This month my husband and I have expanded our cultural
horizons a bit and attended a couple events we’ve never yet been to here in
Columbus – the ballet and a performance by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.
Best as I can recall, the only other two times I’ve ever
attended a ballet (other than my niece’s recital when she was little) was “The
Nutcracker” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – both way back when.
I happened to be flipping through the February issue of City
Scene magazine which has on its cover a photo from the current (ballet) production
of “Alice in Wonderland,” and mentioned to my husband that that might be
interesting. He agreed, and said if I wanted to see it he’d be happy to go too.
As we had no plans for Valentine’s Day we bought a pair of tickets for the
evening performance.
Having not attended a ballet in a long time I had no idea of
what to expect. I was surprised by how many tall people were in the audience,
very likely dancers themselves, but wasn’t surprised by how many children
(mostly girls) were also in attendance (especially as many of the performers
attended the Columbus City Ballet School).
Before the performance we strolled around and checked out
the many exhibits in the lobby including old doors to dressing rooms that had
been signed over the years by many a celebratory including artists, athletes
and even a famous coach or two (Woody Hayes ring a bell anyone?). I guess that’s
how you know you’ve arrived when you’re asked to sign a door, a wall, a menu,
or whatever.
There was also a backdrop and props where you could pose as
if you were a character in “Alice in Wonderland.” We saw both kids and adults
doing this.
I loved the clever design of the scenery such as tiny doors
when Alice grew big and a large door projected onto a drop down screen for when
Alice shrunk again. I had rather wondered how they were going to do that since
you can’t literally make a human grown or shrink (they also used a silhouette
projection on a screen).
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were quite amusing and rode a
bicycle built for two around the stage in some of the scenes. They were
definitely the comic relief and performed in perfect symmetrical motions.
Most recently we attended a performance of the Columbus Jazz
Orchestra. As we’re both fans of jazz and listen to Jazz Sunday on WCBE (radio)
every weekend, we thought we would probably enjoy seeing the music performed
live, and we definitely weren’t disappointed.
The theme of the evening was Modern Romance featuring
Canadian musician, Bria Skonberg who was truly fabulous and it was a no brainer
to purchase her CD down in the lobby during the interval.
I enjoyed how Bria explained the story behind each song and
even recited some of the lyrics (since most were just played without the
words). Probably the most interesting was a song originally titled, “The
Barnyard Stomp,” which was slowed down and lyrics added to the melody. It
evolved so much I doubt it bears much resemblance to its original version.
There were a variety of songs from musicians I had heard of:
Leonard Cohen, Henry Mancini and Cole Porter, and several from artists I was
less familiar with: Johnny Mercer, Hoagie Carmichael and Randy Weston, to name
a few.
The director of the jazz orchestra said the great thing
about jazz music is it gives you hope and helps clear away the dust of everyday
trials and tribulations. I definitely agree and left in a much better mood
having attended. I can’t wait to attend another performance in the future.
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