the nutcracker

last night, i went to see the nutcracker. seems odd, yes, as it's not christmas season yet. but this was an updated version: there are no rats, no toy soldiers, no snow (or mention of snow) and it's not set in the early 1900's. generally speaking, the nutcracker makes me think of christmas. but when i left the theatre, i thought to myself "i don't feel like it should be christmas". which is good, considering it's september. 

the remake of the ballet is the first choreography from WA ballet's new uhm, choreographer (dang). apparently his plan was to modernize it and make it relevant to australians. and so it was. 

the ballet opens with clara, a 16/17 year old school girl, chatting online to "the nutcracker",  a boy from her class (peter). he secretly loves clara but cannot talk to her in person. clara loves the nutcracker but isn't really aware of peter, clearly.  the humour of the chatting worked well for my generation. not sure about the old biddies who went to see it, but i sure thought it was funny.

the computer scenes were done extremely well. there was a very thin screen covering the entire front of stage area. i think i spent about 10 minutes trying to sort out "is there a screen or something. it looks a bit like there is one, but i can't really tell".  their conversations were presented on the screen for us to see. a few of the school scenes incorporated the screen as well.

the rest of the ballet is centered around this theme. school kids, in uniform, dancing around stage, telling the story of first love. the music is all the same, but the dancing is entirely different. and the only time you see a rat is when the teacher (a mrs. drosselmeyer) has one in the class, on a stick. seems odd, but worked rather well. and instead of the rats fighting, the "fight" scene is actually a virus taking over the young lovers computers...a battle the nutcracker eventually wins and clara deems him her hero (i will point out here that they were using macs, so i don't know how believable a virus is, but i digress...)

the show wraps up at the end of year ball in school, where peter reveals himself to clara as "the nutcracker". this goes all wrong at first, but in the end, love wins out. naturally.

my friend and i bought the el-cheapo seats: 20$, far left, nose bleed section. lucky for us, the theatre was far from full and we were told to scurry into the middle of the row. some might consider them bad seats, but seeing as we aren't aficionados of the ballet, it worked rather well for us.

overall, i'd recommend this version of the nutcracker. it was incredibly well done. i didn't really see any connection to the old nutcracker, save the music (obviously) but i didn't need to. it was good enough on it's own to be it's own show. i'm not sure if it'll ever leave perth and venture out to the real world, but if it does, you should go see it. 

xo

Get into the groove

do you have the madonna song in your head yet? i sure do!

last night, john and i began dance classes. it only took me 8 years of begging to get him to sign up. that, and a bit of encouragement from so you think you can dance. i mean, have you seen the outfits those girls wear!? the lessons were given to me for my birthday (last year) and have taken a while to sort out. but we started them, so that's pretty dang good!

unfortunately, our experience started out with us rushing out the door (we both worked late), stuffing a small amount of food in our mouths, trying to sort out a- how to get there b- where to park and c- hoping we were dressed appropriately. we arrived in perth, parked, and scurried to find the dance studio. turns out this place is actually a "venue". it's a huge place with a massive dance floor (appropriate, really), disco ball, lights, smoke machine and thankfully, a bar...

our beginner ballroom class was pretty big. and to my surprise, an equal number of men and women. i expected there to be a few extra ladies but turns out, men want to learn to dance too (or they want to meet women. i'm not sure). there were only a few couples there who were similar in age to us. and i was the only girl wearing sneakers (gasp!).

lesson one involved learning a barn-dance, a progressive jive and the slow rhythm (which is essentially a waltz, but with 4 beats instead of 3). the dances were pretty basic and we were kind of feeling that maybe we should've joined the intermediate class. but we were assured that the lessons will get a bit more interesting and challenging. apparently they try to make it really, really easy so as not to scare people away on day 1.

it was fairly obvious (within minutes of starting) as to who would be an ok dancer and who would not-have-a-freakin'-clue. we were partner swapping (does that sound bad?) during these dances, so it was a bit painful at times when i ran into the guys who had 2 left feet. or worse, when they seemed to have no feet at all. i mean, can't you at least hear the beat? amazing! john pointed out that there were a few women doing the same, much to his chagrin. 

at the end of the session, we had mastered the 3 dances (well, we had. some people hadn't) and it was time for the "bar" to open. the studio opens it's doors to the public after lessons - at 8:30pm tuesday, wednesday and friday. a 5$ cover will get you in dancing all night, possibly with people who know what they're doing. we spent then next 1.5 hours dancing the few dances we knew (and adding a bit of flair to them with spins and other such fun stuff) before heading out. an interesting crowd of people at this dance - oldies, youngens, people with rhythm and many without, some unhappy to be there, others way too happy to be there- but no other girl in sneakers...

am i a dancing queen yet? no. but i think i might be by the end of it. i'll let you know in 7 weeks.

xo