# a new thing: taking students to see ballet



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I run an extracurricular activity, "Shakespeare Club." My school doesn't have the resources for us to act out the dramas, but we read and discuss the plays, and watch a lot of movies.

Finally I got my school to spring for tickets to see... not a play, which evidently doesn't happen much in Korea, but Prokofiev's ballet of _Romeo and Juliet_. (Five tickets, cheapest seats. But, as the saying goes, something is better than nothing.)

So before the ballet my students and I are going to have dinner together. What can I tell them, in your opinion, that might help them appreciate the performance? (At least one of these students is there basically against his will....)


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

How old are your students?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

If at least one of the students is there against his will, why would you force him to watch the performance anyway? I'm sure there are other ways the students could learn about different adaptations of Shakespeare's works.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Yeah classical music should never be forced upon someone. Luckily, I wasn't forced into it. I discovered the joys of it by myself.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Well, it's his mom's choice, not mine. (Believe me, and I mean this almost as nicely as it sounds, if I had my way he wouldn't have to go!)

Students are going into 7th & 8th grade. (One of them, one of the students I'm proudest of, going into 7th grade, has just finished _War & Peace_. Bravo for her!)


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

science said:


> Well, it's his mom's choice, not mine. (Believe me, and I mean this almost as nicely as it sounds, if I had my way he wouldn't have to go!)
> 
> Students are going into 7th & 8th grade. (One of them, one of the students *I'm proudest of*, going into 7th grade, has just finished _War & Peace_. Bravo for her!)


_Favouritism!_ And you're a _teacher_ too!!!


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> _Favouritism!_ And you're a _teacher_ too!!!


You better get used to it. You should be happy I don't just pick the richest students as my favorites, teach them for free, and charge the poor kids more. That would be _real life_.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

This appears to have degenerated into a chat thread. The mods might want to move it to the community forum.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

science said:


> You better get used to it. You should be happy I don't just pick the richest students as my favorites, teach them for free, and charge the poor kids more. That would be _real life_.


Thus I am a communist.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Thus I am a communist.


Good move, man. They let you on international flights?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

science said:


> Good move, man. They let you on international flights?


I just don't say anything.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I just don't say anything.


Oooh, good move. You know what I recommend? Robbing from the rich and giving to the... er, spending it immorally before anyone figures out what happened. Guaranteed cure for communism.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

science said:


> Oooh, good move. You know what I recommend? Robbing from the rich and giving to the... er, spending it immorally before anyone figures out what happened. Guaranteed cure for communism.


Or become a follower of Margaret Thatcher. She was very anti-communist.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Or become a follower of Margaret Thatcher. She was very anti-communist.


Never heard of her. I'm American. Now I do remember her husband, old Churchill Thatcher, who beheaded Queen Elizabeth and ruled for ten years, until William and Bloody Mary invaded from the Netherlands and overthrew him at the Battle of Hastings, giving freedom to Canada and Australia. Had to put Richard III in the Tower, poor man. If I remember right, you sent old William so many lilies that Edgar Allen Poe named it the War of the Lilies in his epic historical dramas, and the Dutch economy crashed in the great lily crisis. It was about the time that Beethoven paid Mozart to write his requiem, when Bach was inventing atonality, or equal distemperament. Everybody had syphilis, and the Popes were paying Michelangelo loads of money to paint naked men on church ceilings. Luther was repulsed by indulgences like that, and married a nun. So, yeah, I can see why people like David Lloyd Newton and this Margaret Cromwell you mention would hate communism. You see what a cray world we would live in without it.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

They loved it. 

It was a great show, they all had a good time, it was a huge success.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

science said:


> They loved it.
> 
> It was a great show, they all had a good time, it was a huge success.


That's great . What did the student that was there against his will think?

Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't put in my two cents before you guys went to see the ballet, but I would have recommended telling an interesting story or two about the composer in order to humanize them a little more. Preferably something related specifically to the composition of this piece


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

StevenOBrien said:


> That's great . What did the student that was there against his will think?
> 
> Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't put in my two cents before you guys went to see the ballet, but I would have recommended telling an interesting story or two about the composer in order to humanize them a little more. Preferably something related specifically to the composition of this piece


I kind of did that, I talked about Soviet ideas about art and Prokofiev's problems with that kind of thing. I didn't say much, though. I also presented the ballet in terms of a puzzle, that they'd have to figure out what was going on.

Anyway, I don't know if it made a big difference. The key thing was the ballet was great. The music was good, the costumes and choreography and stagecraft (lighting etc.) were simply perfect. All four were boys, so it didn't hurt that Juliet was beautiful or that the sword fighting was surprising intense.

(And along those lines, by some great coincidence our seats were in a sea of young women. Within the first few rows of us the ratio of women to men must have been 8:1. That probably didn't hurt. I teased the boys about it afterwards, and none of them even pretended not to have noticed.)


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

StevenOBrien said:


> That's great . What did the student that was there against his will think?


Sorry, I forgot to mention this. He was the least enthusiastic, but he enjoyed it enough that next time I think it won't be against his will.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

science said:


> Sorry, I forgot to mention this. He was the least enthusiastic, but he enjoyed it enough that next time I think it won't be against his will.


It's brilliant when that happens isn't it?  I am forcing MaestroViolinist to like atonal music against her will and soon I might be able to get her addicted to the avant-garde.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> It's brilliant when that happens isn't it?  I am forcing MaestroViolinist to like atonal music against her will and soon I might be able to get her addicted to the avant-garde.


I won't become "addicted," don't worry. I might end up liking it, but never addicted.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> I won't become "addicted," don't worry. I might end up liking it, but never addicted.


I'm sure that eventually I could get you addicted.  Just wait for a few months.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

You shoud give them a taste of atonal music. Surprise them.


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

You're such a good teacher, science. Were they generally enthusiastic or did they just "enjoy" it?
Perhaps next time Verdi's Macbeth or Otello? :lol:


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> You shoud give them a taste of atonal music. Surprise them.


I do stuff like that all the time. Many of my students are familiar with _Pierrot Lunaire_, _Black Angels_, and so on. I have one student who heard _Black Angels_ and immediately ordered about fifteen of Kronos Quartet's CDs.

I've also tried to turn the Justin Bieber fans onto Biber. Hasn't worked yet, for all my talk of sexy wigs.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

eorrific said:


> You're such a good teacher, science. Were they generally enthusiastic or did they just "enjoy" it?
> Perhaps next time Verdi's Macbeth or Otello? :lol:


That's nice of you. But don't credit me too much - the production was awesome, and that's what deserves credit.

Three of them enjoyed it very much. The body language doesn't lie: leaning forward in their seats, etc. It was a spectacle, and they enjoyed that.

I don't think any of them would hesitate to say they didn't like it if that's how they felt, and certainly not the one who was relatively less enthusiastic.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I'm sure that eventually I could get you addicted.  Just wait for a few months.


Ya wanna bet? ut:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> Ya wanna bet? ut:


I don't do bets that are unfair on my opponent.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I don't do bets that are unfair on my opponent.


 You are joking right? It won't be unfair.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> You are joking right? It won't be unfair.


I'm not joking.


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