Aside from watching several high school musicals and ballet performances, I’d never had the opportunity to watch a professional ballet, that hundreds of people seem to spend a considerable amount of money to view with friends and family. I was especially looking forward to being able to sit down, after spending the afternoon walking around the Whitney, and appreciate a kind of artistry that wasn’t hanging on a wall, or that required removing my shoes.
Arriving slightly early, I was able to capture the appeal of the BAM as an architectural work. Personally, the rectangular windows, rounded off at the top inspired a church-like feel, and as a whole, the BAM did not resemble any of the institutions we had previously visited as part of the class. Entering the building was, in my opinion, the first part of the BAM experience, as it was reminiscent of standing in a crowded train, with more people entering at each stop. Walking through the elevator doors, and eventually through the entrance of the theater, I was pleasantly surprised by not just the size of the theater, which contained three balcony seating areas in addition to the floor seating, but the intricacy of every detail in the room from the golden plating of the ceiling designs to the vertical aisles located to the left and right of the stage.
The stage being full of chairs and tables, I’d assumed Cafe Muller was going to in one way or another, involve the restaurant setting as part of the plot. When the first actress came out, dressed in a bright white gown, another actor came out removing any chairs from her way as she walked in seemingly random directions. Though the play did introduce other characters, a man and a woman, appeared to play the main roles. Throughout the play, the man and the woman displayed an overt, yet complicated relationship toward one another, with the woman running up to the man and clasping him in her arms as another man came to adjust their position, placing the entire weight of the woman in the man’s hands as he repeatedly dropped her. At another moment, the man and woman repeatedly threw each other against the wall, making evident a feeling of frustration. Generally, I thought Cafe Muller was definitely an abstract work of art, but also abstract in the sense that it was difficult to draw a conclusion regarding the relationship between the main characters, as well as the content of the plot. During the intermission, I’d asked one of the ushers whether they’d enjoyed the play, and had received an answer that I later found out several of my classmates had also received from others, and that was essentially “everyone finds their own meaning,” and “you have to watch it multiple times to grasp the concept.” Though I did not find these answers rather meaningful, I took their advice and rewatched several clips online, which did essentially allow me to more thoroughly understand if not the plot, then the emotions of the main characters.
After watching the Cafe Muller, which I found, at times, difficult to follow, I found The Rite of Spring to be much more conceptually concrete, as well as visually stimulating. During the intermission, several stage workers had dumped the contents of several barrels of dirt onto the stage, and spent the remainder of the time evening out the pile across the stage. Unlike Cafe Muller, this play conveyed less of an ambiguous tone, and more of a tribal connection among the female dancers dressed in white. Throughout this play, the dancers had in common what seemed to be a worship, or even fright of a red towel that had been introduced at the very beginning. At one moment, one of the dancers raised the red towel above her, inciting a reaction among the rest of the dancers to gather behind the towel staring at it, leading the viewer to speculate its significance. Eventually, they started to dance in dramatic and synchronized motions, which we can only assume was a reaction to the red towel. Overall, however abstract, I found this play to be much more active, as well as interesting to watch, at least the first time around. The plot, though once again was not fully evident from just watching the play, there were several elements to the performance including the dirt, and coordinated dancing that made watching the Rite of Spring a much more interesting experience.
Wow I loved your interpretation of BAM itself, and the way you described it as reminiscent of a train car with people coming in through multiple doors. I’m glad that you also felt the power and the allure of watching this physical display of art come alive before you. That, to me, was my favorite experience of the night. I think it’s awesome that you asked the ushers what they thought of this ballet and that you later took the time to rewatch several of the clips online so you could TRULY appreciate the beauty of it all. I think that’s really inspiring- to understand something that isn’t always easily understood by putting effort and thought into it- especially something as confusing as Rite of Spring (which, yes, confused me too!)
🙂
Jayne