Sunday, March 4, 2012

Ballet- Brilliantly Bizarre

I chose to remain in Bonn this weekend, but I still had a good time staying close to home. The highlight of my weekend was going with Andrea and Katie to see a modern ballet performed at the Theater Bonn. There was a voucher for a free ticket included in the packet of fliers that we got with our VISA forms, so seeing it for free was definitely a perk. Plus, apparantly we picked a good night to go, because we got three seats all together on the second row!

Anyway, the performance we saw was called Und Dann, Tausend Jahre Frieden (roughly translated, "And Then, a Thousand Years of Peace). It was choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj working with the Bolshoi Ballet. The little background information that I could find said that it had to do with the Apocalypse, a little tied in with biblical motifs and symbology, but predominantly concerned with the true meaning of the word (which is apparently, "away sail"). It was described as "[evoking] images of war and death, Satan and sin, ecstasy and hopes of salvation." To be honest, I have mixed feelings about it. There were amazing moments of pure athleticism and grace mixed in with scenes that were just uncomfortably avant-garde. I wasn't able to follow a story line, but then again, it's modern dance- I think part of the beauty is finding your own interpretation.

There were some interesting scenes that involved flags from countries all over the world, including the US, Germany, Israel, China...etc. It was interesting to watch the interactions there, and then the dance ended with the flags being washed and flung out over the stage to set the stage (pun intended) for a couple dancers to bring out two lambs which kind of meandered about looking helpless and vulnerable. So yeah, it was definitely a bit strange. Still, I'm definitely up for going back. I really enjoy watching dance, and I know that there's a whole range from rigidly traditional to revolutionarily modern.

It was a nice weekend, and hopefully this next week will be a little less academically taxing as the last. (Although with a Diff EQ test on Thursday, that's being a little optimistic). Until later-
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