Not Boycotted Yet!
Jun. 30th, 2010 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaLast night was a cultural outing with the family. My sister, sib-in-law, dad and I piled into the car and went to see Mikhail Baryshnikov dance.
Yes. That Baryshnikov.
I find it horrifying that some of my friends said "Oh, that guy from Sex and the City.
*cringe*
Any way.
It was a lovely evening of a joint production of the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Suzanna Dellal Centre featuring Three Solos and a Duet.
Baryshnikov is a beautiful, beautiful man. This is the first time I've ever seen him live. I've seen him dance a few times on television and I have to admit that his nose flared up my fetish.
Seeing him, albeit from a distance, was amazing. It wasn't a classical performance, seeing as the production centres are modern ballet and dance centres, but Baryshnikov is all classical - not a hard line, every movement was a work of art.
He had a dance partner for two of the dances (yeah, one of the Solo's was a pseudo-duet), Ana Laguna, who is a modern ballet dancer and she was superb as well, but their different styles didn't mesh that well, despite the amazing chemistry between them - only during their synchronised movements did I feel that they really communicated, other times, they seemed to be props and tools for each other - which looked great, but you know... more craft than art, compared to when they each danced alone.
The first dance (we all broke into applause when he came on stage), Valse-Fantasie. was a lovely plotty dance to the music of... "Valse-Fantasie" by Mikhail Glinka, about a guy who falls in love with a girl, the love is unrequited, he leaves the country, comes back after a few years and discovers he doesn't love the girl any more.
Baryhshnikov danced the best in this, he was totally in his element and it showed, I couldn't possibly begin to describe what it looked like.
The second dance, Solo For Two (excerpt), with the music of Arvo Part (fur Alina, for Arinushka, Spiegal im Speigal), which was mainly Ana Laguna being very dramatic and sensual. It was a mourning tale, what with the shoes and erotic hip movements. I enjoyed it immensely.
My sister, who is a dancer, didn't like it. She said it was too obvious. I don't know, maybe I'm a sucker for Drama. Also, I don't grok dance very well, it looks pretty! I'm a very unsophisticated viewer when it comes to dance, I'm afraid.
The third dance (and my personal favourite), Years Later, with the music of Philip Glass, Melodies for Saxophones Nos. 10, 2, 13 and 12, was a very self aware piece and incorporated video footage of Baryshnikov himself and he dance along with himself! In total synch! It was fantastic.
It was also quite sad, as the title suggests, it was a bit of a retrospect of himself, because besides videos of himself as he is now (which he danced to), there was old old footage of himself as a young dancer when he leaped so high and so wide. The lighting was designed in those moments to create a silhouette of Baryshnikov which was displayed on the movie screen and as his young self leaped, he looked on and held the small of his back as though it ached.
The man is 62, after all.
It also gave me a hankering for Philip Glass.
The last dance, Place, with the music of Flaskkvartetten, was the proper duet between Baryshnikov and Laguna and it was a lovely dialogue of styles. As mentioned above, their synchronised moves were brilliant, but during the actual dances together they were as much props to each as the table of stage was and I wonder how much of that was deliberate, as the dance was that of frustration and of different styles of creating space and doing things in that space - so maybe I wasn't so off the mark.
I haven't managed to convey one little bit the brilliance of this performance. I loved it, felt privileged being able to see it and my hands were read from the clapping. We just wanted him to dance some more. Alas, not even a standing ovation could do that.
Selfishly, I'm glad the impending cultural boycott hasn't stopped me from enjoying this evening.
Yes. That Baryshnikov.
I find it horrifying that some of my friends said "Oh, that guy from Sex and the City.
*cringe*
Any way.
It was a lovely evening of a joint production of the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Suzanna Dellal Centre featuring Three Solos and a Duet.
Baryshnikov is a beautiful, beautiful man. This is the first time I've ever seen him live. I've seen him dance a few times on television and I have to admit that his nose flared up my fetish.
Seeing him, albeit from a distance, was amazing. It wasn't a classical performance, seeing as the production centres are modern ballet and dance centres, but Baryshnikov is all classical - not a hard line, every movement was a work of art.
He had a dance partner for two of the dances (yeah, one of the Solo's was a pseudo-duet), Ana Laguna, who is a modern ballet dancer and she was superb as well, but their different styles didn't mesh that well, despite the amazing chemistry between them - only during their synchronised movements did I feel that they really communicated, other times, they seemed to be props and tools for each other - which looked great, but you know... more craft than art, compared to when they each danced alone.
The first dance (we all broke into applause when he came on stage), Valse-Fantasie. was a lovely plotty dance to the music of... "Valse-Fantasie" by Mikhail Glinka, about a guy who falls in love with a girl, the love is unrequited, he leaves the country, comes back after a few years and discovers he doesn't love the girl any more.
Baryhshnikov danced the best in this, he was totally in his element and it showed, I couldn't possibly begin to describe what it looked like.
The second dance, Solo For Two (excerpt), with the music of Arvo Part (fur Alina, for Arinushka, Spiegal im Speigal), which was mainly Ana Laguna being very dramatic and sensual. It was a mourning tale, what with the shoes and erotic hip movements. I enjoyed it immensely.
My sister, who is a dancer, didn't like it. She said it was too obvious. I don't know, maybe I'm a sucker for Drama. Also, I don't grok dance very well, it looks pretty! I'm a very unsophisticated viewer when it comes to dance, I'm afraid.
The third dance (and my personal favourite), Years Later, with the music of Philip Glass, Melodies for Saxophones Nos. 10, 2, 13 and 12, was a very self aware piece and incorporated video footage of Baryshnikov himself and he dance along with himself! In total synch! It was fantastic.
It was also quite sad, as the title suggests, it was a bit of a retrospect of himself, because besides videos of himself as he is now (which he danced to), there was old old footage of himself as a young dancer when he leaped so high and so wide. The lighting was designed in those moments to create a silhouette of Baryshnikov which was displayed on the movie screen and as his young self leaped, he looked on and held the small of his back as though it ached.
The man is 62, after all.
It also gave me a hankering for Philip Glass.
The last dance, Place, with the music of Flaskkvartetten, was the proper duet between Baryshnikov and Laguna and it was a lovely dialogue of styles. As mentioned above, their synchronised moves were brilliant, but during the actual dances together they were as much props to each as the table of stage was and I wonder how much of that was deliberate, as the dance was that of frustration and of different styles of creating space and doing things in that space - so maybe I wasn't so off the mark.
I haven't managed to convey one little bit the brilliance of this performance. I loved it, felt privileged being able to see it and my hands were read from the clapping. We just wanted him to dance some more. Alas, not even a standing ovation could do that.
Selfishly, I'm glad the impending cultural boycott hasn't stopped me from enjoying this evening.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 11:31 am (UTC)I'm still happy!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 09:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 11:33 am (UTC)That was the only reference to his ballet throughout his run on the show. I liked him better than Big.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 12:05 pm (UTC)