Balletomane

I can not count the number of times I've said " there isn't anything to do in this town", and 98% of the time its true. Yesterday however was one of those days that made it seem OK to live in Iowa.

After spending the day in and out of the pool, and frying [I'm a few different shades of pink,(yes Tedd I know I said no to the sunblock)]; friends and I went to an outdoor FREE performance of the Joffrey Ballet. It was held at a local historical site that often hosts cultural affairs. We were all shocked at the sheer number of people that came out for this performance. There was little press and PR done to announce this event, if you don't count the news paper article that ran last week. I thought there would probably be a few hundred people that would show, and that it would be a relatively small production. After all it was free, so I didn't get my hopes up. The paper today reported numbers in the thousands, and I would believe it.

Not late by any means, but not mucho early, we found a spot in the grass in what would be commonly known as the cheap seats (it was free, so it was just the crappy, late people seats).

As the sun set and ballet goers continued to file in, the dancers took the stage. I was expecting maybe an area of grass with a raised platform at best, but these people knew what they were doing.

Semi's had unloaded tons of equipment, including a massive tented stage structure with professional sound and lighting to the 9's. The show started and I strained to see what was going on onstage (I'm making an eye appt this week) , and what I did catch was magic. The company performed numbers from the Prince ballet "Billboards" and a few avant garde numbers. Also whats a ballet with out some "Nutcracker" action, I commented that the sugar plum be-och stole my Tu Tu!

The Joffreys' performance was thanks in part to the people at the UofI Hancher auditorium. It was a gift to the people of Iowa to celebrate 35yrs of Hancher. This is me telling whoever was involved Thank You. I read it cost some where around$950,000 for the ballet company to travel all over the state and put on this show.

So again Hancher and Joffrey Thank you for making my night! Next time I'm coming super early. As a friend of mine said later over drinks, "if we could see abs and pecs from that far away just imagine what we could have seen half way closer". I second that thought, but for me, I think he was refering to the amazing dancers and the art that was being presented (and yes some hot dancer action too).