Setting The Barre Blog
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I'm Kirsten. Professional ballet dancer, sometimes poet, voracious traveler and avid tea drinker. Here you will find the written rambling of my conscience as I chronicle my adventures, both onstage and off.
Setting The Barre Blog
11M ago
The thing about ballet class in the Big Apple that feels the most uniquely New York to me is not the fast tendus or the Rockette in the corner. In fact, it’s precisely not in the room at all… It’s what’s just outside the windows…those Big City Views. Sure, 20+ years spent in a studio ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
1y ago
It’s a Monday and the first day of May, so seems like as good an excuse as any to do a little written manifestation. Ugh, did you roll your eyes when you read the last word of that sentence? I sorta rolled my eyes when I typed it. “Manifestation” has become so overused, it’s starting ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
1y ago
Something about this crazy, confusing, currently inconsistent new chapter has me craving this open space to document. I think it's because I feel like I am finally being honest with myself again, even if it means not knowing exactly what it is I'm saying as an artist or as a person. I suddenly feel like talking again ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
2y ago
It took until (almost) June to write about Blue Until June, but alas, here we are. When the final (metaphoric) curtain dropped on our season closing program, I was consumed by teary celebrations of a veteran dancer’s retirement bow. It wasn’t until a few moments later that I felt the pang of missing this ballet ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
2y ago
Every once in a while, a ballet comes along that’s just…special. Enter Trey McIntyre‘s Blue Until June. This ballet ticks all of the boxes I didn’t know were empty. Set to the music of Etta James, Blue Until June has got soul. It’s bluesy and narrative but not cumbersome, technical but totally unpretentious. It swings ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
2y ago
Getting out. We never thought we’d lose it, then wondered for months when we’d ever get it back. Something about Spring has me anxious for the outdoors. There are new places and old favorites begging to be visited once the crocuses peek out, and I am determined to drink a spritz at (and bring my ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
2y ago
It’s been so long since I’ve written here, the whole blogging platform has changed. Excuse me while I relearn how to do something that I once did did instinctively… There’s so much to catch up on, if I try, I’ll never start. So instead, let’s just dive in right where we are, shall we? We ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
3y ago
Though my posts have been sporadic this year, I have mentioned one of my new favorite teachers more than a few times. At this point he’s STB famous for his revelatory insights (remember remove expectations from the studio and make the perfect mistake?) and in class yesterday, he rattled off another little gem that went ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
3y ago
At the risk of sounding redundant, I’ll say it one last time: 2020 was the year of changing courses. Every track ransacked, every road demolished by some undetectable mayhem. Following suit, as you may know, FBP’s live performances of The Nutcracker were off, then on, then off, then on, then… After 4 weeks of rehearsals ..read more
Setting The Barre Blog
3y ago
Dancers being dealt months of dormancy throughout the company’s most changing time has its obvious challenges. Less overt but perhaps more productive to consider, though, are the many openings that come with prolonged pause. Small but mighty things that contribute to grand personal evolutions when collected over time. Tiny victories and lessons gathered as the ..read more