Otter's Rock

The Dream

Partially inspired by chestnut_pod's posts on how to enjoy ballet, we went to see Boston Ballet's The Dream last night.

It opened with a new ballet, The Leisurely Installation of a New Window, choreographed by My'kal Stromile, an abstract conceptual ballet describing itself as an exploration of the way complex social systems incorporate new ideas. We definitely did not entirely follow what it was saying, but I understood it as depicting a relatively functional social structure with a certain amount of conformity and cohesiveness depicted in larger patterns in the dance, and a certain amount of room for individual expression depicted in smaller patterns. An outsider dancing with a book appeared throughout, her characteristic move especially in the first movement was an incredibly graceful transition from dancing to walking away any time someone tried to dance with her. And yet elements of her style are slowly (leisurely) assimilated into the dancing of the other dancers in the second and third movements.

I thought there were interesting moments but the music was undistinguished and the overall narrative was blurry. And I don't feel comfortable enough talking about the dancing to comment on it the way I'd like to in a review, it was impressive?

But then even before the curtain raised for Frederic Ashton's The Dream, the overture played and I knew I was in good hands with Felix Mendelssohn's beautiful score.

I liked The Dream about as much as it's possible for me to like a Midsummer Night's Dream adaptation that cut my favorite character. (It's the Wall. How could it be anything else?) The dance performances were incredible, I loved Puck's frantic physicality, the fairies floating almost in midair on tippy toes, Bottom convincingly somewhere between human and animal. Bottom's dance with Titania was my favorite moment but it's hard to pick over Oberon's final dance with Titania or the dance of mis-aimed love with the four mortal lovers or basically any of the fairy ensemble dancing.

This was such a fun night, hopefully if I keep seeing more ballet I'll get better at talking about it.