Swan Lake on Ice

On the bright side, Mr R and I saw a FANTASTIC performance of Swan Lake on Ice. Ooooh! It was magic!

If I thought Swan Lake - the ballet- was beautiful, then this performance was absolutely breath-taking! You can tell I loved it because I've run out of adjectives to describe it.

Performed by the Imperial Ice Stars , the cast features international world champions and it shows in their performance. Somersaults, stilts, acrobatics that would put circus performers to shame - what courage to be able to do all that on ice!

This is a performance that moved me (almost) to tears - the solos were painfully beautiful. Our local theatre with its fantastic stage and sound was transformed into a magnificient ice-rink. The lighting was brilliant and it matched every mood perfectly. And the sets and costumes were impeccable.

You can see a sneak preview here (video) (And it's EXACTLY how it looks on the video!)

The dancers got a standing ovation at the end and it was well deserved. Go watch it if you have a chance.

Poetry in motion

Another Tuesday well spent. That it was V-day was just a coincidence :)

Mr R had spent the day at home, recovering from mild conjunctivitis. That effectively ruled out looking into his eyes, but since I was at work, that was fine.

We stayed off the V-day bandwagon, though we did continue with a tradition that we've begun and gave each other (very) creative handmade cards. What fun it is to surreptiously make a card while your better half is at work or not at home. What fun to come up with a spectacular idea in the middle of something and you just wait for him to leave home so you can get down to putting it on paper. On some days, I feel the excitement of childhood!

Anyway, once Mr R and I got over our wonderful cards, we headed down the hill for a quick meal and then to a wonderful performance of Swan Lake by the Moscow City Ballet.

Although I've seen ballet on the small screen before, this was my first live experience. And boy, was it an experience! Ballet, I've suddenly realised, is Mime with Dance. It looks very different on tv. In a live performance, except for the orchestra and the enthusiastic applause of the audience, the only sound is that of the dancers feet hitting the floor post a swirl or a leap. There is a technical term for that too (see here for some idea), but we'll leave that for another post.

I was delighted with the grace and elegance of the dancers and oh, so thin! Not an ounce of fat anywhere on anybody. Sigh. Some of the girls were thin enough that their rib cage was showing - now that I don't envy.The costumes were gorgeous and I especially loved the Oriental ballerina who did a Spanish routine in the middle of the performance. She was resplendent in a red costume and a flower in a hair. That was a refreshing change from the Russian princess look-alike's that the others were destined for.

Our almost-front-row seats gave me a closer look at those shoes. First of all, they are not pointy! The women's shoes are oblong with a flat padded front that lets them do all those difficult poses on their toes. The men wear flatter shoes with a bit of a rounded toe.

It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad we went to see this.

Waltzes on a winters day.

0930 on a Friday morning. Winter is determined not to yield to spring without a fight. The night's snowfall is just starting to thaw; white fluffy bits of frost stuck on never complaining grass, brambly branches and roof shingles.

Mr.R and I are in the middle of moving frenzy (ok, not a frenzy yet, it's more of a little distraction in the middle of everything else). We've called movers, started on vague packing of personal items, planning to do this and that and managing to do sightseeing and having fun at the same time. Last evening, we made plans to see an evening of waltzes at Royal Tunbridge Wells, a quaint little town about 30 minutes by car. The concert was at 7.30 and we thought that if we left at 4 or so, we could do a little walking about and see the place as well. Turned out that by the time we reached there, it started snowing quite a bit and it was getting difficult to walk about. It was already dark by 5.30 and the shops were closed (a stark contrast to India where the shops seem to be open forever) . The only recourse seemed to be to pop into Wagamama and have an early Japanese dinner.

The concert itself (called the Johann Strauss gala) was such fun. Waltzes are a great way of introducing people to classical music. This one was even more fun because the Strauss waltzes were accompanied by fully costumed dancers in period costumes - tailcoats, crinoline skirts, bows and frills. It was fun watching them glide across the stage, elegantly moving their ballet-trained feet to the sound of the orchestra. It was like going back to another era.

Typically, Mr.R and I were the only Asians in the theater and one of the few people under forty. It didn't bother us, though I'm sure we got more than a passing glance from the old-timers. We had a great time and being brown doesn't get in the way of appreciating 18th century Viennese music.

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Mr.R just remarked on how the news headlines change so drastically each day here. The row over the royal wedding seems to have faded over till something new happens. The Queen will not attend the civil ceremony but will host the reception. The Mayor of London will not apologize for his verbal attack on a journalist. The hunters and the hounds have moved on, waiting for the cameras to fade away before a full fledged attack on more foxes is launched. A hospital bug is killing thousands of people in the UK. Snow stalls life across the country. Schools close as the ice piles up. Gwyneth Paltrow and her rocker boyfriend separate just 3 months after they've had their first child together. Life goes on.

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What's a long-distance husband called?
Tele-pati.

(one of Mr.R's early morning silly jokes.)