The American Ballet Theatre Performance

I was really excited to see the ballet, and for good reason… I loved it! To begin with, I love to go to Lincoln Center (not that I’ve been there so many times beforehand, only a few). I love the feeling right before we go in to see the performance; all dressed up, excited for what is to come, anticipation for the feelings I’m going to get from the performance…

So about the ballet. I really was amazed by it all. During the first ballet I started to notice that the ballerinas weren’t all in synch with each other. I got a little disappointed, but then I realized that I can’t even do a quarter of what they’re doing so who am I to criticize? After those thoughts I decide to focus on the actual movements of the body.

As I looked at their legs moving so gracefully, I thought that it is something that should be so effortless, but it’s not. I started to think of the way we all walk on a regular basis. Now, it seems so clunky and ungraceful. When we were going back home, I wanted to badly to be able to dance like a ballerina, so gracefully.

Another thing I thought when I payed attention to all their movements was yoga. I just did a yoga class this week and it was really hard for me, well, because I’ve only done yoga once or twice before in my life. Some of the dance moves that the dancers performed reminded me of some yoga positions. For example, in the last ballet, one of the sailors was standing on top of the bar and quickly changing positions. A lot of those positions were the same, or similar, to some of the positions that were really hard for me to do because of balance and flexibility.

Noticing how precise each move is really made me realize how hard it must be to keep a perfect form. Ballet really requires a balanced, flexible, strong body. Plus I love how well they can portray a story and evoke emotions (like in the second performance) without speaking, just body language. It was really beautiful to watch. Props to all you ballerinas and male dancers out there!

P.S. I really enjoyed hanging out with all you guys… You made it even more enjoyable than it was already!