Humorous piece in the Washington Post

[nlkflint]

Found this thorugh Ari's links. You will smile when you read this one. This is the sort of thing I wish Dave Barry had written...but that is another thread!!

It's worth following the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Apr16.html

Here is a sampling..

"Giselle" is a lovely ballet, and I admire the leitmotifs of French composer Adolphe Adam. I know so much more about music than I do about dance, having come to ballet only recently. This makes it easier, in a way, to appreciate. The more naive you are, the more easily you are wowed...  Sitting here watching this ballerina, I am really, really . . . wowed.  Do I sound wowed? No, I do not. In other arenas, when people are wowed, they shout: "Wow!" Sometimes they stand up, whistle and make loud "Woo! Woo! Woo!" sounds.

But this is not appropriate behavior for a gloriously baroque performance hall. Instead, you are expected to sit here and watch a woman move her stunningly elastic body with a motion that is pure emotion, a bend and a twirl and a leap that has you close to tears, and you are supposed to wait. You are supposed to wait until she is done with this twirl or that twirl, and then, when an audience response is permitted, you may gently put your hands together with a respectful, though reticent, clap, clap, clap.

Clap, clap, clap. That's it? It isn't right. A performer who gives you a gift deserves a thank-you. A big one. If she were a rock star I could thrash my head. If she were an ice skater I could howl and whistle. What, anyway, is the responsibility of the individual audience member in any artistic transaction?

......Sitting here sneaking a red Swedish Fish, I make a plan. When this ballet is over I will leap to my feet and shout, "Bravo!" I will start the standing ovation this dancer so deserves.  

.....I stand for the ovation I promised -- only to find that about a dozen people on either side of me have beaten me to the punch. "Bravo! Bravo!" booms through the gloriously baroque performance hall. Well, now, wait a second here. I thought Giselle was speaking to me, personally. You mean she was talking to them, too? This is bothering me, but only enough to begin understanding.

Enjoy.

[dirac]

Thank you for pulling this out of the pile. It's true that sometimes mere clapping seems inadequate....

[BW]

Yes this article made me laugh - out loud in a not so well bred way - but I also thought it was a great review...albeit perhaps for the less baroque of us. ;) Seriously, I loved it! How does one applaud newspaper writers?

[nlkflint]

I laughed out loud and I am glad a few others did too. We need more folks new to ballet to buy tickets, and really appreciate the athleticism and beauty;and to realize what they have been missing. Sure wish this was a syndicated column to run in more papers.

[dirac]

Actually, I've heard a few howls at some performances, so ballet fans can be pretty darn demonstrative.