Red Shoes Ballet

On Saturday went to see "The Red Shoes" ballet at Newcastle's Civic Theatre. The ballet was beautiful and emotional. Some stunning costumes, particularly in the enchanted dance sequence, where her red shoes keep the ballerina dancing through to exhaustion. Such a shame it was accompanied by a recorded sound track rather than a live orchestra - but of course that would have added hugely to the cost, especially for this touring performace from the West Australian Ballet - it's a long way from Perth to Newcastle.

I had a delightful little girl sitting next to me; this 6 or 7 year old followed everything, and understood all the important points in the ballet, as I could tell from her excited whispered comments and questions to her mother. "He's so angry, isn't he?" "Look, they're fighting over her!" "Why is he so sad?" The auditorium had quite a few girls in the audience, some very young, but obviously would-be ballerinas.

There is such a magic in dance. Beyond my sheer admiration (and envy) for what these dancers can do with their bodies (so supple, so strong, so controlled) I am amazed at their emotional expressiveness - not a word spoken but anguish, tenderness, joy, snobbery, tension, love, happiness, fury all there in the movement.