at the ballet

i had a ticket to see the two pm performance at new york city ballet this afternoon. i was able to get a seat in the first ring for $35. the low price was because it was partial view. i was on the far side of house right, so stage left was a little cut off.

the company had artist lauren redniss draw portraits of the people who work backstage for the ballet. she interviewed and drew over one hundred people, including ushers, engineers, dress makers, ballet masters, call center operators, etc. she writes in the program: "some have been part of nycb for over half a century. others are the third generation in their family to work at the ballet. still others joined the ballet only this past fall." she goes on to tell about a few of the people she drew and how they feel about working at the ballet. it's an inspiring exhibition and i look forward to seeing more of the drawings when i return in a week to see swan lake! there is a vimeo video about the project, which you can see here, and the playbill article is here.

 out on the balcony at intermission . . 

 looking over the plaza . . it was a beautiful sky today.

 getting ready for justin peck's bright, set to composer mark dancigers' the bright motion: II (very beautiful and lyrical).

 lauren lovette and taylor stanley taking their bows after dancing jerome robbins' opus 19/the dreamer, music by prokoviev. 

the first piece on the program was christopher wheeldon's polyphonia, which chanda says we saw the royal ballet do several years ago. the dance was set to ten piano pieces by composer györgy legeti. the last piece on the program was a new work by alexei ratmansky, featuring spoken voices with a dissonant musical overlay (austrian composer peter ablinger's voices and piano - he has about eighty voices whose recordings he has composed to; ratmansky uses six). i kept trying to understand what was being said, but along with the piano it wasn't possible. one had to let go and just enjoy the chaos of words, music and movement.

 i met greg afterwards at moustache, a middle eastern restaurant that has the best hummus and babaghanouj, and then we checked on minerva as my friend kendall is away.

i brought home baklava for dessert!