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WHAT JUST HAPPENED !?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!! @theballetsalon

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Spent the weekend getting ready for my FIRST BALLET PERFORMANCE since I was a dance major in college. Being on a stage feels different 2 kids and 15 years later!

Art and creativity belong to everyone, even when it feels like we’re making art at the end of the world. Happy to have returned with @theballetsalon. #adultballet #nycdance

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Wow. @theballetsalon in @nytimes …..speechless 📰🗞️🩰

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One more of @meiying_thai & @awww_dri, co-founders of @theballetsalon shot by me for the @nytimes. You can see the pictures in person, as a 3/4 page spread in the arts section of today's print paper. Dream!

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Dancers from @theballetsalon photographed by me ahead of their debut for the @nytimes.

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It’s a surreal moment to have @theballetsalon at the top of the Arts section of the @nytimes . Thank you to Sophie for seeing the story in us and bringing it to life. And of course @stevenmolinacontreras for coming in on a rainy day to capture the magic, love, and beauty of our dancers in rehearsal. HUGE thank you to everyone who’s donated, asked questions, showed interest, showed up, and danced with us this season. And DUH thank you to @meiying_thai for saying, “it’s already happening” when I said, “so what if we started a ballet company” ❤️

I mostly feel lucky to have dance. I can’t get out of my mind the observation that ballet is primarily an oral tradition. My mom always wanted to do ballet but only one girl in her neighborhood could afford it, so she’d teach my mom some things on the street after class. I didn’t grow up with money and the fact I got to train at all was luck. I got to experience affordable, expanding, and joyous training at @lawrenceartscenter amongst dancers/teachers I still hold dear. Many of them were dedicated to creating new spaces and opportunities for dance. It wasn’t until I left that space that I realized just how lucky I was. In many ways they were the blueprint for TBS through their words & actions.

AT THE END OF THE DAY being able to move your body is a privilege; being able to do it beautifully is a gift.

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“Almost every former ballet dancer has a story — often painful — about why they quit,” writes Sophie Bress about @theballetsalon for the @nytimes. “In an art form notorious for rigor and exacting standards — and, often, unhealthy attitudes toward bodies — it’s common for dancers to leave ballet feeling rejected.”¹
 From my afternoon photographing and filming the company for @nytimes. Story by Sophie Bress. Photo editing by Maridelis Morales Rosado.

Former pre-professional dancers Meiying Thai and Adriana Gramly co-founded @theballetsalon to give dancers a place to return to ballet and perform without pursuing a professional career.

This video is a short excerpt from one of the pieces, featuring one of the company members, Amanda Li.

"While rehearsing “Deux Amours,” a new work by Tiffany Mangulabnan, the dancers talked about careers, motherhood, cultural identities and their decisions to leave ballet. “I knew we had parallel stories,” dancer Alexandra Glass told Bress, “and parallel traumas and parallel things to heal.” - Sophie Bress for the NYT.

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Excited to share my latest project for the @nytimes

I spent an afternoon photographing and filming dancers from @theballetsalon, a semi-professional dance company co-founded by @meiying_thai and @awww_dri, created for dancers returning to ballet.

The story was written by Sophie Bress & photo edited by @_maridelis.

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i have a repertoire of quips to answer the question, “are you still dancing?” 🩰 “i’m retired,” i’ll say, “emphasis on tired.” or “just for recreation and exercise.” or “only at the club! 🤪”

it’s a loaded question for most “former” dancers, because you never really stop being a dancer. ballet is in everything i do — from the way i walk (like a duck) to how i navigate the world (with poise, sure, but also riddled with perfectionism).

i’m so grateful to @meiying_thai and @awww_dri for creating @theballetsalon, bringing me along as a producer/yapper, and for convincing me to cut “former” from my dancer title. 💖

read about this work and the community they built in @nytimes! (also there really is a Center Stage reference for everything.)

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My new piece “Isle of” will be performed by the dancers of @theballetsalon next week.

We incubated this piece in July and these are some photos from our rehearsal shot by the legend, Ted Thai 🙏💕

I had the best summer making dance for you @theballetsalon ✨😍

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Super-quick pointe practice after @theballetsalon class

Leo by @juledancewear

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