I like watching professional dancers behind the scenes, in their classes. It's nice to see how they perform the same moves that I would in a class, because on stage, in a show, you wouldn't often see the same exercises. So when I got an email inviting the public to experience (just watching) a class with the Dutch National Ballet, I immediately signed Stella and me up.
Stella and I took the train to Amsterdam and decided to walk towards the Opera Ballet building on Amstel, since it was reasonably mild weather. Also, I wanted to find a place for a quick snack and hot drink before the class.
Since we both enjoy Asian food and don't have good choices in Hoorn, we were on the lookout for something Asian. Or at least somewhere that looked cosy. We saw De Bakkerswinkel but there was a queue to get a table and we couldn't be bothered to wait.
Then I spotted a café I hadn't seen before: Hoi Tin Café. On the menu, it showed many choices of Hong Kong-style snacks, including HK toast, so I convinced Stella to give it a try, and we went in. It's spacious, bright and cosy, and Stella said it reminded her of cafés in KL, which are often very well-designed.
Funnily enough, I didn't take any photos there, so just practise using your imagination.
I ordered the HK classic toast (peanut butter and sweetened milk) and the yuenyeung (yinyong in Malaysia). As we were served by two Caucasians I did wonder if the owners (presuming they're actually from HK) had let them taste a yinyong before letting them make and serve customers. It tasted fine, but honestly I prefer Kimgary's stronger flavour.
While waiting, I did a bit of sketching. These days, I bring either my sketchbook or iPad around with me to catch up on or practice sketching.
Then we headed off to the National Ballet to watch their public class. It was the first time they were doing this in public, but not the first time that any company has done it.
The backdrop is from Swan Lake, which was having a matinee show after the class. If you didn't know, yes, professional ballet dancers do still go for classes. Every day, in fact. And they do exactly the same things recreational ballet students do in class, just much, much better.
Does this combination look easy to you? I'm curious, as a ballet student myself, knowing what goes into doing this.
In typical ballet performances, you would seldom see three or four men doing these grand diagonal jumps. So it was amazing to watch.
That's it, my first post after several years. Bye.
