Doing something new every week in 2017 #1: Going to the ballet
#1 of 52 new ways to challenge yourself in 2017
My hometown of Wellington is the cultural capital of New Zealand and the home to many little art galleries and arthouse theatres and cinemas — a real treat, if you are into the arts.
Over the years I’ve been to many impressive local and international art, cultural and science exhibits (who can forget Yayoi Kusama’s Mirrored Years exhibition at the Wellington City Gallery in 2009). However, one art form continued to elude me over the years.
I’ve even had the Royal Academy of Dance NZ as a client, when I was running Zing Design, but alas, ballet continued to be a mystery to me.
So when the opporturnity came up, to see The Swan Lake by the Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre at St James Theatre, I jumped at the chance.
I wanted to see it for two reasons: St Petersburg and Swan Lake.
Saint Petersburg
I’ve been obsessed with Saint Petersburg (Russia) since I was an architecture student. The city have always held a great deal of fascination for me, due to its rich architectural heritage, the Siege of Leningrad, Pushkin and its notorious tsars such as Catherine the Great. Ballet was introduced to Russia by the city’s founding tsar Peter the Great in 1689 to “embrace the West”. Despite the fact that I’ve never been, it remains one of my favourite cities in the world.
Swan Lake
Swan Lake is a classic ballet by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. When I was a kid, I had to learn to play the Dance of the Little Swans and Ballad of A Swan Lake on keyboard. So going to Swan Lake the ballet, felt like going full circle for me.
Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre at St James
What can I say? Swan Lake was amazing — fantastic sets, beautiful costumes, super graceful ballerinas that defied gravity.
My friend Angela, who came along with me, also taught me a few new things that I didn’t know about ballet:
- Like operas or plays, ballet has Acts and at least 1 intermission to allow set and costume changes. The number of Acts varies by the ballet and country. Swan Lake is performed in either 2 or 4 Acts. This one had 4 Acts with one 20-minute intermission at the end of the second Act.
- There are regional differences to ballet. US, Australian and Russian ballet have a more “dramatic” flair (with higher kicks and so forth), whereas British and NZ ballet style tend to be more “demure”.
- It pays to get a program booklet before you enter the theatre. It will give you the actual story of what’s actually going on, on stage, so you can enjoy the storytelling whilst watching the show.
- In NZ, ballerinas begin their professional career at age 16, they usually retire by their late 20s or early 30s.
- Not all ballerinas are equal. Principal Dancer/s are the star attractions, and ballerinas that dance in a group are called Crops de Ballet.
Going to the ballet was a great new experience and one that I’m looking forward to doing more, now that I’m no longer a ballet newb ;)
What should I do next week? Let me know!