The Ballet

Out of all the museums, memorials and shows we have gone to, the ballet was the only experience that I had never gone through before. I have been to art and photography museums before this class and I have been in plenty memorials and Broadway shows (which is closely related to the Opera). Going to a show solely for the dance was a first.

Just like the ballet, I will break down my post in three different parts, each part discussing one of the three ballets that we watched:

In the first ballet, all the dancers where elegant, VERY talented and perfect! The simple setting set the tone of this part of the show. The chandeliers, which is the only piece of scenery that was in the first act (or at least, it was the only scenery that i remember), set the mood of a ballroom for dancers to do what they do best. Every hand gesture and lift of the foot was perfection (Yes, I am using the word perfect again because the dance was EXACTLY that, and nothing else).

The second ballet had a story line, which at first thought would keep me interested. However, because there was no dialogue, it was difficult for me to follow what was going on. Even though I didn’t understand the story, the scenery in this act, including the dancers clothing, was beautiful. The exact opposite of the other act, this act had large walls with painting and desks and chairs and a couch and a piano in the back with dancers with elegant 19th century attire. In addition, the dancers danced a lot softer than the first act with less “crazy” moves.

The best part of the last act was what the dancers were wearing. They used their uniform with one side silver and one side maroon to create patterns and moves that pleases the eye. However, in this part of the ballet, I saw a lot of screw ups. When the dancers jumped to great feats, they didn’t always stick the landing.

To conclude, I would like to point out something that we didn’t point out in class today. When I was using the binoculars, I focused on some of the female dancers’ faces. Some faces were very serious, probably because all they were thinking about was what was the next move that needed to be done. However, some faces had smiles on their faces. But it didn’t seem like natural smiles to me, it seemed artificial–fake. Now to leave you with a question, why do you think they were smiling? Was it real?