This morning I decided to share with you one of my favorite moments of each day: as I find myself alone in the studio before the morning warm up class. This is, again, exclusively for my blog readers :D This time, this Youtube link is public even though I didn't share this on Facebook. But I intentionally made this for you and you're welcome to share this if you like. ;)

One more photo from the gala in Bordeaux. This is the only photo that my partner accepted to share on the internet. :) 

          Let me share with you something particular with dancers: we hate seeing ourselves in dance videos or photos! The way to do it is to look at the photos/videos several times, after we feel better. Strange, isn't it? Dancers could be kind of bizarre sometimes! 

          So here are some of the photos that I received from the organisers of the gala that we did in Bordeaux. I was quite disappointed with the photos because I think they are not taken from a good angle and the photographer seems not to understand when to capture in dance. Anyways, I was really horrified when I first looked at this photos. After I looked at them several times, I get used to it and I feel better! 

           Please note that I took a lot of courage to decide putting these photos online. As I love my blog readers, I decided to share these with you!

p.s. other than that next gala this Sunday!! 

          Where we danced was a very interesting place. It was not exactly in Bordeaux, more precisely in Cenon, a city just beside the city center of Bordeaux.  This gala performance was actually an opening of a two-weeks intensive ballet course there. The photo on the left is the theatre where we performed and the photo on the right is where the intensive course is taking place. These two buildings were just next to each other. The small building is very cute, an old house in the center of a big garden. At the back of it we have a great view of the city of Bordeaux. The theater on the other hand is very big and modern. 

          On the day of the gala (Saturday). I had a big buffet breakfast at the hotel which allowed me not to eat at lunch time. We couldn't eat at lunch time because we were having rehearsals at two o clock. So we must get prepared and warmed up not later than 1 pm, who would like to warm up with a full stomach? 

          Inside the theatre, I have a big changing room for me alone. After two hours of rehearsals, the big, tidy and clean changing room turned into a rubbish bin! 

            The people who invited us to Bordeaux gave us a very warm welcome at our arrival. They were adorable to us. However, there was something that they didn't understand: What a dancer should eat before a performance! Two hours before the performance, I went to the "canteen" area of the theater and asked for a meal.  That's what I was served in the photos above: Some very creamy potato tart and desserts. I was expecting a "real" meal like pasta or rice. We were all a bit shocked and worried whether we will have enough energy to finish the show. But we didn't complain and enjoyed the meal. Then returned to our changing rooms and had a few more bananas! 

Happy to share with you these videos. Again, these links are unlisted and are reserved exclusively to my blog readers!! It was my last rehearsal in Paris before departing for Bordeaux. 

Another important gala performance coming this Saturday at Cenon (South of France next to Bordeaux) Time to really focus on practicing my variations. 
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I took video of myself so that I could take a look and correct myself afterwards. This video is unlisted on YouTube. Exclusively sharing this with my few loyal blog readers!!! 

          Yesterday, I did my second gala performance of my professional career. The first one that I did was in last November in which I did a corps de ballet role of the production "Tchaikovsky, Recits du Royaume des Songes". This is actually a very interesting production by the Etoile of POB Josua Hoffalt. He uses the characters and the music of the three famous Tchaikovsky ballets (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker) to reform another story. For example, in the story, Carabosse from Sleeping Beauty is the mother of Rothbart from Swan Lake. It's a pleasure to watch, very comic and there are a lot of nice stage effects.

          So yesterday, I performed in this production for the second time and I was granted the role of the Bluebird! The performance was rather successful. Since it's not a performance organised by the Paris Opera Ballet, we had to do our own make up and take care of ourselves in the theater. Since Bluebird's make up is quite complicated, I tried it once a few days ago. And here's the result: 

          I love this make up! And when I removed it, it kind of reminded me of the Elfes that I did in La Source when I took quite a long time to remove every bit of the blue color! 

          The theater in Chartres in which we performed is a very small Italian theater. Small but very pretty and cute: (Click on the photos to enlarge) 

          I forgot to take a photo of me with the costume because we were always in a hurry in the backstage. We never had enough time to prepare everything in time! After the performance which ended at around 22h30, we were invited to a cold buffet dinner in a big room in the public area of the theater. We were all very tired by then and especially enjoyed the dinner. The room is spacious and very pretty too: 

          We then went back to Paris altogether by shuttle. We arrived Paris at 2am. Oops! No more buses nor metro. I took a taxi to go back home and went to bed as fast as I could! 

​My very first touch with this music was through a video called "A letter from Mum and Dad" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB6VkEcXfTo

What a touching video! It was 6 or 7 years ago, my mum watched it in front of our desktop computer and cried. Then I watched it in her arms........ I really miss those days very much :') 
I LOVE you Mummy and Daddy!!

Yesterday, 31st december 2015, we did our last performance of La Bayadere at Opera Bastille. It was a special one. The dancers added a few of "jokes" at the occasion of this last performance. For example, in the temple scene of Act 1, instead of bringing water to the slaves, the female corps dancers brought them real bottles of champagne on stage! In act 2, in a dance of four female dancers, they put "2 0 1 6" on their tutus! It was real fun to be part of this show and to watch all these special modifications of the choreography/costume celebrating the end of La Bayadere and the arrival of the new year 2016.

I have been rehearsing a lot for the gala performances in January which are really challenging for me. So I haven't been feeling very good dancing/standing on stage for a long time in Bayadere. While I was quite exhausted yesterday night, there was a moment where I thought I would miss this ballet so much. With Millepied's new artistic direction, we are not sure that he would retake La Bayadere in the next several years. Almost all my collegues got sick of Minkus' music and Nureyev's choreography after 23 performances plus one month of rehearsals. However, I just love this ballet as much as I used to love it before doing it. I always find Minkus' music perfect, the costumes stunning, the story breathtaking, and the choreography charming and classy. Anyway, I think I enjoyed performing in this ballet pretty much and I keep a very nice memory of the past month.

After my rehearsals yesterday at the Palais Garnier, I passed through the public area to go to Opera Bastille and saw the beautiful Opera Garnier decorated with fragrant flowers to celebrate New Year's coming. Beautiful isn't it!?

2015 has been a fruitful year to me. I was able to travel all around the world for auditions which made me see other dance companies than the Paris Opera Ballet. I started my year 2015 with a week of audition in Montreal at Les Grands Ballets which was a successful and enjoyable trip. Then I performed in Aunis at the Paris Opera Ballet School's annual performance. I really feel that I learned a lot from dancing in this ballet which has a particular style and poesie. Of course, the most important event was the Concours d'entree for the Paris Opera Ballet!! Really a day to remember! Then I had a super busy summer in Hong Kong performing Don Quixote for Jean M. Wong school of Ballet. After summer I started my professional career with my dream company and danced in my favorite ballet La Bayadere.
A beautiful year indeed...... Thank you all of you for your support!

I hope that 2016 would be as beautiful as 2015 for me. Wishing you all the best for New Year!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!