All Things Vintage

A little jazz entertained audience members this week at NYCB in our performances of Slaughter on 10^th Avenue.  Slaughter (our shortened name for the piece) isn’t your typical ballet.  In fact, none of the dancers even wear pointe shoes.  Instead, we don black fishnet tights, short frilly dresses, and heels, all of which give us a 1920s saloon dancer appearance.  Since the music was taken from a 1936 Rodgers and Hart musical called On Your Toes, the dancing is all Broadway inspired, with lots of jazz hands and high kicks.  Although it is a short piece, it is somewhat complex because depicts a story within a story, and it is packed with romance and violence.  As the title suggests, there are murders, but they are so melodramatic that they're funny.  In the beginning, a Russian ballet dancer hires a thug to kill his rival – the leading dancer in the premiere of the ballet that the audience is about to witness. As the curtain ascends, the audience watches the new ballet in which this leading man falls in love with a stripper in a New York saloon. I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that the thug is persistent in his attempts to fulfill the Russian dancer’s mission.  All in all, Slaughter is like a miniature Broadway show with fewer spoken words and a lot of sass.  The sassy part is especially fun to portray.  Besides Halloween, when do you get to wear black fishnets and a corset and not feel out of place?  This leads me to another point; if you’re a woman trying to convince your husband/boyfriend/male friend to come to the ballet, just describe the costumes and I’m sure you’d win him over.

We're all ready onstage at the bar - I'm fifth from the left

Chandeliers at the GreenFlea
Antique Market

Slaughter renders a certain vintage appeal with its costumes, music, and saloon-style sets, which is why I’ll suggest a visit to the GreenFlea outdoor antique market on the Upper West Side.  It’s open every Sunday from 10am to 5:30pm and is located on Columbus Avenue between 76^th and 77^th streets.  They have a wide range of furniture, jewelry, art, trinkets, and more.  I bought a red silk scarf here for about $15, and I’ve found many unique earrings that make great gifts for friends.  They have an incredible chandelier vendor as well – I just wish I could put one in my rental apartment!  There is also the added bonus of food at this market.  I have yet to try them, but the Greek kabobs and spinach pies look delectable.  If that’s not your cup of tea, they also have other cuisines and baked goods.  The beloved pumpkin season is here so you can bet that there will be many pumpkin flavored treats. 

Inside Prohibition

If you go to the market in the late afternoon, why not hit up the local bar called Prohibition for happy hour? (At one point in Slaughter, the cops invade the saloon presumably searching for illegal alcohol, which always makes me think of the prohibition era).  Of course, this part of the excursion is only for those 21 and up, and if you need a babysitter, I’m in the neighborhood. At Prohibition, located on Columbus Avenue between 84^th and 85^th streets, the ambiance is as cool as the drinks. Rustic light fixtures illuminate the central bar and a small dance floor across the way, and there’s even a billiard table in the back room.  But perhaps the best feature is the live music played nightly, and there's no cover charge! When I went a few weeks ago with my friends Katherine and John, it wasn’t just any old mediocre band either.  They could play songs by Jackson Five, Rihanna, Mumford and Sons, and sing them with their own unique harmonies. That’s some versatility to say the least!  The music may not take you back to the 1920s, but the space itself, in addition to the antique market experience, will surely inspire the cool, jazzy mood of Slaughter on 10^th Avenue.