Mother and I devoted the afternoon to shopping for my new apartment. We had an argument over silverware.

“Let’s just get these,” I said. “They have enough for four people.”
“But what if you want to have more than four people over for dinner?”
“Then I won’t!”

That lasted long enough for someone to “basket-nap” our shopping cart (we didn’t notice until the argument was over).

I bought a lovely set of square glasses, priced a few sets of China, bought new sheets, and a rug for the bathroom (a small one, mother reminded me that NY apartment bathrooms are like closets). When I returned home, I procured one of my glasses and stood in the mirror with it. I suppose in 40 years someone will consider them “retro,” and that depressed me momentarily.

One of my favorite ballet related photos. I shot Shannon Kendall, a dancer with the Mobile Ballet, during a gallery opening reception in downtown Fairhope, Ala. Mobilians: Ms. Kendall will be dancing next weekend in “The Nutcracker.”

Metal sculptor Casey Downing Jr. pictured at his downtown studio with one of his creations. I snapped this photo of him for an issue of “The Vanguard.” Visiting his studio was a lot of fun. (More pictures from my visit coming soon.)

The crowded green room of the Mobile Civic Center Theatre after Mobile Ballets recital. Also the location where I interviewed NYCB dancer Rachel Rutherford.

1. I’ll be a New York City resident in less than 17 days. Packing has been sporadic and usually reserved for late evening. I listen to Prokofiev for energy.

2. I heard from a little bird that the NYCB dancers who were here for “A Gala Evening” have been “raving about Mobile.” Supposedly they loved it here. I would too if I were treated to dinners in museums and lavish parties every night like they were! Hopefully this will result in more similar productions in the future.

3. From my own prying, I found out that Kathryn Morganwas cast as the “Sugarplum” in NYCB’s “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. Dione and I are seeing if we can make this performance. Mobilians: Kathryn used to dance with Dione in the Mobile Ballet Company.

4. I almost had a heart attack when I read Matt Murphy’s post on his blog Ranting Details. They’re coming out with a “Center Stage 2!” Can you believe it? Dione and I discussed this topic at length, and since Matt can’t give out any details about the film, we guessed that maybe this recent TV Dance craze will be an important element–for example, guest appearances by “So You Think You Can Dance” judges and dancers. If not that, we wondered if they would continue with the same story line–will Jodi Sawyer still be dancing in Cooper Nielsen’s new company? Will she still be dating Charlie? Will they have dozens of little ballerina kids? Worst case scenario: a film about a straight-laced ballerina who like to tear-it-up doing hip-hop every once and a while. I pray it’s not like that at all.

5. In addition, more life-altering news came from Matt–David Hallbergsaw me on Matt’s Facebook and said “Hi!” I nearly fainted with joy–he’s my most favorite dancer ever!

6. Mobile Symphonyexecutive director Stephen Hedrick came out with a coffee table book called “Tall Tales and Sonnets of the South.” According to a press release I received today, it’s written in “hillbilly haiku.” Interesting.

7. I learned Friday that Alexandre Hammoudi is no longer dancing in Mobile Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.” Blaine Hoven will dance his role, in addition to his role as “Cavalier.”

The past 24 hours would be utterly dismal if not for last nights dreams. I retired to bed a little after two a.m., where I had been reading Wollstonecraft and Radcliffe and frantically compiling notes into a literature essay for school.

I dreamed last night I was rehearsing alone for the “Balcony scene” from the ballet “Romeo and Juliet.” The studio was small and dark but lights from outside flooded through the windows. My mother and sister were there, and I was outfitted in Freed’s and a thin dance dress. Prokofiev was blasting.

My dancing abilities in my dream were far from exceptional—in the real world I haven’t taken a ballet class in 8 months (I was such a mess that executing a sloppy brise vole was an achievement), but the true beauty in this vision was that, no matter how horribly unstable my turns were, or how awful my feet looked in my shoes, I was satisfied with my movement, a luxury I never had when I was a dancer in real life. In all my years, I was never pleased with anything I produced, even the simplest steps. To look in the mirror while dancing was gut-wrenching for myself, even in the event that my teacher liked what she saw, I never did.

I woke a start and looked at the clock. It was 5:33 a.m.

More photos from the Mobile Arts vault! These two are of Larkins Center, home of the Mobile Symphony and the Mobile Opera. I took these about a year ago!

Did I ever tell you the one about the cops and Lincoln Center?

Maybe I have.

Ever since my sisters brief “debut” at New York State Theatre in 2004 (don’t worry, I’ll explain) we’ve been telling everyone about our brush with law enforcement. Every blog I’ve ever had I’ve made sure to post about it, especially for my ballet readers who know exactly the place I’m talking about, and share the same sentiments about stepping on famous stages.

As Daniel Ulbricht said, “It’s one of those stories.”

And indeed it is.

It began innocently enough. In the summer of 2004, my mother, aunt, sister and I planned for a 3 p.m. tour of Lincoln Center. In the bottom floor basement of the MET Opera House we were introduced to our tour guide Marie: a gray haired woman with a thick accent and a rebellious streak.

At the start of the tour Marie broke the rules. Photography in the theatres was not allowed, but when I held up my camera and made a sorrowful face, she waved her hand in the air. “Take as many as you want.” A crew member crossed the MET stage expecting the theatre to be empty, so Marie yelled “Bravo” and he screamed and jumped in the air. “I like to scare them,” she said.

Tour groups were supposedly restricted from the second and third floors of the MET, but Marie waved her hand again, put us on an elevator and had us flying around the tiers. She pillaged a few programs for us and told us to hide them in our pockets. “I am so bad. I’m not supposed to do this, you know?”

To avoid being seen, she suggested taking the elevator back down to the first floor of the MET, and we mistakenly hopped on with a few MET administrators and big-wigs (I always guessed they were a bunch of Joe Volpe’s assistants and employees). Marie was caught with her hand in the cookie jar but she was bold and oiled her way through a greeting.

“Hi how are you?” She exchanged glances and the big-wigs let their jaws drop. We exited on the next floor giggling.

“Oh I am going to get in trouble!” Marie boasted with a smirk.

Our tour of Avery Fisher hall was meant to be brief but was prolonged when Marie invited us to sit in the balcony and chat. Mother told Marie that Dione was a ballet dancer, and with that her eyes lit up.

“Then we must let her stand on stage!” she threw up her arms for the hundredth time that afternoon. “But we must hurry.” The tour was to only last until 6 p.m. After that, we’d be kicked out so that the theatres could prepare for their evening performances. We sped across the plaza, and into State Theatre. It was closed, and a policeman stood in attendance at the stairwell to the promenade. Time was up, but Marie knew what to do.

“Oh you must help us!” She threw her arms around the guard dramatically, and feigned a sob or two for good measure. The guard narrowed her eyes skeptically.

“This girl here, she’s going to be a famous dancer, everyone will know her. I want her to dance on stage,” Marie said.

The guard looked at her watch.

“It’s six o’clock.”

“But she is going to be a very famous dancer. Only for one minute! I told her she has to dance!”

The guard pressed her lips together, looked over both shoulders and then at her watch again.

“You got fifteen minutes.”

With that, Marie jumped up in the air and planted a huge kiss on the guard’s cheek. We all slipped past the velvet rope and into the dark New York State Theatre. The only light shining was the “ghost light.”

“Gosh this is creepy,” I said. “We might see Balanchine’s ghost!”

Marie led Dione to the stage staircase. “Not so loud!” she hissed, looking over her shoulder in the dark. Dione slipped off her shoes and stood right in front of the ghost light in first arabesque. I tip-toed between the seats and photographed her twice then we raced back out into the first floor lobby all a-glow with excitement.

The police woman who’d let us enter was still there, smiling as we threw her thanks and Marie blew her kisses. “Now you can say you danced on the same stage as Kyra Nichols and Jerome Robbins and yada, yada,” Marie said. For the first time she looked a little breathless from the running and sneaking, but still had enough spark to give Dione a hug. We walked back to the MET to retrieve our things, and took one photo with Marie before we left.

O.K. So maybe its not that dangerous, or adventurous and perhaps still very innocent. For Dione and I it was our adventure, and a story we’re welcome to tell when the time permits.

If you’re not up to speed on the Mobile Opera saga, I’ll catch you up. Jerome Shannon, who was their music director for ten years, was asked to step down. He’ll end his time in Spring, and an interim director, Hal France, will take his place.

France, was featured in a Q&A interview with Thomas Harrison in today’s arts pages. The entire interview is up on the web, readable here.

At the close of the interview, France starts talking about drawing in larger opera audiences. I was glad to read that he likes to see a younger, “less formal” audience. An excerpt:

I am encouraged when I see an audience with younger people in it, and it’s less formal; and I’m a fan of less formal. because I don’t see any point in continuing the formality if that’s not the way our world is going to be. You know, what’s the point?

Amen to that.

This You Tube video is by far my favorite Internet find this week! It’s from a Japanese documentary about one of the ABT dancers, Yuriko Kajiyaand shows everything at ABT! The studios, all of the dancers taking class, and even Blaine Hoven (in street-wear at 4:03 on the clip, and in class at 1:09) and (my personal favorite) David Hallberg (at 3:03). It’s so long its in three parts! Love it!