Jessicas Ballet Life

Perm, Russia

 Firstly let me apologize for posting so late. I have really struggled to find wifi as well as time. We arrived in Perm on 1 April after MANY hours of traveling and waiting. We came flu via Dubai and had to wait a 10 hour transit and when it was finally time to board our plane, we hear an announcement that our flight is delayed. After shuffling from gate to get we finally boarded our plane 5 hours later!!! 

Then we arrived in Moscow and waited another 5 hours before flying to Perm!

Arrival in Perm

Once we landed in Perm we couldn't wait to get off that plane! We walked through the doors to see a sign that said "Arabesque". The Lady who greeted us, her name was Olga. We were so relieved that we had finally made it! Everywhere was covered with snow. We had a nice chat with Olga in the car on the way to register at a different Hotel. We discovered that we are the very first South Africans to take part in this competition as well as there being 149 competitors!!! After registering we were taken to our Hotel. Well Thoriso (our coach) has been to Russia for 4 months before. He made a joke that this 1 building could be our hotel, we looked and it was all run down, then to discover that our hotel is actually across the street! We had such a laugh. Perm is beautiful, but I will say that I do prefer the look of St Petersburg.

After struggling to check into our hotel (no one speaks English) we went to go meet with 1 of the Artistic Directors Assistants from the Ballet company here in Perm. He gave us a tour of this very old and beautiful Theatre. Then he asked us if we would like to watch the performance taking place that night of the Ballet school. Well of coarse we said yes and it was amazing! These children are so talented and you can definitely see that they are Russian by their stunning sway back legs and slender stunning bodies.

Rehearsal Time

With our coach being Thoriso Magongwa, who has done many International Ballet Competitions and been a finalist in almost all of them! We are so lucky to him here with us! Well with being a finalist, there comes the hard work and he knows exactly how to prepare. We arrived at the Theatre and had class with the company, which was very interesting! The Russian training is amazing! They are so lucky to have that everyday. It was hard to keep up, in the way that our feet were all swollen and had been traveling for 2 days straight!! After the fantastic class, we rehearsed Flower Festival, which is our first Round pas de deux. It didn't go too well, as we had were exhausted! During our rehearsal, a group of dancers that looked Asian but spoke Russian. They were pulling the whole intimidating move that dancers do in competitions. They come in and sit and look down their nose and stretch and try make you worry. After our rehearsal I discover that the one couple is doing Flower Festival! Oh I had to leave! Thoriso stayed and watched and said that she was asking her coach to change some of her steps to things that I do! We will have to see how they do on stage ;). After the stressful rehearsal, I won't lie, I had a mini break down due to the stress and my brand new pointe shoes are suddenly too big, so I went back to the hotel and sewed some thicker elastic to tighten my shoes a bit. James obviously went to sleep because he was tired and I don't think he was feeling the stress like I was. But after calming down I felt much better.

We were also really lucky to be able to use the stage a bit. What a beautiful theatre! Typical old and Russian styled with the balconies. I will post some pictures. You can just feel the honour of being on this stage! I can't describe the feeling. After our turn there was a Russian couple that are performing the famous Tchaikovsky pas de deux. I couldn't watch ;).

The next day we had class with the company and it was so much better and I stood in  the front line ;), which is a big thing in the ballet class. James is going crazy for these Russian classes, if you know James I'm sure you can picture his face...

We then had a run of Flower Festival in the studio and Thoriso got the Ballet Master of the ballet company to watch us so we could feel the pressure in preparation for the competition. It was pretty stressful but the dancers on the sides trying to intimidate us were no longer trying their trick ;). The ballet master gave us a few corrections, but over all was impressed.

Thoriso is pushing us very hard and we are both very grateful to have him work with us!