Scottish Ballet Presents... Alice!

Yesterday was such a fabulous day! As mentioned previously, I was off to Glasgow for a Scottish Ballet bloggers event which was being held at the Blythswood Square hotel (which, by the way is stunning!). I caught the train at 6.30am so I could squeeze in a couple of hours shopping (more on that later on...).

At 11.30, I headed on up to Blythswood Square, where we were greeted with some champagne (not necessarily recommended on an empty tummy before breakfast!). After a bit of mingling, we were led through to the in-house cinema room, where we were shown some short movies about the making of Alice. The films covered the history of the stories, explanations behind the narrative, the costumes, the characters and just generally explaining what we could expect from the production.

After the cinema, we were whisked away for afternoon tea. It was delicious - there was even purple striped Cheshire Cat cake!!

Typical beauty blogger; one of the first things that caught my eye was the MAC face charts, detailing the unique makeup looks created by MAC Senior Artist Caroline Donnelly (@mac_caroline_d). I've followed Caroline on Twitter for a while & I am a huge fan of her work - she twitpics a lot of her creations & I can't wait to see what she does with Scottish Ballet in the future.

Other delightful treats of the afternoon included Leighton Denny hand massages provided by the Spa team at the Blythswood...

Kirsten from Saskia the Style Fairy

The Blythswood Spa

Smujj Makeup were there to refresh everyone's faces & the girls from Rainbow Room International were giving everyone ballet perfect up-do's ready for the theatre later on...

Claire from Bee Waits

Me, not really sure what was happening...

But I got an AMAZING Gaga-esque bow!! I was gutted taking it down last night :(

I'm not normally one to divulge the contents of a goodie bag & whilst I wont dwell on this, I do just want to give a special mention to ROX for providing us all with these beautiful semi-precious bracelets. The bags also contained various vouchers, one of which is for the Blythswood Spa, so I will definitely be heading back down there again sometime soon!

Before we knew it, it was time for the show. I was a bit worried that after how much I loved Cinderella, that I would not feel the same about Alice, but I needn't have been concerned - all the magic, delights, style, fantasy & sheer character was captured beautifully.

The biggest difference between this production and previous shows by this company is that Alice foregoes the story-book narrative that normally helps the viewers understand & interpret what is happening on stage. This production commanded attention & thought - the Artistic Director Ashley Page was adamant that Alice would not just be lifted straight out of the book. Instead, the ballet, the choreography and the scores have been worked together to create a representation of Charles Dodgson's (Lewis Carroll) mind, his relationship with children and both the books Alice in Wonderland & Alice Through the Looking Glass.

For those just looking for an awe-insping visual performance will not be disappointed. The set & the styling was as on-point as usual, with a John Galliano-esque Caterpillar, a Johnny Depp-esque Mad Hatter and a King & Queen of Hearts with costumes that would make any Vivienne Westwood fan swoon. I am already planning my outfit for when the production hits Aberdeen in May...

Kirsten, Toni & Kirsty

Massive thanks to everyone involved in yesterday's event, in particular to Ann from Girl in The City who was responsible for pulling everything together and Leon & his team at the Blythswood Square Spa.

You can find details of the Alice tour here

And I will leave you with a sneak peek of one my purchases from yesterday...

A xx