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Seven swans a-swimming
Feb. 25th, 2020 03:12 am(Bidding for FTH is open! I still need to decide what to bid on, but I am offering a fic and a fanvid.)
I went to another 'ballet livestreamed from the Bolshoi into your local movie theater' event this weekend. I had to leave two hours early to take three buses, because Z was busy and I didn't want to pay $20 for a Lyft both ways. Spent the time reading through Chocobox fic. The bus ride was worth it!
I'd never actually seen Swan Lake before - knew the basic plot, knew some bits from Princess Tutu, had heard the music, seen figure skating programs, watched clips of the cygnet and 32 fouetté dances - but never gone to a production. So it was fun to finally see the actual ballet. My thoughts:
•I was really impressed with the prince and the jester in the first part. They had such springy jumps! They were so expressive and enjoyable to watch. I was actually a little disappointed that later the prince seemed kind of overshadowed by Odette/Odile and becomes the stem to her flower. Which I guess makes sense if he's going to be lifting her and holding her in the spins.
•Relatedly: man, anyone who says men can't possibly do rhythmic gymnastics needs to watch the men already doing it unofficially and also needs to watch some fucking ballet.
•Relatedly relatedly: I watched some RG routines last month after watching an anime about it (Hikari no Densetsu), and ballet dancers do so much prettier jumps than the gymnasts! A lot of the gymnasts have a tendency to kind of... lever themselves up and down as they jump (I believe this is a deduction nowadays?) but the dancers pretty much spring right up and hit a split in one motion. Sure, the gymnasts are trying to hyperextend as much as possible and doing different shapes, but the difference was really stark to me.
•The prince and jester also seemed to do a lot of jumping and then landing in a lunge, even double jumps. I wonder how they were softening the landing, because while I couldn't tell what was happening in real time, I'm sure it would be painful and risky to slam down on your knee ten times every performance.
•The NPC dancers in the first act all had brownish olive costumes. I think the intended effect was to make the main dancers like the prince in his shining white clothes stand out more, but to me it looked like the entire production had been coated in varnish that had become yellow and dirty. It didn't help that the background set was the same color.
•The women also had shiny squares(?) of fabric randomly placed on their tutu skirts. In the second act, I could tell everyone was wearing feather motifs on their costumes, but I couldn't figure it out in the first act, so I don't know if they were feathers and the camera never got close enough to see, or if it was just random squares that made their costumes look worse.
•The woman playing Odette/Odile had the perfect face for it. I'm sure part of it was her makeup, but when we got to see her, that was my first thought. High cheekbones, hooded eyes, a sad, mature look. I was surprised to look her up later and see that she is only 28.
•The swans all had tutus with this pretty pleating effect to make it resemble feathers, and I started to wonder how long it takes to pleat those. At least you don't have to hem tulle. I'd go mad having to double fold and stitch all those meters and meters and meters.
•The Spanish dancer in the second half had a costume with, um, very specifically placed swirls on her chest. Maybe for extra sexy effect? I found it awkward. My favorite of the princesses was the Polish dance, but they were all entertaining. I tried to look up what nationalities the other three princesses were, but apparently most productions only have four princesses, not five. I guessed Italian right, though. (Also, I don't love how Europe == The Whole World here, but after The Nutcracker, I was kind of relieved that they stuck to Europe.)
•There were a lot of people playing court members who spent most of the court scenes sitting in the background and rarely got to move more than maybe waving their arm to welcome the prince. I wonder if they get bored. Though it might be nice getting to see the dancing up-close from behind.
•In one of the swan scenes, all of the swans lined up into two rows towards the back of the stage, but one row had two more swans than the other. Not sure if on purpose (but why?) or a mistake or? Odette/Odile also seemed to fall/stumble out of her last fouetté.
•I really really like how the dancers used their hands.
I had a great time, and I'd love to see it again if I have the chance.
After the ballet, I caught two more buses and just had time to grab a heavy bag of groceries during the transfer. Was not the most pleasant experience carrying it uphill to get home, but when I got there, I ate one of my newly purchased fruits alongside some homemade yogurt and amazake and it was a very good meal.
I went to another 'ballet livestreamed from the Bolshoi into your local movie theater' event this weekend. I had to leave two hours early to take three buses, because Z was busy and I didn't want to pay $20 for a Lyft both ways. Spent the time reading through Chocobox fic. The bus ride was worth it!
I'd never actually seen Swan Lake before - knew the basic plot, knew some bits from Princess Tutu, had heard the music, seen figure skating programs, watched clips of the cygnet and 32 fouetté dances - but never gone to a production. So it was fun to finally see the actual ballet. My thoughts:
•I was really impressed with the prince and the jester in the first part. They had such springy jumps! They were so expressive and enjoyable to watch. I was actually a little disappointed that later the prince seemed kind of overshadowed by Odette/Odile and becomes the stem to her flower. Which I guess makes sense if he's going to be lifting her and holding her in the spins.
•Relatedly: man, anyone who says men can't possibly do rhythmic gymnastics needs to watch the men already doing it unofficially and also needs to watch some fucking ballet.
•Relatedly relatedly: I watched some RG routines last month after watching an anime about it (Hikari no Densetsu), and ballet dancers do so much prettier jumps than the gymnasts! A lot of the gymnasts have a tendency to kind of... lever themselves up and down as they jump (I believe this is a deduction nowadays?) but the dancers pretty much spring right up and hit a split in one motion. Sure, the gymnasts are trying to hyperextend as much as possible and doing different shapes, but the difference was really stark to me.
•The prince and jester also seemed to do a lot of jumping and then landing in a lunge, even double jumps. I wonder how they were softening the landing, because while I couldn't tell what was happening in real time, I'm sure it would be painful and risky to slam down on your knee ten times every performance.
•The NPC dancers in the first act all had brownish olive costumes. I think the intended effect was to make the main dancers like the prince in his shining white clothes stand out more, but to me it looked like the entire production had been coated in varnish that had become yellow and dirty. It didn't help that the background set was the same color.
•The women also had shiny squares(?) of fabric randomly placed on their tutu skirts. In the second act, I could tell everyone was wearing feather motifs on their costumes, but I couldn't figure it out in the first act, so I don't know if they were feathers and the camera never got close enough to see, or if it was just random squares that made their costumes look worse.
•The woman playing Odette/Odile had the perfect face for it. I'm sure part of it was her makeup, but when we got to see her, that was my first thought. High cheekbones, hooded eyes, a sad, mature look. I was surprised to look her up later and see that she is only 28.
•The swans all had tutus with this pretty pleating effect to make it resemble feathers, and I started to wonder how long it takes to pleat those. At least you don't have to hem tulle. I'd go mad having to double fold and stitch all those meters and meters and meters.
•The Spanish dancer in the second half had a costume with, um, very specifically placed swirls on her chest. Maybe for extra sexy effect? I found it awkward. My favorite of the princesses was the Polish dance, but they were all entertaining. I tried to look up what nationalities the other three princesses were, but apparently most productions only have four princesses, not five. I guessed Italian right, though. (Also, I don't love how Europe == The Whole World here, but after The Nutcracker, I was kind of relieved that they stuck to Europe.)
•There were a lot of people playing court members who spent most of the court scenes sitting in the background and rarely got to move more than maybe waving their arm to welcome the prince. I wonder if they get bored. Though it might be nice getting to see the dancing up-close from behind.
•In one of the swan scenes, all of the swans lined up into two rows towards the back of the stage, but one row had two more swans than the other. Not sure if on purpose (but why?) or a mistake or? Odette/Odile also seemed to fall/stumble out of her last fouetté.
•I really really like how the dancers used their hands.
I had a great time, and I'd love to see it again if I have the chance.
After the ballet, I caught two more buses and just had time to grab a heavy bag of groceries during the transfer. Was not the most pleasant experience carrying it uphill to get home, but when I got there, I ate one of my newly purchased fruits alongside some homemade yogurt and amazake and it was a very good meal.
