Frost, stars and the consolations of art

December nights: after work yesterday evening we listened to David Attenborough’s heroic and stirring speech to the Climate Change Conference just before we went to a live screening for the first night of the Nutcracker from Covent Garden. Walking to our local gorgeous Art Deco Odeon, our minds and talk were full of the crisis, but once inside we were soon enchanted by the exquisite set designs, the moving beauty of Tchaikovsky’s music, the grace and athleticism of the Royal Ballet’s dancers, the glamour of the event. Loved it, every minute, and it felt very joyful – the beginning of the festive season. In the interval a little girl practised her ballet steps in the cinema aisle, and afterwards, a group of older women in the audience danced out of the cinema, pirouetting up the corridor with much laughter. On our walk home there was frost on the parked cars and stars in the London sky shining like fairy lights in the winter trees – and even the pavements were sparkly, as though the magician’s sequinned dust had floated out of the cinema and into the streets.

December Nights

Text by Helen Waddell   Paperwork by Liz Mathews: silver enamel lettered with a driftwood stick, under acrylic watercolour on handmade paper 30cm x 40cm

_________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________