“I’m from New York. Living in NY means that you have access to amazing opportunities and experiences — a plethora of them. World-renowned museums in NYC include the Metropolitan of Art, MoMa, and on and on. Then of course, there are the drama and the theater scene. A very dear friend of my parents took me to see the Boulsyh Ballet. At twelve years old, I was taking ballet at the time. I don’t know if I was an aspiring ballerina, but I was very into it nonetheless. She had these tickets that were probably expensive and rare. When she asked me if I wanted to go, I said yes, of course. I planned my outfit all week. I kept changing my mind, though. We were going to have lunch first and then the ballet. She surprised me by taking me to a Russian Tea Room, a very famous restaurant in NY. That was an experience itself. We had lunch and tea in the RTR and went to watch the ballet. It was of course one of the most stunning ballets. The prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya was absolutely breathtaking. It was a surreal experience. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! You could hear a pin drop in the whole place. My mouth hung open in some unnatural state for well over an hour. Years later, I took classes in museums, but this experience is one that still sticks with me. Even though I didn’t continue to study ballet after my teenage years, there’s always a fire inside me about ballet possibly because of this memory. I have a granddaughter, Madelyn. She has just started ballet, and she’s everything ballet — including her room. As soon as she gets a little older, I’m going to wait for some fabulous ballet to come to the Kennedy Center and take her out to lunch and to a ballet performance.”
Mimi Asamoah-Mensah