Popination Creation
a series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today: I return to the Corner Office and to the ballet.
I know, I know— I’m supposed to have a piece ready for you about the latest fresh Popination I did last weekend, but hear me out:
I went to the ballet yesterday, and the reason I decided to go was severalfold: Normally, I wouldn’t bother with seeing a nonverbal version of a Shakespeare play, as I love the language of the Shakespeare so why on earth would I want to see a version without it? Well…
I heard that this production was using all the classic Mendelssohn music. Hm. Then I heard that this particular choreography was specially done for the Colorado Ballet. Okay, I’m listening…and then it came out that the costume and set designers were doing something extra special, and so that tore it. I bought myself a single seat in the parterre section and proceeded to let my Shakespeare-nerd mind open to the experience.
But first, I went to church, and then lunch at Corner Office bar.
But the ballet is not a pub!
Though we do recall that the Ellie Caulkins Opera House does have a bunch of bars as concession stands, as I wrote about in my oldie-but-goodie multiplex of essays about impostor syndrome at the opera: Popination Impersonation. And that’s well and good and all, but it’s not a place to go to lunch.
Before going to this production, I needed a place to have a nice lunch, as the show was a matinee and I had just been in church for a couple hours, and as I always say, the Eucharist does not a meal make. So I went over to Corner Office, and enjoyed a negroni and some avocado toast with such a ridiculously copious amount of arugula on top that it actually made me laugh. But it was a nice environment and a tasty lunch, and it wasn’t very crowded at all so it was a laid back atmosphere.
Here’s more about the Corner Office, from my visit there before the Henry Awards of 2023 (and also more about my personal impostor syndrome, whattya know):
But what about the ballet though?
Again, I was pretty iffy about going to a ballet version of a Shakespeare play, especially as it’s one that I basically have memorized from curtain to curtain. Midsummer is pretty easy to get stuck in your head like that—it’s nearly all in verse, and said verse is some of Shakespeare’s bounciest and most regular. But I was determined to experience this ballet with an open mind, and I have to say…I had a fabulous time!
I talked about how much I enjoy it when a contemporary ballet subverts or plays with the standard structure of the pas de deux, when I went to Stout St. Social Club and the CO Ballet’s production of Dracula. Their Midsummer also had some delightfully comedic versions of a classic pas de deux, especially between hapless Helena and spurning Demetrius. As the original verse has her saying things like, ‘I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell / to die upon the hand I love so well…’ and ‘Use me as your dog: spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me…’ and the way they choreographed her literally flinging herself at him was so adorably funny. One running gag between the two of them was her literally hanging off his back, and him attempting to run away, dragging her behind him as he ran. It is a really fun and interesting thing, choreography-wise: how do you choreograph a pas de deux where the man despises the woman? It was really well done, and often laugh-out-loud funny: he’d be trying to push her away and instead end up lifting her (as she’s also climbing all over him). Her delight in being actually lifted by her love was an adorable bit of breaking the 4th wall, and when he realized he was doing so, he tried to drop her, causing her to catch on to him with her straddling legs.
The costumes were great in general, including Bottom’s ass-head, and as the costumes of the young lovers had no fluffy tulle under the skirts but just opaque tights, there ended up being some really cute exposed-butt humor throughout.
I did have one minor issue with the costumes, and that was that Titania didn’t look different enough from her fairy minions, that sometimes it was hard to tell her apart. But that was a small issue, and I don’t really mind it.
Oh, and the fights! The fights were really good! I can’t find a separate credit for the fights, so I’m going to assume the dance choreographer was the guy who did the fights too. That’s Christopher Wheeldon, who also directed. And if his dance choreography says anything, if the fights are his too then yep. Something delightful about the sound of a ballet audience’s gasp at the sound of a ‘real’ slap onstage…
More about performing arts and impostor syndrome and theatrical nemeses and a new-to-me concession area that’s technically a bar, next week. I was a busy little artistic bee last week, what can I say…