Ballet for the first time!

Went to my first ballet in a long while, and when I say long I mean at least fifteen years! In fact, to my conscious memory, I have never seen a ballet before! And boy did I enjoy the Royal Ballet’s production of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” at the Royal Opera House tonight (I know, so many royals!) What a way for me to reunite with a genre that I have really missed out on!

I don’t know much about ballet, so I can’t comment on the details, but I thought it was such an interesting to see a story portrayed only by music and gestures. In a way it felt like the music was enhanced by the gestures, or the gestures and dance came together beautifully with the music to create something that was more than the two separate art forms by themselves. It was like watching a moving artwork, and Kenneth MacMillan does well in his choreography to make it so. The colourful costumes and set design, paired with the symmetrical movements onstage (especially in group dances), at times made for a kaleidoscopic effect that was so satisfying to watch.

The way the music matched the action was also brilliant. While I understand the music can be listened to by itself, I think it is definitely best paired with action. In fact, some of the music made such sense with the action that I’m convinced Prokofiev wrote stage directions on his score!

Observing the dances, I find that oftentimes the dance patterns repeat when the tune returns, or when there is a refrain of the first subject etc. Not only must the dancers be in tune with the rhythm of the music, they must know the music in order to tell a story! There are lots of things involved when telling a story through music, and one of them is repetition with a degree of variation; similarly, to frame a narrative, dance patterns must repeat themselves during bits while varying in other bits. I must pay more attention in the future to how dancers tell their stories. Their way of interpreting music is so interesting. My friend also told me that apparently each dancer phrases differently, and that it’s worth checking out different casts! It’s crazy to me to think that some musicians interpret music through gestures, but I guess in a way we are more similar than different. It’s just pretty insane to me that there’s a whole different musical world operating under my nose that I’ve not been aware of.

Watching large-scale productions like these also reminds me that music does not always take centre stage, much less piano. There’s so much more you can do with music than just listen to pure music; nor should we think pure music is the highest form of art. The creative spirit of Prokofiev could not be brought to life without the amazingly talented dancers, choreographers, set designers and more.

I haven’t said much substantial, and I’m quite tired from being exhilarated this evening. I’m just very excited at discovering this new genre and I really hope to get acquainted with it!