Life Is Beautiful At The Ballet

Saturday is very busy. I go to Zumba in the morning, see some friends and move for 45 minutes, I have enough energy for a bit more but I don’t want to sweat the radiation markings off and 43 minutes of 145 BPM exercise is not a bad start to the day. I visit the local farmers market and get some fruit but also some poppyseed pastries that are made at home. The vendor is Mexican, he says the baker is French but these taste perfectly like the Polish ones I grew up with. 

In the afternoon we go to a house party/silent auction to raise money to resettle a Syrian family through our church. We bid on some things we don’t need but I do get some Beats headphones which should come in handy listing to my iPod during the 5 hour chemo sessions. And Susan wins a massage in our house, I’m in.

Then the ‘big’ dance event. Now, I almost titled todays post ‘Dance Cretan’  for my lack of awareness. I am not big on ballet but we got season tickets to a dance series in downtown LA. I am more looking forward to the Hubbard Dance Company and others on the list, tonights ballet was just part of the package.  The company is Russian and I figure they must be good, the Russians are good at ballet. So, bear with me, I am not familiar with the Marlinsky Ballet, I had heard of the Kirov. I remember in the early 80s going to see the movie Backstage At The Kirov, a movie about the dance company in St. Petersburg, the best in the world, better than the Bolshi and any Western company. Started in 1740 as the Imperial Russian Ballet.  It was so good and you could only see it in Russia as the Soviets would not let them tour to avoid defections to the West. But I have not followed ballet much so was surprised to discover that this IS the Kirov, just under a new post Soviet name and obviously they now go on tour. The ballet is Cinderella.  The music was written by Prokofiev and the orchestra is the best in the world at playing his music. Someone who can really write about dance could describe the flow of the dance, the delicate and powerful moments but it is simply flawless.  The bodies are perfect, they make it look so smooth and easy and can spin in and out of other dance movements. And they dance together like contact dance even when not touching or even seeing each other. I plan to incorporate their dance moves into my dancing—in my next life.