I had the privilege of attending my very first live ballet performance at the Roodepoort Theatre on Friday night, 17 June.
What an experience! The grace and beauty of the entire company had me forgetting to breathe. The music gave me the chills. The flexibility of the dancers, both male and female, had me in awe.
There were three items on the programme. The first was Les Sylphides, with music by Frederic Chopin. The corps de ballet, consisting of 14 identically costumed young women, en pointe (on tip-toe) most of the time, performed with such elegance. They swooped and bowed, they stood and occasionally sat, in perfect synchrony. They appeared not to blink at all, in fact they hardly seemed to breathe. Two other young women performed individually, one dancing the mazurka and the other the waltz. A third young woman, accompanied by a young man, danced the prelude. And me? … I was utterly entranced. I didn’t move for over half an hour.
The second “act” if you will, was a classical pas de deux, known as the Grand Pas Classique, danced by Dayana Acuna and Michael Revie. Dayana’s costume was a traditional tutu, in shades of pink and purple, while Michael danced in deep red tights and top. The lifts and spins were glorious to see – how they didn’t fall over from dizziness escapes me entirely.
The third item on the programme fits the well-known phrase “And now for something completely different”. It was a modern piece, entitled She Stumbled and Fell, performed to a collage of various modern and classical musical pieces and a voice-over narrative, by four male/ female pairs of dancers, all clad in white. The females wore shorts and bra tops, with lacy overgarments, and danced with their long hair loose and tousled, while the men wore white trousers, beautifully groomed hair, and nothing else. The style of dancing was completely different to the previous two pieces – it would have to be, given that the dance is a depiction of a woman’s progress through Alzheimer’s disease. The agony, the misery, the fear and the confusion the woman went through were palpable. At the beginning, each pair of dancers was connected by a long red cord. The cords were used to depict moments of coming together, as well as moments of pulling apart. Once the cords were removed, the isolation of the patient became evident as the dancers moved closer, then further from each other, with nothing holding them together. Overall, whilst being beautiful, this dance was most disturbing.
The evening concluded with a brief finale danced by the entire company of dancers.
The season was, unfortunately, brief … but, if you ever get the opportunity to attend a live ballet, don’t think twice … GO! You’ll never forget it, nor will you regret it. I’ve already started saving for a ticket to the next show!
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