary dance. I’m just happy that two of those hours will be tap.

Sutton Foster rehearsing for Anything Goes.

I’ll leave you with some more rehearsal pictures. And one gratuitious picture of Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess from Love Never Dies – which closed a little over a week ago. What is it with shows that I really like closing by the way? First Love Never Dies, then on the 4th Catch Me If You Can.

Maybe I should just stop liking shows.

Fat chance.

How could I deny you this picture of Harry Potter, er... Daniel Radcliffe shaking it up for his Broadway show?

Just because... he's my favourite Phantom.