Life at Walking Speed: Of Ballet and the Borg

12/20/2008

I am not sure how many times I have gone to see "The Nutcracker" ballet over the course of the holiday seasons, but I would be willing to wager that it has been more than just 'a few'. Almost everyone knows the story, almost every town has it's own production and from grade schools to dance studios to professional companies it get interpreted and performed around this time every year.

Having said that, I was a bit ambivelent when I first heard the radio announcement of the Miami City Ballet performing the staple of the holiday season here. But...I knew that both Robin and I were struggling just a bit with the idea that lit-up palm trees constituded Christmas and I figured it might be a treat to get us into the spirit better while safely checking out the Miami downtown performing arts area. Boy was it a winner. :)

The performing arts center (Adrienne Arsht center) is a wonderful complex reminiscent of the Buelle theatre are in Denver. It consists of a performing arts area and an opera house with several parking areas surrounding the complex. We arrived early and found an easy parking spot (for $15, that is) only a short walk to the complex.

Since I purchased tickets late in the game, we ended up in a second level balcony overlooking the stage. I did manage front row seats at this level (it was not quite sold out) and the view actually ended up being quite good for the price of the tickets. The show started about 10 minutes late (good by Miami standards, I understand) and the performance wsa absolutely excellent. At first we were disappointed that they were not using live orchestra, but after a while it didn't matter. The staging and dancing were top-notch and at one point late in the second act a ballerina stunned all of us with an amazing dance maneuver I'd never seen before. I will try to describe it, but without video it is hard to envision.

En Pointe, on one toe actually, with her body straight up and down and her hand extended toward her male partner she leaned forward slightly and extended a leg backward, making a 90 degree angle between her extended leg and her standing toe. A beautiful pose in itself (I am sure it has a proper name) after a short pause while the music built up for her, she began to move, very slowly, forward ... as if the floor were moving slowly beneath her, but it wasn't. Without any sign of flexing, she was being pulled forward on her one toe by her partner, ever so magically and it just took ones breath away. I can't imagine the strenght involved to hold that position and be pulled across the stage. I don't suspect any trickery, it was just an amazing and unexpected feat. She continued the scene and the rest of the ballet was very enjoyable.

All in all, it was a very welcome change fro the daily routine, and we talked about it for a few days afterward. It did indeed help us greatly in our pursuit if Christmas this year!

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On another note, it was moving day here at the old park. We had to change sites to accommodate a 'regular' who is arriving soon. There are a lot of 'snowbirds' who come for the 'season' from everywhere. We se license plaes fro Quebec, Maryland and Texas all right here in the same 'pod' that we are in.

The park has 12 of these 'pods' each holding 15 to 20 RVs plus a pretty good size are for tent-camping. Pods are numbered and spaces are numbered. We were previously located in Pod number 6, space number 9. So naturally we referred to ourselves as "nine of six" ... (if you don't get that it's time to tune in Star Trek Voyager reruns ... and don't tell me you won't :) )

So this week, we had to relocate to pod number 9 and guess what site we got ??? ... nope ... we came close, but ended up in space 6 ... so the best we can do is "six of nine". We will, however, be able request specific spots and pods over the next couple of years and we'll just have to see what we can get :).