Day 65 / WotD #16 - EI BLOT TIL LYST

Last night we went to the ballet with some of Emily's colleagues at the Det Kongelige Teater (Royal Danish Theater). It was an event called Dans2Go. The idea is to make an introduction to the ballet both more affordable and accessible.

It's not just for fun. We should also learn something. Thanks scolding Danish Theater!

It was, however, a lot of fun. The program consisted of three separate dances spaced with fifteen minute intervals.  Each segment was about 45 minutes and began with a short video introduction.

I really enjoyed the first portion, Chroma. It was very weird and very modern. Men wearing negligee? Check. Sparse set? Check. Strange undulating motions? Check. The best thing? Orchestral versions of White Stripes songs.

I didn't know that Aluminum existed. Good stuff.

The second segment, Unsung, was pretty much universally disliked by our group.

It was Native American themed with an all male cast and no musical accompaniment. Sooooo many long solos. Not to mention the distracting squeaks of bare feet being dragged across the stage. The group stuff was intriguing, the solos, not so much.

One of the dancers definitely did this move, so that was pretty awesome.

I repeat, I know next to nothing about dance.

Additionally, as I know nothing about dance...do neverending ovations / bowing / clapping always happen at the ballet? After each performance the entire group bowed while we clapped. Then each soloist bowed while we clapped. Then the curtain would go most of the way down and come back up. We clapped. Everyone bowed again. We clapped. The curtain would again go most of the way down and we would clap some more and then it would come back up! More bowing! More clapping! Is this normal? Would it stop if we stopped clapping? My hands and arms are tired.

The third segment was presented by the Royal Danish Ballet. It was a traditional / classical piece called La Bayadère. This was Emily's - as well as the rest of the crowd's - favorite.

I was having far too many terrifying Black Swan flashbacks to wholly enjoy it. 

From the program, Nikolaj Hübbe, the ballet's artistic director.

It is exciting to deal with the classical ballets, but it's also fun to modernize them. By getting the new and the old to meet, I hope that we can have a longer shelf life for just classicism in the old ballets.

It was a fun night, I would definitely attend another Dans2Go evening. It's a great venue to see a performance.

On my way to the theater, I snapped the following video. The metro in Copenhagen runs without a driver. As such you can watch the tunnel pass by as you hurtle through it. The whole experience feels a bit like a Death Star trench run.