Giselle, Ballet Theatre UK

Hi, I hope you're okay :-) A lot of my friends and family know that myself and Louise (my lovely other half) enjoy going to the theatre now and then as a night out. It's a rare thing for us to go out, but we love the theatre. Being only a few minutes walk away from a theatre is one of a couple of good things about where we live - only a couple mind! Over the years we have seen a couple of plays and a fair few ballets! We'd like to see more, but it's the time and money. Being a night shift worker for the most part makes going out difficult, and the ever so slightly above minimum wage pay isn't helpful either. Anyway, sometimes we go out... We had already decided that we were going to see Ballet Theatre UK perform Giselle at The Palace Theatre in Newark, as we've seen almost all of the ballets put on there while we've only lived a hop, skip & jump away. While Louise was online, she happened upon the Ballet Theatre UK website, and found that they had an "open rehearsal" at their studio in Hinckley, Leicestershire. It was something we just couldn't say no to! On Friday the 10th of February (2017) then, we made our way there. I took the wrong exit at a roundabout, so we arrived there dead on time! I hate not being early for things, but it couldn't be helped. It was my first time, and I didn't want to use a satnav. The parking was sort of irritating, and in retrospect I should've just paid for a 12-hour ticket, because that was the next choice after four hours, but instead, in the break, I left to put another ticket on the car! It was a fascinating experience, where we were told that we couldn't take any photographs, hence why I have none to add to this post. Seeing their warm-ups, and then the run-through was really interesting, and I was told later online by one of the dancers, Erin McNeill, that is was strange for them, as they usually warm up and practice in front of mirrors, but on this occasion we're doing all of it to an audience so to speak. Needless to say that we really enjoyed ourselves there, and I added to the list of people I follow on Instagram, and those that follow me! What can I say, I am a social networking addict! :-/ Oh... Tell a lie. I took a few photographs, but not of the troupe, but of the lovely pictures and such in their studio hallway. I'll add them later! So, we were absolute excited for the upcoming ballet at The Palace Theatre in Newark. It was a classic that we had never seen before! We'd seen Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, and some others, but this would be our first time seeing Giselle! The previous ballet that we had seen this troupe perform was Romeo & Juliet, and I'd noticed that in that Juliet was performed by Erin McNeill and Romeo by Olly Cooper, but at the rehearsal for Giselle, Giselle was played by Clair Corruble Cabot (I hope that I got that right), and the main male (Albrecht) was played by Dominic Jwho, and I asked about this, as companies such as The Royal Ballet have a specific person that's always the main female. Christopher Moore, the director, said that it was like a rotation, to give everyone a chance. I thought that was good! So, the day came for the performance at the Palace Theatre in Newark. Thursday the 23rd of February (2017). I was actually not feeling great, but I had no intention of missing this performance. Very stubborn and selfish of me looking back, but I was looking forward to it! They didn't disappoint! The performance was beautiful, albeit with the roles being performed by different dancers. Still a stunning performance!  We couldn't understand why the veil was missing in the performance of Giselle, but it was still stunning. Thank you to everybody at Ballet Theatre UK - http://instagram.com/ballettheatreuk / http://twitter.com/ballettheatreuk  Thank you for reading. Take care. Blog written over a seven day period up to Sunday 5th March 2017 (46 years, 3 month, and 7 days old). PS - I had a stomach bug that took days to get over, and apologise for going whilst I was ill. I still loved the performance though! I just had to rush home afterwards! Too much information!!!