NYC Ballet Vacation!

Last week I took a solo trip to New York City! I wanted to see ABT perform Whipped Cream and from there the entire trip snowballed into four days of all things ballet! P A R A D I S E . (And make sure to catch the vlog from this trip!)

I do have a good amount of family living in NYC, so I wasn't alone the entire trip. My cousin and my aunt accompanied me to The Met for Whipped Cream. They are both versed in the arts and ballet and they absolutely loved the show. Six thumbs up from us! :)

Gave the box seats a try - my first time at The Met!

The evening glow of Lincoln Center during intermission

My cousin and me!

Another big highlight of the trip was taking ballet class with Kat Wildish! I mentioned in my Ballet Bucket List video that I want to come to NYC to do one of her adult ballet performances sometime. A class was good enough for now though! I happened to take on International Tiara Day, so as we were warming up for class, Kat walked in with a box of tiaras telling everyone to come grab one! How fun is that??! She also took photos throughout class and sent me the ones she took of me. What a treat to have this memory captured!

For those who don't know, I am a professional photographer by day (day job & side biz). I'm currently putting all of my side business focus on shooting dancers, so I knew I had to line up shoots in New York. I ended up working with three wonderful ballet dancers - rain and shine!! :)

So, as you guys might know from videos and Instagram posts, I'm actually really loving the pointe shoes I'm currently in (Capezio Arias), but I have wanted to get fitted for Freeds for years, so I finally just made myself go do it! The Chacott store on 20th St. is beautiful and the staff was very helpful and kind. I only had about 30 minutes in the shop so I wasn't sure I would have time for a fitting, but I was in and out in exactly 30 minutes! I ended up in Classic Pros, no X, anchor maker.

On Thursday evening I held a Ballerinas By Night Meet Up! Our viewer/reader, Jessica, was able to make it so we met up at Rockefeller Center to see Jeff Koons' Seated Ballerina balloon sculpture. Because it was raining cats and dogs, we ventured a few blocks to a nice Italian restaurant where we scarfed down delicious pasta and talked about ballet life, adult life, professional life. It was such a great time and I am so thankful for this community of instant friends!! Thanks for a great time, Jessica!

After my final photo shoot on Friday I found myself with free time by myself to just wander! I stumbled upon a cool dance mural, had time to call my husband for the first time since I left, and then looked up showing times of Wendy Whelan's film Restless Creature. I popped down to the Film Forum to catch a late afternoon showing. I talk more about the film in the video from this trip, but to summarize - I was super emotional about this! The story just had me all over the place and I was crying like a baby in the theater. I haven't let my age be a boundary for my dancing, but seeing that at some point it will be no matter what I mentally tell myself was really hard for me to watch. Wendy has a very healthy outlook on it all though and the film was really well done.

I always get so inspired when I'm here and I love that there is so much ballet in New York that I can make an entire vacation out of it. Highly recommend doing this if you have the opportunity!! Thanks for reading and make sure to watch the video version of the trip linked below (the edit took me forever so pretty please hit the "like" button? :))! I will leave you with a few other random photos from the trip! - Jana. P.S. Huge thank you to my cousin, Nan, for taking so many photos & videos for me!!