In my quest to deepen my knowledge of the musical and theatrical arts, I watched a ballet performance for the first time. I went all the way to Magdeburg to see a performance of Borgia by Jörg Mannes, using music by Henryk Górecki, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Philip Glass. And I realise I don't know how to talk about dance!
See, the piece tells the story of Pope Alexander VI, born Rodrigo de Borja. I haven't heard of this pope before, but apparently he was rather controversial. And sure enough, the performance showed quite a few intriguing episodes. There were plenty of poisonings going on. There were numerous scenes of weddings and pairings where it was obvious he was selecting one man over another to be wed to a particular woman. And in the end he dies.
Sounds simple, no? But really, if I didn't do my research beforehand, I would not have understood that from merely watching the dancers on stage. After all, there's only a limited amount of movements the human body can do, and so the story is the one that enriches it and makes the performance interesting. Otherwise, it would just be a collection of twirling and other smooth movements. Not to mention the minimal vocal commentary was done in Latin.
The music was interesting. It was a selection of three composers, one of them I haven't heard before. I don't really know what music was used, but it seems to be not the focus of ballet, unless it is music that was specifically composed for ballet. I did take a closer look at the orchestral pit and I think it used Philip Glass' Symphony No. 8 for some sections. I have to check that later.
The dancing was magnificent. All the dancers were well-trained, and of course, as they were professional dancers, there were plenty of interesting things to look at. Again, as I don't have much experience in dance as an art form, I didn't know how to evaluate this, but I have to say, it was definitely very visually captivating.
Overall, it was a very interesting performance, and I think I would consider attending a dance performance again in the future. I would add this to the collection of art forms that I am focusing my attention to.
