Saturday, September 4, 2010 Dirty Dancing! Posted by juphelia at 12:58

I am now hooked on Dirty Dancing, after I got so captivated by it in the movie "Heartbreaker". I know it is rather an old movie, with the late Patrick Swayze in it. But when I saw how the guy moves, he is so oozing of sex appeal that I want so much to dance with him!

Now I need to go find the movie and learn the steps! Hopefully I can attempt something just as outrageous!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 A Month Of Great Shows! Posted by juphelia at 08:50

This year is a year of good concerts and musicals, and all the great artistes just happen to be performing here in November and December. Thus I cannot wait to see their performance! Coming up next week is Maksim, the piano genius. The one who has his own style in making a classical instrument sound so good!

Next up will be an evening of operatic love songs. Since I was a member of the Singapore Lyric Opera, how can I not support their production?

And then the long-awaited for Victor / Victoria! After all the hype about this show, I am finally going to catch it before it ends its run!

That would be the month of November. Then in December, it would be another great month of musicals and concerts! First up is the Mendessohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, by the Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonic Chamber Choir, by our very own famous conductor. His concerts are normally worth watching!

This next one was not in my plan initially, but with all the hype, I thought it would be good to see what it is like. So next up would be High School Musical!

Followed by the Michael Jackson Tribute concert. This is also not in my original plan, but since I know the dear idolises him, we decided to attend and see what songs there are.

Then the annual Christmas ballet performance. Last year it was Nutcracker, this year it is Swan Lake. Hopefully it will be better then the Nutcracker last year!

And that wraps up this year! As for next year, there are two upcoming major productions which I am thinking of catching. First is La Boheme, an opera by Giacomo Puccini - the same writer of Madame Butterfly. A rather famous local soprano will be in the lead role, so I must catch it!

And finally, the long-awaited for musical of the year - Chicago! After falling in love with the movie version, I simply cannot wait to catch the stage version!

Hopefully all the shows will not let me down!

Thursday, December 18, 2008 The Nutcracker Ballet Performance Posted by juphelia at 11:36

I went to watch “The Nutcracker” last night. I have not caught the previous version, so I cannot compare, but this version seems not bad to me, except it gets rather draggy on the second part. Tchaikovsky was a genius indeed! To be able to compose the entire tune, where the whole thing can be danced out as a ballet, yet telling a story at the same time!

The story of the Nutcracker is a Christmas fantasy by itself. One can feel it in the music – lighthearted, soothing, dreamy, with a somewhat magical atmosphere. The main dancer is so graceful that she just flitted and glided on stage just like that! One look at her feet and one can tell she is born to dance!

Anyway, the synopsis of the story is that on Christmas Eve at the stroke of midnight, a girl called Clara received a Nutcracker doll from the village’s toy-maker-cum-magician. She was playing with the other kids and villages, when she was called in to bed. She left the Nutcracker doll on a bench and the toy-maker saw it. He wanted to give it back to her but she was already in bed, so he decided to keep it and give it back to her the next morning.

However, Clara realized that her Nutcracker doll was gone, so she went back outside to the bench looking for it, but it was gone. She started crying and fretting, and suddenly, a whole group of rats came attacking her! The King Rat wanted to take her hostage, but an army of toy soldiers, led by the Nutcracker (dressed in a major’s uniform) came out to protect her and fought with the rats.

Unfortunately, he was outnumbered, so Clara went to protect him in turn. Together, they managed to chase the rats away. The Snow Queen, seeing how brave the Nutcracker was, turned him into a handsome prince, and told both of them that to reward them for their bravery, they could go to the Kingdom of Sweets. The Queen, together with Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, boarded a carriage to go to the Kingdom of Sweets. End of Part One.

Part Two started with the fairies dancing in the Kingdom of Sweets. Clara and the Nutcracker Prince were warmly welcomed. Clara was given a cloak, and both were invited to a welcoming ceremonial of beautiful dancing. There were all kinds of dancing by all the folks in the Kingdom of Sweets, like the Sugar Plum fairies and the other fairy folk. Clara and the Nutcracker Prince even joined in the dancing.

Suddenly, Clara found herself drifting away. All the fairy folk started disappearing, and she was left alone in the darkness. Then she heard knocking, and woke up. So everything was just a dream! She answered the knocking at her door and found the toy-maker coming to return her the nutcracker doll. In the end, even though everything was just a dream, she felt really pleased and happy about her magical journey.

About the performance, the dance sequence is good. Despite the pirouettes and whatnot, the entire story was performed by a simple yet fantastic cast! In fact, there were not that many performers, so those in the minor roles had to take on more than one part. The sets were simple yet nice, and the entire performance gave a rather heartwarming feeling, especially to those who have forgotten the meaning of Christmas. I feel like dancing myself during the performance! When was the last time I actually danced anyway?

I was sitting right on top at Circle Three. Normally I would take Circle One, but since I did not want to spend so much on the ticket, I settled for Circle Three. Which was not too bad actually, because even though I was rather high up, my seat was towards the middle so it was still a good view. I could tell what the performers were expressing and gesturing.

Surprisingly, the theatre had more people than expected. It was not a full house, but still, in these times and with locals in generals not interested in arts events, especially ballet, there were more people than expected. Most came with families and friends, there were a few couples, and I was the only one that was alone.

It is much better going with someone of course, after all it is better to have company and a discussion post-performance. Why is it other girls can find a man who is willing to attend these shows with them, yet I can never find anyone who is willing to do so? Sigh……