I’m going to go right out and say it: the thing that surprised me most about the ballet was that the women did not wear tutus. I guess I’ve been conditioned to think this (most likely due to all the Angelina Ballerina I watched as a child) but it was odd to see nonetheless.

Now that thats out of the way, lets talk about the actual ballet. Note that my response will most likely just be ramblings of me covering everything and nothing at all (I’m quoting my Classical Culture professor here).

My favorite part was Monotone II because it was the most interesting and sensual. It didn’t really have a story but at the same time it did; it was a story about love. It was interesting to look at the contortion of the dancers bodies (I could not imagine doing that even in my wildest dreams). It was evident how much passion the dancers have for their art.

Something else I found interesting was the reaction of the audience. I couldn’t see their faces (because it was dark) but I saw how they reacted to their “favorite” dancers. The more famous of the dancers like Gillian Murphy got more applause than the other dancers. My eye is not trained to see the perfection in the dancing moves and I honestly did not see a difference in dancing.

Something I found cool was that the dancers were timed to the music (though not always timed to each other). Each movement had a corresponding music note. At the end when the orchestra left and there was just the piano, I did not realize at first (having just one instrument made me tune out to the music) and to me it felt a bit out of place.

The shocker was at the end of the night when the what I call the “12 Angry Men” shot the fake gun (or at least I thought it was fake) because it was unexpected. A heads up would have been nice (but would not have had the same affect).

Okay, so I think I have rambled off enough (and had enough parenthetical asides — see the pun?). Overall, I didn’t love the ballet but I didn’t hate it. Would I see these same performances again — no. But, I may see some other ones (that actually have  plot).