It’s tradition the morning after a ballet has closed for Dione (my little sister) and I to meet over breakfast and retell the funny stories from the night before. We always have differing versions of each tale, but reliving such events—like meeting our favorite dancers—is entertaining for us both.

Sunday was the morning after “A Gala Evening.” We woke, read the reviews, and then recounted our conversations with Albert Evans and Daniel Ulbricht. The major topic of our excitement: Daniel’s invitation backstage at New York State Theatre. The timing was perfect. We would already be in New York again for Christmas and to move into my new apartment.

“We need to pick a day to go to ‘Nutcracker’ so we can set it up,” Dione said.

“What did he say to do?” I tried to recall Daniel’s exact words. “Tell Wink (the artistic director at Mobile Ballet) and he’d tell him…or something?” I scratched my head. Dione’s eyes grew wide.

“You forgot already! He told us to get HIS NUMBER from Wink and CALL him.” We both raised our eyebrows at the prospect, surprised that Daniel trusted us with such sensitive information.

Mother was in the kitchen now.

“When are you guys going to go?” she asked.  Dione again grew wide-eyed, put a delicate hand to her chest, and said in the most comical tone:

“What do you mean, ‘you guys?!’ I only remember Daniel Ulbricht inviting me to go backstage,” she batted her eyelashes, while mother and I’s mouths hung open.  Of course she was joking and knew the absurdity of her claim, and we erupted into laughter at ourselves.  

All our stories from the night were such fun: Mother loved Albert Evan’s for saying she was “thin” (“I love it when famous ballet dancers think I’m thin!” she mused), Dione thought Amanda Edge was the coolest, and even went as far to say “Amanda Edge is my idol!” I couldn’t stop talking about how accurate and consistent Abi Stafford’s technique was, and what a typical Balanchine dancer Yvonne Borree was.

In the middle of our chatter, I was reminded that Dione and I are as opposite as night and day. Her perfect Saturday night consists of hanging at a dive downtown sharing pizza with a travelling indie band, and mine consists of filling at seat at the symphony. But our roads cross at ballet, and have done so since were little girls. It was exciting  to know we got to do all those fun weekend “Gala” events together, and that’d we’d be backstage at NY State Theatre together (with Tonya too), and that every happy ballet memory I’d ever have included her in it. Perhaps my love of ballet is a love of family, too.