This was basically all I would have associated with Spartacus before last night.
Last night Alister took me to see a ballet At the National Theater. It was my second ever ballet - the fist also being in Ukraine the November before last when Alister first Came to Ukraine. -
But still, the ballet came as a bit of a surprise.
First of all - I associate ballet with something old - from the time of Mozart and all that - very classical and sweet and innocent. Spartacus did not fall into any of these categories.
It was written in the 60's - had a very energetic score, and, well risqué costuming. Not that I know much about ballet costumes, it would seem that in general that they aren't wearing much anyway - but in this ballet, people were even more scantily clad, (Loincloths - they were wearing loincloths) and as the subject matter dealt with the excesses and abuses of the Roman empire, well despite the artistic vagueness of a wordless art form - the ballet is hardly G rated.
What stood out to me: 1 - that they were able to find so many men (I would say at least 40 men - not to mention at least another 20 women) who were able to dance ballet and were willing to wax everything to dance around on stage. Since this is the Kiev Ballet, I assume that these people are here and are professionally connected to the ballet in some way - but what do they do the rest of the time? Giselle - the ballet we saw last year - had only a handful of men - like 5 - so what do all of these male dancers do when there isn't a huge production of Spartacus going on? Are they part of the circus, or athletic instructors? What does a dancer do when they aren't dancing? What would motivate them to keep practicing to be in shape for the next production of an epic war somewhere down the line?
2: From the last ballet and judging from this one as well - the best dancing never takes place at the start of the ballet. In fact, both ballets were rather dull at the start. This may have something to do with the fact that we have arrived a bit late both times, and so it takes a bit to get into the story as well - but in general I think they save the best dances for later. I don't know why, but I would guess that they do this to help the dancers warm up thoroughly.
3: In this ballet especially - they were doing all sorts of different lifts and falls - there was after all a revolt going on! - The amazing thing was that even in the final act, they were able to jump and lift and spin, and spin, and spin, without missing a step (not that I would know if they missed a step - but they certainly didn't seem to falter, stumble or struggle - ) and without even a grimace of exertion! Their super humanity was, however, checked by the fact that they did break a sweat.
4: From our seats, we could see the orchestra section. It must be very boring to be in the orchestra of a production where you have very little to play. The trombone players were talking amongst themselves for most of the first act.
5: The magnitude of the number of people need for a production astounded me. Not only the army of dancers - but the full orchestra, and then all the people running the lights, and the props, the women taking your coats and the ushers showing you to your seats -And to think that originally this was all for the private entertainment of the king and his court!
6: How did the ballet practice before tape recorders and CDs? Did they have to gather the whole orchestra together and practice while they were practicing?
These are the random thoughts that run through my head in the third act of a 3 hour ballet.
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