Ballet

Yesterday, we went to the ballet. Not "a ballet" - the ballet. It wasn't Swan Lake or The Nutcracker. It was a collection of small pieces that included the breath-stealing "Trey McIntyre's wickedly complex 'Just'" - these first two pictures are of Alison Roper and Artur Sultanov, two of the four dancers in the most amazing, precise, sculpted, demanding, and creative human movement I have ever seen in person. Thanks, Mario and Kim. The front row tickets made it possible for us to hear the breath and see the glistening sweat fly off the bodies of these dancers. The program quotes principle dancer Anne Mueller: "Trey's work requires a unique psychological commitment. He dreams up movements and positions that sometimes defy a classical dancer's concept of what is aesthetically beautiful. To successfully interpret these moments depends on a commitment to defy our usual sensibility. If you allow yourself to feel uncomfortable mentally while attempting these moments, this reads in your physicality and robs the phrase of its impact." (Alison Roper and Anne Mueller pictured here)
Yesterday afternoon, in a sold out house, no phrase was robbed of its impact.