See a Ballet

“So here we go, as I sitted on the armchair I felt so cool and confident. I've been anticipating this moment since months and now I feel hyped like a kid. I know how the music will hit the first notes and I keep singing it into my head as the lights go down. Suddenly music erupts, curtain still closed, unbearable climax. Just open the curtain! I want the story to start!! Few minutes, the music changes to a new familiar theme and the courp of ballet unveils itself. It just takes one second to realize I'm not on YouTube anymore. Yes the scenery, a gloomy lake dominated by a Gothic castle, is not as beautiful as the ones I saw from La Scala and Kirov, and the dresses are not as fancy. But everything is now there before my eyes, dancers in flesh and bones tensing their muscle strings to portrait what most is ethereal for the human achievement. The music hits me with violence and catapults me into the story. I enter a new cheerful reality of princes and noble ladies, I pay my homages to the Queen and dance with Sigfried. He is not a dancer who portrays a prince, but a prince who portrays a dancer. I feel like I am with them at the party, I become oblivious to the fact that it's just a rapresentation. The music and the display is so engaging I end bursting in tears.”

“What I think captured my attention most about the ballet was that it was a story that was told without any words. [...] It was the first time in a long time that I was able to actually follow the story and enjoy it for what it is, an incredible art form (instead of trying to figure out how somethings were done or being distracted by something that happened in the wings). I didn’t count how many turns the ballerina did, I just watched the jumps and turns happen. I just sat (on the edge of my seat, I might add) and watch the hand painted set changing like the flipping of a page in a story. And just because the ballet didn’t have any words to tell the story, did not make me like it any less, in fact it allowed me to enjoy it more. The costumes, props and sets only enhanced the dancing to help tell the story.”

“Eyes tingling and starting to swell, the hair on my arms and neck stood to attention, my ears embraced with a symphony sound that sent a bolt of love to my heart; this truly was everything I had hoped the ‘experience’ of seeing the ballet would be and more.”