SF Ballet- Part Deux

I hardly know any French so I will limit my use of it to the title. Yes, for the second weekend in a row, I attended the San Francisco ballet. It was a different set of 3 performances and since their season is so short, I need to get all of the ballet in that I can :-) I discovered that the SF Ballet has THE BEST student rush ticket policy that I have ever seen. You call of the morning of the show and find out if they have any tickets available and they even have 2 price ranges- $10 for balcony and $20 for orchestra. And then they will immediately reserve you a ticket that you pick up at Will Call where you show them your student ID and you get the tickets! And unlike any program I have heard, you can also get a SECOND ticket, and they don't need to be a student! How great is this- you had better believe that I will be attending the rest of the seasons performances.

I also discovered something yesterday that I had not anticipated. In my previous post, I had mentioned about how William had accompanied me and my friends to several ballets while we were dating and engaged in Boston. I asked him if he was interested in going yesterday and the truth comes out. He said that the ballet is ok, but not his favorite, and I actually think that this is the really sweet part- he went so much with me to impress me and win me over. That is so adorable that he tried (and still tries) so hard to impress me. He said that he was willing to go with me if I wanted him to, but I said that I was fine going by myself. He truly is so thoughtful and considerate of my feelings- I really appreciate him ;-)

Since I was going by myself, I decided to sit in the orchestra and it provided me a completely different perspective than the balcony. Its not to say that I like one better than the other- they both have their strengths- but I am glad I had the floor for this performance. The balcony is better at seeing the overall patterns, staging, and choreography of the group dances while the floor allows for a better view of the facial expressions and interactions. The floor was perfect because two of the pieces had a smaller cast- with a maximum of 8 people on stage at a time- but with most of the time spent with only 1 or 2 individuals on stage. I had never seen any of the short pieces, but they were incredibly good- all 3 of them.

The first number was called "Filling Station" and was a fun, comedic piece set in a 1950s gas station and the unique characters who came in. This one dancer came in as a rich, very drunk woman and totally stole the show because she had to dance on point, yet look like she was very drunk so she had these unique moves to her performance. The second piece was choreographed in 2004 but to music by Bach. The set design was fairly basic, with an empty stage and everyone dressed in black, but it really allowed the choreography to speak for itself. It had a modern take on classical ballet and it perfectly fit with the music. The final piece was by Balenchine and it was a part of his Jewel series but they only performed one movement- Diamonds. All of the costumes were white with glittering "diamonds" and it had a larger number of dancers and was extremely graceful. I would love to see it paired with the other two movements- Emeralds and Rubies. All in all, I very much enjoyed myself, especially when the very tall man sitting in front of me for the first piece traded places with his wife for the last 2 numbers. And I didn't even have to ask :-)