The Arrival (and everything that happened before)
What do you do when you're twenty two years old with a five year gap in your ballet training and you find yourself studying at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow?
You remain convinced someone is tricking you.
But the fact still stands that I'm sitting on my bed in the dormitory of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, looking at a schedule entirely in Cyrillic, and trying to convince myself (through a haze of jet lag and anxiety) that I need to get to the other side of the building to shower.
Getting here was a struggle. Or at least, my brain interpreted it as a struggle, because somehow I've become a worrier, and I magnified every single event's urgency as it occurred.
The daily schedule is actually not as intense as the Joffrey one, or at least, I mean that there aren't as many classes. There are three classes a day, five days a week. We have technique followed by repertory every day, and then after lunch either stretch or character. Each week is the same, each class is an hour and a half, each day ends at 3:30pm, and I'm excited because that leaves plenty of time for adventures and practice.
We're allowed to roam the building at any hour we like, apparently, which means that if you can't sleep, you can presumably go down to an open studio and practice. Since everything is in the same building, the school is open at all times.
I managed to get my hands on a copy of the schedule. I asked for the schedule after our dinner, and our Russian chaperone hesitated.
"It's in Russian. There's a translated version on the board upstairs," he said.
"I read Russian," I replied.
"You read Russian? You understand it? You are a spy then, yeah? Look me in the eye. You're a spy."
I told him that yes, I was a spy, and then he gave me the whole schedule for all groups for all five weeks.
Timeline of my 30 hours
7am: Wake up and pack the rest of the stuff in the Joffrey NYC dorm. The suitcase is 52lbs
9am: Take suitcase to basement for storage, return key, take subway to Joffrey
10am: morning class. McSween teaches for the first time in four weeks. McSween is the best.
11:30am: take subway back to the dorm
12pm: drag suitcase for only 5 blocks to the theater but it is already like 97 degrees out so this is agony.
12:13pm: make it to the theater. Change into costume. Eat lunch. Do hair. Get Liat to do makeup. Have calming breathing circle with performance group buddies.
1pm: showtime!
2:30pm: change into sweatpants, tank top, and compression socks. Get permission to leave theater early because of flight.
3pm: haul suitcase, backpack, and shoulder bag to subway and back out up the stairs at 14th street
3:45pm: make it to JBS. Chat with other Bolshoi people. Rearrange suitcase contents.
4:30pm: shuttle to airport
5pm: arrival at airport. Subsequent panic because flight leaves at 7pm and there is an unaccompanied minor in the group who needs extra paperwork. Suitcase weighs in at exactly 50lbs.
6pm: three girls make it through security. Told to wait on other side for director.
6:30pm: director calls to ask where girls are--he is at the gate. Three girls book it to gate. Allowed to board with first class
7:30pm: the flight takes off!!!!! The plane is going to Moscow! This is actually happening.
8pm: finally watch Deadpool like a good Marvel fan. Eat dinner, which is surprisingly good (chicken Kiev with potatoes, cocktail shrimp, dinner roll, brownie).
10:30pm: watch Hitman: Agent 47 because it is action movie trash and I am a sucker for films about exploitative baby spy programs
12am: take melatonin, start watching The Man from UNCLE
12:30am: melatonin kicks in, sleep fitfully for about two hours
Switch to Moscow time!
8:30am: give up on sleeping. Start chewing coffee beans to wake up. Vault over neighbor and go to the bathroom. Stretch in the bathroom because Joy Womack did that in a vlog once
9am: restart The Man from UNCLE
11am: breakfast!
12pm sharp: we have landed. There are evergreen trees everywhere. I miss home.
12:30pm: customs done, all in silence
1pm: get into the shuttle with Dmitry the acting teacher from Joffrey.
2pm: Arrival at Московская Государственная Академия Хореографии
3pm: unpacking
6pm: Dinner--we are told that it will be a lot of borscht and cutlets. They give us pasta instead.
7:30pm: Shower. Note to people staying at the Bolshoi. Shower room on the same hall as the floor monitor's office and lounge with the little aquarium; last shower on the left. Insane water pressure. Seriously. It was like a massage.
You remain convinced someone is tricking you.
But the fact still stands that I'm sitting on my bed in the dormitory of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, looking at a schedule entirely in Cyrillic, and trying to convince myself (through a haze of jet lag and anxiety) that I need to get to the other side of the building to shower.
Getting here was a struggle. Or at least, my brain interpreted it as a struggle, because somehow I've become a worrier, and I magnified every single event's urgency as it occurred.
The daily schedule is actually not as intense as the Joffrey one, or at least, I mean that there aren't as many classes. There are three classes a day, five days a week. We have technique followed by repertory every day, and then after lunch either stretch or character. Each week is the same, each class is an hour and a half, each day ends at 3:30pm, and I'm excited because that leaves plenty of time for adventures and practice.
We're allowed to roam the building at any hour we like, apparently, which means that if you can't sleep, you can presumably go down to an open studio and practice. Since everything is in the same building, the school is open at all times.
I managed to get my hands on a copy of the schedule. I asked for the schedule after our dinner, and our Russian chaperone hesitated.
"It's in Russian. There's a translated version on the board upstairs," he said.
"I read Russian," I replied.
"You read Russian? You understand it? You are a spy then, yeah? Look me in the eye. You're a spy."
I told him that yes, I was a spy, and then he gave me the whole schedule for all groups for all five weeks.
Timeline of my 30 hours
7am: Wake up and pack the rest of the stuff in the Joffrey NYC dorm. The suitcase is 52lbs
9am: Take suitcase to basement for storage, return key, take subway to Joffrey
10am: morning class. McSween teaches for the first time in four weeks. McSween is the best.
11:30am: take subway back to the dorm
12pm: drag suitcase for only 5 blocks to the theater but it is already like 97 degrees out so this is agony.
12:13pm: make it to the theater. Change into costume. Eat lunch. Do hair. Get Liat to do makeup. Have calming breathing circle with performance group buddies.
1pm: showtime!
2:30pm: change into sweatpants, tank top, and compression socks. Get permission to leave theater early because of flight.
3pm: haul suitcase, backpack, and shoulder bag to subway and back out up the stairs at 14th street
3:45pm: make it to JBS. Chat with other Bolshoi people. Rearrange suitcase contents.
4:30pm: shuttle to airport
5pm: arrival at airport. Subsequent panic because flight leaves at 7pm and there is an unaccompanied minor in the group who needs extra paperwork. Suitcase weighs in at exactly 50lbs.
6pm: three girls make it through security. Told to wait on other side for director.
6:30pm: director calls to ask where girls are--he is at the gate. Three girls book it to gate. Allowed to board with first class
7:30pm: the flight takes off!!!!! The plane is going to Moscow! This is actually happening.
8pm: finally watch Deadpool like a good Marvel fan. Eat dinner, which is surprisingly good (chicken Kiev with potatoes, cocktail shrimp, dinner roll, brownie).
10:30pm: watch Hitman: Agent 47 because it is action movie trash and I am a sucker for films about exploitative baby spy programs
12am: take melatonin, start watching The Man from UNCLE
12:30am: melatonin kicks in, sleep fitfully for about two hours
Switch to Moscow time!
8:30am: give up on sleeping. Start chewing coffee beans to wake up. Vault over neighbor and go to the bathroom. Stretch in the bathroom because Joy Womack did that in a vlog once
9am: restart The Man from UNCLE
11am: breakfast!
12pm sharp: we have landed. There are evergreen trees everywhere. I miss home.
12:30pm: customs done, all in silence
1pm: get into the shuttle with Dmitry the acting teacher from Joffrey.
2pm: Arrival at Московская Государственная Академия Хореографии
3pm: unpacking
6pm: Dinner--we are told that it will be a lot of borscht and cutlets. They give us pasta instead.
7:30pm: Shower. Note to people staying at the Bolshoi. Shower room on the same hall as the floor monitor's office and lounge with the little aquarium; last shower on the left. Insane water pressure. Seriously. It was like a massage.
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