Bolshoi - Esmeralda

... taking pictures in the theatre foyer ...

Ceilidh, Meighan and I lined up for tickets to see the Bolshoi.

“Why are you even going to that? You don’t like ballet,” Wyona had said to me.

No. I don’t like it that much, but when we were on the trip to St. Petersburg, I noticed a group leaving the ship one night dressed to the nines. The men were in suits, the women in pearls and black, and arm in arm they were hurrying down the gangplank, as if they were late for something important. That something was the ballet.

 ... a movie coming to a theatre near you ...

I thought to myself, here I am, in Russia, never thinking I would ever get here, and now, I see I am missing the ballet. At that point I decided, like it or not, that is not the question. Taking a look around the world and holding my likes and dislikes aside for a minute to see what it is that makes people want to dress up and spend an evening watching one of the world’s most famous dance companies. That is a better question.

... checking out the coming attractions ...

Seeing Bolshoi advertised on HD Live brought back that feeling for me. Better to take a chance and see Esmeralda performed now while the price of getting there is right. I was reminded a bit of the Russian play that Duncan and I saw together last year. We didn’t know the folk tale, the acting method, the language – for both of us it was a stretch – not really entertainment as much as hard work.

... the wrong person has the drink ...

Now Ceilidh, Meighan and I were sitting in the theatre and though language isn’t an issue in dance, the acting can be ... as well as the different protocols used by the audience. When they liked something, they would call out, but as well, they would clap for a while as we do, and then the clapping would change to being in unison. The host who introduced the ballet spoke first in English and then in French. She stood backstage and we saw the performers warming up as she was talking. That was a little different. The ballet was four hours.  That is a long time.

I salute Ceilidh and Meighan – a hard job, well done.

Arta