The Ballet

[pubdoggy]

Now - seeing as this forum has recently had something of a topic-oreintated facelift, I thought I'd post my thoughts on a recently witnessed spectacle - The Ballet.

I went and saw (for the first time) a supposedly good Company (The Moscow Ballet) at a supposedly good venue (Sadlers Wells - London).

Well, I just didn't get it. I can totally appreciate the physical condition of the dancers, and the training they must have to undertake to put on a show - BUT - it seemed to me that the restrictions placed on their movement by the fact that they are Human was all too obvious. I was expecting gravity defying leaps and an almost liquid quality to the action. What I actually saw was people jumping a bit higher than the average bod and landing with a bit less thump, but overall it looked ridiculous - like me and my mates having a laugh after too much Absinthe.

I know that they are achieving something that one could only hope to get near after years of conditioning - but it just didn't look like it.

Needless to say everyone else there was crying, standing, applauding and begging for more.

I went home at the interval.

Anyone?

[jough]

There is more than one ballet.  Which one did you see?

Personally I've never been much of a fan of watching other people dance, be it on a stage at the opera house or on American Bandstand.

Now, opera, that's a different story.  I love concerts, which is basically listening to music while you watch the people sing and play it.

So basically what I'm saying is that people like what they like and some of them like to watch skinny people with ugly feet dancing.

[pubdoggy]

Opera. Yeah. There's something I can appreciate. One can't fail to be moved by someone giving you a lungful with a full orchestral accompaniment. Again, it wasn't the nature of the Ballet or the story that I didn't respond well to  - it was more the laughable limitations of the human body that were brought to painful reality by men in tights.

[jough]

Ah, men in tights.

Well, the ones that have women in tights are *slightly* more interesting.

The ones that have women that remove their tights and dance using a chromed poll to swing themselves around on are even *more* interesting.

So I guess I *do* like to watch people dance after all.  I'm just very specific about the manner in which they dance.




and their relative state of undress...

[CortJstr]

Again, it wasn't the nature of the Ballet or the story that I didn't respond well to  - it was more the laughable limitations of the human body that were brought to painful reality by men in tights.

Must professional wrestling ruin everything for us, the lowly commoners? If one of those guys can perform a Rube Goldberg Bulldog after bouncing off two sets of ropes surely trained dancers can pull off incredible leaps of superhuman ability.

[pubdoggy]

Must professional wrestling ruin everything for us, the lowly commoners? If one of those guys can perform a Rube Goldberg Bulldog after bouncing off two sets of ropes sure trained dancers can pull off incredible leaps of superhuman ability.

This is exactly what I was trying to say. Thank you so much.

[slink]

I have to say, I don't get it either.
Opera I do, say Purgoleisi's Stabat Marta, or Mozart's Figaro. One thing is I hate tenors and counter tenors. I basically hate guys singing opera.
And I don't like those big fat warbly women singing either.
So I'm picky.

Now, I know there are some dance shows that I have enjoyed, but they tend not to be ballet at all.
I recently saw at the Edinburgh Festival ths group called the Camut Band, who were a cross of Flamenco style tap and percussion, and they were rather good. Lot's of humour involved, no taking themselves seriously, and great percussive music, and very good dancing that was used as part of the percussion.
I'm sure there are other, more contemporary dance things I have enjoyed, but I cannot think of any right now.
But yea, I never got Ballet.
I'll have to not mention to my mother at any point you saw it at Sadler's Wells, since that's where she goes when she's in London to see whatever Ballets she goes to see.

[AlohaDawg]

There are two operas I really like: Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti) because it has this great scene where she goes completely insane singing all the while, and Carl Orffs "Carmina Burana" because, well, it sounds like the background music in HELL and it's way, way cool. I like classical music that sounds like Rock and Roll so Wagner, and Tchaikovsky and some others that wrote loud, huge symphonies are favorites.

As for Ballet: I'm with Jough in terms of "skinny people with ugly feet". Some parts of some Ballets are great to watch (Rodeo is kind of amazing -danced in BOOTS!) and I suppose I favor "Modern" ballets for the same reason I like Copeland and Gershwin.

I remember when we were little we read the story of "The Nutcracker" and then went to see the ballet. I was hoping for a big, cool battle with the mice and the soldiers.  It was a bunch of guys in tights and cups dancing by each other with swords. One had a penis head on. This extremely, well, for lack of a more appropriate (and I HATE using this word as an adjective for non-humans) "gay" fight scene has ruined "classical" ballet for me.

[andalucia]

I mostly thought it was cool that pubdoggy and friends drink absinthe.

[pubdoggy]

I mostly thought it was cool that pubdoggy and friends drink absinthe.

readily available and quite cheap in London, now. Even better mix 1 part Absinthe, 1 part Black Sambuca, set fire to it, pour the contents into a tumbler, but retain the fumes using a serviette over the original glass. Neck the tumbler then push a straw through the serviette and inhale the fumes. Ohhhhh shit!

Might even make Ballet look good.

[side_show]

I'm actually working on a project right now with a couple of contemporary dancers and they have a great deal of disdain toward the ballet in general.  For me, I judge good art by the extent to which it reminds me of my own humanity. I don't really like ballet either.  I find that I tend to apreciate ballet like I would a sport - mostly in relation to physical endurance and the struggle agains the limitations of the human body.  On the other hand I apreciate contemporary dance based on the emotions watching it triggers in me based on the performance.  Because I work in theatre I tend to only apreaciate geniune emotion, not representational movements that imply an emotion.  But hey that's me.

[AlohaDawg]

Well put side show! That's what art should be about. I have always thought that if ever I could read minds, I would go to the ballet and listen in. I bet 80% of the people are there because they feel 'obligated' to the 'arts' and that in their heart of hearts, they are really thinking either "this blows and I hate my wife for dragging me here" or "I wish 'art' was more 'relevant' to me" as if the ONLY kind of art there is hangs in the "right" galleries, or appear at the symphony hall downtown.

People fear alternative art because they are afraid they will LIKE IT and their snooty friends won't like them. Or they are afraid it will see them for what they are, or worse yet, they will see themselves for what they are. (Worse, I suspect).

I'm kind of crabby today, can you tell?

[side_show]

As performers, we snidely refer to the audiences of the long standing forms of art that still make money inspite of their lack of resonance as "the blue wash club" - ie white haired older ladies with blue rinse in their hair who want to watch a performance that doesn't require them to think for themselves.

As one of my friends always says "Yes, it's art, but it's not our art."