Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

As promised, with everyone included, thanks to some photoshop magic.

Seeing the ballet was so cool! I had already been to one when I went to France, a production of Don Quixote outside of the Musee Matisse in Nice. That was awesome, so I was excited to see ABT, one of the best dance companies. I was definitely not disappointed. The dancers were graceful, swift, and almost poetic. I think seeing this production in particular was nice for someone like me who isn’t too well acquainted with ballet; the three different pieces kept my attention. Of the three, I didn’t have a favorite. I thought the story of the second was hard to follow, though I loved the dancing of the son, and the dramatized emotions of the dancers. The first one was classic ballet, which is always easy (for me) to appreciate. The coordinations of the couples in the first ballet were superb; everyone was miraculously exactly where they were supposed to be. The third ballet was awesome as well. I liked the set and the costumes; they were both simple. Besides the two lead ballerinas wearing red, all the other dancers were in red and gray leotards; red in the front, gray in the back. This allowed the dancers to play with the colors, spinning the ballerinas in such a way as to create a checkerboard pattern between red and gray. Though this third piece lacked a story, it was still great. Overall, I really enjoyed ABT and would go again.

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

Chaoscope in motion

For the layperson whose only prior experience concerning ballet was that of the tale of self-discovery in Billy Elliot and the parable of inner turmoil and shattering madness in Black Swan, the reputation of ballet certainly precedes the actual experiencing of its medium in the realm of popular culture. I would say this is for good reason: the witnessing of professional ballet is absolutely transcendental.

Ironically, when the term “ballet” is mentioned in the vicinity, what immediately comes to mind for me is not the physics-defying performance of titans among mortals witnessed at the Lincoln center, but rather, the image of your average elementary-aged school girl claiming she wants to grow up to be a Disney princess, Halloween tutu and all. The permeation of ballet and dance into the cultural diaspora, from young adolescent kids to professional football players, lends commentary to the arresting, visceral quality of movement as a concept fully ingrained into the human psyche. Evolutionarily, scientists believe that music itself as an art form could have evolved from the ability of our ancestors to discern emotion from motion. From square-dancing to the robot, from the Charleston to the Harlem shake, there is no denying that sometimes, as human beings wishing to express ourselves through ways that words can’t capture, we just have to move.

What the ballet gave me was the opportunity to see, with practice, refinement, and peak physical perfection, just what we can make our bodies do. The ballet showcases an absolutely incredible feat undertaken by titanic beings walking among the earthly. The organization of each and every dancer, the synchronized movements providing a sense of order in what would otherwise be chaos.

Let’s magnify onto the idea of chaos–commentary on art often likes to concern both the artist’s ability to control and hone his/her technique, yet also the artist’s ability to express the chaos of their flowing, creative energy. For me, the best art is art that makes chaos beautiful, art that you can identify with on the most wicked, visceral level. With that in mind, I would have to say that Piano Concerto #1 definitely was the shining performance of the night. Of all the performances, Concerto was the one that stole me. From the elegance of the background set of stars and crests, to the minimalist design of the dancer’s costumes celebrating the perfection of the human figure, Concerto was the dance of the most wicked chaos, striking that perfect balance between the cacophony and euphony of movement in which the dancers just let go. I feel compelled to say that during the performance, I did too. I let go, found myself lost, and honestly I’m not quite sure if I’ve ever found the way back.

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!