An Amazing Ballet in Dresden

We made it to Dresden, and as soon as we arrived, we were off to the ballet.

We are lucky to have a principal ballet dancer in our family, our uncle Fabien. While we were visiting, we had the chance to see him dance at the Semperoper which is one of Germany’s well known opera houses.

We saw three different pieces: Bella Figura, The Grey Area, and Minus 16. Our uncle Fabien was in the second piece, The Grey Area.

Here is a link to see photos and videos of Bella Figura and Minus 16.

Bella Figura

Bella Figura was choreographed by Jiri Kylian. Jiri describes the show by saying “Imagine you have had a dream in which you fell out of your bed. And the next morning, when you wake up, you notice that you have a broken rib”. The ballet was very interesting because it was jumping around from scene to scene, kind of like a dream. The music was beautiful and sounded like a lullaby to make you fall asleep. We have never seen anything like this ballet before. The costumes for the girls were purple bodysuits and black tights at some parts and at other times they wore long red skirts. The men wore black shorts and black shirts while the girls wore their bodysuits and when the girls wore long red skirts they wore long red skirts too.

The Grey Area

The Grey Area was choreographed by David Dawson. It was amazing because the stage was set up with a grey floor and grey walls so it looked like the five dancers were in a big grey box. In the middle of the piece, our uncle Fabien had a solo and did a great job. That was my favourite part of the piece because his solo was full of jumps and turns. After his solo they did something very interesting. One dancer would walk up to the front of the stage and dance doing turns and jumps all the way to the back of the stage. While one dancer was dancing to the back of the stage, another would walk up to the front and dance to the back of the stage and they did it at different times. I also liked it because all of the costumes were simple and similar, but each dancer had something that made their costume different. For example one had short sleeves and another had long sleeves. There were also a lot of jumps, pirouettes and lifts which I really liked.

Minus 16

Minus 16 was a fast and fun piece choreographed by Ohad Naharin. At some parts the dancers were quick and lively and at other times they were slow and graceful. Their costumes were black suits with a white shirt, grey tank tops and shorts underneath. At the beginning they made a big semi circle and did a repeating dance, taking off their jackets, hats and pants until they were only wearing a shirt and shorts. At the end of the show, the dancers went into the audience and picked out some people to come on stage. When they were onstage they all started dancing really fast. At the end, one audience member was left onstage standing by herself because all of the dancers lay down. She was a really good sport about being left onstage.

Here is a sample of Bella Figura and Minus 16 advertised from the Semperoper.

The show was amazing and I loved all the lifts and jumps. I understand how much time and effort the dancers put into these performances. As a dancer, I know how hard it is to do ballet once a week for one hour, and these dancers practice for several hours every single day. In this show the ballet is so graceful and all the dancers made it look so easy though I know it is really hard.