The ballet

     The ballet was Awesome! and beautiful! No wonder Russian Ballets are so famous. There was just something about it that made the time go by so fast. It was Sleeping Beauty, of that there was no doubt. But it was the classic sleeping beauty, not the Disney version. And at the end there were different partner dances that were really cool. They were supposed to be celebrating the marriage of the prince and princess, but they were stories in and of themselves. Except for this one couple. They were just creepy cats fighting with each other. There are two songs in the ballet that were used in the Disney movie. I thought this was pretty cool. And I was impressed that someone could make up words to them. Well, the "Once Upon A Dream" song. The other was used in the scene where the faeries went to Melefacent's castle.

And the music was live from an orchestra. This may go without saying, but to me it added another element of excellence and beauty to the whole thing. There is just something about live music that can capture you and help take you into the dance. Or put you to sleep. But in this case, it did the former, and enhanced the ballet a million times over. 
The scenes/backdrops were beautifully constructed, and I really liked the costumes. Of course the dancing was good. There were some difficult dances in there! The pure athleticism of all the people were really impressive. At the end of a solo the girls' feet didn't seem to hurt and no one was ever breathing really hard. Another interesting fact is that the king looked like a real life version of Lord Farquad from Shrek. Also, the king and the princess were actually father and daughter in real life. I thought that was cool.

Julia also told me that when Arthur comes with her to ballets the first thing he does is go to the bar and get a class of cognac. I think the guy sitting next to me during the first act had the same system, only he must have had more than one serving. He giggled through most of it. It wasn't too irritating, because the woman that controlled our sector of the theater was related to Hitler. She caught me with my camera once and I think quietly yelled at everyone in my section at least once. Of course I found another way to take pics, but it was during the second half, so you only will see pics of the first scene and 3/4 of the second half. So basically you won't get to see the kiss or the witch. She was pretty good. She didn't really ever dance; she just moved around a lot and waved her cape around. It was still pretty cool. She also had a really big butt built into her costume. Which is probably why she didn't do any dancing. 
It is getting to be Autumn here. The wind howls through the stairwell, and it is a COLD wind. I have said it many times and I will say it again: it is straight from the Arctic circle!