What if they danced it? – 305.5

I am feeling a lot better now. Most of my problems are still there, but I am healthier (my throat still isn’t quite clear, but otherwise I am okay) and I am getting along with my sisters again. The fundamentals of our relationships haven’t changed, I am still unemployed, and there are still loved ones far away in precarious health, so there is a real risk of relapse. I believe I am going to need to start another series of searching out the past, analyzing and figuring out, and just generally trying to get it together, but first, something different.

I went to the ballet, and it was pretty good. This was OBT’s second program of the season, Lambarena. There were three pieces. Honestly, the first piece, Ash, was just okay. Then it was The Rite of Spring, which was better, and they ended on the title piece. I loved Lambarena. I loved the music and costumes and the movements. It was great.

At one point during the evening, my mind wandered just a tad, and this is how it happened. I was watching Gavin Larsen, and I remembered that the first time I saw her was in the pieces Twilight, which I mentioned earlier as being one of my favorites. Somehow the title reminded me of the annoying book series, and I suddenly had this thought of how much better it would be as a ballet.

Think of it! First of all, the prose is gone, which eliminates a huge deadweight right there. In terms of the plot of epic yet complicated love, well, that just fits right into ballet, and throwing in some vampires does not hurt it.

Now, think of the other things that are annoying. Bella is moody and ungrateful, Edward is brooding and stalker-ish, and hitting baseballs over the mountains is stupid. Put that in a ballet, and with the right music and choreography you can make it all look good. Suddenly the baseball game becomes awesome, instead of annoying. In fact, there’s room for a lot of athleticism because half of the characters have supernatural strength and can fly. Grand jetée, anyone? I would totally go see that.

So, I’m going to try and send an open letter to various choreographers. It has built in commercial appeal, especially if you time it for when people are starting to get anxious for the second movie. I mean, why not? I’m thinking Stowell, Canfield, McIntyre, and Thomas. Maybe Tomasson, but he already has a Twilight. I just think it has potential.

I also realized that when I was going over my favorite performances and performers, there were two major omissions. For individual dancers, I was really impressed by Holly Cruikshank. I saw her in Moving Out, and saying she is really bendy may not sound like a compliment, but her body seems to be able to do whatever you could possibly ask it to do, and to do it very fluidly.

For groups, Aero Betty is long gone, but they were something else. That first year that I subscribed to White Bird (the good year, before they started becoming progressively more disappointing), it started off with Diavolo who incorporated some trapeze, and ended with Aero Betty who was all trapeze. Shall I call them Calder-esque? I don’t know—I have never seen anyone else like them. Given that every number was at least partially aerial, you might have expected them to be somewhat repetitive, but every number was so individual and unique, and it was just an amazing evening. I’m really glad I got to see them.