The Winter's Tale at The Royal Opera House

Ever since we had Royal Ballet principal dancer Ed Watson in the gallery, I've been watching loads of YouTube ballet videos, and finally got the guts up to go to an adult ballet class, which I wrote about here.

My partner and I have been having a tough month with immigration, which I'll write a post on when I'm ready and feel more distanced from it, as it's too stressful right now to really break it down. But I've welcomed all sorts of distractions, such as volunteering at a local Educational Library Service on my days off, and ballet. I bought £6 tickets for my partner and I to go see The Royal Ballet's production of The Winter's Tale, and we went last week on Wednesday, April 23. Talk about the most beautiful escape where every real life issue was instantly forgotten and left outside of the theatre for the three hours the ballet was on.

For £6 seats in the amphitheater what you do miss out on is some of the background and beautiful sets. But what you don't miss out on is the dancing. We could hear the pitter-patter of the ballerina's pointe shoes across the stage, and see the sweat dripping off the principal's faces as they danced. It was fantastic.

At this point I've only seen Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty, both performed by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, which I enjoyed. But The Winter's Tale was different. The narrative of this story was so strong, and the acting was superb. Ed Watson as Leontes was like a lizard, crawling out of his skin with jealousy as he skulked around Hermonie and Polixenes during the first act. Act 1 was emotionally traumatic to watch, because as a viewer I felt part of their story, and watched the happiness of Leontes' court fall to pieces as he lost everything.

The second act was full of sweetness and light due to the gorgeous music and Sarah Lamb's Perdita and Steven McRae's Florizel. They really made the audience feel them falling in love during their pas de deux.

After that Wednesday, I fell in love with the ballet to the point where I booked a ticket to see it in Cinema's during the ROH Live showing. (It's probably unfair to mention I paid £12 for two tickets to see it live, and £20 for one ticket to see it in the cinema.) I was a little skeptical that the ballet wouldn't translate well on a screen as opposed to real life but I really shouldn't have worried. It was almost better in a way due to the sweeping camera angles and close ups, the subtly of the dancers acting was much more visible. By Act 3 there were sounds of crying as the audience in the cinema was moved to tears by the end. I walked out of the cinema feeling the lightest I had in months.

Here's hoping The Royal Opera House releases the ballet on DVD, it's truly amazing.

Image credit to ROH and The Guardian. 

Début

On Tuesday my girlfriend and I went to a dance school in central London and took our very first ballet class together, something that my husband has encouraging me to do for a few weeks now. Throughout the morning before I researched blogs of new adult dancers, trying to make myself feel a little bit less nervous. 

After rushing from work (the kind of rushing where I forgot my engagement ring at work after I took it off to do the washing up), I waited for the class to start outside the studio. I overheard some dancers, who wearing tights and proper leotards and looking very intimidating, talking about how they formerly dancer professionally, and I couldn't help but wonder if I was in the wrong place, even though it was the Adult Absolute Beginners class. 

Once all 40 odd of us were allowed in and scurried to choose our places at the barre, I knew it was going to be okay when the teacher asked who was trying ballet for the first time. My friend and I raised our hands, and even though he separated us so we were in between more experienced students he did it with a joke that put us at ease. 

I've historically had loads of issues with my feet (probably not helped by two bunion surgeries at age 21 and 24), and my toes cramp on their own a lot. So I really struggled with the barre exercises because of my toes cramping and wanting to stay curled up in a point when I was supposed to be extending and 'sweeping' the floor during tendus. 

It was immensely fun, and one of the most difficult things I've ever tried.That made me love it more - I have a history of getting extremely bored and dropping activities that come easily to me, especially as a child (hello tennis, gymnastics, and guitar). 

I loved the french words for everything - tendus, plies and demi-plies, ronde de jambes. I loved the feeling of accomplishing a releve on demi point without the barre and holding it for a few moments - a tiny victory. 

I can't wait to go back and am going to make a huge effort to go at least two out of the three times its offered per week.