Get the Pointe?

I really love to go out to shows like movies, musicals, the opera, comedy shows, and ballets. If a ticket is needed to get in, then you know I'm all over it. Suddenly, Cameron Diaz's line from Charlie's Angels (I LOVE TICKETS!) doesn't seem so silly.

The problem is that I always have terrible experiences whenever I attend any of the shows. I remember there being a train delay on the day I was to see "The Pirate Queen" and I literally had to run from the station to the theatre in very nice shoes with no arch support. The show ended up being lame and my poor feet hurt for days. I also saw "Juno" recently, but didn't enjoy it because too many people were talking during important parts of the film and I spilled my drink on my lap because the lid wasn't staying on.

Last night I attended a performance by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. It's an all-male dance company that performs all across the country. They're men who dress up in women's dance clothes and wear pointe shoes. How bad could it be?

It was one of the coldest nights in Chicago, ice had formed on the sidewalks, and the wind blew right through my trousers. The sandwich I'd eaten earlier wasn't going through my body in the most pleasant way. We got lost coming out of the parking garage because it's like a virtual maze. And to top it all off, I sat next to a pouty queen who made it clear to everyone around him that he was a professional ballet dancer, which meant he was going to be critiquing the whole show and shaking his head in shame because the dancing would probably never compare to his majestic moves.

The house lights dimmed as they started playing the music from Swan Lake and I immediately thought "oh cripes, they're going to do Swan freaking Lake." To my surprise, the dancing was quite good. The men in tutus glided across the stage with such fluidity and grace that they almost seemed like women if you squinted your eyes, due in large part to the fact that their chests were the same size as any Russian ballerina's chest.

There was a lot of physical humor incorporated into the moves such as one dancer getting knocked over by another runaway dancer, and the princess getting dizzy after doing a bunch of pirouettes. You'd think that all of the humor would take away from the dancing and cheapen it, but that is not the case. It's clear that the dancers respected the dance and never let it suffer. The comedy portions complimented the dance portions, and you're left with the perfect blend of comedy and art.

At one point, I looked over to my BFF Scott and he said "this is so fucking cool after all the crap we went through." He was right. Sometimes we get so caught up in all of the negative stuff that goes on that we forget to focus on all of the positives. Sure, the start of the evening was disastrous. But it was a great theatre with stadium seating (which you rarely see in a fine art venue), the show was highly entertaining, it benefited the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, they didn't skimp on the vodka in their cocktails, and a lot of the men there winked at me without me having to do a crazy double take.

It's all about perspective.



I usually bring my camera to things like this, but I forgot to put the memory card back in it. This is a fun little picture of my night at the theatre.