Monday, June 18, 2012

Swan Lake


Yesterday I was able to tick off one more thing on my bucket list, to see Swan Lake.  I am enamored of ballet, even though I haven't seen much of it.  I have a very inflexible body and always have had.  Even though I exercise and stay slim, my body does not bend.  I have never been able to touch my toes, even as a teenager, so when I see those dancers put their legs up next to their ears or fold their bodies in half or leap in the air or dance on tippy toes and then to do it all to beautiful music, well I'm enchanted.

After seeing the movie, Black Swan, I knew I had to see the real ballet, and when we heard that the Australian Ballet Company would be performing at Lincoln Center in NYC for a few days, we got tickets. I did some research online about the story and found that the Australian Company's version choreographed by Graeme Murphy was quite a different version. He totally changed the story line, but it still had Odette and the beautiful swans and Prince Siegfried and that glorious music by Tchaikovsky. My three friends and I all loved it and I know that I want to see more ballet.

It was a beautiful June day in NYC, although a little cool.  We walked the 1.7 miles from Grand Central to Lincoln Center, had a great lunch at PJ Clark's, a NY staple, walked back to the station after the show and had a nice snack and cappachino at a little pub across the street from the station before boarding the train. It couldn't have been a more perfect day!

2 comments:

Martha Ginn said...

There you go again, making me envious of people who live close enough to see theatre and ballet in NYC. A great ballet movie with Mikhail Baryshnikov is "White Nights." I think I'll get it from Netflix--again.

Sue said...

Several years ago, I went to Lincoln Ctr for a ballet performance. It was a mix of traditional and contemporary and I was smitten. I absolutely loved it and vowed to back again and again....of course, I haven't ! At that time, I did notice how very thin some of the younger dancers were.....I hope that has changed a bit.