In town

I've been in London for a couple of days, where, taking no heed of Twelfth Night tradition, the streets were still lit with festive decorations.

I had a good wander around the Covent Garden area where, as usual, there were entertainers, on this occasion of excellent quality, drawing a large, appreciative crowd.

'Snow' in the form of gently falling spots of white light made the whole area look charming.

I was in town for an evening at the ballet - oh, joy!

A performance of Balanchine's three-act ballet, 'Jewels.'

The dancers were colour coded and the opening section, 'Emeralds' was absolutely charming.

Followed by a very lively 'Rubies' danced to Stravinsky's Capriccio

and ending with a girl's best friend, 'Diamonds' danced  to Tchaikovsky's Polish Symphony. 

Photos taken from the programme.

There were two intervals, which was good news because there are always interesting displays in the public spaces; tiny model stage sets

and costume designs.

There was a very comprehensive exhibition entitled, 'Raven Girl: The Making of a Ballet.'  Absolutely fascinating - how I wish that I'd seen the production last year!

The displays were full of fascinating details; I had never heard of a costume 'bible' but can well imagine what a valuable reference it can be.

There were some other lovely photographs in the accompanying leaflet but I notice that they have a small copyright logo with them so shall not include them in this post. If you are in London do see the exhibition, it is on until early February.