Wide awake in the cheap seats I want to take my ballet-mad, nine-year-old niece, um, "Peaches Swan", to see her very first National Ballet of Canada performance this year.→[More:] Out of the 2006/07 season lineup, I am quite sure she'd want most to see, and relate best to, Sleeping Beauty (as opposed to say, Don Quioxte, the Four Seasons, or The Taming of the Shrew).

My sister-in-law has warned me not to get tickets too close to the stage. When she took Peaches to a student performance of The Nutcracker, and they sat in the first row, then eight-year-old Peaches had far too good a view of the male dancers in their tights. As you know, tights on men leave nothing to the imagination, and Peaches was quite disgusted. I assured my sister-in-law that since the tickets start at $40, Peaches and I will be sitting waaaaaaay back in the 5th tier balcony, and barring some sort of of phenomenal, world-record-setting endowment among the corps, we will see nothing of the sort.

This is all very well for Peaches, but now I'm feeling a bit disgruntled. Must hunt down and buy a good pair of opera glasses before the performance. After plunking down over $80 for tickets, I had better be able to appreciate all of Prince Charming's charms.