dance, and humor, and PIRATES!

i took a break from life yesterday (after the past two weeks, i deserved it) to go to the ballet with my parents. please note that my dad only went because he doesn't like to be left alone; sometimes mom and i will let him play.

we took the light rail up to downtown since it was supposed to be all kinds of busy in the city because of the rockies playoff game and various other events. it was an interesting experience to take a brand new train in a city that likes the idea of public transport but is unwilling to totally commit to it. it was very, very clean. and (my favorite part) the "please be polite" sort of public service signs in the cars had the usual no food, no drink, no loud music... and "no gambling!" apparently... it's a problem? i had never before had any indication of denver being much of a gambling town; it basically struck me as the kind of badly-translated-english-odd sign that you'd see on the subway in, say, tokyo. except they seem to be serious. confusing and amusing. no gambling on the train...

the ballet itself was le corsaire -- i had heard of it vaguely in the past, but it never really sank in that this was A BALLET ABOUT PIRATES. all kinds of great. the sets and costumes were fantastic, especially the pirate ship in the beginning. the plot of this particular performance is pretty radically different from that of the lord byron poem upon which it is based, but made for a much more cheerful story than i've ever seen danced about. and the added part about the pirate falling asleep and dreaming about flowers because he is in love? priceless. in other versions it's drug-induced, but here it was just attributed to his besottedness -- sappy and hilarious.

besides the overall greatness, dancing about pirates results in strong parts for the male principal and members of the corps. which is my favorite type of choreography; those men do completely amazing things (and this guy could switch leap like no other, and get amazing height on all his jumps). this particular ballet included guns and swords to boot! quite brilliant. i now want to dance with swords. my other favorite part, it must be said, was one of the dances in the (fabulously rendered) "pirate's grotto" where the pirates and their girlfriends are all dancing about and in the background... the principal character (conrad) walks across the stage, completely out of context, with the principal ballerina in a lift and trailing a floaty veil. it was an impressive lift, no contest -- but so flowy and unrelated to what was going on in the rest of the dance that my mother and i both started laughing. we've decided that dad needs to carry her around like that on pretty much a daily basis. on his part, all he would consent to was an afternoon of "ballet walking" (aka poncing about with his arms in the air) -- extremely funny all on its own, but not quite as good as the lift.

last storylet, and then i'll go be useful again: they were selling all sorts of performance-related memorabilia in the shop, as usual (hooray for capitalism), and one of these items happened to be an official le corsair pirate eye patch. which amused me, and then i moved on. until i passed a little boy who owned said eye patch -- and was wearing it between his eyes like some sort of cyclops. he totally wins my award for best dressed of the day. i hope he manages to stay that cool when he grows up.

i think my pirate obsession may be getting worse...

hooray, hooray for the pirate ballet!