The dress, Aztec and ugly toes

The wedding on Saturday (continued till Sunday afternoon) was just Lovely. Good music, wonderful people, loads of Love. My legs/feet were so tired on Monday that after thinking loooooong about it, I didn't go to class in the evening. (Also had some other health issues, but everything's okay now.) Do regret it now, but not So much. And tomorrow I'll definitely go!

(Got to love picmonkey... ;)) These 2 were So Cute :)

Me and the dress before leaving home :)

Yesterday evening I decided to put on some nailpolish on my toes, as I didn't have time to do it on Saturday morning. Picked up a bottle that I fell in love with already in Spring, but bought just a week ago. It's from this funny little (chain) shop called Accessorize, they have an online store also. The color isn't just one, it's many! Blue, green, gold and bronze, purple, pink... Everything in between. The photos from my toes don't look so amazing (awful to be exact), but the bottle gives a little bit better idea.

Not ideal toes for pointe shoes...

Love the diversity!

So, my toes are READY to dance!

Marimekko ♥ National Ballet

Yesterday went by too quickly, so now's the time to post some photos from Friday's first event - the traditional Marimekko's fashion show! This year the models were a bit different from the usual, they were dancers from the Finnish National Ballet. Which happens to celebrate it's 90th anniversary this year. What a coincidence... ;) Theme of the show was a certain Finnish tradition, this kind of a "barn dance". Except that we don't actually dance in a barn, but it's usually a building that contains a huge dance floor (called stage, in Finnish) and a stage for the band. And a bar, of course... :D Waltz, tango, polka, everything like that.

Coreography was by Johanna Nuutinen (dancer herself also at the FNB), fun, lively, captured the spirit of Finnish summer so well. There was a live band, too - drums, accordeon and double bass. They played some "golden schlagers", the sun was shining and everyone seemed to be in a good mood! :)

There are some amazing and fabulous photos of the show in the internet, by some real photographers (google them or find for example Mikael Rantalainen Photography on facebook). But here are some of mine - not so sharp and great, but I still had fun taking them, yes sir!

The directors... :)

Minna Tervamäki herself, grace and elegance.

The kids were so sweet.

Girls got the meet and perform with their idol!

Wouldn't mind dancing there myself :)

Up in the air!

Jamming with the kids again! :)

One of my favorite dresses.

Smiling... :)

Loved her short hair-do!

Who gets the boy? ;)

The Shoe.

The Shoes.

One of my absolutely favorite things in the show was the fact that everyone was SMILING. All the time. Fashion doesn't always have to be so serious, you know... :)

My Gala outfit

Would have been easier to have someone else take these photos, but it doesn't matter that much in the end :D

So, here's the dress and the bolero-type thing. And the new black (plastic) beads.

...my laptop on the floor... :D

Next up (or down - to be exact) -> the shoes.

Yap, the same ones I got last (2011) July :)

Aaaaaand finally, Le Me in le dress! :D

Didn't have the shoes on - and wouldn't have been able to take a pic with them (wall too close to the mirror-door). But quite okay still :) I really like the dress. And the pockets! My hair was pooffier than what it looks like. And more red. The lights make it look very different :o

One closer-up of the beads :)

Almost the same kind I had as a kid :D Just different color.

I'll take a photo of my ear decorations later, it's a fun piece of "jewelry"! :)

***

Tomorrow: no ballet. Thursday: no ballet. Friday: YES ballet!

Here's the National Ballets dancers' congratulations - in 21 languages! They showed this bit in the gala :)

***

One (short) special ballet memory

I'm very happy right now :) Just watched 2 (out of 3) episodes of a Finnish dance documentary called Askelmerkkejä (quick translation Stepmarks). It's a story of our (art) dance, including classical ballet, contemporary, jazz... Everything. In chronological order. First part was somewhat familiar, the beginning steps of the National Ballet and the brave people who took a dive into the new kind of profession. I have a book called "The smiling ghost of the Old Opera", lots of pictures of our first principal dancers etc. Same stuff in the episode.

via weheartit.com

But second part had the reason to my happiness! It had more and more talk about jazz and contemporary, combining them to ballet, different dance groups being formed. But also (again) clips from the rehearsals of National Ballet. And one clip showed my dear first ballet teacher, close-up! :) She had the same kind of scarf in her hair as she had when teaching. I've been missing her many times these years and hoping to catch a glimpse of her somewhere. Now I did :)

via weheartit.com

Also I've been playing with the thought of how nice it would be to meet her at the gala on Saturday. But it's quite far-fetched, as there's two evenings and LOTS of people. But one never knows, right?

I used to have a small article of her telling about her first big role, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. And there was also a photo of her. But I've lost it :( She's in one of the photos in that Opera book I have, luckily.

Should be packing at the moment, for the weekend. Decided on the gala dress yesterday, shoes and bag today. Jewelry - not yet. Too many options!

Back of my dress :) Love those birds! In front it has a V-neck, small pockets on the sides <3

I'm really really Really waiting for Saturday :) Also for the training we have, but also then for Sunday - as I got the chance to take 2 classes in Footlight and some dance geek friends will be there, too :) More stuff to pack, but who cares... YAY! :)