Super Duper Dancey

I went to the ballet with my mother for mother's day. It was superb.
It was 3 shorter pieces rather than a long long show - I highly approve.
Even better than the length was the quality of the shows. I rather enjoyed all of them for different reasons.
Our Waltzes - I approve of the use of solo piano to accompany the dancers. It really showed off the high caliber of dance accompanists that the RWB hires..... But seriously, the pianist was excellent and showed a nice sensitivity both to his own musicality as well as that of the dancers. The choreography was not quite what I expected, but I liked it and it really highlighted the strengths of some of the dancers. The thing I didn't like about it was that it was very female centered in terms of the choreography; the men served only to lift and highlight the women. Not that men shouldn't be utilitarian, but I guess I just saw too much standing around of the men while the women were doing their things. Still, keeping in mind that that was the stylistic preference of a classical style piece, it was well executed.
Angels in the Architecture - I thought this was brilliant in choreography and execution. I shan't point out a flaw, lest there be one. Quite a suitable and sensitive setting to the music of Copland's Appalachian Springs. The simplicity of the sets/costumes were a nice parallel to that of the music - but just as the music, the apparent simplicity brought out some beautiful resourcefulness. The way the women's skirts were used was affective and artistically strong. And the incorporation of the props (brooms and chairs) into set design was very efficient and allowed for new venues of exploration. Overall this was my favorite, and I didn't even need to get around to the actual performance comments. I really enjoyed the male / female role portrayal as it referred to Quaker culture. I loved the use of 'architectural' body shapes and forms as an expressive tool as well as how it shows on the dancer's bodies. HOWEVER, there is a pose on many many posters for this piece that I was waiting to see in context... but it wasn't there... I even checked with other people!!! NOT IMPRESSED. Actually it's only because that poster is the main poster in the pianist's lounge at work, so since I'd first seen the poster, Ive been hoping they'd do this piece...and finding out that they were doing it, I wanted to see the scene. Oh well.
Small Wonder - Cindy Marie Small was wonderful. The piece was wonderful as well. Mark Godden, you are wonderful. I didn't care for the shell staging/set theme, but I assume it is personal to her, and thus it was acceptable. Beautiful and moving. Congratulations on not only a great performance, but a great career.
The new one... Hikarazatto -ish - While I didn't think the performance of either the music or the dance was on par with some of the other pieces, I applaud the artistic daring of this piece. It had an energy throughout, which I felt needed to be more relaxed in the middle, then should have had more direction from it's return to the end. The piece as a whole was brilliantly organized with the staging and the lighting and setting of the movements. I really liked the repetitive elements in the movements which was implied by the percussive nature in the music, but I don't think it was clear enough in the music itself - until the end with a 3 and a half bar ostinato going out of sink with the rest of the texture. I saw this kind of idea implied in the choreography, but only up to 2 or 3 levels... whereas there were 6 groups, it would have been far more effective and apparent had it been more sequential or canonic. However, I loved the movement quality of this piece and the relation it had to the music. It filled me with excitement over things that can be done with modern dance and music!

Overall, I loved the contemporary flare that permeated this evening. It stood as a testament to the versatility of the company.

Mom and I went for Nachos and dessert afterwards and had a delightful time.
Happy Mother's Day to all of you!!!!
especially all of you....
MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!