Gala-vanting

May 13, 2012

For most New Yorkers, the arrival of spring means long afternoons in Central Park, deciding to walk to the subway stop that’s a few blocks farther away, eating brunch alfresco.

But for some lucky bunheads, spring means something else entirely: It’s ballet gala season!

For a few glorious weeks in April and May, dance editors clutch their much-coveted single tickets and enter glamorous alternative universes: the Youth America Grand Prix gala, the New York City Ballet gala, the American Ballet Theatre gala. Yes, these glitzy events are opportunities to rub elbows with the sparkly people—ballet celebrities and celebrity celebrities both—and that’s kind of fun. But they also feature a ridiculously high concentration of exciting ballet dancers onstage. How often do you get to see Ekaterina Kondaurova, Herman Cornejo, Misty Copeland, Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin on a single program (the YAGP gala)? How about an evening featuring nearly the entire NYCB roster, costumed by the likes of Rodarte and Gilles Mendel (last week’s NYCB gala)?

Tonight is the ABT gala, and its lineup looks fantastic: nearly all the company’s principals plus the likes of Polina Semionova, Diana Vishneva, Alina Cojocaru, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. I get a little shiver of happiness just listing all those names in the same sentence.

And though us editors don’t even try to compete with the fancy people who’ll make the best-dressed list, we still have a little fun with our outfits, too. After all, it’s not every day that I have the opportunity to wear a floor-length pink silk skirt. Thank you, gala season!