Lorraine Cross {Madame Giry} (ihaveanote) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2011-05-22 15:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | lorraine cross |
Who: Lorraine Cross
What: A typical weekday morning.
When: General
Where: New York City
Every morning, Monday through Friday, started off the same way for Lorraine. It was the same ole routine, like clock-work, that she had practiced with little variation ever since her days as a ballerina.
The alarm would go off at five o' clock on the dot and, no matter how tired she might be, she never once hit the snooze button. Instead, she would drag herself out of bed and into a nice hot shower, which helped relax her muscles and prepare them up for the day ahead. Then she would blowdry her hair and pin the shoulder-length reddish-brown locks up into a neat chignon. After that, she would slip into one of her leotards and a pair of leggings, knotting a wrap-around skirt of some color around her thin waist.
By that time, it was usually six, and she slipped into the kitchen to make breakfast. A bagel would go in the toaster for Melissa along with a slice of whole-grain bread for herself. Next came the slicing of either a grapefruit or an apple. Of course there were some days when she forgot to eat herself and only cooked the bagel, but these were fewer than the days when she skipped lunch. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," was the old saying, after all, and she tried to respect that.
At six-thirty, if Melissa didn't get up on her own, she'd go into her daughter's room and wake her up. Once she had gotten dressed herself, gotten her school things together, and eaten her bagel, Lorraine would walk her to the subway. After seeing her off with a peck on the cheek, she'd catch her own train over to the Lincoln Center where the NYCB was based, always there by eight o' clock. Rehearsals didn't typically start until nine, but she liked to get there an hour early so that she had the studios to herself.
There she would spend several minutes at the barre, slowly stretching and limbering herself up. Each and every single muscle in her body had to be eased into working order before she stopped. Then, if they were working on a production, she'd take the time to go through the steps of whatever routine they working on that day. If they were in a lull in between productions, she'd walk through some of the more basic moves.
It was important to her that she be on the top of her game, even during these periods, because she needed to remind the dancers, even though her slightest movements, of who they were dealing with. She had been one of the most renowned ballerinas of her time and she was still damn good at what she did. By forcing the dancers to acknowledge this, she earned their respect, their admiration, if not their affection. She had never been a woman who needed to be liked to feel good about herself. If they hated her, so be it, it just meant that she was doing her job.