The Royal Ballet

I went to the Royal Ballet tonight and it was AMAZING. It was a triple bill, so Alissa and I saw "Chroma," "Different Drummer," and "The Rite of Spring." 

Chroma was v. contemporary, and choreographed by a man who utilizes ideas from neuroscience and brain behavioral study in his choreography (Alissa, a neuroscience major, nearly had a cow when she found out...). The score for the piece included music composed by Jack White III (aka, the guy from the White Stripes). I can't tell you how cool it is to listen to "The Hardest Button to Button" as performed by a full orchestra at the Royal Opera House. 

Different Drummer was kind of disturbing. In a subtle way. It was about war. And the use of soldiers as science experiments. And climaxes with the hero killing his wife by stabbing her again and again with a razor. Cheerful stuff. 

The Rite of Spring was INCREDIBLE. Now, I know virtually nothing about dance. (I say virtually because I do know who Martha Graham is.) But I know this was good. The visual images that came alive on the stage were completely captivating. I was in the moment, the whole time. And, I am very rarely in the moment. I'm usually worried about at least four things at a time, some of them serious, others complete irrelevant when considered outside the bounds of my imagination. But while I was watching this piece, I was paying full attention. It was really cool. Not many things have that sort of effect on me. 

I saw it as exploring ideas of a primordial world, where power systems are arbitrary, but also completely unquestioned. Where life is up to chance, and people run around systematically imitating the people who are in line before them. 

It was also v. pretty. 

The set design was exquisite. The stage looked like it had been painted with grotesquely distorted images of giant feathers. Perhaps the result of an explosion of birds. Nothing too clean. But not as disturbing as that description may sound. 

The costumes looked like they may have come out of the closet used to dress the chorus members in The Lion King. Bright orange body suits with yellow and black and white hand prints all over them. They reminded me of those pictures of ancient cave drawings that one sees in the pages of National Geographic. 

The women also had on these awesome wigs. How they kept them on their heads is beyond me. I can't imagine how many bobby pins they must have used. The wigs kind of looked like very long mops, with the ends of the little robes painted black. When the dancers tossed their heads the ropes when flying into the air, only to remember while in the act of retreating from the stage that they were in fact tethered to the dancers, and had no choice but to return. 

Anyway, the show was beautiful. 

All three shows were beautiful, and made for a wonderful evening. 

Our seats were pretty high up, but not too high, and dead center. 

I loved it. I'm so glad I went. And I'm in a great mood right now. Can you tell?