From March 12th to March 18th, Patrick, Genevieve, and I, accompanied by Irina, traveled to Poland as part of the Dickinson-in-Moscow program. There we met with other Dickinson students, who are studying for the full-year in Germany and Italy. We went to museums, enjoyed fancy 3 course lunches, attended lectures, walked around beautiful cities, drank beer with Polish students, wandered through craft markets, and bonded through our shared stories of study-abroad embarrassment and hilarity. Anyways, I don’t feel like writing a lot (because I’m lazy and terrible) but Poland is a seriously amazing little country.
My personal highlight was visiting the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk, which is devoted to Solidarity, or Solidarność, the Polish trade union and civil resistance movement. Basically, it’s an entire museum devoted to the courage and bravery of ordinary, working people. I love that. Afterwards, I picked up a pin in the gift shop that reads, in Polish, “Freedom was born in Gdansk”. I also discovered my favorite Polish poet (and potentially just my favorite poet in general), Wislawa Szymborska. Check her out, if you don't know her.
I’m dancing almost everyday. I decided to participate in the inner-club hustle competition at the end of April. It’s divided into multiple sections, so I’ll participate at the beginning level. I still have to find a partner and officially register but, in order to better prepare, I started taking individual lessons on Fridays. Last week, I danced my regular group classes Mon-Thurs, then a private lesson on Friday, the disco on Saturday night, and a women’s technique class on Sunday. Last Monday, I suffered a little bit of a GIANT tearful meltdown in my room, which was a long time coming but officially prompted by stepping into a puddle of vomit on the metro... but life has been moving in a positive direction since then!
My private lessons are led by Alina’s husband, Mikhail. He’s a wonderful teacher and he speaks English, which is helpful as all my other classes are completely in Russian. Last week, we shared the dance studio with his friends, who were also training together. As we walked down the stairs afterwards, with the other two walking in front of us, we heard a happy shout of greeting. The stairway was nearly completely dark so we used our phone flashlights to see. As we turned the corner, Mikhail abruptly turned off his flashlight and walked faster past his friend, who was hugging a woman tightly, patting her head so she couldn’t see anything, and repeating loudly how good it was to see her. It was a cute, and kind of odd, moment. When Mikhail and I reached the bottom of the stairs, he explained that the woman was one of his teachers, and she would be angry if she saw him because he skipped her class that day. So, his friend was helping Mikhail out by shielding him with an overly loud, enthusiastic greeting. This made me smile. :)
As part of my final project, I am sitting in on a class with Russian students about the history of musical theater. Upon attending, which was terribly nerve-wracking, I was appalled to find that the class was taught in a small, cramped office-like room and there were only 5 other students who showed up, meaning I couldn’t melt into the background as I had hoped. However, after a couple weeks, I’ve come to truly enjoy these meetings. I like the cozy room. On the yellowed walls hang diagrams of Italian theater masterpieces, a map of Shakespeare’s London, and advertisements for Russian operas, with calendars and course schedules arranged here and there. Behind my seat stands a nearly overflowing bookcase, with titles such as “The History of Costume”, “Russian Theatrical Satire”, and “Mossovet Theatre”. A bookmark sized schedule of the 2014-2015 Bolshoi Ballet season peeks out from between the stacks - my favorite dancer, Sergei Polunin, smiling with quiet love for me (cough, cough) as he lifts a ballerina in the opening scene of “Giselle”. The long wooden table in the center of the room is lighted solely by one tall window, which leaves the smaller, more cluttered desks along the side safely in shadow. The class feels casual and comfortable – more of a conversation than a lecture. I wish learning could always be like this.
SPEAKING OF SERGEI POLUNIN. On Monday, I was (incredibly) fortunate enough to see him dance in “La Bayadere” or “Баядерка” at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theater. It was my second time to the theater, the first being for an evening of Jerome Robbins’ ballets in February. Let me just say that I absolutely love this theater. I cannot say enough good things. It’s fantastic. The dancing is superb, the repertoire is a refreshing mix of classical and contemporary, and the main stage seating is intimate and well-organized. Not to mention, the tickets are affordable!! Obviously, if you’re in Moscow and a ballet fan, it’s a no-brainer to visit the Bolshoi Theater BUT give the Stanislavsky Theater a chance! Seriously! The dancing is on par with the Bolshoi, if not rivaling it at times, and the tickets are so much easier to get. I’m planning to visit the theater for at least 3 more performances before returning home. To get an idea of the prices, I scored a FRONT ROW TICKET to see Leonid Sarafanov, a world-renowned ballet star, in “Coppelia” for about 60 dollars. Front row, people! That’s an insane price!!!! I’ll be able to see the drops of sweat on his face with my own eyes, without the aid of binoculars. Sarafanov and Polunin are visiting artists to the theater, but the Stanislavsky boasts some equally impressive dancers of its own. Of particular note are Oksana Kardash and Natalia Somova. Anyways, back to Sergei Polunin. He’s amazing, amazing, wonderful, amazing, and I love him so much. I still can’t believe I saw him dance in person. I was so nervous the entire day beforehand. Before the ballet began, I sat completely still in my seat and repeated in my head, “Please let this happen. Please let this happen. Please let this happen”, and IT DID! It happened. He was stunning. There are no words to adequately sum up my feelings. I will never, never forget it.
Now please, please humor me and watch some of these clips so you can understand what I saw (in-person!!) on Monday night!
Here's a Sergei solo in "La Bayadere":
Here's one more because, I mean, damn he's good:
Now, here's a clip of Oksana Kardash in the title role. It's not great quality and she's not at her absolute best here, but I love the emotion of this scene and you only need to watch a little bit to see that her feet are just, ugh jeez, so so so perfect:
And finally, if, for some reason, you still don’t know who Sergei Polunin is, here is his famous video to Hozier's "Take Me to Church":
Okay, that's all. If you made it through all those videos, thank you!
Also, my birthday is on Sunday! I love birthdays. I’ll celebrate by eating donuts and going to a party at my dance studio. (The party is unrelated to my birthday but I will probably privately pretend it’s all for me.)
Love, Aubrey