We visited one of my favorite places, Alisal Ranch, recently. Its one of my favorite places since it has some great activities like horseback riding. I was here once before with my mom and dad but on this trip I had more friends and family come. We went horseback riding, archery, golfing and hiking. There where many other things to do but we just did not have time to do it all. Alisal Ranch is also close to a town called Solvang. Solvang has a lot of great bakeries with great food.
On our first ride I have a horse called Danny Boy, he was great. There was also a barn with rabbits, chickens, pigs and other animals. I also got to play golf with my dad and on the golf course we saw a lot of deer. It was a great experience. Dinners and breakfast at Alisal Ranch were very good and so was their hot chocolate. I can’t wait to go again next year.
Videos
While at the summer Paris Opera Ballet program we had 5 different classes.
- Classical Ballet
- Mime
- Floor Barre
- Musical Expression
- Folklore
This is a video of the mime and classical ballet performance we did to show our parents at the end of the program. I hope you can find me in the videos.
Classical Ballet
Mime
My favorite was musical expression and mime and of course classical ballet. In musical expression we got to feel the music and act out how it made us feel. Mime was also very fun since I never did anything like that. It was like acting without speaking. Floor barre was like doing barre work but on the floor, kind of like yoga but much harder. Folklore is a bit similar to the folklore that I do in my Serbian dancing.
Each day, they woke us up at 7:30. We went downstairs and had breakfast and got ready for our classes. The classes didn’t start until about 9:30 or sometimes 11:30. We did not have every class every day except for classical ballet. Each class was one and a half hours long. We also had an one hour lunch break along with a morning or afternoon break.
The teachers were great and I learned a lot. I was very privileged to have the opportunity to go.
My mom and dad took me out for the weekend while at the Paris Opera ballet summer intensive to see the Opera National de Paris perform La Sylphide at the Palais Garnier. This is one of their older ballets. It’s a story about a guy who is to marry a girl but dreams of marring someone else. Of course there is a witch involved that ruins his plans and the story does not have a happy ending. I will not spoil it for you. The dancing was fabulous and the opera house was amazing. The male lead Mathias Heymann can really jump high. It was also amazing how the corps stayed together. My dad kept bringing up the phantom of the opera since this was the theater that the musical was based on. There was even a large chandelier hanging over our heads since we had orchestra seats. It was a great day.
The last full day in London we did a lot. We started our day at the famous Harrods where I had a very large sundae. We then went to the tower of London where the crown jewels are being guarded by the Welsh guard. We also saw the tower bridge and to finish the might we saw the musical Matilda. The kids in the musical were great.
Here are some pictures of famous sites around London.with my mom and dad
We visited the Royal Opera Ballet. Its located by a very busy place called Covenant Gardens . We took a tour of the theater and were guided by a man named Pierre who was very knowledgeable. Unfortunately we could not take pictures inside. Some of the things I learned about the Royal Opera Ballet is that in 1997 they did major renovation that allowed much quicker changes of productions. The stages pieced float around like puzzle. The ballet company now also practices in the same building. We got to tour the practice facilities which included 3 large room with sky lights and many smaller rooms. The actual theater is very old and beautifully. They pointed out the royal box where the royal family watches the shows. The Royal Ballet School is across the street from the opera house connected by a bridge. They call this bridge the aspiration bridge since the students aspire to be a part of the professional company. In a typical year about 90 students graduate and only a couple of them are asked to go to the professional company.
Today while walking around London we happened to run across the retail store of Freed of London. Freed is the ballet shoes I wear. A wonderful woman by the name of Beth Chivers help us out with a fitting. Even though I have a brand new set of pointe shoes, when we learned that cost of them at the store we had to get another pair. The cost of my pointe shoes in California is $97 and at this store its about $45. I also picked up some other items. I didn’t realize how lucky we got since this is the only Freed of London retail store in the world!!!
First night in London we did a lot of walking. Dinner at Piccadilly circus and a walk of over Westminster bridge by Big Ben. We had to walk all the way back to the hotel room since the tunnel closes at 12:30am.
Sitting at Dulles airport waiting for our London flight. This is going to be a long trip.
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