Exploring West Village

Today was my first time in West Village. I know, pretty bad considering that I've been in New York like almost 10 times in my life... Anyway, I finally went and loved it! All the little shops and cafes between beautiful buildings and trees, it's so pretty! I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're ever in New York City.

Love the pink!

Magnolia Bakery

Notice the terrace between the buildings ;-)

Life in the City

I wanted to share some pictures with you. As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently in New York City. Last Sunday was a total lazy day. I didn't leave the apartment until 1pm and then headed downtown just to stroll around. Fortunately I found some fun things going on and took a few photos for you. 

This guy was awesome!

Beautiful music in the park

This was the view from my window when I came home

Back from a long summer break

Hi there,

I am so so sorry that I left you waiting for so long with absolutely no blog-posts. I just was doing so many different things, figuring out where I want to be/go next year and had literally no time to write or blog. I was lucky to at least occasionally find time to post some photos on facebook.


So you might be wondering what I've been up to all summer...? 
My journey started by going to Ballet Chicago's 7-week summer intensive. Well, actually it was spilt up into two parts: the 5-week course and the 2-week advanced intensive. 
I really enjoyed both courses, even thought it was a bit challenging for me at first because I come from a Vaganova basis and Ballet Chicago is all Balanchine. We had great teachers and got to learn amazing repertory. At the end of the 5-weeks,  my level performed the Pas de Neuf from Balanchine's Swan Lake and an excerpt of Who Cares?. I got to be one of the girls in the Pas de Neuf. This was my first time performing on pointe for an audience, but luckily I wasn't so nervous. 
The 2-week program was definitely more competitive and at a higher level (as opposed to the 5-week program). A lot of girls were coming from top notch SI's like SAB, PNB and SFB, just to name a few. I felt like we were getting more individual attention and corrections; I guess because we were not as many people as in the 5-week program. For the finale performance my level got to perform Serenade! I was so excited when I found out! :-) The first time I saw Serenade was this past January at Lincoln Center, performed by NYCB. I loved it immediately and never would have thought I would be dancing part of it this summer! There is something very magical about this ballet that words can't describe.

I am very grateful and happy that I could go to Chicago, learn Balanchine choreography, meet new teachers and friends and get to explore a new city. This has probably been my best summer yet! :-)

Studio 3 

After performing Serenade; Level 1 girls

After my 7-week summer intensive I went to New York, to meet my mom and my cousin from Switzerland. But you'll here more on that in my next post. Stay tuned.