This past Friday night I made my first trip into Manhattan of the semester. My friend Christine invited me to the ballet, and along with our friend Abby, we bought student rush tickets ($15!!!) to the New York City Ballet. I was super excited, because I’ve never seen a real ballet before, and as a kid, I had only taken dance classes for about a New York minute.
The dilemma, of course, was what to wear. Not only was I going to the glamourous Lincoln Center, but the windchill Friday night was hovering around ten. And by hovering, I mean it definitely hit the single digits. It’s been absolutely freezing here in New York, which is appalling considering I left temperate South Florida less than a week ago. I digress.
Sweater- Target; Dress- Walmart; Belt-unknown; Leggings- unknown; Boots- Target.
After posting panicked tweets and Facebook statuses looking for advice, this is what I put together. My mom is letting me borrow this black skinny belt for the semester, which is super exciting because I can now do so much more with my clothes! Case in point, layering a sweater over a dress and not looking completely lumpy. This polka-dotted dress (which I know came out funny in the pictures) is actually one of my favorite dresses of all-time, so I’ll be wearing it even more often now. I wore two pairs of leggings, but the outer pair is actually this kind of shiny material (as opposed to cotton), so from a distance it gives off the appearance of thick opaque tights. My favorite riding boots also make another appearance, but by the time I took these photos they were all dirty again because of the snow. Of course if I didn’t want to risk hypothermia, I still had to wear a hat, scarf, gloves, and a warm coat on top of all these layers! I loved this outfit though, I felt pretty and girly – perfect for the ballet.
(Speaking of photos, I know that my saturation is way off in the picture on the left. It was pretty annoying. Then again, it’s also annoying trying to take pictures without a photographer or tripod, and since I’m incapable of taking “proper” webcam pictures, this is what I get. And posing is pretty strange. How do you fashion bloggers do it??)
Back to the ballet- it was wonderful! Not exactly my scene, but still really, really cool. Even the theatre itself was stunning- the gold curtains, the balconies, and the ceiling looked it was a bejeweled flower. Beautiful. We actually saw three different performances: Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Dances at a Gathering, and Concerto DSCH. I loved the music, but it was hard to follow the story behind the ballets. I guess that’s something you acquire the more you’re exposed to it. My favorite was the last ballet, it was quick and much more contemporary. The stuff ballerinas can do with their bodies is unbelievable – totally mind-blowing. The highlight though was Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman’s fiancé and choreographer of Black Swan, perform in Dances at a Gathering. No Natalie sightings, but those two are going to have one beautiful baby.
After my exciting Friday night, the rest of this weekend has been pretty low-key. And by low-key I mean totally unproductive, but that’s going to have to change. This coming week is going to be a long one.
Stay warm, Northeasterners!
~ Sarah
