welcome to new york // part ii

so i’ve already been in the city for three plus weeks and i’ve only recapped week one HAH. i’ve been trying to cram everything so please forgive me for not being very up to date and having this from actually TWO WEEKS AGO. if you haven’t read part one yet, you can find it here! my adventures in the city continue~

saturday, june 27

i love/hate how we don’t have ballet classes on the weekends. i enjoy having classes, but not that many classes. which is why i continue to take class at steps on broadway. there was one teacher who i absolutely loved last time i came: fabrice herrault. it was filled with lots of moving and made my muscles feel so alive. i was really excited to take his class again. however when i went this time, there were SO MANY PEOPLE. i could hardly move or do anything at all. i managed to kick multiple people multiple times and it was absolutely awful. i could even tell with mr. fabrice’s class: he gave combinations that involved little to no ~actual~ movement because there was no space. it was just awful. halfway through centre (apprx 1hr and 10min), i decided to just leave. there was no point(e). sometimes, i believe taking a bad class is 100x worse than not taking class to begin with.

my sister and i walked to the met, in hopes of exchanging our swan lake tickets. we already purchased tickets for the evening show, but wanted to switch to the matinee. it worked with our schedule better and i’d rather watch the matinee cast. we got there and they told us it was completely sold out. oh well, guess we’ll just have to stick to the evening show.

afterward, we ate lunch at the meatball shop. i got a classic spaghetti and regular meatballs, which was delicious. the noodles were a bit big/thick, but still really good. we also ordered a few mini sliders to share because they had different flavored meatballs? MUST EAT.

on our walk back, we decided to stop by at momofuku milk bar! i loved how it wasn’t super crowded at the location we went to (upper west side), so we could happily and peacefully order our dessert. we each got the famous cereal milk soft serve with corn flakes (yum!) and also ordered a tin of three “perfect ten” cookies and three “coco” cookies (curated by karlie kloss!). the upper west side is absolutely gorgeous and i love the feeling to it. we had to quickly go home to get ready to watch the ABT perform swan lake (once again because i already watched it during the week) and put our stuff down (i was still carrying stinky ballet clothes and flat shoes… ew)

i love visiting the metropolitan opera house and lincoln center. it makes me feel at home. <33 anyway, we originally bought the tickets to watch polina seminova (who is amazing), but she got injured or sick (OF COURSE) and the cast was changed. we ended up watching hee seo (again). (forgive me for passive-aggressively complaining even though i’m watching a show it’s just UGH. very very UGHHH.) there are two main male leads in swan lake: the prince (danced by roberto bolle) and rothbart, the antagonist (danced by marcelo gomes). i’ve never watched bolle, but i heard so many amazing things about him so i was excited. marcleo, on the other, is one of my favorites. I LOVE HIM. he’s so controlled and powerful and emotional. *squeals* after the show i concluded that… 1) bolle is beautiful and i understand why people love him, 2) hee continues to be mediocre in my eyes, 3) marcelo was my favorite part.

afterwards, we met up with our friend/non-blood-related-brother (who’s also a dancer with ABT!) and ate korean food! we went to the exact same place as last week and had almost the exact same food but i’m not complaining because it was so good. it was fun catching up with him, but we were exhausted by the end of the day (like i usually feel 98% of the time, if you haven’t noticed).

sunday, june 28

i took class at steps again this morning, but this time with edward ellison. i’ve never taken his class before, but i always see him at competitions and other places. there were less people and the style was russian (vaganova) which is something i’m more familiar with, so i enjoyed it more than herrault’s class yesterday – considering i actually finished this class. there was a misunderstanding between my sister and i as to where we were supposed to meet, so we wasted an hour running around the city. buuut we eventually got a late lunch.

two hands is somewhere i’ve been wanting to go to for, like, ever. i always see gorgeous instagram photos of their acai bowls, berries, toast, and etc. it was a tiny (like most new york places) restaurant/café thing with beautiful interior design. the food was also delicious. all in all, two hands did not disappoint. i’d love to go again, but it seems unlikely since 1) it’s too far, 2) not that filling, 3) takes too much time in terms of waiting for a seat, food, and traveling. we ordered two acai bowls, an avocado toast with egg, and another (really good) toast that i forgot the name of.

after two hands, we decided to stop by morgenstern’s finest ice cream, partially because ice cream but mostly because the scoops are PERFECT. the amount of artsy photos taken here is overwhelming. also, i scream ICE CREAM. i got the pistachio flavor because I LOVE PISTACHIO. it’s strange and most people don’t seem to enjoy it, but i love it. i’m convinced most people have never tried it. (you’re missing out)

later that night, we were back to lincoln center; this time to watch the royal ballet. they are my favorite ballet company of all-time, but i’ve never seen them live. a bunch of my favorite dancers – specifically marianela nuñez – are in the company and i’ve cried while watching their performances on DVD. (don’t judge) they haven’t toured in america in nine years, so i was soooooo excited to finally watch them. i didn’t know what to expect since they were only performing their contemporary repertoire, but OHMYGOD IT WAS FLAWLESS. i wanted to cry and it was too much for me to comprehend. the royal ballet cannot be compared to any other company.

since we didn’t have dinner, we were starving; obviously we went back to k-town (korea town) to get food. honestly, it was the only area with places still open. no regrets because it was DELISH. i love korean food so so SO much.

the rest of the week

a few things that happened:

• i watched and didn’t take class on tuesday because i felt physically awful
• we continued to have auditions to see who would get a solo for final showing. i was so tired and sick of it and honestly did not care if i got a solo or not.
• we only had four days of classes this week because of the FOURTH OF JULY HOLIDAY MURICAAA
• it’s actually quite boring sorry all i do is dance

taken in soho

– alexandra