Last night we went to the Ballet Preljocal. It is a modern dance/ballet troupe that is based in Aix and under the direction of Angelin Preljocaj. We were on our own for dinner (no dinners with our families) so Sara and I made spaghetti with bread. We also had some Rose and tiramisu for dessert. And we watched Modern Family during dinner. Needless to say dinner was quite enjoyable. After dinner we rushed to get ready. I wore a beige top with skinny black ankle pants and my birthday shoes (which are pretty comfortable to walk in, thanks to their rubber wedge heel). Sara wore her new navy blue flowy skirt, her yellow heels and a white shirt. We looked very nice. Sadly, on the way down our stairs (which are quite treacherous, the are spiral which means that along the curve of the spiral, the inside part of the step gets very narrow, and the steps become triangle shaped.) Sara lost her footing and slid/fell down. She is ok - no broken bones. She does however have a gigantic bruise on her leg and it hurts every time she walks. After her tumble we rushed to meet our group to walk over to the ballet (poor Sara hobbling along the whole time). We found our group and walked across town to the ballet. Once we got there we waited around for twenty minutes while our program director attempted to secure tickets for us. Luckily(/unluckily??) she got enough tickets for us and we went to find our seats. I sat in the very back row.
The ballet: There were three pieces, Annunciation, Centaurs, Snow White. They were 20, 13, and 11 minutes long respectively. The first one (Annunciation) was very strange and by far my least favorite. It was very modern (not lots of recognizable ballet moves - though the dancers moved a lot and you could "appreciate" the skill involved). Also the music was reprehensible (at best). It wasn't music so much as random sounds - most of which sounded like nails on a chalkboard or a computer dying. Needless to say I was relieved when the lights finally dimmed. Centaurs started out strangely (lots of movements similar to baby horses walking for the first time) but the dancers were really wonderful and you could easily tell they were supposed to be horses (they did a lot of hoofing like movements and trotting). Also the music was more musicky and less technological. I really enjoyed the last one, Snow White, which showed Prince Charming finding the dead Snow White and then being very devastated. The movements and music were the most similar to what I imagine ballet to be (traditional, classical...) Also the female (Snow White) was very good - most of the time she just had to be a rag doll while Prince Charming, in his desperation, danced with her limp body - but she did it very convincingly and you could tell her limpness required actual movement. I really liked this piece, so it was a good way to end the show I thought. After it ended I rushed back home and went to bed in preparation for my early midterm (which went very well I think).
We leave for London (fall break) on Friday. I am really looking forward to it (the museums, seeing all of our friends who are studying elsewhere, seeing Bath and Oxford) but I am a bit worried. We are going to be moving around a lot and staying in hostels so I hope I am not too exhausted by the end of it all. But it will be really fun I think. Also cold (but I think I can survive that).
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| Sara and Emily looking fancy after the ballet (I was unfortunately already in my pjs) |
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| Sara's monster bruise |
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