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For the holidays, I got mi amour some front-row tickets to the NYC ballet - Sleeping Beauty to be exact. So this past weekend we got all gussied up and headed over to the Lincoln Center. Jenn wore a sexy black suit with short-heeled boots and I decided on a little black lacy dress with flats. The hem line fell a bit above the knees, which I was self-conscious about all night..lol.

Here are some pics of us:

On the subway over I could feel the stares of a couple of the men - my legs were a bit conspicuous! Lincoln Center, which I had never been to was very cool. In the corner where they had a mini-park area hung these pretty white star-like lights strung up amongst the trees - each star piece was put together by hand, a string of lights wound around some sticks. It was cold out though (despite it being in the 70's earlier that day!) so we headed in quickly. Our seats were excellent; front row, center-right. The orchestra was down in a veil-covered pit just in front of us and we were positioned right in front of the big tympanic drums. It was weird though as to our left was the conductor - only his head and ocassionally his frenetic wand sticking out through a hole in the veil.

Not being a ballet fan per se and having never before experienced it, I do have to admit to liking the production. The performers and sets and music were all excellent. This was a big, ornate performance, too - using majestic set pieces (including a huge, moving boat) and dozens of peformers at some points. The costumes of the many side characters who made up the royal court were extravagent and shiny and elegant and the dancers were all top notch, especially the girls playing the main Fairy and Cinderella herself. It was amazing to see both what some of these individual ballerinas could do as well as the choreography of the routines that involved dozens of people intermingling all at once, several incorporating kids that looked as young as 6! I had no idea the ballerinas spent so much time on point! They literally had their entire body weight on them for long stretches and in adidtion were doing amazing acrobatic and smoothly beautiful maneuvers.

The whole thing was a bit long for me, coming in at around 2.25 hours, counting the intermission, but the fact that I was off my hormones and feeling like shit probably fed this. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and may even allow Jenn to drag me out to Swan Lake sometime once we have time to save up for the steep ticket prices (although it must be said cheaper than most Broadway shows).