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//So, this is weird. I don’t know why, but I thought I had deleted this blog (and I did) but it keeps coming back up on my list from time to time, and it looks like the blog is still up? But then on other days, it doesn’t show up at all.

Well, it would be cool to run this thing again, but I’m not sure how to bring it back fully.

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I can’t get enough of the op ceremony ballet outfits. uhnnn russia ballet dancing

ref

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((Developing a headcanon that when Ivan went to see the new Annie movie with Yao, he instantly fell in love with the movie and with Quvenzhane.))

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Hi

"Hello, friend! How are you this fine day?"

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Apparently it’s pansexual pride day today, so happy pride day to all of my pansexual followers! 

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“Gather 'round, lovely people, so I can tell you about the first time I've ever found my favorite and the most wonderful ballet performance ever!” …

It was January 7th, and it was the one time of the year where the entire family was together to celebrate happily. My mother was in the kitchen with my older sister Katyusha, and I could tell from the aroma coming from the kitchen that they were making some old family fish and sochevnik recipes for the holiday dinner. My father, blessed his soul, was lying on the entire couch so he can rest from the many weeks he pulled to make enough money for gifts, (and boy, were his snores loud!) so that left five year old me and barely one year old Natalya to sit on the floor in front of the television.

Like any other child, I was focused on trying to find animated cartoons to watch while everyone else was busy, flipping through the channels we had back then and hoping my favorite cartoon was on, until I came across a phrase that caught my interest.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, by the Illumina Renaissance Ballet Troupe, live from the Moscow Performance center, Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.”

A live performance! From the Moscow Performance Center! That sounded really interesting to a young child like myself back then, because coming from the poorer districts, all the children ever hear about were big fancy places and shows you needed to buy tickets to see, and with the family money going to the children's education, we had to miss out on such treats. So I sat there transfixed on the screen, waiting for the audience's applause to die down and watching the stage lights go dim. Even in the darkness, I could see moving body of dancers entering the stage, walking on what looked like their tip toes and getting into position.

The performers' silhouettes posed and it was all quiet; it was so silent that I knew it was something big, whatever this “ballet” show was, and I held my breath waiting for something to happen while Natalya cooed in my lap. The music started, this slow, simple strum of violins followed by a dinging of bell-like rings. It sounded like music I'd hear in the cartoons, of sneaky toys coming to life while their children were away. The center lights on the stage came back on, and a dancer, a beautiful lady with chestnut brown hair in pigtails and dressed in a nightgown like ones that Katyusha wears to bed, awoke from her sleep, and sat up from the floor she was lying on. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and yawned, and even though she looked tired (which was part of the show, but my young mind didn't know that) she looked surprised and clutched her little doll as the rest of the stage lit up, showing the other dancers prancing closer to her and around her, all dressed like old fashioned toys, from pretty porcelain dolls to yarn dolls to toy soldiers to teddy bears, and the Nutcracker, a burly-looking older man in a red military uniform with a rifle strapped across his back.

The older Nutcracker man “marched” to the girl in the center of the stage and held out his hand to her with a bow as the other “toys” spun round and round and tip toed all over the stage. The little girl dancer took his hand and he pulled her right up into the air, holding her high while spinning on his own feet. When he let her down, he held onto her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, and together, they fell into a dance. The little girl dancer seemed so ecstatic being in a magical world and to be able to dance with her toys. By then, the wonderful music transitioned from the slow, sleepy one to one of enchantment and energy, a song of Tchaikovsky that sounded like fairies waltzing in flowers.

As I watched, my mouth hung open, and my embrace around my little sister tightened, as if I needed to hold onto something to keep me grounded in reality. I might have needed that; I was so taken by the beauty of the performance, where everyone moved so gracefully with leaps and spins and hops and the sweep of the arms and kick of the legs, where their costumes twinkled with gems or glitter under the lights, that I was slowly being pulled into that world they were in.

Then came the interlude. The dancers slowed down, the Nutcracker spun the girl back to her place in the center of the stage, and they bowed to each other as the lights dimmed again.

Thinking that the show was over, I was about to whine about how short that show was when I saw the dancers' silhouettes move around to get into their new positions. I then grinned wider, settling into the carpet some more to watch the entire live performance. I rocked side to side and hummed the song as I rested my chin on Natalya's sweet little head. Natalya cooed and giggled her approval, so I hummed to her, and without realizing, I stood up and started to spin and prance around the living room, leaping as gently as I could from one spot to the next. Granted, I was definitely not as good as the ballerinos and ballerinas on the television, but the way the magic of the dance took over my body, and the laughter and clapping from Natalya, I couldn't stop.

I caught how the ballerinos took up their partners and held in the air again, so I picked up Natalya and spun with her, and we both laughed as we danced around the room. The song on the television were reaching a crescendo, so I did like the ballerinos did and tossed Natalya into the air. Little did I realize how weak my arms were, so thinking that I was able to catch her, I held my hands out, and she slipped right pass my grasp.

Onto the floor... head first...

The loud wailing kind of broke the enchantment, but once Mama settled her down and Papa yelled at me for being a “careless, reckless little bastard,” I sat right back down and went back to watching the show.

It was the day that I realized what I truly wanted in life....

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((I'm going to put this blog on semi-hiatus, like I should have done a long time ago.))

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ivan braginsky is a huge nerd pass it on

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Baby ballerinas!!

Our Pre-Ballet & Creative Movement class on Thursday. Aren’t they adorable? #browngirlsdoballet @browngirlsdoballet by hamiltonacademyofthearts http://instagram.com/p/vpPU_lDTxU/

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C:

Frost Fairies

The Nutcracker Suite from Walt Disney’s Fantasia, 1940

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Legendary.

lifeaccordingtojoe thedannyrene

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I finally came up with an answer to a really cool message I received in the inbox, but as soon as I put together a sketch plan for it, my tablet goes out. So, what should I do: wait until I can fix my tablet somehow, or simply write it out as a story?))

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((A wild Ivan slightly scared of the snow appears. n.n;;))

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((I doodled something on this thing called MyPaint, and some of their brushes are pretty cool! There's this one I used for the border called "Irregular ink" and it's warbly. 

Oh, can you guys send in some asks?))