Gizelle

A few weeks ago our Relief Society went to the ballet Gizelle. We were told children were not allowed, so Anya and I were initially afraid we might not be able to go--both our husbands attend the Branch Presidency meeting which is held on Friday evenings--until we learned their meeting was cancelled. Anya and I were both rather excited to go to the ballet. I was so excited it took me watching Anya put on her shoes to realize I was wearing slippers and not shoes.

Because we weren't initially sure we could attend the ballet, Anya and I went to buy our tickets when we arrived and met a woman outside the entrance who offered front row seats at the balcony price. We wouldn't be able to sit with our Relief Society sisters anyways, so we ended up purchasing the woman's tickets and getting some amazing seats. As best as we could discern, she worked for the theater (but who knows??). We initially sat down in the middle of the third row, but when our seats were claimed by actual ticketholders the woman moved us to the end of the row, until those seats were also claimed by actual ticketholders, and then we moved and stayed in the first row.

I thought the theater was really beautiful, here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it looked like:

The curtain

This is the decorative work on either side of the stage. You can see it from afar in the previous picture (it's on the far right).

Anya and I knew there was a senior missionary couple from one of the Russia missions in town. When we saw this group of three behind us we were pretty certain they had to be that couple (and we were right). Americans stick out.

The happy theater-goers:
Since you aren't supposed to take pictures during the ballet, this is the only one I could get--it was during the bow.