Sunday 10 July 2011

Room Of Dancing Princesses

There is a saying that if you 'miss class for one day, you notice; miss class for two days, your colleagues notice; miss class for three days, your audience notices'; I have another saying that goes along the lines of 'pose pirouettes en manege the morning after a 2 am curry on Birmingham's Ladypool Road aren't a good idea', but that's another story.

Anyway I missed class on Wednesday as I wasn't feeling well (not a hip problem, just feeling a bit sick and nothing to do with a Vegetable Jalfrezi this time!) and on Friday (because I always feel things 48 hours later) I happened to innocently mention to Nigelinsky that I was feeling a bit stiff this week; I should have known by the evil glint in his eye what lay ahead; "Shall we do some Floor Barre?"

Well there's Floor Barre and there's Floor Barre; suffice to say yesterday my Intercostal Muscles where wondering if it was possible to veto all form of movement, including breathing, for the duration, and today my lower Abdominals are wondering if, at some point on Friday, they had some sort of Psychotic breakdown and accidentally decided to get into a Boxing Ring with Mike Tyson.

Still in the long run, my core stability salutes you; plus I'm trying to get #floorbarreisevil top trending on twitter, so feel free to join in.

Anyway onto something much more fun. I've been meaning to write about this exhibition for nearly a year; I can't believe how tardy I have been, but it is on till the beginning of January 2012, so there's still time to catch it.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/kensingtonpalace/stories/palacehighlights/enchantedpalace.aspx


It's an installation in Kensington Palace, and it's magical, breathtaking, spellbinding, otherworldly, melancholic and, at times, heart wrenching; a combination of art, history, fashion and theatre. My favourite room (perhaps not surprisingly) was The Room of Dancing Princesses, that paid tribute to Diana and Margaret; very beautiful and very poignant.







I went to this exhibition at the beginning of August last year (about two weeks before my Arthroscopy), with my Mother and my Godmother, it was a glorious day and after visiting the palace we had lunch on the terrace at The Orangery. As you can imagine I was rather nervous about my upcoming procedure, but it was such a lovely day and the exhibition had been so extraordinary that all my worries disappeared and I simply enjoyed the blue skies, perfectly manicured lawns and a glass of something chilled and pink!

Ahh, the healing power of Art......



Ballet Bitch xx


4 comments:

  1. Hello BB...

    Still following your blog & tweets, sadly I have been snowed under with work and therefore has been rather restrained in my uncalled-for comments... (yes, I am an unfortunate member of the white-collar Working Class) (or rather the golf-shirt-collar Working Class, as no self-respecting engineer in North America wears a tie anymore).

    The image of the red ballet shoes reminded me of two films I have seen over the past few months that you may know about but I thought you or your readers may find it interesting/amusing/downright silly, as it seems that having ties to the Dance profession is becoming a "Standard Status Symbol for Hollywood Heroines".

    1. "The Adjustment Bureau":
    This is a fantasy/scifi film about the "Higher Powers that controls our Lives" (God/Aliens/etc - take your pick) and how one's life can get interesting if you don't follow the rules... The main character is an aspiring Politician (Matt Damon) that has an election set-back, by chance runs into a professional ballet dancer (Emily Blunt, less convincing than Natalie Portland but the English accent helps carry the mood I guess) and then manages to turn his career around. However, he has fallen in love with the Dancer but the "Higher Powers" is set on preventing them from taking the relationship further -as he is slated to be a world-changing politician and will never be if they do get married, and she will become a Famous Prima Ballerina but will end up "teaching Ballet to 7-year old kids" if she marries. This is really a "chick flick" but I found it very entertaining!

    2. "Sucker Punch"
    This is a VERY disturbing fantasy film about a young girl being forced into a mental institution for a crime she did not commit, I found it difficult to watch as I hate the thought of violence against women (or implied violence) in general. The mental institution is really a front for a prostitution / crime organization, bizarrely the girls are taught the principles of Dance/Ballet - in a "proper" studio with mirrors, barre etc. (wait, it gets even more weird!). The heroine of the film "escapes" into a world of fantasy whenever she dances and in this fantasy world plans her escape (like I said, WEIRD...). This is a film that I have NO wish to see again, suffice to say that I do think that you may possibly find interesting at least. Oh, and did I mention that the special effects is spectacular?

    BTW, I have completely lost track as to your State of Health - please could you post an update for us "on the run" working class types PLEASE?

    -- JJ

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  2. Hi Jan,

    Sorry for the delay in posting your comments and replying to them, things have been insanely busy for the last couple of months (in a good way) and I will be posting an update about my hip today.

    Thank you for the film recommendations; I did actually manage to catch 'The Adjustment Bureau' on a flight to LA the other week; I was very chuffed to see it as an option after you had mentioned it, and I too thought it was rather entertaining. Although I've always had a bit of a soft spot for 'Vanilla Sky' as well; where, interestingly, Penelope Cruz plays a dancer.

    I shall keep a look out for 'Sucker Punch'; it does sound a bit disturbing, but also fascinating and I think it's healthy to challenge one's self with different genres of film.

    I suppose at this point we should also mention Cate Blanchett in 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', another dance role another thought provoking film.

    Hope all is well with you,

    BB x

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  3. Good Morning BB

    Thank you very much for your response!

    I was a bit worried actually, and was hoping that nothing bad happened to you.... thinking instead that perhaps I may have given offense in some way and have gone unto you "ignore" list! I'm very glad all is well therefore!

    Most Sincerely
    -- Jan

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  4. Hi Jan,

    Not at all, I was delighted by your movie recommendations and, for the record, you are always so polite that I'm sure it would be impossible for you to offend anyone!

    BB x

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