Ballet under the stars

Of all the performing arts, my favorite has always & will always be dance. It can be in any form - jazz, folk, modern, classical ballet, I love them all. There's something mesmerising about watching the graceful pirouettes of a ballerina, a well choreographed piece or the skillful execution of a dance move.

New York spoilt me. There was always so much to offer. It was also home to my favorite dance group, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. I never missed a season in the years that I was in NY so you could say I was a dance junkie.

No surprise when Ballet under the Stars was announced, I made my way to Sistic.


It was so packed. Even more crowded than when we were there for Much Ado about Nothing. No grass patch was spared - picnic mats were almost one on top of the other.

I can't get away from olives & pate at a picnic.

Nothing gets The Girl more excited than when one mentions the word "picnic". I try not to say anything until we are about to leave else it would be a constant barrage of "when are we leaving", "have you packed the food", "did you bring olives" from the time I utter the magic word.

Almost everyone went with plastic bags of food, the more organised ones brought cooler boxes & pretty picnic baskets but the prize for the best looking picnic carrier goes to .....

.......this antique food basket which belonged to my neighbours on the mat behind us who also graciously let me take a photo

Enough of the pre-show babble. We went there early not just to chop a spot but because The Girl was driving me crazy with her "are we ready". Good thing we did cos there were pre-show performances which I didn't know about since it wasn't mentioned on the ticket.

I don't believe I've ever watched the SDT perform & the Ballet under Stars is in their 15th year (that just goes to show how long I've been away). I liked what I saw. My favorite was the final piece called Pop not least because it incorporated one of my favorite songs by Annie Lennox - Walking on Broken Glass which had me humming all the way home.