Ballet Makes Me Feel Inadequate

Wow! I am left absolutely speechless, but your sake I will try to put it into words.

Spectaculafabulocrediblazing! Is that a real word? Well it works for me because that's what it was like.. almost indescribable. I know the picture above is a little fuzzy, but I think it aptly portrays the surreal nature of last night. I captured this while walking through the Lincoln Square Plaza when the magic was just beginning.

The first act was "Divertimento" and was a simple taste of ballet - no props, no elaborate costumes, just good old fashioned dancing. I liked it, being the simpleton that I am, but Ana thought it was slow and mildly uninteresting.

That changed with the second act, "Friandises". We were fortunate enough to be at the world premier of this piece, which had been commissioned for the centennial of Julliard by the NYC Ballet Company, and I get the feeling it will be around for some time to come. It was like watching Mexican Jumping Beans compared to the Pinto Beans of "Divertimento". Awesomely dynamic and physically demanding, the dance was a display of how exciting ballet can be.

Our final piece of the evening, "Union Jack", is apparently a celebration of the bicentennial of British-American heritage. It was broken into three pieces, each with all the pomp and circumstance we've come to expect from proper British folk. The first part was a march of tartan clad dancers, a procession of clans that eventually filled the entire stage. The second part was a pseudo-vaudeville act, and I was suprised to see a bit of humor in ballet. Who knew? The final part was much like the first, except with the dancers dressed as Sailors from the fifties. It seemed like there were thirty or so Fred Astaires bounding about on stage.

My ass was numb by the end of the evening and I was lightheaded from the lack of oxygen at such high elevations, but all in all I was very pleased.

One observation about ballet however; it mimics real life. While both ballerinas and ballerinos are graceful, it's the women's dance which seems more demanding. It often seemed as though the men were present simply as accessories to the women... there to hold them, turn them, and lift them up in the air. The difficult maneuvers (toe points, still poses, etc.) are performed by the women. I didn't see a single man do the splits, I didn't see a single man hold a pose for more than a second.

Just like real life.