MJ and I took a much-needed break away from the daily grind of pre-birth procedures (I was very naive when I was a kid to know how much is required of childbirth, before the baby even comes out, and for some unlucky couples, what is required even before conception) to go to the Lincoln Center in New York City to watch Swan Lake, one of the most famous ballets of all time. I need to learn all the terms in ballet at some point like stepping on tiptoes all the time (looks painful) called en pointe, which the prima ballerina was pretty much on all the time, one of the famously rigorous performances for a ballet dancer, Odette (the White Swan) and Odille (the Black Swan). Ballet is apparently live and well in many places of the world including NYC as it was packed, and MJ and I crowded into one of the side boxes with a partial view, sitting within close proximity to strangers. In fact, the guy next to me (in the other box, that's how close we were) either had a breathing problem or was coming in and out of sleep during the whole performance, because the noises coming from him were almost inhuman, somewhere between a snort and a snore. The performance itself was done quite well, with a pit of professional musicians (it's New York City and the next building over is the Julliard School of Music, so plenty of top-level pros) and the distinctive solos of Swan Lake finally allowing me to collect the dots in my head that "Oh, the melody I've been hearing on various shows and in the radio is from the genius mind of Petyr Tsaichovsky in Swan Lake!" It's been happening a lot lately actually with music, like I just learned that "Tom's Diner" is the name of the song that introduces a bunch of Korean game shows, and Tom's Diner was the tune used to create MP3's.
Anyway, it struck me as novel/refreshing/eccentric/interesing that the ballet just started with no introduction by the conductor, no opening speeches, no subtitles to give the story, they just launch directly into the music, the performers perform, the intermission happens, the performers come back on, did another hour+ of feverish dancing, the audience went wild through various parts of the night, and they bowed and everyone went home. Not a single word was spoken, and it apparently didn't need to be; everyone was assumed to know the story of Swan Lake (I was a little fuzzy on the details but a show program cleared thinks up, Prince Siegfried is looking for love, finds Odette the Swan, but she's under a spell by Rothbart the evil sorecer, the two lovers find a way anyway despite a fake Odette called the Black Swan...) nor was the story really needed; the dancing just kind of speaks for itself I guess. No singing obviously, not an opera, and no dialogue was needed; this is just a physical form of art, with the tenor and mood and everything else the responsibility of the orchestra. Kind of like a baseball game or any other sports performance, actually: you rarely hear from any of the players, you just see them perform physically. Ballet may just be the arts' equivalent of baseball.
Box seats: I always thought of box seats as a luxury, like the owners of a sports team having private amenities and plenty of room to oneself high above others, but apparently ballet's box seats are.....not the most desired. For good reason. I earnestly thought going into the box intially (we got there early) that we had entered into someone's dressing room with coat hangers and a bench (these were apparently for us to hang our belongings on because the boxes themselves were so small we needed every single inch to place our physical bodies), and MJ had a hard time getting a clear view of the stage due to other patrons in front of her craning their necks, also in pursuit of a better view. I was impressed, though, how rapt at attention the whole audience seemed: apparently we were in a room with very devoted ballet fans who knew exactly when to clap, when to react when the dancers performed a difficult technique, when to laugh when Rothbart suddenly popped his head out to scare us: this was sophisticated New York life, and I had to get in line and appreciate and embrace the elegance. I did.....no cell phones, no bathroom breaks, just a little squirming in my tight seat to get comfortable....a very memorable night at the ballet in the box seats.
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