I’ve never been to a ballet before so I didn’t really expect much. To be honest, I thought I would hate it. Boy, was I wrong!
The first ballet piece was my least favorite. I didn’t hate it and it wasn’t actually that bad, but relative to all of the other ballet pieces, I definitely liked it the least. There was just so much going on with so many dancers on the stage, which made it difficult to focus. After the first piece, I thought, “hey, maybe this won’t actually be so bad” since it was far from what I expected and it only got better from there. I thought it was interesting how the audience applauded for particular dancers after the first act was over when each dancer bowed on stage. If I recall correctly, this only happened after the first ballet piece.
My favorite piece was the second one. I loved the costumes and how there were only three dancers on stage, so we could really focus on their individual movements and it wasn’t too overwhelming on stage. My favorite part of that piece was when the three dancers dressed in bright green were moving together on one leg. Sorry for my horrible description – I have no idea what this move is called. I also really loved the costumes because they were so bright and flashy – lime green is really not the color I would picture with ballet. However, the most interesting part of the piece was how the music started before the curtains were gone and I thought that was really helpful in setting the mood of the piece.
I was intrigued by the third piece since that was the only one that had more of a story. The gunshot noises made me flinch and I thought it was cool how they could incorporate sound from besides the music into the piece. The story also made it easier to understand what was going on, compared to the first piece. I really liked the use of characters, a story, and dance in this piece, but the second piece was still my favorite.
I never thought I’d say this, but I like ballet and I’m looking forward to the opera!
I like this reflection, Sandy. I liked your analysis of how in ballet, music first sets the mood, followed by the dancing.
I agree with the point you made about having too many people on stage. Sometimes, when I watch performances, it’s really hard for me to focus with too many people on stage. Instead of appreciating the art itself, I find myself only able to appreciate the synchronization of many people performing the art, which is not the same.
I’m sure that if I had been able to attend the ballet, I would probably enjoy the second piece. Reading your response to the ballet has taught me that watching dance in person is completely different than on a screen.