The Weekender

Monday, May 12, 2003

WOW! It's been a couple of weeks since i've been here huh? Sorry about that. So much has been going on lately and that i've been pretty overwhelmed. But i'll go into that another time. I wanted to share my first experience at the Ballet! YES! Awsome and I had gone to the ballet Saturday evening. For those of you who've never been, the ballet is usually held in the War Memorial Opera House. I know Opera House??? Go figure??? This magnificent building is located right next to Davies Symphony Hall on Van Ness.

When you plan on going to the ballet, I would suggest for you to arrive at least 45 min. to 1 hour before the program starts. Why you ask??? Well, since they've closed the Fell St. ramp, expect traffic, then of course looking for parking. I would suggest forget parking on the street and just plainly park in one of the available parking-lots for $10. Another plus going early, is that you can enjoy your coffee, glass of wine or treats before the performance. And then there's the whole going to the bathroom for that last minute visit to the toilet, finding your seats and reading the programs.

You may ask?? Well what's the attire for the ballet?? Well, from looking around, most men were dressed up in suits w/ ties and the women were dressed in nice slacks, skirts or even evening gowns. Pretty nifty I think. Although there were some people dressed down in jeans, plaid pants and coulats( is that how you spell it?), I would suggest gettng spiffy!! hee hee hee

So we saw Program 7. It wasn't one long story like the Nuttcracker, there were 4 mini performances. The Continuum was more of an abstract performance. Yes!! Abstract Ballet. The music did not sound lively and graceful, but sharp, abrupt and melancholly at times. It wasn't your common performance piece you usually see. There weren't a whole bunch of pirouettes and leaps. They actually had a piece that looked like the game where everyone is holding hands and tangled up, and their teammate has to unravel them w/o their hands coming apart???? I reallly liked Jinkx. There was so much color and feeling within the costumes and the characters. Oh yeah..there was a story to this one. The Aria was a bonus performance by one of their leading male dancers. Lastly, Paquita was another love story performance.

All of the performances were synopsis of the actual ballet, which I didn't know. So now if I loved Jinx and Paquita, I wonder how much elaborate the actual program is??? One day.... But we got a wonderful bonus at the end of the ballet. Since there leading male performer is retiring, you saw a mass of people gather in the aisles, throwing bouquets of flowers for him. It was so wonderful to see this. I was even getting teary eyed.... One of the bouquets even hit one of his female dancers in the chest and caught it. buahhahaha... I would recommend going to the ballet at least once. All in all, I had a wonderful time, except during intermission where I finally got my cup of coffee only to down in since intermission is only about 10 min.!!!

posted by The Weekender @ 9:22 PM

A report on the trends, the sights and weekend nights in San Francisco, now written from Oakland!

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Name: Voodoo Child
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