I watched Swan Lake performed by the Royal Ballet yesterday. And while I'm not a ballet connoisseur (or an opera one at that, as I found out at a recent viewing of Buz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's La Boheme), I felt that the dancers were all incredibly talented. I haven't watched anything with a proper story performed before without any speech or obvious miming so this was most definitely a new experience for me. Unfortunately, I was exhausted and fell asleep more than a couple of times during the performance. I was doing my best to stay awake, but with the lights in the theatre out, I just couldn't keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried.

But I do have this to say. I'm not a classical music fan either, but the score by Tchaikovsky was fantastic. And the choreography, with the dancers' movements matching the music perfectly, was exquisite. Marianela Nunez as Odile/Odette was incredible. I watched with awe as she spun multiple times en pointe (I'm rather envious of their spotting ability, because I can't spin more than three times without getting very dizzy). Thiago Soares, as Siegfried, was not as spectacular as Nunez, but mostly because I suspect the real star of the show is supposed to be Odile/Odette anyway, so that's to be expected. The chemistry between them is rather good, as my heart melted just a little when Nunez came out for the fourth curtain call and she called for him to come out, and he did, kissing her on the lips, causing the audience to scream wildly.

And that's really all I can say for the show. What can I say? I don't appreciate ballet all that much and more to the point, I was far too tired, a fact illustrated by my falling asleep later while dancing at Poptart.