End of the Week and 1/3 of the Weekend

I've been stalling updating because I've been pretty boring lately. A lot of work and not too much play.
Thursday was another public holiday. (The previous one had been the Fete du Travail, where everyone got off work and school. I think this one was supposed to celebrate the end of WWII in Europe, so to mark it...everyone got off work and school. It's hard to keep track of these when they're marked in the same manner, as well as not having a clear idea of what we're celebrating in the first place.) All I did was work in the fashion lab. Seriously, that was it. (I wasn't alone in this, since Beliz and Ashley were there too.) Tuesday in class, after I told her that Muriel wanted me to outline each and every seam line, Sharon had let me in on another way to get that done: just trace each line so that it appears on the outside (or right side, rather) of each piece. So that was the majority of what I did then, just traced each and every seam line of each and every piece. I got the little ones done first and then the big ones, which took a lot of time, and required me to move them around quite a bit. After that was all done, I started sewing pieces together. By the time I ready to leave (about 5 hours after I had began), I had sewed the top parts of both the front and the back.
Friday was class with Jen. Since I had emailed her earlier in the week with internship interview questions, she asked me how that had went. When class started, she walked around and talked with everyone about how their pattern was coming along and their designs. With my drawings, she approved all of the newer ones, except for the weekend bag. She finally said, "Think of a suitcase". (If she had just said that at the beginning of the project, I would've gotten it that much sooner. Geez, why wait until now, 2 weeks before the project's due date, to bust out that helpful term of identification?) She also had me go down the street to make copies so that I could more effectively (and accurately) make my pattern. I worked on my pattern for the rest of class, cutting out pieces to make the mock-up Jen requested for the next week.
On my way out, I stopped to talk with Peter in the office, asking whether the studio would be open during the weekend (affirmative). Jen was there, and I was asked to tell the others that we'd have class starting at 8 am the next week.
I also got an email from the lady who had interviewed me, saying that they wouldn't be hiring me since they needed someone for May (impossible for me, with a dozen school projects to get done). I was a little upset about it, but oh well.
I spent the rest of the afternoon getting some work done but more relaxing, since I had something big to do that night...go to the ballet!
I had bought a ticket online , and the program was 3 short works, one each by Balanchine, Nuryev and William Forsythe. (I didn't recognize the last name, but I was sold when I was saw Balanchine and more so with Nuryev.) I got dressed up (which I equate with showing respect to the performers), and took the metro to the Opera Bastille, the Opera Garnier's sleeker, more modern younger-generation sister. Since I had reserved a ticket online, an usher directed me to where I needed to pick it up. I found it easily, got my ticket and program and went to take my seat. (My seat was great; it was the last row on the bottom level, against the wall, facing center stage. When I was looking at the plan for buying tickets, I thought I'd be way up in the back, not being able to see anything, but I was in a fantastic area.) While waiting for it to start, I read through the program. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I could read about all of it (save for a couple of unfamiliar words here and there)! I did notice something interesting here (and have previously): The way that the names are written are tweaked a bit, presumably to aid the French population in the pronunciation. For example, Rudolf Nuryev was the choreographer for the middle pieces. In the program (and every piece of publicity I've seen), his last name is spelled "Noureev". His section of the program also mentions Alexander Pushkin (Russian writer with a notoriously beautiful wife), and his name is Alexandre Pouchkine. No surprises on the first name, but I was little thrown off on the last name. I did figure out who they were talking about, but with the Nuryev biography, I had to read through it to make sure it was the same guy. (It kind of reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer buys a car that he thinks was previously owned by Jon Voight-the actor, but was instead owned by John Voight-the nobody.) Balanchine and Forsythe didn't get changed, though. Maybe it's just the really Eastern-European/Russian names. (Then I guess that Anna Pavlova would become Anne Pavlove, or something like that.)
The lights went down, and the usual announcements were made about flash cameras, cell phones, etc. (Again, I was happy to discover that I knew what they were saying. This was big since hearing is not my best way of absorbing and comprehension.) The curtain went up to show 2 dancers, one male and one female, center stage against a blue backdrop. They looked at each other and gracefully ran offstage, and then the curtain went down. I thought it was all part of the act, but then the same announcer came back and said that there were some technical difficulties and that they'd be resuming shortly. After about 5-10 minutes, I guess that everything had turned out OK, since they resumed performing. The piece was Balanchine's "The Four Temperaments" (though I'm pretty sure that all of the temperaments were performed). The dancers performed primarily in formations of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10. It was pretty interesting, but not my favorite. (Clearly, it hasn't stuck that well in my head, since I'm writing this 3 days later). The second piece was a series of extracts from the ballet "Raymonda", choreographed by Nuryev. Apparently the ballet is Eastern-European, or at least set there, given the clues of the music (which sounded a bit like the Mother Russia dance from "The Nutcracker", or the Casse-Noisette, as it's called here) and costumes (lots of red and gold, with the company wearing pleated skirts and boots). The set had a platform running across upstage, with chandelier lights hanging above. This middle section of the 3 favorites was my favorite. The dancing was great, the music was very lively and I really liked the costumes. Another thing was that the program said specifically that it (well, the dances) was/were of Hungarian origin. Being Hungarian and very interested in my heritage, I thought that was pretty cool (since I feel like it's kind of under-represented). I'd love to go to Hungary (and the Ukraine) sometime for a visit and learn more, that'd be so cool. I don't know if I'd be able to find out much about my family, but still, I'd love to go. (I think we were pretty much peasants/farmers/poor folk before coming over here around 1900 or so. I know we have the equivalent of Smith in Hungarian-which would be "Novak", Grandma Homzak's maiden name-running on our side, so I'm not sure how likely it would be to find ancestors. I found that out because when I was about 12, I asked my mom if we were related to Kim Novak, and that entertaining thought was shot down pretty quickly. One thing I do know, if I have kids, and I have a daughter-or more than one-, the one or one of them is getting named something really Slavic. I think Nadia's a good one.)
(My program tells me that "Raymonda" was created specifically for the Opera National Ballet of Paris back in 1983. A homecoming, very cool.)
Then, after the intermission, was the "Artifact Suite", by William Forsythe. This one was easily the most avant-garde. It opened with the entire company standing outlining 3 sides of the stage (except the one that faced the audience), following arm motions made by a woman standing downstage with her back to the audience. In the space between them, 2 couples danced, but not synchornically, which made it a bit hard to follow since I wanted to look at both of them at once. Oh, the dancers were all wearing nude leotards too (although some of them switched to light blue later in the act). There were 2 large lights on stage, shining into the center. There were a bunch of little vignettes, with the dancers changing positions and the lighting changing, sometimes shining through like light through blinds' slats. The dancing here was very kinetic and angular. The whole mood seemed very dystopian and bleak, especially with everyone following a leader.
So, in order of favorite to least of the pieces, my thoughts were the "Raymonda" extracts, "Artifact Suite" and the "Four Temperaments".
I love going to the ballet, and I wish I could more often. (Until now, I hadn't gone for almost 4 years, the last time being when I saw "Coppelia" in Raleigh.) I still wish I'd continued with dancing when we moved to Charlotte, but the 'rents decided to place me in softball (thanks a lot). From what I'm told, I was really shy as a kid (well, I remember that), but when I got on stage for ballet, I wasn't shy at all and did pretty well (which was not exactly the case with softball, the doing-well part) . I wonder sometimes how good I would've gotten had I been allowed to continue. I doubt it would've been principal dancer or anything, but still.
Saturday, I went in to work more on my dress. I actually got the entire front and back finished (which was a feat, considering it was a bunch of sewing curved lines together) after a good 5 hours of working. Afterwards, I went to ask Peter something, and he asked about my interview. I told him that it turned out that someone was needed for May. He then asked me if I thought I'd be able to work AND get all of my work done, and I replied that that was not too likely. He also told me that Muriel was talking with people at Lanvin and Givenchy, so not to totally give up hope here (but it's very cautious hope). So, as always, we'll see what happens...
After that, I went to Monoprix to get food and stopped in Gilbert Joseph to look around. I saw that they one had 2 copies left of the book of Moliere's complete works that I wanted, so I decided to go Tuesday on my lunch break (since it's a public holiday Monday and won't be open). Sunday night was the Malaysian Embassy Gala, but it's getting late, so I'll update that later. (I'm sure you guys are hungrily anticipating reading about it!)