Friday Night at the Ballet

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Now that I've gotten over my jet lag and adjusted to my work schedule, it's time that I start becoming a little more social. I've made friends with another instructor at the studio, Fiona. She invited me to go with her to the Ballet, so I thought...why not.

Fiona also lives in Queens Park, so we decided to travel to the theatre together rather than meeting there. After doing so many things on my own, it was definitely nice to have some company. My iPod has been a great companion on the Tube, but it just doesn't replace live conversation. It took us nearly an hour to get there due to various train delays. We also had to change trains a few times. I was really glad that we had decided to go together because even Fiona got a bit turned around in all the different transfer stations. I've been good at navigating the Tube stations so far, but this particular route had us all over the place and the signage wasn't always very clear.

Eventually, we made it to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in Islington, which is in Northeast London. Fiona's sister met us there. They are both dancers with most of their training in Ballet. Her sister, Katrina, is still dancing professionally but Fiona stopped a few years ago. Her last job was in the cast of the Phantom of the Opera production here in London. The performance that we were seeing was 4 separate pieces, 3 of them were Contemporary Ballet.

Now, keep in mind that most of what I know about dance has been learned from "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance"...but I really enjoyed the performances. I also have a case of dancer's envy. Growing up, I had always wanted to dance but my parents tried to turn me into an athlete instead. So I was pretty good with a soccer ball and I'm one helluva sprinter...it's just not quite the same.

After the show, we decided to grab a drink and a bite to eat, so we headed to a pub in the area. I was happy to see that they had more than traditional pub fare on the menu, so we ordered a few small plates that were NOT battered and deep fried. (Thank God!) We both had to work in the morning, so we called it an early night and headed home.

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