this weekend is definitely ballet weekend. after seeing the LA ballet last night, i was back on campus again this afternoon to see the state ballet of georgia perform giselle, one of my all-time favorites, at royce hall. it seems like i just keep coming back for more of royce, especially since i was just there last weekend for NSU culture night. this time, though, i was up in the balcony, soaking up a breathtaking view of the stage.
as i just mentioned, giselle is one of my all-time favorites. there's something about the story (which i hadn't actually remembered until i re-read the synopsis today) and the choreography (which is totally classic) that's just so romantic. it's only two acts, but the storyline is pretty simplistic, so there's not much to it. while the performance was beautiful (as it always is), i definitely wasn't as enthusiastic about it this time around. i guess i couldn't help not appreciating it as much, having just seen more modern ballet moves the night before.
it's sad how we can't isolate our experiences unto themselves. enjoying each for what it is. we seem to be in this constant state of comparison. one experience vs. the next vs. the next. all of them on some sort of bizarre continuum of good, bad, better, worse. what's more interesting? what's more intriguing? what's better at holding our attention?
worst of all, there were annoying kids in the row behind me, who weren't being shushed by their oblivious moms. but seeing as how i'd moved myself to empty seats, and they'd moved themselves to empty seats, i really didn't feel like i had the right to say much. so i had to just suffer through some random chair shaking that resulted from some random chair kicking. (ugh!) thankfully, they did manage to keep me awake as i was starting to snooze through parts of the second act. (sadness!) i really do love giselle, but in dim lighting, w/no action going on, there was very little worth staying awake for. (i know. it was quite tragic.)
all in all, the performance was quite good. but next to modern works, i definitely don't find traditional works nearly as creative or riveting....
1 comment:
I completely agree with you. We have this massive tendency to compare things-doesn't matter what it is-but we compare some thing to something else.
It's human nature, I guess. We organize and categorize to make sense of the world.
But some things-some experiences belong to categories unto themselves. Like no other moment will be quite like this one. So comparison's are ultimately pointless.
why do i have to "verify" this comment?
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