A weekend full of dance
Nov. 9th, 2008 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dickensLast night was the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at Northrop Auditorium with my mom. Tonight was Savion Glover at Orchestra Hall.
The RWB performed three pieces, an early Balanchine work, a pas de deux that premiered this year and a relatively recent choreography of Carmina Burana. From mom's perspective, only the first two were 'Ballet'. I'm a bit more forgiving, even if the ballerina does not wear toe-shoes, she's still dancing ballet. But then, I know the 'vocabulary' better than mom does.
If you follow the RWB link, you can see the first Carmina Burana costumes on the tour poster. I would never have believed that a mid-calf-length, metallic-bubble-skirt could look so masculine. The first costume in particular made it very difficult to distinguish male and female dancers, which you don't usually see.
The Balanchine piece was interesting to me because there are 10 female and 1 male roles. Usually, you see an even number of corps de ballet (think greek chorus, but dancing) and two principals. If you look at the numbers, there's an extra woman in this one. I sit too far back to see if the danseur danced with both female principals, or just one of them.
The three were never dancing on stage together, except in 'full-cast' sections, it was both women, or one man and one woman. Again, not the dynamic you usually see in a ballet. There's no obvious story so it could be: the women are friends and one or both are seeing the guy, or they're lovers and one or both are seeing the guy. A lesbian sub-plot is hard to pin down, the ballerinas only touched twice in their duets, but it was always when they were dancing straight up-stage (backs to the audience) with their arms around each other's waists.
Savion Glover. Really the only thing you need to know about the performance is that he is a Tap Dance God. Any chance you get to see this man, take it.
The RWB performed three pieces, an early Balanchine work, a pas de deux that premiered this year and a relatively recent choreography of Carmina Burana. From mom's perspective, only the first two were 'Ballet'. I'm a bit more forgiving, even if the ballerina does not wear toe-shoes, she's still dancing ballet. But then, I know the 'vocabulary' better than mom does.
If you follow the RWB link, you can see the first Carmina Burana costumes on the tour poster. I would never have believed that a mid-calf-length, metallic-bubble-skirt could look so masculine. The first costume in particular made it very difficult to distinguish male and female dancers, which you don't usually see.
The Balanchine piece was interesting to me because there are 10 female and 1 male roles. Usually, you see an even number of corps de ballet (think greek chorus, but dancing) and two principals. If you look at the numbers, there's an extra woman in this one. I sit too far back to see if the danseur danced with both female principals, or just one of them.
The three were never dancing on stage together, except in 'full-cast' sections, it was both women, or one man and one woman. Again, not the dynamic you usually see in a ballet. There's no obvious story so it could be: the women are friends and one or both are seeing the guy, or they're lovers and one or both are seeing the guy. A lesbian sub-plot is hard to pin down, the ballerinas only touched twice in their duets, but it was always when they were dancing straight up-stage (backs to the audience) with their arms around each other's waists.
Savion Glover. Really the only thing you need to know about the performance is that he is a Tap Dance God. Any chance you get to see this man, take it.
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Date: 2008-11-10 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 09:18 pm (UTC)