BBQ at Het Park and performing at Theater Zuidplein

While we are awaiting the real spring/summer to arrive, we are just itching to get out and enjoy what sun we can get. So last weekend, we arranged a picnic BBQ at Het Park.

On the day of the picnic, we awoke to cloudy skies and chilly winds. But did that dampen our spirits? Kinda. But we kept the faith! And while we were rewarded with sun eventually, it was the first time I've sat on a picnic blanket with a coat on ;)

Photos courtesy of Riri P.

We, as a group, are so unused to having picnics that we forgot so many basic things like moist wipes and... some other things which I can't remember now. Well, it takes practice!

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Now, for something else more personal.

On 1 and 2 June, I performed onstage in a real theatre for the very first time! Okay, I was onstage before at the Actors Studio in Bangsar about six years ago, but that was pretty silly stuff. Both times were for my ballet school, but at my first performance, I had only had three years of ballet under my belt, so I hardly could perform in a proper choreography. So all I did was run about the stage pretending to be graceful.

But this year, I was in a proper big auditorium in Theater Zuidplein, performing in my ballet school's Les Arts & La Danse, a dance show with choreography inspired by famous artwork. I danced two pieces - Les Sylphides and Das Triadischen Ballet - one classical ballet and the other en pointe.

Julien B recorded a short clip of my dance from his seat at the balcony. It's surprisingly good! I had such low expectations of our performance, haha.

Before both performances, I was impossibly nervous because all my friends were attending. But I managed to push out a smile for this backstage pic with my fellow dancers.

Anyway, despite all the nervousness and tiredness by the end of the weekend, it was a fantastic experience and I wouldn't mind doing it again :)

Update of the week (long overdue!)

Yes, I am becoming lazy to blog, but that's because I've been too busy at work that I'm too tired to think about writing!

The past two weeks have been really hectic, with the deadline of the festival magazine arriving. After several nights of leaving the office at 2am and sometimes 4am (and remember that I work in Amsterdam and have a 75-minute journey home to Rotterdam every day - thanks so much for driving, Schrobbenmaster!), I was just so drained and thick-headed by the time we wrapped up the magazine.

The printed product arrives on Monday at the office, and I'm half excited about seeing it, but at the same time, I don't want to even look at it anymore. I'm working from home that day anyway, so at least I'll be the last one in the office to see it, and I don't have to pretend to be excited when everyone else is.

One annoying thing that's been happening at home is that the internet keeps failing. And it usually fails in the evenings and weekends, which is exactly when we want it to work! It's an additional suckfest when all my games have to be played online. So during those evenings when we're "disconnected", Schrobbenmaster and I built a Lego house that was long overdue. I took some photos of the progress but they're not on my mac yet, so wait a bit, okay guys?

Oooohhh, exciting news for the week is that frachely has FINALLY confirmed and booked her flight to NL! Woooooo!! She'll be the first friend to come visit and that is a status that no one else will ever have. Hehe.

We've been spending the past few days looking at maps and prices and discussing where to go for a quick weekend away. On the top of her list were places like Vienna and Prague, but unfortunately they take too long to travel for a weekend trip. And as trains are so expensive, it's not very worth it to travel so far for a short time. And yes, we're taking the train because budget intercontinental airlines are so unreliable. I'd rather spend a little more money and save some time than spend 2 hours in an airport with no seats waiting for the plane. Plus, I hate check-in times and I hate weight and luggage content limits.

Anyway, after long discussions, we settled on Paris because it only takes 2.5 hours by train. It's freakishly expensive though, but there's no way around that. If I'd known that I was going to be buying these expensive tickets, I probably wouldn't have splurged on those 2 pairs of awesome, awesome shoes at Manfield last weekend. But then... they are really awesome, so who knows?

Talking about splurging, because I was such a good girl last month, not having shopped at all and saving lots of money, I went all out last weekend. And I know, it sort of defeats the purpose, but when you're feeling down and drained from work, retail therapy REALLY works. Besides those Manfield shoes, I got some items from Scotch & Soda (or Maison Scotch, I think the female version is called), a very cool boutique nearby, and as usual, my favourite haunt, Mango. I haven't worn all my new stuff yet though, because I didn't want to go to work every day in something new and spoil the "special"ness of it. Slow and steady!

Last piece of news is that I finally attended the new season of my ballet school. It was the second of the season, but I couldn't make it to the first class because of the dang magazine. It was really wonderful to go for ballet, but the teacher really makes me nervous and stressed about performing well! I guess that's a good thing. If you don't push yourself, you don't improve, right?

Next post will have photos, I promise!

xxx to all!

My first proper ballet class in NL

Yesterday after work, I went for a trial ballet class in The Hague.

Since I arrived in NL, I had been looking for a ballet school to continue my lessons in, but no luck in Rotterdam. There was only one that had an okay website, but when I went to their annual concert to check them out, the quality of their ballerinas were simply abysmal. It wasn't the lack of choreography or skill of the dancers - it was the technique. You can tell when a dancer doesn't have the proper foundation, and that means that they haven't been taught well.

So I gave up on looking for ballet schools for a while, until Moeder Irma emailed me one day and asked if I'd like to join her summer classes. Summer school for ballet is more of a one-off thing, you can register at any school for just one class (or more). This is because many ballet schools close during the summer (school holidays), so the ones who remain open welcome other students for the timebeing.

Last Wednesday, I followed Moeder Irma to her class in Alkmaar, 30 minutes from Hoorn. Schrobbenmaster and I had to stay in Hoorn for the night because of that.

Well, the class was quite hard, especially when I hadn't been taking lessons for over a year and all my muscles and technique were already rusty. But it helped inspire me again to look for schools, and this time I spread my search outside of Rotterdam.

That's how I found Balletschool Mabel Alter.

It's located in The Hague, very close to the centre (therefore has really expensive parking) and in a secure and nice house/building overlooking a canal. From their website, I could tell that they were a professional school because of the information they provided, but mostly from the strict dress code they have. In ballet, basically, the stricter you are, the more professional you are :P

The class I was put into based on my experience was Intermediate and it was pretty scary when the teacher announced: "This class is Intermediate, so you should be able to listen to the steps once and then repeat immediately!". Oh gawd, I'm absolutely abysmal at choreography! But I survived, even with lots of mistakes.

I also received a: "Do you not have hairpins?" from the teacher, while she gave my spiky ponytail a light flick.

I can remember every single lecture/speech/announcement she gave in the class: "Did anyone watch the earlier class before you? No one? Tsk. You should be so obsessed about ballet that you want to see everything you can about it!"


And another one specifically directed at me: "Were you counting?" Um, no... "You should all count! You have to count! In Swan Lake, everyone is counting all the time! One! Two! Three! Four! Count after me!", after which I partly redeemed myself by answering correctly to the question: "At which count do you make your turn?"

I was, in the entire duration of the class, scared shitless of the teacher. But very inspired. It's the only way (at least I believe so) to really step your game up in such a strict and difficult discipline as ballet. So I decided to sign up for their new season in September. Very excited about it! I will be so ready for it. Hairpins and all.