17th October.  That’s the day Winter officially arrived here in Moscow.  I’m not sure whether the temperature had dropped a little below zero before then but I was certainly more aware of it after that fateful Friday that brought the first snow to the City!  Temperatures have since been down as low as minus 10 degrees!  As of now, however, the snow hasn’t settled so we’re not quite having to deal with massive piles of snow that are sure to come.

On the dance front, this has been quite an exciting time as the Academy held a character dance festival from the 27th to the 29th.  A selection of Russian character companies and schools were invited to participate, including the famous Moiseyev Folk Dance School and the Vaganova Academy.

The festival consisted of a series of master classes on each of the three days.  My class was lucky enough to watch the Moiseyev School’s master class; words can’t describe the energy, through such incredible technique, that permeated the atmosphere in their studio.  We sat there amazed; it was an extremely inspiring couple of hours.

The three days concluded with a show in which the participating schools each performed a selection of numbers. I danced the final piece, Rhapsodia; a quite elaborate group piece with great costumes and the cutest pair of boots I’ve ever danced in!

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance despite the late night rehearsals, which were tough, especially on top of the rehearsals earlier in the month for La Fille Mal Guardee!  All those who performed were awarded a certificate of participation and the whole evening felt very celebratory.

Here’s the version we danced at the run through the week before the actual show in which the final list of numbers were selected:

The most fun part of the month, of course, turned out to be the week my Mum came to visit, bringing with her as many of my favourite food products as could be fitted into two suitcases!  I was really in need of the visit to give me a fresh boost for the rest of the semester.  We managed to squeeze in a visit to Fresh, always a firm favourite!  I loved having my Mum here to watch some of my classes and see how my training has progressed.  One ballet class that my Mum watched turned out to be one of the hardest of the year so far!

I’m looking forward to November as we have two days off on the 3rd and the 4th (including the Sunday that makes three). I’m not making any plans at the moment as I’m really looking forwards to capitalising on three days worth of rest!

If you’d like to follow my career as a professional classical dancer, go over to my Instagram page here.