The Sleeping Beauty

Yesterday I went to the theater to see a ballet performance: the Sleeping Beauty. It was amazing. If you want, you can ~click here~ to see the trailer on the Youtube channel of the National Ballet group.

I love ballet. I've had lessons from when I was 4 to when I was 13, and I've often been to performances like Giselle or Cinderella. I love big classical shows with detailed decors and costumes. I've never been disappointed in a show, but I think this one was the most beautiful one I've seen thus far. The music was from Tchaikovsky so that was all good, the choreography was interesting and the dancers very skilled, the decor was breathtaking, with moving parts of forest, see-throughs, detailed attributes, and a beautiful palace as background. This was also the first show I've seen which used special effects. I've seen mist machines before, but apart from those they used flashes of light and sounds of thunder whenever dark magic happened, and glittering golden rain at the wedding. Very spectacular ♥


On the left the princess with her parents, after she's pricked her finger. On the right the wedding scene.

 And the costumes! They were my favourite part. They were very detailed, with beautiful embroidery and glitter, and the costumes suited the characters very well. I loved the bad fairy and her minions, they were very crow-like and evil. Their dancing was also very menacing, their dance was one of my favourite parts.
The timeline was clearly visible, too. That's something people often forget, I think, but in 100 years the world really changes. In the first 2 scenes, before the princess falls asleep, the clothing was 17th century styled, with long curly wigs and poofy pants, but after her 100 years of sleeping, everything was Rococo~ I loved it ^^


Left: pas-de-deux; right: the bad and the good fairy.


In the final scene, the wedding, other fairytale-figures appeared. Cinderella and her prince, Beauty and the Beast, Bluebeard and his wife, Little Red and the Wolf, and the Puss in Boots with his girlfriend! I really loved the dance of the two cats, it was very playful and humorous. Little Red and the Wolf also had some sort of pas-de-deux, in which the Wolf tried to catch her. His jumps were amazing! I think it was very clever of the choreographer (Marius Petipa) to include these comical intervals. Serious drama is beautiful, but after a while, you need a break. So then there's the Puss in Boots with a funny dance!

Sadly, not all people know how to behave. An old man next to me apparently thought watching a performance is like watching television, and he kept commenting on the show and talking to his wife. His comments were really childish and stupid, too. Another thing that disappointed me is that most people were dressed very casually. I think going to the theater is the perfect opportunity to dress up, so I wore a pretty dress and nice shoes, but I saw so many people in jeans and sneakers! It surprises me how scared people are to be overdressed. I often remember a quote of which I've forgotten the source: "What's the worst that can happen? That you're the best dressed person in the room?"

I didn't dress in lolita, although I wanted to at first. I changed my mind because of the cold and the inconvenience. I had to travel by bike and train, and it was freezing, so I didn't think it practical to wear a short skirt with a petticoat. So I went for another favourite of mine, Audrey Hepburn-style! Which meant a long black velvet dress and pearls!

              

No matter how much hairspray I use, some strands remain unable to tame... The dress and shoes are both second hand, there's a wonderful secondhand shop in my parent's village. My tights had golden glitters on them, very appropiate. I borrowed them from my mother, just like the pearl necklace. I don't own any real pearls, sadly! I do hope my mom will lend them to me more often :)