Category — Dance/The Body/Sport

The Ballet Theatre was another good experience through the seminar. It was my first ever time to watch ballet and I hadn’t expected to like it, because it seemed dull to me..however, it was not at all. I liked all three ballet performances and each one had some aspects that really appealed to me.

In the first performance, Theme and Variations, I absolutely loved the costumes of the performers they really caught my eye. It also seemed to me that it focused alot on the emotions and dance compared to the 2nd performance. It also seemed like the Metropolitan Opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in that both showed a romance between the main characters. However, in the ballet performance they used dance as a means of communication, where in Midsummer Night’s dream, they used opera. I also noticed that the moves were very refined, that is compared to the third.

In the second performance, I noticed that unlike the others it had a storyline. The stage, clothing..etc all looked like part of the performance. Instead of acting with their voice, the characters used dance to portray what they were thinking. I liked how there was more of a defied purpose to the second play than the others, but I found the dancing in performances 1 and 2 to be much better. I did however really like the part where one of the female characters began to use ribbons.

In the third performance, the costumes changed drastically. They seemed much more less fancy than the 1st or 2nd performances but they still caught my eye because of the different coloring on both sides. I also noticed that the scene changed into a more nighttime scene. This performance seemed more of pure dance compared to the others. It also seemed to involve a lot more teamwork and a lot of difficult moves.

Overall, I found all three performances to have a different application of dance. I am anxious to see what’s in store next.

-Sorry for the lateness

Our class trip to the bellet was nothing but amazing. Just beautiful. Being in Lincoln Center in itself just feels classy on its own. I know that the theater we were in, as we said in class, is not one of the biggest, but I was certainly blown away at its elegance.

I did not really think that ballet was anything special/unique or required a talent because I’ve just always viewed it as a little girl tutu dance swaying in slow motion, but I was proven wrong 🙂

The first part was by far my favorite. The dancers looked so majestic in their costumes. Looked absolutely flawless. They looked so beautiful, and when using my binoculars I was not able to see any struggle with the dance moves they were doing. I thought it was so amazing how the women would go on their toes the way they did. I can never imagine myself being able to do that. Must be so difficult, but they made it look so flawless. The amount of dancers on stage and how in sync they were blew my mind. It looked so professional- every turn, every jump, every hand movement was together. My favorite part was when the dancers would be on their toes and you can hear the “thum thum thum” as they were tapping across the stage.

I was not the biggest fan of the second part, the story part. However, the scenery was out of this world!!! I had no idea how it even got there!

I’d probably be criticized for saying this, but I always felt that the dancers arms were “just there” and never really understood the amazement of it or what part of it was considered talent because it just looked like it was floating… I was more interested in the other parts, but I guess the beauty is the posture and alignment with the body that they are able to maintain.

The final part of the ballet was pretty interesting. The choice of costume, being two different colors, was cool and very different. I’m a big fan of seeing new things- the setting with the floating symbols also, to me, added a little mystery to it and the randomness of it and never seeing anything like that made it so enjoyable to enjoyable to watch!

My favorite trip so far, and I would totally go again!

This was the first ballet I had ever been to in my life and it honestly wasn’t all that great to me. I can completely appreciate it, but I didn’t think it was anything awesome.

The performances were very good in terms of execution and elegance, but I didn’t see anything that I haven’t seen before on TV. As I watched the first performance I was not at all interested in it, I sat there with my face in my palm, hoping for something great or amazing, but I was let down. I didn’t see any amazing moves that caused me to become engaged in the performance, I was bored. Though I could see how perfect their steps were and how polished their ballet was, they performed their techniques with the utmost precision and never missed a beat, which was good, but not enough for me.

The second performance was once again, not really entertaining to me. I watched as the story progressed and the performers danced across the beautiful set, still bored by what I was watching, yet I could appreciate the hard work they did in order to get their ballet to be so on point and precise. I couldn’t really follow the story which brought down the appeal of the ballet because I didn’t know what was going on and who loved who, it was quite a trip. In all honesty the best part of the second performance was seeing the awesome stage and its refined details, but otherwise it wasn’t anything special to me.

The final performance of the night, was my favorite, I thought this performance had more power and I saw some really spectacular techniques that impressed me, but overall it still wasn’t amazing. This performance was the best in my opinion because I saw people spin the air and land on other’s shoulders and continue to dance, it felt stronger to me and I will say that this performance was good. I liked the choice of clothing and the way the set was designed, it was darker and set a more ominous mood. Seeing the performers dance so powerfully was like a light fighting to escape the darkness and that added to this ballet for me.

As for why I didn’t see these performances as outstanding, I think it’s because of the types of performances I’ve been exposed to. I grew up with breakdancing, and I’ve seen people do crazy things like spinning on their heads, backflips onto their backs and spinning, and even people supporting their weight upside down while only on their elbow. I also do parkour and do things that I think are way cooler and more amazing that what they do. Growing up like this has raised my bar for what counts as amazing and on my scale, ballet doesn’t meet the mark for being great. To me it was fairly boring and I wouldn’t go to another ballet based on this experience. But to each his own.

I’ve always loved watching dance performances, but was never really interested in ballet. I thought ballet performances would be kind of slow and boring as opposed to loud and exciting. I can honestly admit that Thursday night’s ballet was extraordinary. It has been my first time attending a ballet of any sort and surprisingly, I enjoyed it.

What shocked me the most was how precise and graceful the dancers moved. The movements and choreography were beautiful. The elegant movements made the dancers look extremely young. I would have never thought that they were old. It looked as if these dancers were training since they were young. They looked developed, grown, blossomed. Each movement sparked an emotion. I couldn’t get my eyes off the stage.

The first and last pieces were what I thought all ballets were like. I always believed that a ballet had no story, that a ballet was supposed to target your emotions with the beautiful sight and the soothing music, and that ballets were supposed to be just beautiful and perfectly coordinated. And those pieces were just like what I imagined ballets to be like.

What I found most exceptional was the second piece. Although many others disliked the second piece, I really enjoyed it. I enjoy story-like plays, plays that have a purpose. I enjoyed watching the dance moves and listening to the different types of music being played, while putting pieces together and trying to figure out what the story was about. It kept me focused until the end. Instead of just watching dancers move beautifully, I’d rather have something unique- a story, a turning point, an ending.

Overall, the ballet was a great experience. The perfection of movements, the coordination, the sets, etc. were extraordinary.

I really enjoy the ballet we went to. It was my  first ballet I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been recommending it to everyone I talk to.

The sets were incredible- I loved seeing the transformation between acts and the beautiful set designs- no matter how simple or complicated.

The dancers were also amazing. I have never seen people move like that before. The way their body moved, and their hand motions- it was really breathtaking. I was taken aback by how coordinated everything was. Not one person was out of line drink the whole performance. Everyone was in sync, making semi circles, lines, squares, all standing in a certain spot. To me that was the most amazing thing about the ballet- that everyone was so coordinated while doing all elaborate dance moves.I could never even dream of doing any of the things the ballerinas did- dancing on their toes, moving around- not my thing. but it was super amazing to watch and I loved watching from a distance.

I really like the first piece because it my mind that was what ballet was- girls dancing in tutus and guys in leotards. It was like the picture I had in my head of ballerinas. their costumes were sparkly and I loved everything about it (especially their coordination).

The second piece was unique because (as many people already wrote,) it had the power to tell a story through music and dance moves- nothing else. I never understood how that could happen, but now I understand and it was definitely something I won’t forget- even if the story was a little complicated at times. And again, the costumes and set were amazing.

I also really enjoyed the last part. Their moves were great and the music fit everything perfectly.

As I said before, and many times throughout this little blog- I really enjoyed the ballet and have recommended people who are not very into the arts to go see a ballet because it is so cool and definitely a must see at least once in your lifetime. so thanks to the Macualay class for making me go to that 🙂