Cincinnati Ballet, Mozart's Requiem

Eep. I should have talked about this weeks ago; I'm so sorry. I'm working through a serious backlog of Cincinnati (re)adventures! It's an embarrassment of riches.

My friend-boss, Jeff, and I decided we wanted to go to the ballet. (We're a bit arbitrary like that.) We made a double date of it, got all spiffed up, grabbed dinner at Melt and headed to the Aronoff.

First off, love the Aronoff. Always have, since my mom started taking me to the theater when I was in middle school or so. I'll do a more in-depth post about this beautiful theater some other time-- maybe I can hook up a tour or something? I clearly need better pictures than the one I could snag while the lights were up.

But the real gem of the evening was the ballet, of course. I'd never seen the Cincinnati Ballet, except maybe a Nutcracker performance so long ago I can't remember anything but the velvet dress I was allowed to wear that night.

I was floored by the performance. Before the performance, I was curious as to whether it'd be more abstract or so story-driven it'd be dull. I was pleased to find the performance to be right in the middle: accessible enough that all four of us really connected to it, abstract enough that we all took away our own interpretations of various parts of the story.

I found myself ruminating about art in general. For someone as tied to a computer as I am, it was really beautiful to see something so human. Dan commented on a particular part of the opening routine where the dancers were slightly off-sync-- well of course they were. They're human, not automated. We were watching a dance that would only happen that exact way one time, no matter how much they practiced. That's what separates art from... well, just about everything else.

Cincinnati Ballet (Mozart's Requiem): http://www.cballet.org/performances/mozart