THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY Fall 2017 | Baruch College | Macaulay Honors

I have never been to the ballet before, nor have I been to the opera. This was also my first time at the BAM. Let’s just say, that night was a night of new experiences for me.

As the show began, I was slightly surprised by how bare the stage was.  I was expecting a stage that was full of people, perhaps wearing bright costumes. (Although, I wasn’t too sure whether or not I would see a lavish costume display- fore I have never been to the opera). I was amazed at how there was a story going on that I was not aware of. I knew that there was something happening based on watching the actors’ facial expressions or body language. However, I didn’t exactly understand what exactly was occurring in this Café.

When the show came to an end, the audience burst out into applause. I thought I missed something, because I did not know the reason why everyone was feverishly applauding… oddly enough, this inability to understand why exactly or what exactly had been told over to the audience didn’t perturb me. I feel that I learned from the presentation of Café Mueller that you don’t always have to be totally in the know to enjoy something. I might not always get what exactly there is to appreciate behind the art, yet, this should not diminish from my ability to appreciate the artistic display.

I enjoyed the ballet segment tremendously! I thought the dancers were so beautiful and graceful. I was so impressed and blown away by their ability to gracefully articulate a story without their words. The dancers were so vigorous yet elegant, something I found beautiful and unique.

I would highly consider seeing a ballet again! I enjoyed the Rite of Spring far more than the modern opera. I love how now I am more aware about accessible theatre venues in New York. I can for sure look into more shows to see, different than that which I am used to- something I really do value and enjoy!

– Yael Magder

I sat in my narrow theater chair with my tightly sealed “theater cup” in my hand, anticipating what I was about to be seeing. I was prepared to witness emotion through dance, but I was not anticipating the overbearing lack of vocals or aggressive nature of both scenes.

After researching Pina Bausch, I understood that her main artistic goal was to express emotion through dance. In the first scene of Cafe Muller, a woman, whom was often played by Pina Bausch herself, walked aimlessly and blindly through a stage overflowing with obstacles. An unknown main appears and works endlessly to clear her path, which allowed me to make my own personal connections with this visual metaphor. I began to realize that this man’s goal was to clear the path for a helpless woman, which allows a viewer to create their own story behind each character.

It was my first time experiencing interpretive dance, and I was unsure of how I was suppose to feel. Not until after the show, I came to the epiphany that the beauty of interpretive dance was how it made each viewer feel differently. Every person in the opera house was experiencing something completely different, allowing the freedom of their own expression and emotions.

I understand now that every form of art draws out some sort of emotion in every one, even if I was unable to comprehend the overall storyline of each scene. If I were to watch it again, I would allow myself to keep an open mind, and allow my own emotions to take over.

After viewing this opera, I was left with numerous amounts of emotion flying within me. My first impression when I walked into the venue was that the ground floor consisted of chaos. Everywhere. After waiting for the elevator to enter, the inside of the actual auditorium was beautiful. As other classmates have mentioned, the ceiling was magnificent. There was so much detail and glory in just the ceiling itself that I became excited as to what the show was going to entail.

The first part of the show left me speechless but not in a good way. I was not able to interpret what really happened. To me, the show lacked plot. Or I was lacking understanding of all the intervening layers of the show. As for what I was able to understand, the dancers were really showing such strong raw emotion about their destinies. They kept repeating the same movements over and over again, just sped up. I wonder what that signifies.

Post intermission, the vibe of the whole show shifted. It no longer felt depressing. The whole set of the show had been changed to some sort of dirt/sand floor and this part was much more of a choreographed routine. There was also a much larger crowd this time, all synced with one another’s dance moves. In all honesty, this part was a lot more interesting to watch just because there was a lot more going on and a lot more to interpret.

My interpretation of this whole night was a big question mark. Clearly, the show was a powerful uplifting according to the standing ovation it received in the end. Looking forward to having a class discussion on the show this week so I can grasp a much better understanding and insight on the deeper meaning of the event.

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.

Upon (somewhat frantically) entering the the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House and ascending to the balcony level, I immediately found myself in awe of not only the size the of the theater, but the ornate and intricately lit ceiling. My eyes were immediately drawn to the very center of the ceiling. Café Müeller began shortly thereafter, a performance of repetition and routine by characters that seemed to feel obliged to their fate. While at the beginning of their performance their actions seemed deeply meaningful and profound, as the night progressed and the same movements became rushed and redundant, they seemed to lose most of their meaning. Despite the setting being a café, it was vaguely reminiscent of a mental institution complete with an attendant and possibly a visitor; the woman that took little part in the dancing but ran back and forth between certain scenes. After a brief intermission, The Rite of Spring Began. Speaking very candidly, I was not entirely enthusiastic about attending the ballet at the start of the night- the time and the commute seemed like obstructions and obligations. However, by the time the second act was over, I teared up at the beauty of it. The Rite of Spring seemed to place a huge emphasis on the interactions and tension between the men and women of the group. The tension slowly escalated throughout the performance until it felt practically unbearable. The resolution seemed to begin when the chosen woman put on the red dress, symbolizing sacrifice, and danced like nobody else on the stage had. The experience was entirely captivating and believable. I was especially amazed that she experienced a wardrobe malfunction and continued her solo entirely unfazed- a true mark of dedication.

Veronica Funk

I have never been to a ballet in my life nor stepped into an opera house. BAM Opera House hit me with unexpected feelings of confusion and with a new outlook on art. BAM was an esthetically pleasing architectural structure which lacked an efficient entry way to the theater on the third floor. On the first floor, there was only two elevators which lacked organized lines leading up to them. The theater itself was stunning and my fellow classmates and I sat towards the left side of the balcony facing the stage. After watching the ballets, I felt the shows lacked a plot, repeated the same motions and were confusing. Overwhelmed by the first show, I asked the person next to me what they made of the show and the young lady answered, “the show was amazing it is what you make of it”. Her response, further confused me and made me wonder what she actually made out of it and what I missed. Exemplified by the response of the young lady sitting next to me, the audience did not feel the same way as I did. When each of the two shows ended everyone started clapping and many stood up to give an ovation. It was the longest and loudest ovation I was ever a part of. The audience loved it and I was still taking it all in. A day and a half after the performance, I am now blogging for this assignment and reminiscing how I left the performance with a “what”?  Thus, I am very interested in hearing the discussion we have as a class about the ballets.

Andrew Langer

For someone who has never visited an Opera before, I was genuinely intrigued as to what I was about to get myself into. Immediately, from the walk off the 4 train towards the Opera House, I could see the commotion around the city. Everyone on Atlantic Ave. had somewhere to go, and many of them were headed in our same direction. I didn’t expect the crowds that were present that night, and was excited for the night to start.

Upon arrival to our seats in the theatre, I could see why this place was named BAM! The architecture and aesthetics of the entire theatre really opened up your eyes and created an atmosphere of awe and wonder. As the theatre went dark and silent, and calm hush went through the crowd, and everyone was curious as to what was about to happen.

Personally, the first play was very confusing although the overall repetition of the actions of the main characters began to help with the process of understanding what was going on. The way how some characters had the same movements the entire play were very interesting and showed me that everyone plays their role, no matter how minimal, to create a beautiful story. The second play was however much more interesting to me because of all the different movements and synchronized dance that gave emphasis and importance to the story. The dull dirty colors of the entire play were offset by the red piece of cloth that begin to transform throughout the play to serve different roles for the characters it pleased. Overall, the 2nd play was very engaging and interesting to watch.

The conclusion I came away with on this night was that Art is always subjective, like we discussed in the beginning of the class year. During intermission, we asked peers, security guards, ushers, and other viewers to describe their meaning of the play to us. The most common answer from all these sources was that, “Art is what you make of it, just like this play is what you make of it.” After seeing tears from the lady sitting in front of us, I truly understood the meaning of this answer and profound statement.

Abishek (AJ) Johnson

As I entered the theatre, I was in awe of all the people that arrived to watch the opera. There was a huge flux of people coming into the theatre, making their way to their seats. I was taken away by the ambience of the theatre itself. The architecture was so intricate that  it added to the aesthetic of the play as well. As I took my seat, I was almost scared I would fall over because we were so elevated. I usually watched plays looking straight at the actors. It was the first time I saw it in that viewpoint, and it was a different experience. You get to see what’s going on throughout the play from all the angles of the stage. The music played a huge role in the opera, when the movements of the actors and actresses were based solely on the opera itself. We learned in my English class, you won’t be able to interpret texts if you’re not invested or at least put the effort to be invested. At first, I didn’t understand what was going on with the repetition of the girl running towards the guy, and continuously being put down on the floor. As the play progressed, she was being slammed across the walls. When the man and woman kept hitting each other against the wall, you could feel their passion and frustration they were dealing with in the opera. I saw it as a blind girl finding love, and even though the odds are against her. She keeps fighting for the relationship, which showed the compassion and loyalty she encompassed for him.

The second scene had a different vibe compared to the first one. They brought out huge dumpsters filled with dirt, and synchronized male and female dancers. The music was so intense and the moves the dancers were doing was so sharp and almost aggressive as well. It brought a new tone for the opera. It was definitely my favorite part of the entire opera. Even though I didn’t fully comprehend what was going on, I got a feeling and interpretation from the music and movements of the characters.

I arrived to my destination around 6 p.m. I had a familiar sense of the neighborhood being that I spend most of my time around Barclays Center. The BAM Opera house stood out to me. White decadent stones rising almost 6 floors high. Across the street, the loveliest artwork and petite café. The building was beautiful, the surroundings were amazing, the inside bar followed by the elevators and every detail, even down to the bathroom, were just greatly organized. Overall, you can tell I liked the venue and the overall scenery was great but then it came tumbling down.

It didn’t come tumbling down for any negative reason but for the reason that I wasn’t understanding what was going on. The first performance to me seemed so odd and repetitive. The man kept dropping the woman as if he had no control, they would throw each other on walls and the woman would constantly just take her dress off. It was odd and I thought I was being played. I thought that everything being portrayed to me was just nonsense. Maybe I was tired from the long day and wasn’t thinking straight? Maybe I was just hungry? But, I genuinely didn’t understand what the narrative could’ve been. I went along to ask a lovely British couple sitting across from me what they thought of the play and it shocked me to hear what they had to say. “I believe it showed the relationship between man and woman. How the man and woman can go through the same trouble constantly and still manage to develop by the end.” This stunned me because I was seeing what the man was saying. The man and woman in the play went through heart break and trauma constantly for love. Constantly fighting (Throwing each other on walls) and not being able to hold each other down (Dropping the woman like a rag doll repetitively) were some of the many explanations to the first play.

The second play was far more entertaining. It took place on this dirt, that the crew struggled to move out in the large garbage cans. All the male figures were shirtless and the woman had this white almost see-through dress on. Both very vulnerable to the dirt and that was greatly seen as the play went on when they were completely covered head to toe. The dancing was exciting, moving, and quite enjoyable. While watching this part of BAM, I began to focus less on what it meant and more on sitting back and just enjoying the overall performance. By the end of the work, I gladly stood up to give a standing ovation to the crew that performed. It deserved every seat that rose because in my opinion, it was spot on.

Overall, the BAM experience was delightful yet a hassle at the same time. Confusing, but definitely enjoyable and I would definitely recommend anyone who has the time to take a friend or a loved one and really get that full experience of the theater and the performance.