Prior to Thursday I had 0 experience watching ballet, I was initially worried I wouldn’t get it. The first act (Brahms-Haydn Variations) was where I really enjoyed the music.  I often stared at the conductor’s wild movements or looked at the sides of the orchestra to see what instruments were producing certain unique sounds. The dancing was wonderful too and fit the music tempo very well.  The second act was very “meh” for me because musically, and on stage, everything seemed to flow very slowly.  I recognize how skilled the performers are, but it’s not something I would want to see again. Part of this is probably due to me being an impatient person, the other part being the music I listen to is typically a lot more fast paced, throughout the performance I was kind of just waiting for something to happen.

Finally, The Green Table.  Everyone seemed to like this one.  I LOVED the beats the dancers banged out on the table at the same time, it was an intriguing source of sound because until then the stage was meant to be quiet, sounds come only from the orchestra or the piano.  Marcelo Gomes’ black outfit and ?face paint? were really awesome as well, he was a glaringly obvious metaphor for death.  The flag made interesting colors as it was waved around, and through my binoculars it really was just a white flag with red and black splotches, maybe another color as well (the colored lighting made it difficult).  The way he kept a beat by stomping his boot was satisfying as well.  I think the meaning was fairly obvious, the politicians/diplomats sitting at the green table had a disagreement, leading to fighting, leading to war, leading to death, and the cycle repeats.  It was just a really satisfying act to watch and a great way to end the show.

Going to the American Ballet Theatre for me was like a dream. The 6-year-old in me was jumping and dancing, the 12-year-old was trying to do all of the moves they did, and the present version of myself, 17-year-old, was mesmerized and melancholy at the same time. My initial reaction walking up into Lincoln Center was that it was a beautiful square. The fountain in the center surrounded by huge buildings on the sides was a beautiful architectural layout. I thought it was interesting to see women in ball gowns walking around next to little girls at the ice cream truck. I loved the marble floors and high ceilings of the actual buildings. Everything seemed like it was one giant piece of art, like the theatre was a museum itself.

As far as the actual ballet, I absolutely loved the first performance, The Brahms-Haydn Variations. I’m into big productions like that and I could only imagine how long it took to practice and perfect (though I did, of course, notice a few imperfections). The second performance, Monotones I and II, I thought was very seductive in that there were only three dancers. We were drawn then to every detail of their movements, they could hide no mistakes. It was interesting to see how the three bodies interacted with each other. The third performance, The Green Table, however, I completely hated. I know by saying that I’m going against mostly everyone else, but I came to see classical ballet, not a comedy. These dancers did not train their whole lives to wear outrageous masks or, in the case of the Marcelo Gomes, repeat the same 4 steps over and over again. I understand they were trying to tell a story, but there is still a story in the bodies and movement of the first two performances, and the dancers did not have to make fools of themselves. Watching the ballet made me a little nostalgic for the days when I thought I would be one of those dancers on the stage, and my body twitched with muscle memory, aching to move like that again.

Lincoln Center

The fountain in the middle of Lincoln Center

The program

Classmates from across the mezzanine

My illegal photo of Monotones I and II

Last Wednesday night, we went to the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center and saw three different, short ballets – The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Monotones I and II, and The Green Table. Looking back, I would say The Green Table was the most interesting, simply because it told a clear story. However, The Brahms-Haydn Variations definitely appealed to me the most. The splendor and grandeur of this particular piece struck me. Looking through the binoculars, I was amazed by the elegant movements of the ballet dancers, and astonished by the amount of dancers on stage, all moving in perfect sync.

The second piece, Monotones I and II, was much easier to follow than the other two. Having only three fixed dancers on the stage allowed me to better focus on the individual movements of all three dancers. (However, I must admit, it wasn’t until about halfway through Monotones I that I realized that two of the dancers were males.) I also really liked the music in this piece, as it was in sharp contrast to the grand, uplifting music of The Brahms-Haydn Variations; this music was more romantic and intimate. The story portrayed was also very interesting in that at some points, it seemed like the two members of one gender were fighting for the sole member of the opposite gender, while at others, at seemed as though they were “sharing” him/her.

The Green Table was probably the easiest piece to follow and understand. The story was pretty clear, even though some of it was cryptically hidden behind the majestic movements of the dancers (ex: the women being raped by the soldiers). I’d say the music and lighting contributed greatly to this piece. The other two pieces could be done without music or off-stage. This piece, however could only be done with its musical score and specified lighting patterns because they contribute to the atmosphere of the story itself and the message being portrayed.

Although it was the first time I ever went to see a ballet performance, I definitely realized the appeal of it towards some people. Despite the fact that these acts only took around 30 minutes each, it definitely took many years for the people performing them to master their skills. In The Brahms-Hayden Variations, for example, one of the main performers, Gillian Murphy, was clearly one of the more talented dancers on stage. Upon further investigation, I found that she joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1996, and performed ballet for more than 18 years. In order to have that much motivation, and to continually practice day and night, one would have to love ballet itself. As discussed earlier in class, most people would not want to undergo this grueling, should I say, torture. Only if someone truly enjoys this, would they continue doing it. From that night, it was proven to me that professional ballet dancers do this as a result of their love of this form of art.

As for my favorite act that night, The Green Table would definitely be at the top. Even though it had a lot of dancers, it was somehow easier to follow as a result of its plot. Like many people said, the first act was somewhat hard to follow because of the amount of dancers in it. Although I cannot disagree with this, I can argue against this. By providing a specific story line in The Green Table, the audience was better able to follow what was going on. Because of this reason, I would have to choose this act as my favorite.

Finally, I realized some very minute details which others may not have noticed. In every act, the performers had a different facial expression, which added to the overall mood of the performance. Aside from this, and especially visible with the pianists, the orchestra did not play in a pre-determined rhythm. They always looked at the dancers and determined their own pace from there. Instead of the dancers fixing their pace in accordance to the music, both fixed their pace in accordance to each other.

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!