04 May 2009

Things Learned From My Mother: Ballet

Missing my mother is something that I feel in unpredictable odd moments, though the stabs of absence last week were all about the ballet.

We've kept, for now anyway, her tickets to City Ballet. This spring, Romeo+Juliet turned up on the subscription, and I promptly turned them in for a matinee of Coppelia - I figured that a comic ballet about dolls and trickery might be better for a five year old than a bastardization of a Shakespeare tragedy.

To brush up on the story, I started in my own bookshelves where I've got a copy of Balanchine's Festival of Ballet that my mother gave me years ago. I then trotted off to the public library and found two picture books and a DVD. One of the books was Margot Fonteyn's telling of Coppelia; once when my mother had taken me to something at the New York State Theater, she spotted Fonteyn in the audience and sent me over for an autograph - and Fonteyn refused! Bitch. The DVD starred Fernando Bujones as Franz; back in the day, my mother used to take me out of school to see stuff, and we were in the audience when Bujones brought down the house as a 15 year old at the School of American Ballet workshop.

So not only did I use her tickets to take my daughter to Coppelia, my mother made her presence felt each time I turned around.

Moky, thank you for having introduced me to the ballet.

18 comments:

Claudia said...

Nice. I'm happy my dad's going to take the girls to see The Nutcracker this year. It's easy to forget how rapturous (is that a word?) it is to be at the theatre at a live performance. A rare thing in my world these days.

Pinky said...

Yup. ...sniffle sniffle...

kathy a. said...

oh, this post is so full. xoxo

Anjali said...

How beautiful! What a legacy.

Lady M said...

Lovely.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

My mother was a dancer--she introduced us to ballet too.

It's wonderful that you can share this with your daughter.

painted maypole said...

and now she is introducing YOUR daughter to ballet - through you. love it.

daisy said...

What a great legacy from your mom, and now to share that with your daughter. It's a family tradition, now. Very sweet.

RuthWells said...

Love it.

Anonymous said...

It gives me great pleasure to hear about how the arts are enriching people's lives.

I'm hoping and guessing that "things I learned from my mother" will be an ongoing series that I will thoroughly enjoy.

XO

Life As I Know It said...

so nice. and so nice for your daughter to know your mother through ballet. beautiful stuff.

Janet said...

What a gift it is.

niobe said...

I imagine your daughter one day thanking you for introducing her to ballet.

Mayberry said...

Absolutely -- one day it will be M's turn to thank you for carrying on the tradition.

Although I confess my favorite part of this post was the epithet tossed at Dame Margot.

heidi said...

wonderful that you are carrying on the tradition. Sweet post. :-)

Woman in a Window said...

Love that she can continue to give to you in this way.

The Library Lady said...

It's something how you feel them there, isn't it?

And yes,I'd have gone for Coppelia over R&J for Miss M at this age. Though later on.....

alejna said...

That's really beautiful. This was very touching.

I know what you mean about the missing coming in unpredictable odd moments. I have felt that, too. I think it's wonderful to record some of them.