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Festivities for R+J at NYCB's Spring Gala
The lovely ladies Sylvie, Lydia (my daughter), and Gabi arrive for the premiere of Romeo and Juliet at the NYCB's Spring Gala!
There was lots of excitement in the air! The atmosphere at the gala was so much fun with the theater filled with illustrious and fancy guests for the performance and party afterwards. The evening began with a great surprise when Peter Martins stepped out in front of the curtain before the show started and announced that President Clinton was in the audience, sitting in Lincoln Kirstein's customary seat in the first ring. There was a huge burst of applause!
And in fact, Lydia had a thrill in the intermission because she met him and shook his hand! She was suitably impressed and said he had a very agreeable handshake. She also reported back that she met Camilla Bell, Steve Martin, Sasha Pivovarova, Anna Paquin. (Quite honestly I don’t know who half these people are, but she was excited!)
Here’s a picture when she and her friend Matthew met Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Harriet the Spy in the movie. (Finally a chance to make a remote connection between ballet and children's books: Harriet the Spy was one of my favorite books when I was growing up and we still have that original first edition copy on Lydia's bookshelf!)
And speaking of the ballet - the main reason we were there, of course - the dancers Sterling Hyltin and Robbie Fairchild were wonderful as Juliet and Romeo. They poured their hearts out, and they were a huge hit! I'm excited that we are going to be seeing all four lead couples. Next for us is Erica Pereira's debut on Sunday. Here she is on the left arriving for the gala with SAB friends, Shelby, Sara, Megan, and Holly (everyone you see in these pictures - except new company member Erica! - will soon be in SAB Workshop June 2 & 4 - they are working so hard with rehearsals 6 days a week!)
May 6th update: Erica was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Completely fresh and angelic and passionate. She and Allen Peiffer, her Romeo, brought tears to my eyes. They were magnificent!
Links: New York City Ballet and Alastair Macaulay's wonderful review of all the Romeos and Juliets in the NYTimes