ABT at the Met

It's that time of year, when I suddenly start visiting the Metropolitan Opera House about once a week for almost two months!  It's ABT's Met season, of which I receive my annual dosage, happily, every spring, as I began doing when I moved to New York oh-so-many years ago.

I'm a total sucker for the schmaltz of full-length ballet, with its lush live orchestral music, opulent costumes, beautiful people (both on stage and in the audience), and their boy-meets-swan, boy-gets-swan, boy-loses-swan plots.  As the song says, "Everything is beautiful at the ballet...."  And so it is.  I lose myself there, and when I was a young girl dreaming of someday being a dancer, that is also where I found myself.  Ballet will always be a part of me, even if I now can't get any closer to getting up on point than I can to pitching for the Yankees.

Last night I was lucky enough to attend ABT's star-filled Opening Night Gala.  A chance to get all decked out in gown and heels!  And to dance (OK, so it's only on a dance floor in front of a fabulous band, rather than on the Met stage in front of thousands).

At the end of the night, Cinderella needed to lose the heels - both of them - ouch, pinch, too much!  So much for thinking about toe shoes again; now I remember exactly what that felt like. 

ABT will be at the Met through July 9.   I plan to bring my Kleenex and be awestruck as always.