Ballets Russes

Our National Gallery has a bigger collection of costumes and accessories from the Ballets Russes than any other institution in the world. It's been 10 years since the collection has been on show at the NGA so we didn't want to miss this exhibition, which includes restored costumes we've not seen before.

Seeing the exhibition with Ella and experiencing it according to her world of fairy tales, princes and princesses, scary wolves and mythical beings, dress ups and dancing was very inspiring.

We spent AGES together afterwards in the exhibition's activity centre, playing with patterns...

dancing in space age tutus to Russian hip hop music.........

constructing towers with brilliantly coloured blocks.........

and drawing MANY beautiful dancing ladies on strong black paper with those gorgeous German made graphite pencils.

We decided that purchasing a set of those pencils was the best souvenir of our lovely time together at this exhibition (although Ella did her best to persuade me to buy her the $150 pale pink satin leotard with crushed organdy frills as her little memento.....it was just the right size too!)