My First Ballet Recital

Well, I went to see ballet in person for the first time in my life, at the age of forty. When it comes to being an expert on the subject, well. . . call me the 40-year old virgin. :-D All I have to say is that I have Claire Barratt, whom I've been working on an article about, to get me much more interested in dance than I already was. Thanks, Claire. :-)

The American Ballet Theatre concluded a nineteen-day run at the New York City Center with this afternoon's matinee. The performance opened with a premiere of choreographer of Peter Quanz, Kaleidoscope. It was a very pretty ballet, with Julie Kent and the versatile Gillian Murphy as principals, complemented by soloist David Hallberg and and principal Ethan Stiefel. The dance was costumed in blue and lavender, with soft pastel lighting; the effect, as the title implies, was to look as if you were peering through a kaleidoscope. The dancers moved very much in the style of ever-changing patterns. Very soft and alluring.

Afternoon of a Faun, a Jerome Robbins piece set to the music of Claude Debussy, was perfromed by Maria Riccetto and Maxim Beloserkovsky. This was a very sweet, warm ballet; it depicted two dancers luxuriating in the images of an imaginary mirror in a ballet studio. I got the impression that the duo seemed unaware of each other at first (most likely it was deliberately staged so), but they took more notice of each other as the dance progressed and seemed to become one.

The afternoon concluded - and climaxed - with Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, a very athletic, energetic dance costumed by Norma Kamali and scored by Philip Glass - and using way too much dry ice. :-D Michele Wiles was the dominant figure here, leading the company through very angular and asymmetrical choreography. After it was over, I felt out of breath just watching it! It was in nine parts, but I couldn't quite tell where one part ended and another began. (With the music, I guess, just like Pink Floyd's nine-part "Shine On You Crazy Diamond.")

Oh, I forgot to mention the pas de deux that came before it - an excerpt from Le Corsaire, danced by Cuban Jose Manuel Correno and - wait for it! - from, Argentina, the lovely Paloma Herrera. Miss Herrera was ravishing in her outfit, twirled and leapt with incredible precision, and reminded me how I came to appreciate ballet more in the first place! ;-) I've said it before, and I'll say it again; ballet is the ultimate marriage of high culture and sex. And, Miss Herrera provided plenty of both with her astonishing dancing and charismatic stage presence.

It took me awhile to come back to earth.

Ballet is indeed a beautiful art, and I was heartened by all the people who took their children to see it. I was dismayed, however, that most of the children were girls! Attention, fathers of America - taking your son to ballet recitals will not lead him to become gay! It'll be good, both for him and for the performing arts, because it'll expose him to something other than dumb movies and violent Saturday morning cartoons and it'll enlarge the audience for high culture! Your son will thank you for it later.  (I wish my father had taken me to the ballet when I was a kid.)

P.S. I actually went near the stage door of the New York City Center after the performance hoping to get Paloma Herrera to sign my program. That would have been the ultimate keepsake - her autograph on my program - but I didn't see her, so I left it at that. But I still have the memory of a wonderful afternoon.