Orpheus and Eurydice

Through lady luck's smiling fortune, I went to the ballet last Friday night with a friend. She scored tickets (free!) and I happily came along, and as it turns out, fantastic tickets costing $100 for an astounding interpretation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.

The ballet is shocking, animalistic, sensual and stripped bare. It is unlike any ballet I have ever seen or are likely to see again. I savour the memory of it, even though it is extremely difficult to describe to those who haven't seen it--it's that tongue-twisting inability to accuractly depict just what was going on.

There is nudity, all the dancers are topless with the exception of gold pasties over their nipples. The women's gold pasties are linked by a single gold chain, an oddly erotic ornament. There is loud screeching, vowel-burning, melting language. The dancers drag words from each other grudgingly. They howl at the audience, they prance like demons.

The dancers are incredibly athletic and exotic, and they lithely display an extended narrative through interpretations of Hades, demons, the angelic figure of Eurydice the tree nymph. The music is doomed, light, fun and frightening in turn.

This ballet by Marie Chouinard even shocked the skeptics in France--it's that good. If you ever get the chance to see it, don't do what one angry viewer did-storm out. Stay, and it just looks silly if you get angry half-way through, the good stuff's already gone! Oh and don't come back to retireve your husband, he was enjoying the culture, something Whitehorse sadly lacks at times.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and isn't currently running at the Arts Centre anymore. What a fantastic season-opener!