By John Sprague

 Aunt Virginia founded the Boston Ballet Co.She was the sister of my maternal grandfather Harold C Williams. I was fortunate to have spent quality time with  aunt virginia. I saw her Ballets, especially the “Nutcracker” in Boston and got to sit in her Box Seat at the Wang Theater. I saw Virginia at family gatherings in Salem, Ma and had her at my home. She was down to earth and had a good sense of humor. When it came to her Ballet, it was her top priority. She put her whole being into that entity.Emily Gresh, a dancer, wrote this really great article about my aunt.In spelling out the 40-year history of Boston Ballet, in naming the names, in checking the dates, times, and places, one thing has become clear to me—although Boston Ballet began as the dream of one woman, E. Virginia Williams, in the late 1950s, today it is the dream of many. As I pause to watch the curtain rise on the 40th season, I can look back while looking ahead. While searching Boston Ballet’s past, I have found that as interesting as it is to reach back to those moments of the past, it is even more compelling to turn around and touch the present where the past shimmers anew, sensed as much as seen. In searching for a defining moment that stands as a perfect representation of Boston Ballet’s past, present, and future, I have found that there is not one moment but many, and not many, but all. These moments will embed themselves within the palpable heart and soul of dance just as past moments are embedded within each dancer, each director, each choreographer, each audience member, each musician, each teacher, each student, and me. The stories of dance and humankind continue on-entwined. Dance is rooted in the origins of humankind—in the communal urge to express and understand the experienced, as well as the imagined, through movement. Ballet’s beginnings are not so far from yesterday, yet, Boston Ballet, in the relatively short span of 40 years, has claimed a distinguished place in that history. In 1921, E. Virginia Williams, Boston Ballet’s founder, was introduced to ballet at the age of seven. The Company Williams eventually formed and nurtured became the embodiment of her belief in both the art form and its artists. Williams chose to focus on the success of Boston Ballet rather than her own dance career. As a result of her selflessness, Boston Ballet grew to reflect not only the unrelenting determination of a notoriously driven woman, but also the unyielding power of a dynamic art form. Under Williams, Boston Ballet attracted many individuals, who devoted their lives to the creation of an ever-changing yet brilliantly cohesive dance company. Over time, the venue changed from the John Hancock Hall to the Back Bay Theater, to the Orpheum, to the opera house on Washington Street, to the National Theater, and, finally, to the Music Hall, now known as The Wang Theater.Another luminary associated with Boston Ballet was Arthur Fiedler, who conducted the first two performances of the Company’s The Nutcracker on December 19, 1965. Boston Ballet easily earned the devotion of local audiences and, in a short time; the Company won the respect of the international community as well. Boston Ballet toured throughout the United States, Mexico, Italy, France,England,Russia and China. I'm proud of my aunt and wanted to include some sort of tribute to her. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in her private box at the Wang Theatre in Boston. http://bostonballet.org/  www.bostonballet.org/school/default.html

if you want it to work."-Susanna Clark

From Article by Chris Knight - Ezine Articles

 Love him and his philosophy or not, it is undeniable that he has had a positive impact on millions of people. He has sold over 30-million motivational tapes, published three best-selling self-help books, more than 2 million people attended his seminars and another 10,000 (including myself) have attended his mastery university in Hawaii. His core products include Get The Edge - Unlimited Power - Date with Destiny - Mastery University and more. Here are the top 10 lessons that I learned from Tony Robbins: 1) By altering your body's physiology, you can achieve an immediate change of your emotional state. The mind will follow whatever state your phsyical body is in and not vice-versa. 2) Ask specific questions of yourself (in your self-talk) to direct and control your attention to the various aspects of the human experience. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions you ask of yourself. 3) Get leverage to create personal change by associating an old behavior with massive pain and the desired new behavior with massive pleasure. Tony is a big believer in the pain/pleasure principles of life and this applies in business as well. 4) When you get stuck, interupt your limiting pattern by doing something totally unexpected. 5) You can condition your behavior by visualizing it over and over again. This is not exactly unique to Tony Robbins, but he does reinforce this message in all of his products. 6) Goal-setting strategy: Know your end outcome; Take massive intelligent action; Have sensory-acuity to notice if you are getting the results you desire and if not; change your approach; and change *until* you get your end outcome. 7) Create a "Compelling future" by vividly imagining your end result to generate enthusiasm and power within yourself. The past does not equal the future. Find beliefs that support your goals and desires. 8) Youth is Power! This is one of Tony's beliefs. Even if you don't have fancy degrees, your youth can still mean power, flexibility and opportunity for your life. 9) Principles of CANI! CANI stands for Constant And Never-ending Improvement. It's a basic tenet of Tony Robbins. 10) NLP can be useful. NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming and there are many NLP undertones in Tony's basic tenets. He went on to morph NLP into his own technology called "NAC" (Neuro Associative Conditioning). Need inspiration? http://InspiresYOU.com/

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Knight

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."-Tony Robbins 
http://www.tonyrobbins.com/


Chris Knight is also an Inspiration to me personally and I highly recommend his articles for your reading enjoyment

 

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LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE ANY OF THEM......Thanks, John.

JOHN INVITES YOU TO THE CRACKER BARRELL PUB 

http://www.genebase.com/node/A19621 

 

 

 Sprague, Call and Cushing and Jones families 

 

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