# Greg Becomes a Dance Fan



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Well, well, well ...

Firebird at ABT was amazing. What luck, eh? I know this is supposed to be an opera blog - I'm an opera guy - but there isn't any opera right now. Sorry. First Romeo & Juliet was awesome, and then my VERY NEXT BALLET - Firebird was amazing. I bow very very deeply to Alexei Ratmansky, who choreographed it. I ran out afterward and got another ticket for the next night's performance, which I didn't get as good seats for - for some reason, in ballet you WANT the balcony tickets, not the orchestra tickets, and I didn't realize that - and so I didn't enjoy the second night as much but I'm reverberating again today so I'm glad I did it.

One of the neat things about it is, it's choreographed for lesser talents. Fat dancers would make this ballet look good. I'd love to see fat ones dancing it. The Spokane Tri-County International Hokey Pokey Festival would be worth seeing, in it. It doesn't need the spectacular leaps and the Olympic level athleticism the ABT is well stocked for. The second night was a star cast, while the first night was the B team, and I couldn't tell the difference. I am a ballet tyro, so what do I know, but that's how it appeared.

It's not a very long piece, so it was paired with "Dream," Frederick Ashton's choreography to Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, and THAT was stultifying silliness. (Alastair Macaulay in the NY Times described it as "an unalloyed masterpiece of poetic drama" lol. And then described Ratmansky's absolutely unparalleled (well, what do I know, right?) pas de quatre from Firebird as "meandering." It was not meandering. There was (to me) obvious and intelligent purpose. That pas was where the bullet found its mark.) I had the sense, my second night, to wait until the interval to go in, so I didn't get tired and bored watching the pantomime. "Dream" is basically a mime act with one great dancer required (Puck).

Another neat thing about Firebird is, it tells its story without pantomime. It's not free of mime, but mime is not a significant element. It gets you thinking, and it gets to your heart too, and the combination is pretty stunning. But gosh, if you have a chance, go see it.

Now I read it was premiered only a few months ago! wow. what luck. The dance has only been in existence since March 29. (Well, apart from rehearsals lol). I read the review of it in the Wall Street Journal and the reviewer completely missed the point. S/he liked it - but on a superficial level. It wasn't meaningful to him/er. Ah, who knows. I had a great time tho. Made me feel extremely lucky. Like I said, I'm still reverberating, two days later.

And I went and picked up a ticket for the Mark Morris revival of Dido and Aeneas in late August, which I don't know if you've seen the Met's production of the opera Orfeo et Eurydice - it was one of their Live in HD productions, there's a lot of cities around the world where you could have seen it - but Mark Morris did the dances for that one and they were just heartstopping. Meltingly lovely. So we'll see. I guess I'm becoming a ballet fan. Or I should probably say dance fan, since all dance is not ballet.

But for some reason I was emotionally wrecked yesterday, barely even got out of bed. Sanity did not arrive until very late in the afternoon. Well, I can do that one week, not two. By next week the laundry will be screaming at me. Hi ho.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I had no idea who Mark Morris was till I read the current issue of LISTEN. Great interview.

Enjoy your blogs and your enthusiasm over what you're experiencing. Keep it up!


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