BC Ballet - Rite

Laura cleans up very nicely.  I was rather proud having this  beautiful young woman riding next to me in my Miata Sportscar,  with the hood down. I’d had time to shower after work and wasn’t feeling too rough myself in a fresh shirt and black jacket. I figure when I’m sitting in the car no one can see the fat old guy belly.  They just see me looking not too shabby with the gorgeous babe beside me.    Blond hair, makeup, and this 30’s can can era short black evening dress.  We were going to the ballet.  It doesn’t get much better.  I later saw she was  wearing  gold shoes.
When we got to the ballet I ordered a double expresso  This is so I don’t snore.  I did that once at a symphony so ever since like a few shots of prevention.  While I’m having coffee Laura and I people watch. That’s when the shoes became apparent. The ladies were resplendent in haute couture spring evening frocks but it was the shoes that were the highest fashion.  Laura says her 4 inch heel days are behind her but there were a lot of 4 inch heels this night.  Ballet brings out a real spread in ages with a lot of lovely young people and enough of us grey hairs to appreciate them to the fullest.  Ballet crowds are almost sensual.  They have the most vitality and diversity of all the audiences I see.
Tonight BC Ballet outdid itself.  Rite was so utterly original I found myself thinking someone must the nuked Rothwell and this is what our neurons synapse like.  It was that weird. Futuristic and yet tribal. The dancing individually was utterly alien.  Arms moved like legs and legs like arms. I’ve never seen anything like it and that’s why it seem so weird.  Weird was the word that kept resounding in my mind.  It was like the first time I heard synthesizer music. There was no meme I could put it into. It was a thing of its own. That original. That unique. Emily Molnar is a  genius. Weird.  My very brain seemed be pulled like it was when I studied black hole physics for the first time.  The scenic design by Omar Arbel was sensational, futuristic, raw.  At times the dancers looked like they were on Crystal Meth while at other times I was reminded of choreas I’d seen in neurology wards yet there was a music and art to the whole and a transformative story. Weird.  I was glad to be there.  I loved that the audience seemed to get it too.  Elsewhere the police might be called to lock up the whole kit and caboodle.  But tonight we were blessed with something other and we loved it. Thank you BC Ballet.  Thank you Emily Molnar.  You challenge me.
In intermission I had the real joy of seeing my colleague Dr. John Christiansen. He was there with a young ballet dancer, Jesse.  John has always loved the ballet.
Consagracion with choreography by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, and scenic design by Luis Crespo, to the music of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was mostly a series of incredible contemporary pas de deux. I believe it’s the most sophisticated male pas de adieux I’ve ever seen.  Yet they all were extraordinary, man and woman, women together, males together and  the company as a whole, it all just worked. I love the Ballet BC company. The dancers have such energy and each one has their own interpretative style. It’s been a great season and I loved being a part of it.
The applause went on forever.
Then it was a lovely top down ride home through this great city of Vancouver.  Summer in the city in May and a night at the ballet. It doesn’t get much better.