2016 Is Looking Pretty Good From Here

Okay. As promised, I’m backed with the 2016 year in review. I’ll try to keep it brief.

But honestly, there were some really excellent moments in 2016 (didn’t feel quite that way in December, but now that I’ve had a glimps of 2017, I’ll take all the 2016 I can get):

• In January, BoyMowgli and I were both cast as supers (supernumeraries… ballet extras) in ABT’s Sleeping Beauty. Full disclosure, we had actual parts. The kid actually danced two kind of biggish kid roles and had his name all big in the program (he was “Hop” of “Hop o my Thumb and his brothers.”
• In March, the kid was back at the Opera House, sporting a kilt and dancing front and center with New York City Ballet!
• By the end of the spring, it was hard to remember what it was like not to have rehearsal. We were just relaxing into our usual routine when…
• I fell out of a tour jete and shattered my fifth metatarsal! So yeah, that sucked.
• I had surgery to repair it… it was yucky in there… I was put on bed rest for a month, found out I was allergic to my cast, was off of work for 6 weeks, couldn’t bathe myself… yeah it sucked.
• PoorPapa had to take over all the ballet transport, school work checking etc… The kid slacked.
• In June I finally graduated form crutches to a walking boot!
• Then in July PoorPapa and I got married! (What?!?! We weren’t married? I know, right?)
• I limped around through our honeymoon and took exactly zero cool ballet on the beach pics because, ugh. Le sigh.
• BoyMowgli did just two weeks of class at the end of the month. Which was fine. He needed a break to reset. He wasn’t promoted at the end of the school year, and I really needed him to take a summer off and think about what he wants (or doesn’t want) out of dancing.
• He decided to spend the summer getting serious about his flexibility. I taught him to do pilates circles. By the end of August he was about an inch away from his left splits and two or three inches from the right.
• Obviously I did not go to SunKing this year.
• September was back to school and The Ballet School. He refused my offers to transfer to a recreational ballet school, or take a year off of dance. He says he’s refocused. So fingers crossed.
• Fall meant another Opera House audition. This time for The Nutcracker. This was our first nerve racking audition. It was late at night and crowded and they were cutting boys! The kiddo made it through (exhale). He was cast to be the cover for Fritz(!!!) but ultimately didn’t get to perform that. Instead he danced as a party boy. Had I been blogging then, I might have had a long post about the trauma of that… but (as with most things) it passed. He did a great job, met some new kids, we both made new friends.

And that’s what you missed in 2016.