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Just a week ago, I sat here withdrawn with an apathetic view on my life. I desired so much to change for the better and to relieve myself from the funk. Throughout the days that followed, I tried to cleanse myself in nothing but positive thinking and creative influences which have ultimately bought me multitudes of positive affirmations, manifesting change for a ripple effect of goodness. Everyday I learn just how important it is to stay aware and appreciative of my surroundings, to confirm myself of all the good that follow which I now know is a vital step in switching from negative distraction in place of cultivating a flow of good momentum and creative mindfulness.

Take for example yesterday, when I was working at the Open House event of my school. I helped answer questions from a current student perspective for high school students and their parents who were interested in Smfa. I was of course extremely tired coming to work at 8 am on a Saturday morning from the night before, but I remained upbeat  and open to the possibilities of the day. And just a couple of hours later, after being asked to speak on the podium to all the parents and students about my experiences of being a student at the Smfa, I became assured of my day, or rather, I reaped a greater reward than I had initially planned for. Through the experience of sharing my story and the reasons to why I chose to attend my school, took me back to the time of my college application process when I was so hungry, so eager and optimistic for a great future. This made me realize how far along I have come in my endeavors which in turn reaffirmed me of my purpose; where and why I stand here today not to mention recognizing the genuine sense of love I have developed for Smfa just like I had for Denver School of the Arts. So I thank the Open House event for taking place and gifting me with positive foresight.

Today was also a day full of positive affirmations from meeting up with a long-awaited family friend to sitting in on meditation class and watching the final matinée performance of Boston Ballet’s Simply Sublime at the beautiful Opera House. I was approaching everything in a curious, attentive and open manner, so things of detail to things to things of magnitude all seemed to align in a creative and happy pursuit. I was especially was fond of the Simply Sublime ballet show, which consisted of three extravagant performances; Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides, Christopher Wheeldon’s finest masterpiece, Polyphonia, and George Balanchine’s stunning Symphony in Three Movements, all assembled into one program.

The show is best summarized as a traverses of 20th-century ballet’s arc from Russian romance to a robust and confident neoclassicism. All the performance featured amazing musical scores, lighting, set design and costumes, not to mention the innovative choreography for each. And while I sat there watching I could not stop but envision an art piece for each of the three performances since they were so intrinsically different from one another. Up first was the Chopin-set Les Sylphides, a dream like piece by by Michel Fokine, who created a plotless style “ballet blanc” following a young man alone in a moonlit forest who encounters s troupe of winged sylph maidens wearing long, drifting tutus. There was a point during the second solo dance act, when I came to tears mesmerized by principal dancer Misa Kuranaga’s feather like drift and soft arm movements in the midst of Chopin’s most iconic compositions. Her leaps crested like seafoam, somehow reminding of the purity of milk and the warm embrace of my mother. Les Sylphides was a ballet of more classical proportions with a moody painted fairy tale backdrop and showered in a hue of blue lights.

The second performance was my favorite from the program – Polyphonia, or as I would like to call is the ‘dance of shapes’ by Christopher Wheeldon, a dynamic ballet set to the amazing and I mean amazing music of Gyorgy Ligeti. Talk about the perfect ensemble of avant-garde music and dance in their most pivotal forms, things could get no better than Polyphonia. The ballet featured four couples in indigo colored body suits coquettishly showcasing both classic and contemporary skill through a range of moods from strict to tender to playful and geometric, angular style movements like the flexed wrists and the sitting-in-the-air lifts. The performance was divided into many smaller compositions, starting out with shadows that were cast behind the dancers then transferring into a dizzifying speed of abstract movements; reminiscent of shapes and lines from Kandinsky’s paintings. The choreography challenged the bodily interaction between man and woman in every static way possible, with the very physicality of the two bodies always in some manner being pieced together in a harmonious way. My favorite part from Polyphonia would have to be the ‘bedroom spotlight’ act when principal dancers Lia Circio and Lasha Khozashvili sensuously interwove against a pitch black backdrop with a single dimly lighted strobe light flashing from the left.

White, black, pink and blue sums up the final performance of the show, a Geroge Balanchine classic called Symphony in Three Movements. The dance is vivacious in its ensemble and most known for its pace of energy and complexity, set to the Stravinsky score of the same name. Balanchine’s dance dates from some three decades later – and thus perhaps the strange, parodic edge he seems to have given his fellow Russian attitude toward his new home.  Symphony was seen back in 1945 as a neoclassical tribute to the fight against fascism, but in Balanchine’s hands it turns into a sardonic smile of all American “drive” and “energy,” Sixteen gamines with their flouncy ponytails rocking back and forth in front of a blue backdrop like they’re about to leap into the lanes of a swimming pool, to dancers in black and white like a scene from Grease resemble athletic boys whose movements reflect something like the bouncing back and forth on a virtual basketball court. Although Symphony is overshadowed by more by its political message than it aesthetic counterpart, I still felt the dance was amazing and strongest in its visual density.

I leave you now with one of my favorite quotes by Vincent Van Gogh:

“If one keeps loving faithfully what is really worth loving, and does not waste one’s love on insignificant and unworthy and meaningless things, one will get more light by and by and grow stronger. Sometimes it is well to go into the world and converse with people, and at times one is obliged to do so, but he who would prefer to be quietly alone with his work, and who wants but very few friends, will go safest through the world and among people. And even in the most refined circles and with the best surroundings and circumstances, one must keep something of the original character of an anchorite, for other wise one has no root in oneself; one must never let the fire go out in one’s soul, but keep it burning. And whoever chooses poverty for himself and loves it possesses a great treasure, and will always clearly hear the voice of his conscience; he who hears and obeys that voice, which is the best gift of God, finds at least a friend in it, and is never alone.”