“Was she wearing shoes?” I knew Laura was kidding when she asked this question, but could understand. After all, the ballerina who had just executed a thousand amazing moves made it look completely effortless. What’s more, it was Laura’s first time at the ballet, and with one of the world’s best companies, no less!
Normally it’s really difficult to get tickets to see the Bolshoi ballet and you need to book months in advance. However, over the weekend Jenny told me about two shows of Don Quixote playing at the Kremlin Palace (which is actually more like a Soviet marble convention center). Sadly, we were supposed to see shows on both nights. Jenny kept saying that one of them, the MXAT student show The Black Square, plays pretty frequently and we should go see the ballet instead. Luckily, at 2:50pm while Laura and I were grocery shopping at Perestroika (actually Perekrestok, but this is what the dramaturgs have renamed it) she got a call from Joe. Apparently the higher ups (aka Nastia and Tanya) wanted to try to get the actors into see the show tonight and wondered if were okay with having a night off. Laura and I jumped at the chance. We called Jenny, who just so happened to be finishing lunch and rushed over with us to get tickets at the Bolshoi. Right after we picked up our tickets the box office closed for lunch. Phew!
For around $17 we had amazing seats. The ballet was just what I needed tonight. Jenny had described it as “eye candy,” and it was kind of nice to sit back and not have to worry about following the story. It made me think about the value in spectacle. Being able to turn off your brain a little while simultaneously being blown away by amazing talent is pretty special. It got me excited to see even more ballet, and towards the end I was starting to try to pick out what I could remember of technique.
During the intermissions, Laura and I talked about how unbelievably lucky we are to be in our program. The opportunity to live in Moscow for three months, a city full of art and culture, is pretty incredible in and of itself. But we also have endless opportunities to see theatre, opera, and dance for free (if we had planned tonight a bit more in advance I’m sure we could have had free tickets). I can’t even fathom how much all the shows we’re seeing would cost if we actually paid for them.
Earlier today we had our first class at the Stanislavsky Music Theatre, an opera and ballet company with around 1,200 employees in an enormous complex. As part of the class we got a backstage tour and went on the stage, seeing the beautiful house and learning more about the company. How fantastic is this? Not just anyone gets these opportunities. Between the spectacle and reflection, I left the Kremlin Palace rejuvenated.
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