This weekend marked the Indianapolis City Ballet’s Gala performances. The Young Stars of Ballet was Friday night; Evening with the Stars, Saturday.

I saw the Evening With the Stars program with a large portion of Butler’s dance department. The dance service fraternity, Sigma Rho Delta, purchased a bunch of tickets, so I got mine at a slightly discounted price and got to discuss the show with my friends. The artsy photo above (as well as most of the other photos in this post) happened when I gave my camera to photographer friend, whose camera was out of battery. Thank you!

So we went to the Gala. The performers were all beautiful. I was not quite as blown away as I had been in years past — some of the newly commissioned pieces and some performances of old pieces did not quite do it for me — but all the stars still made for a great show.

I saw famous people! This was Friday night, when I participated in the Young Stars of Ballet. I made eye contact with Daniil Simkin — weird. For the only picture of the stars that night, see the bus above in front of the theater. The Murat Theatre is beautiful, more so when it’s actually visible in the daylight.

I’m not sure about the Coors sign on the marquee, though… Classy? Anyway, there were some great performances, odd choreography and opinions concerning style notwithstanding. I especially appreciated the representative from the Trockadero Ballet, the ballerino Paul Ghiselin/Ida Nevasayneva, performing a touching rendition of the Dying Swan.