We had a pretty good view of the beautiful chandeliers!
Our view of the stage...who says the cheap seats are crappy? We had a great view of the stage!
Travis with a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie in front of Kennedy himself!I made a top ten things to do in life list with a friend a few years ago. I don't remember all of the goals, but there were a few right at the top of the list. One of them was to see the Kirov Ballet. I took ballet lessons for about ten years growing up, and although I am not so good, I know who is! The Kirov is one of the best companies in the world. The dancers study the Vagonova school of ballet, which is also what my little training was based on. So anyway, I've always wanted to see them. They came a few years ago, but only did Nutcracker and we couldn't get tickets. In August, we found out they would be coming to the Kennedy Center again. We put the ticket sale date on the calendar and back in October I spent an hour on the phone and finally scored two tickets to their Jan 26th performance. I wouldn't really have cared what they were dancing, but was pleased to see they were doing "La Bayadere", a ballet I hadn't seen before.
We traded some babysitting and headed to the show yesterday. It was the most beautiful dancing I have ever seen! Little did we know, but the Kirov (from St. Petersburg, Russia) is known for creating this ballet in 1877 and it's their signature work that they very rarely perform overseas. No wonder the show was sold out! The ballet is a classic story set in India about a love triangle in which the main girl is killed by a poisonous snake at the end of Act II. The third act is world renowned for it's beauty as the main guy visits the afterlife in an opium daze and observes the dancing of the shades, or ghosties as Travis calls them. Thirty-two ballerinas in white tutus slowly descend and dance in unison. It was mesmerizing. Apparently the moral of the story is: if you're depressed, get drugged up and dance with your lover in a dream. haha Anyway, I have never seen so many curtain calls. We clapped for over ten minutes at the conclusion of the third act as the prima ballerina took no less than nine curtain calls!
I can't believe we actually were able to attend! I will remember it all my life, it was amazing. We decided we should make attending the ballet our new anniversary tradition. But I don't know if anyone can top the Kirov! For more about the ballet, here's a link to the review!
That is really cool! Living close to DC is awesome. What did Travis think of it all??
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask the same question as Sarah! I'm glad you had a great anniversary! I'm also glad that I have friends who are cultured and make me feel lame!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was pretty cool. Actually, the third act with the shades was kind of cool, but I liked the second act best because it had this dancer dressed as a Buddhist statue, and he'd do all these Buddhist poses in mid-air. Plus, he was painted gold, so it had this kind of James Bond Gold-finger kind of feel.
ReplyDeleteI will admit that I nodded off during a couple of parts, though. I'm definitely not as cultured as Melanie.
Green. With. Jealousy.
ReplyDeleteTravis is such a good sport. It was actually his idea to make it a yearly tradition. Next up, Bolshoi!!
ReplyDeleteThat's way cool, Melanie. I don't know if Pete would ever take me to a ballet. Plus, we live in the middle of nowhere. The last time a ballet came through here, it was a company from JAPAN. It wasn't so good. Maybe we'll have to see what comes in L.A. some time..
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful! That sounds like an amazing experience! What a great idea to make a list of lifetime goals.
ReplyDeleteWe went to a ballet in St. Petersburg this past May and it was SO WEIRD!!!!!! Those crazy drugged-up Russians. The Bolshoi was awesome, though!!! So glad you had fun and have a new anniversary tradition!
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