(no subject)
crazkawaii and I had a great day today! Well, for her it started off both great and not so much great. She finished her internship today! But than got mopey...which ended when we went to get Japanese food! Yay!
Then we went shopping and spent far far too much money. Like, I bought shoes (cute, sexy brown shoes! Yay!), then a shirt for me and a shirt for a gift, and then two more gifts, then (far too expensive, but WONDERFUL castanetes. ck wasn't there to dissuade me from the castanetes because she went to the comic book store! Finally!
Then, we went to a dance concert (which I am not going to call a flamenco show, even though the company was called "Ballet Flamenco de Madrid" and the show was called "Espana baila Flamenco"). It was...good at points. It wasn't what I expected. In terms of the production itself, there were mic problems (which is not at all unusual...in this show the main problem was that the singer's mic was waaaay too high), one of the dancers had a very distracting navel ring (OMG, inappropriate and/or distracting jewlerey is one of my pet-peeves in performances), there was a smoke machine that added NOTHING to the show, and, the floor needed VERY BADLY to be mic'd.
As for the dancing, the first half was Spanish Classical, and I don't really like watching Spanish Classical dance. I love doing it, but when the company isn't AMAZING (like the Antonio Gades company that was immortalized in the Carlos Saura, flamenco trilogy), I'm left with a sense that I could do all of what they're doing. So, I'm not impressed. Something that is also frequently unimpressive is when a classical company tries to perform flamenco. This was where Ballet Flamenco de Madrid surprised me. They made the transition unusually well. The second half of the show was pretty good flamenco. One of the male dancers especially caught my eye. For awhile, even without his having any solos, it was fairly obvious that he really knew what was going on and was pretty important to the company. And then, when he had a solo, I was blown away. And, plus, he seemed pretty young and had the whole "very skinny boy with long hair" flamenco cliche going on. And: he didn't do the whole "flamenco is serious so I must make an unhappy face" thing that is so common. I have a little platonic crush on him.
Another flamenco cliche that was included in this show, that I loved? The fat old lady dancing. And? They didn't leave her for the end. She was in the middle of the show for a bit, and then reappeared at the end. It's the extreme of one of my favorite things about flamenco: the diversity of body types that are acceptable.
Wow, I had promised myself that this would be short, as it is of no interest to anyone but myself. I guess I failed. Sorry.
Tonight, language exchange, and tomorrow PARIS!
Then we went shopping and spent far far too much money. Like, I bought shoes (cute, sexy brown shoes! Yay!), then a shirt for me and a shirt for a gift, and then two more gifts, then (far too expensive, but WONDERFUL castanetes. ck wasn't there to dissuade me from the castanetes because she went to the comic book store! Finally!
Then, we went to a dance concert (which I am not going to call a flamenco show, even though the company was called "Ballet Flamenco de Madrid" and the show was called "Espana baila Flamenco"). It was...good at points. It wasn't what I expected. In terms of the production itself, there were mic problems (which is not at all unusual...in this show the main problem was that the singer's mic was waaaay too high), one of the dancers had a very distracting navel ring (OMG, inappropriate and/or distracting jewlerey is one of my pet-peeves in performances), there was a smoke machine that added NOTHING to the show, and, the floor needed VERY BADLY to be mic'd.
As for the dancing, the first half was Spanish Classical, and I don't really like watching Spanish Classical dance. I love doing it, but when the company isn't AMAZING (like the Antonio Gades company that was immortalized in the Carlos Saura, flamenco trilogy), I'm left with a sense that I could do all of what they're doing. So, I'm not impressed. Something that is also frequently unimpressive is when a classical company tries to perform flamenco. This was where Ballet Flamenco de Madrid surprised me. They made the transition unusually well. The second half of the show was pretty good flamenco. One of the male dancers especially caught my eye. For awhile, even without his having any solos, it was fairly obvious that he really knew what was going on and was pretty important to the company. And then, when he had a solo, I was blown away. And, plus, he seemed pretty young and had the whole "very skinny boy with long hair" flamenco cliche going on. And: he didn't do the whole "flamenco is serious so I must make an unhappy face" thing that is so common. I have a little platonic crush on him.
Another flamenco cliche that was included in this show, that I loved? The fat old lady dancing. And? They didn't leave her for the end. She was in the middle of the show for a bit, and then reappeared at the end. It's the extreme of one of my favorite things about flamenco: the diversity of body types that are acceptable.
Wow, I had promised myself that this would be short, as it is of no interest to anyone but myself. I guess I failed. Sorry.
Tonight, language exchange, and tomorrow PARIS!