This year the line between day dreams and reality blurred. Every day I do something I’d only imagined: lunches and dinners with famous journalists, backstage tours, meeting dancers, taking photos at Lincoln Center and living in New York City. When do I wake up?

This afternoon I sat with Dione in a virtually empty New York State theatre and almost cried of happiness. Mr. Famous Dancer, who I can reveal is NYCB principal dancer Daniel Ulbricht,  invited us to attend a private rehearsal of Peter Martins “Romeo + Juliet.” When he invited us, I imagined a noisy packed house of casually dressed people and instead was handed a private performance of my new favorite ballet.

Dione and I arrived at State Theatre at 1 p.m. Daniel waved us past the velvet rope and to the first floor of seats. Peter Martins himself was leaning over and looking into the orchestra pit. He was dressed in a gray suit with gray jeans and black shoes, looking just like every photo I’d ever seen of him. He confidently paced the floor and spoke with the conductor. Dione and I’s jaw dropped.

The dancers ran through a few of the fighting scenes before diving into Act 1. It would be my first time seeing everyone perform except Daniel and Albert Evans, who was cast as the “Prince of Verona” (and who we spoke to on the street weeks ago). When the rehearsal started, Peter Martins took a seat a few rows behind us and delivered corrections through a microphone (that we call the “God Mike” in Mobile).

I found the set a little modern and strange, but the costumes a good vehicle to show divisions between the Montague and Capulet camps. Sterling Hyltin was “Juliet” and I adored her lines, expressions and acting. I loved how genuinely hyper she was as she raced around her bedroom with the nurse, and that longing and curious expression when she comes face to face with “Romeo.” Some dancers tip that delicate scale of athleticism and grace, and she maintains equality between them both. I also noticed that she’s very exacting on pointe, another good quality.

Robbie Fairchild was very lovely to watch, as was Daniel as “Mercutio.” I imagined that Martin’s would not be able to top the McMillian “Balcony Scene” but found the choreography refreshing. I still favor McMillians attempt to mirror Shakespeare’s text when each character speaks alone–and dance alone for brief portions.

Hearing Peter Martin’s comments were hilarious, especially during the ballroom scene. He slowed down the tempo and Jock Soto said “I can’t dance that slow!” and everyone laughed. One of the dancers had a rib pain, became dizzy and an understudy was pulled immediately from the audience (he did the role in tennis shoes). There was an issue with the timing of a set of tours that Daniel and “Benvolio” were going to do, and Peter dashed on stage to remedy it.

During their hour break, Daniel sat with us and we chatted. He told us some super-top-secret and exciting NYCB casting news, which we promised to keep secret.

During the break I loved seeing all the dancers interact–Daniel and Albert imitated a dance from that stupid 877-313-4-4-4-8 commercial (you know it if you live in NYC), and Daniel and Robbie were doing secret handshakes on stage. Kathryn Morgan and Erica Pereira came and each rehearsed the balcony scenes with their “Romeo’s.” There were a few trouble spots, so they kept dancing until the beginning of the next act was going to start. I spotted The Winger’s  Justin Peck on-stage and off.

After Daniel’s death he came back and sat with us. Sterling’s performance in the second act was so good I started to cry. I love how Martin’s has cut the unnecessary fat from the production the second act was the perfect size.

At the end of the evening, we parted with Daniel, who again skipped out on our invitation to post-rehearsal dinner. We waved him good-bye and exited out on to the street.

Dione and I only exchanged a glance as we walked toward 66th Street. We needed no words for such an amazing experience. We had New York State theatre all to ourselves, Peter Martins in the flesh, Prokofiev’s magic being tinkered on a piano and the New York City Ballet. At one moment I realized that I am the story of a girl who got almost everything she wanted.

Dione and I were the luckiest girls in New York.

Tomorrow I’m attending the actual matinee show. Daniel will be dancing again with an identical cast as the one we saw this afternoon. Dione leaves New York tomorrow too, and the rehearsal was the perfect way to say good-bye and spend our last day together.