the soundtrack of my life as ballerina

I mixed a CD for myself that I shall call "My Favorite Ballet Music." Actually, it's missing some important bits, such as music from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet because, well, I don't have music from Romeo and Juliet. And I'm actually glad because I decided to put in only two pieces per ballet and it would be extremely difficult to choose only two pieces from Romeo and Juliet.

This collection is also more than just my favorite ballet music. Most of these, I have danced, and it's hard to quantify whether I loved dancing them because I love the music or I love the music because I love dancing them. I do know that I loved putting it together.

This is what's in it:
01 O Fortuna from Carmina Burana
Carl Orff
I first danced the David Campos Cantero choreography in 1997 (ack, I think) and I am very happy to dance it again each time PBT stages it. I've been promoted in this dance twice, but I still dance Fortuna, and would still want to dance it even if a lot of the other dancers are glad to have "graduated" from it. I don't have the entire score; if I did, I'd include The Merry Faces of Spring in this compilation, since it's my pas de trois and I love it as much as Fortuna.

02 Grand Waltz from Swan Lake
Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
I actually have never danced this, but it's my favorite Tchaikovsky waltz. I especially like the dynamics and the timpani parts.

03 Pas de Shawl from Cinderella
Sergei Prokofiev
When I did the Filipinized Sinderela for my UP graduation recital, I wished I were not harassed enough to dance so that I could do the Stepsister. I always wanted to be a Stepsister and got my chance when I convinced Daddy to stage Cinderella for the studio. I brought the house down.

04 Journey to the Ball from Cinderella
Prokofiev
This is my absolute favorite piece from the ballet, with the leitmotif at the end of Act 2 as the clock strikes midnight. I got to dance this when we performed the entire Fairies suite in a CCP Outdoor Balletfest and Daddy cast me as Cinderella this time.

05 The Rite of Spring - Part One: The Adoration of the Earth
Igor Stravinsky
This is my favorite Stravinsky. I've never danced this but this was my final paper for Musicology 100, a class I nearly died for taking. But I was able to analyze the music well according to the demands of ballet and actually scored a good grade. I hope to dance or get to choreograph this one day. I'm also very in love with the title.

06 Chinese Tea from The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky
I've never danced this either. But it's my favorite dance from Baryshnikov's Nutcracker and my favorite cartoon from Fantasia.

07 The Battle of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King
In our last production of the Nutcracker for our school, I was the Mouse King. I had enormous fun. I had also alwaaaays loved the Battle music, and I always loved staging it and watching the kids go nuts.

08 Danse Macabre
Camile Saint-Saens
Daddy choreographed this beautiful piece of music for us when I was a pre-teen. I still remember some of the steps. Mommy was the one who intro'd this music to Daddy; this is how Daddy chooses most of the music he uses. Behind every great man and all that.

09 The Mad Scene from Giselle
Adolphe Adam
In this section, Giselle discovers that the man she loved was in truth a rich aristocrat betrothed to a Duchess. She goes mad and dies of a broken heart. Lucas said watching me dance this made him cry. I want to dance this again, someday.

10 The Black Swan Pas De Deux from Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky
My most favorite pas de deux in the world. I've been told that evil becomes me.

11 The Spell of the Lilac Fairy from The Sleeping Beauty
Princess Aurora pricks her finger and falls asleep for a hundred years. The Lilac Fairy also casts a sleeping spell on the rest of the kingdom. I love that the main theme of this ballet is the Lilac Fairy theme. You can tell, she's Tchaikovsky's favorite character too.

It's a very good reminder that I've had a very good career so far and I should really finally just stop whining about ballet and drowning in self-doubt. It's mighty inspiring.