Last night I got all dressed up and headed to Place des Arts to see the Ballet Nacional de Cuba's Giselle. I thought it might be fun to just go all by myself, all independent and adventurous-like. Verdict: not so fun. Everyone else was there with girlfriends and boyfriends and sisters and moms and aunts and there I was, wandering around in my white, faux-fur polyester Superstore jacket trying to look like...who knows what I was trying to look like! Anyways, it was pretty stupid, I was almost laughing at myself.
NOT stupid though, was the ballet itself. Based on 15 minutes of googling and YouTubing a couple days ago, Giselle is like the specialty of the Cuban ballet and more specifically its artistic director Alicia Alonso. As a prima ballerina she set the standard for the role of Giselle back in the 30s.
It was really good. The music was amazing, I bought the full score this morning on iTunes. The one pro of being there by myself was how much I was able to get into it. Whenever I go to the ballet with other people I'm constantly worrying about their enjoyment of the show. And its not like I go with a bunch of hick-duds who don't like the ballet. Casey actually really likes it-seriously! But I can't help but worry that the other person is liking and appreciating it as much as me. Anyways, without that on my mind I got so into it I was glued to every second! I even cried a few times, even though it wasn't like my favorite ballet ever. Anyways. Then they brought Alicia Alonso out at the end and I cried as if I'd been aware of her existence for more than 48 hours. It was totally weird but I just went with it.
I think its a mini-tragedy when people get overcome with emotion, good or bad and hold it in. What's the point of being a human if we're to repress naturally-occuring tears or laughter? Anyways, there's my preachy line of the day.
Here's Alicia Alonso reprising her most famous role at the age of 60. I feel like this was mostly a bad idea...
Whenever I go to the ballet I leave kindof sad that I didn't pursue it more seriously. It's so beautiful and magical. I'm just in love with it. I have to find a way to incorporate it into my life more. The ballerina movies and documentaries and exposés have been done. Although I said the same thing after Save the Last Dance-Amazing that they could have topped that masterpiece! So anyways, I've decided I'm going to be the Steven Spielberg of promotional videos for prestigious dance companies.
Finally a topical twist on all of this, check out Alicia Alonso's Black Swan. Slightly different from Mila Kunis' (or Natalie Portman's) version:
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