Having never gone to an official ballet performance I wasn’t to sure as to what I should expect with the Complexions performance. Sure, I had seen performances on Television before but, all of them seemed to be in cartoons and more often than not depicted women wearing the infamous tutu that were complimented with pink tights and shoes. Despite having these ideas circulating in my head before the performance I decided to put them aside and view the performance without any other influences rather than the essence of the performance itself. The performance was taking place in the Joyce Theatre, a small theatre in respect to many of the others that I had been in before but, nonetheless, a nice and rather luxurious place.

After walking in and taking my seat within the performance hall I looked around and everything about the place looked like a broadway performance. From the seating arrangement to the deep red curtains covering the stage, the aura that the place created was appropriate for what was to come next. Once the lights dimmed and the curtains were raised a few people stood on the stage in a statue like composure all waiting for the cue to begin. Right from the start I knew that this ballet wouldn’t be one with tutus or pink ballet shoes and knowing that became far more attentive and interested than I originally was.

As the performance began, all of the dancers began moving and executing carefully choreographed movements which really made the performance and the entire idea of ballet come alive in my eyes. The amount of effort each individual was putting into the performance truly made it self known as all of them did actions that most people probably couldn’t even attempt to do. As they raced from one side of the stage to the other all in harmony with one another, the beauty of their effort and the performance began to reveal itself. With such swift and carful movements, all of which having to be learned by each individual within their team to make the performance that we so calmly sat down and saw, required an immense amount of effort. Knowing that and for them to make it so easily seen for us as their sweat literally shot through the air while all of them gasped for air, I realized that I had a new found respect for ballet. One that I never knew I had but after seeing the Complexions performance and the amount of work and devotion that went into creating it, it was one that was well deserved.