le ballet

I went to see Romeo and Juliet last night. All of the regular folk I normally would drag with me and mysteriously out of the province. I had kinda forgot about it, so I didn't secure a backup. So, I went by myself. I'm not too sure what it is that's so intimidating about going to a public event by yourself, but it's tough to get over. It's not my fault no one else likes the ballet. I tried to coerce Big Red into joining me, but he claimed he'd eaten too much at supper and something about "work." Bah.

The good thing about going by myself was that ordering a last minute single ticket I got to sit exactly where I would normally pick and she gave me a student ticket. $10 to see a ballet is a good deal no matter how you look at it. I'm not sure you can go see a dance recital for $10.

The actual ballet itself was underwhelming. The Alberta Ballet is a young company, with young dancers and it showed. Technically, it just wasn't as good or strong as what you'd get from the National or the Royal Winnipeg. That being said, it appears that it's a young and creative company. The movement was interesting and modern. They did lots of interesting lifts and sequences. The overall feel was that they were trying really hard, but just needed more time to get it where it should be. I've never seen Romeo and Juliet before, so I'm not too sure how much of this was original choreography and how much was interpretation. Either way, it was a fun ballet.

While I may be way off, it seemed like the Alberta Ballet needs to work on keeping it's dancers instead of acting like a stepping stone for them. In two years, this exact same group of dancers could be kickassawesome. I have a feeling though, in two years they will be spread across the globe. Kind of too bad, but I guess when your tours consist of Vancouver, Medicine Hat, Calgary, Banff, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina it would be hard not to go looking for bigger things.