LIM College

My favorite website in the entire world is nymag.com and as I was surfing the site the other day, I came across an article about the NYC Ballet’s last performances for the spring. I clicked on the link thinking it would be ridiculously expensive. To my surprise, the cheapest tickets were $20! Better yet, my favorite Shakespeare play was showing the very next weekend. So I called up my boyfriend and got us two tickets for the Saturday night show.

After wandering around, we found the theater, got in line and started climbing the stairs to find our seats. As we get to our seat, an usher handed us a program and we started reading about the dancers, the choreographer, and the story. Finally, the curtain opened, the orchestra began, and the dancers entered. I was particularly fascinated by the dancers, all 15 of them, who could not be any older than eight. The story proceeded, with Puck doing all sorts of tricks to the poor innocent lovers. I knew the story was a comedy, but I was blown away by how many times I caught myself laughing out loud. Who knew that ballet could be so funny?

Perhaps my favorite moment of the evening is when my boyfriend turned to me and said “The costumes are beautiful!” After getting over that refreshing comment, I agreed that yes, the costumes were indeed beautiful. The Fairy Queen’s dress was soft pink with golden trimming. All of the little dancers wore wings of different colors and sizes, and the mischievous Puck wore a flesh colored suit covered with green leaves. We also noticed the pairs of lovers had color-matched costumes, which made it easier to keep track of who’s who during the show.

One last observation about this fabulous evening was the variety of people in the audience, ranging from young 30-something couples, to girlfriends on a night out, to decked out older couples who sat near the front row. It was very interesting to see that the performance attracted such diversity of spectators, and it encouraged me to tell my family and all my friends about it.

I had never seen a professional ballet performance before, so this was definitely the perfect experience. Despite my worries, the view was great, the costumes were amazing and the music was delightful. I highly encourage any student/young professional to go see this performance next spring and don’t forget to get there early to take pictures of the beautiful theater.

- Marine Ravera

Additional Reading

More information on the NYC Ballet performances and other relevant information, and don’t forget, if you are a student, there are great discounts available.

If you're really inspired, you may be interested in further reading on George Balanchine, the original choreographer, or Felix Mendelssohn, the composer. For further information on dance and ballet, check out danceadvantage.net or this great ballet blog. Finally, you may also be interested in reading In the Wings: Behind the Scenes at the New York City Ballet by Kyle Froman, a wonderful photo-album book with stories of the dancers and their everyday training.