RobinV1333

If you haven't already heard, it is on October 30 at the KenCen Concert Hall.

Nice to find you again too -- its been too long! Thanks for starting the Mary Day thread! There is going to be a memorial at the Kennedy Center sometime this fall (Oct?), and I would love to see you there!

Sweet! I'm glad you've made your way to BalletTalk. I hope you'll take a moment to introduce yourself on our Welcome Page, Robin. Thanks! I just did!

Hello! The Mary Day thread brought me out of lurking -- I studied at WSB, and the Academy of the Washington Ballet for 8 years back in the 70s (was at the National Ballet School before that). Was the perennial oversized apprentice in the back row of ballets like Serenade, and I was glad to be there. Choo-San Goh gave me my most challenging opportunities. Went to NY in 1978 and did contemporary ballet stuff here and there for 10 years for the love of it (certainly not for money!) before going to college and law school. Now I am a DC tax lawyer specializing in employee benefits. This is a great website!

When Choo San first arrived at WSB in the late 70s, we called him Choo, not knowing that it was really Choo San. He was so shy that he said nothing for years, then he finally told a couple of the dancers that his name was Choo San, not Choo. We really had to work to change over, it was such a habit. There is a nice book on his work -- http://selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.cfm?SBNum=24977 I ordered it from Singapore and it came very quickly. Janek Schergen stages most of Choo San's work and I think he is ballet master with Norwegian National Ballet. Or he was fairly recently. He is/was artistic director of Choo-San and Robert's foundation as well.

I attended Miss Day's funeral Friday morning -- it was a lovely small gathering at the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel in Georgetown. Warm and fitting tributes were given by Alice Braelove, Geoffrey Smith, and Kevin McKenzie, and we went back to Miss Day's house where her longtime assistant had arranged for the group to release 96 white balloons into the air -- they went up right over the school. Although it is sad to say goodbye, it is a comfort to know she spent her whole life doing what she loved. I last visited with her in March and she was full of stories and plans to write down some of her old ballets from the early days. Not only did Miss Day leave her mark on the world's great ballet companies, but many "Mary Day dancers" are successful doctors, architects, teachers, lawyers, physical therapists -- and parents too -- and she was very proud of that. I studied with Miss Day from 1971 to 1978. We did not just learn how to achieve a nicely pointed foot and pretty arabesque line -- we learned how to learn and how to fight for what we wanted. She may not have had her own children, but she certainly raised 1000s of children very well indeed.