Does the world have to stop just because a turkey is in the oven? Dancers don't think so. Rather than closing on Thanksgiving, Easter and Jan at Ballet Arts thanked everyone for a year of great dancing. The studio stayed open and gave free classes from 11 AM to 6 PM. The reception was decorated with turkey cutouts. Platters of food spilled across the tables-- salami, cheese, crackers, pomegranate seeds, grapes, artichoke leaves, chips, candy, and cookies. Dancers sat on the floor and took up every inch of stretching space.
At Richard Marsden's Advanced Beginning class, roughly fifty dancers crowded along four lines of barres. There were professionals, non-professionals, older women, younger women, one pregnant lady, and four men (two of them quite good.) After the barre and at the beginning of floor, Richard smiled and said to me, doesn't it feel great? Then he did five pirouettes to top it off.
It did feel great. Everyone was festive, everyone giving thanks to this shared community, this love of movement. It didn't matter if your arabesque barely left the floor or stretched nearly to the ceiling. What mattered was being there, taking part in the dance. And I was thankful, once again, for having re-discovered it.
Then I ran off to an expat turkey party in the West Village that grounded my grand jetes for a day. Only in New York.
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