The Ballet - The Golden Age

Richard trying out his selfie-extension stick
at the foot of the stairs into the Chinook Mall.

“When is the best time to start taking children to the opera, the theatre, the galleries, the ballet?”

Neither Richard nor I know the answer to that question.

Still we were debating it at which point I realized that the transmission of the Bolshoi’s The Golden Age was on Saturday.

So we committed to going and taking the kids. 

I went into full scale production to get the candy bags ready.

Theatre 10
Poster for The Bolshoi Ballet's
The Golden Age

That meant pulling out the Hershey’s Mini Eggs and a some small mixed treats in bags which had to be unbagged – an arduous task, but better done at the kitchen table by all of the children, than spilled all over the theatre floor in the dark.

Meanwhile Richard found a youtube clip of the ballet and sat the kids down on the couch to watch it.

Both strategies worked.

The kids were ready for their treats as soon as the theatre darkened.

And their expectations were realistic about what they would see.

Betty on her blue booster seat
Selfie extension stick at work again

We seated them so that Richard and I separated all of the kids and they made it through to the intermission at which time we knew it was time to go for the popcorn to take us through the second act.

Richard and I cringed at the price, but it was well worth it in terms of keeping little people busy for the next hour.

On my side, Michael spilled ¼ of his popcorn and on Richard’s side, Betty’s drink went down.

Other than that, ours was a road of wiggles and some chair rocking, but the kids made it through to the end of the ballet.

Alice the day before the ballet,
getting ready to go to the dance class.

I would have considered the event a success if we had only been able to stay for the first act.

We had also practiced saying the word Shostakovich and knowing that he had written the music.

The was another fact which would have been a take-away for the whole ballet.

That the original ballet had been booed by many in the audience was a fun trivia fact that they could all remember, and they practised it, as well as the Russian custom of having the audience clap in unison.

Probably what I liked the best is that on the way out of the theatre I heard Michael humming “Tea for Two”, which tune is in the theatre, part of the dancing that goes on in the cabaret. Michael asked me why I was laughing during this part of the show. The music is repeated, often a different instrument or a different rhythm being taken up. Yes, that would be making me laugh, though I had no quick way to describe to him what was happening.

We stopped by the arcade after the show was over.

If Betty went in a booth and sat on a chair
she thought she had played a game.

I think that experience pre-empted the ballet:  the arcade's lights flashing, the bells ringing, the circus music playing, the mallets inviting people to pick them up to play whack-a-mole, the older boys using guns to fight imaginary foes on the screens, and teen-agers sitting on motorcycles leaning in and out of curves as their course was charted before them.

A blessed close to an afternoon at the ballet.

The two adults come home needing naps and both blaming it on blood thinners.

Arta