Ballet

On Tuesday evening I went to the ballet with Eva at the National Theatre in Prague. My yoga teacher's husband works there so he got us tickets! Isn't that the nicest thing?

The theatre is gorgeous--gilt and painted ceilings and red plush seats.

This is the ceiling.

It reminds me of La Fenice in Venice. And, ironically, both theaters have burned down and been rebuilt. Here is La Fenice. It is basically a circle with one flat side for the stage (the National Theatre is more square and a little smaller.) Beautiful beautiful. And over the top--very Venetian.

The ballet was, well, interesting. It was "Solo for Three" and combined the poetry and songs of a Russian artist, a Czech artist, and a French artist. It was very modern and symbolic. So I am sure that most of it went right over my head. They had the lyrics in Czech and English on a screen, but I preferred to forego the words and watch the dancing. The lyrics were awfully depressing. Sort of Hemingway-esque folk songs and anguished poetry. Everyone is impotent and dying and there were lots of references to alcohol, brothels, and war. No one is living the "right way" except the artist, who feels so deeply that he is numb and apathetic. Everyone is wasting their lives except for him, and he feels this wrongness so intensely that he gets drunk every night. He can't stand the knowledge that everyone is going to die at some point, so he spends all his time writing about death. It got a little old.

The dancing was lovely, though. I do love ballet! It is beautiful. And it is painful and unnatural and at times very weird and unhealthy but it is beautiful all the same. I always leave the theater thinking that I could do that, knowing that I absolutely cannot, but wishing I could anyway. Maybe I was a ballerina in another life.

Amidst the death and brothels I caught myself grinning--at one point the ballerinas were all dressed in maroon flowing, long sleeved, full length dresses. Their hair was in high, bushy ponytails. EXACTLY like the "Choreography" number in White Christmas. Danny Kaye mocks the modern dance trend, singing, "Chaps who did taps aren't tapping anymore, they're doing choreography. Chicks who did kicks aren't kicking anymore, they're doing choreography...Instead of dance it's choreography." Women in maroon dresses with high ponytails move around him doing weird things with their arms and flexing their feet. And then, hurray! Vera-Ellen enters in a hot pink outfit and taps away.

Thanks, http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2053/2180120514_55a25dd616.jpg

So that was amusing. A very enjoyable evening, all around.