Les Etoiles Pour le Japon and Rain

LIZ SAYS:I have seen 2 dance performances in the past few days. One, better than I could have imagined and one where the music outshone the dance.
First, the bad news called Rain. I love going to the Palais Garnier, it feels like a privilege just to enter such a gorgeous structure and gaze at the Chagall ceiling until the lights go down. And, I realize I may sound to big for my britches making a comment like this, but, I was, well, disappointed with the performance of Rain. It was weird because the thing that bothered me was that the dancers were in what seemed like street clothes. As it turned out the costumes were Dries Van Noten (oops). But what can I say. I love to watch the dancers bodies when they dance and khakis don't show anything. I love to watch their muscles as they glide under their skin and there was none of that. It left me cold.
The music on the other hand was really the reason we had come. Dick knew more about Steven Reich than I did and he was thrilled to go to a live performance of the music. He was right about that. It was hypnotic and dynamic with puffy, huh, huh vocals that climaxed and receded into the instrumental accompaniment. It was so perfect that I thought the vocals were just a keyboard effect. Dick later told me that it was four vocalists. The piece was called Music for 18 Musicians with Vocals (1976) by Steven Reich. It was brilliant live, I think recordings would be a very pale imitation.
One funny thing though. While we were exiting, two women in front of us were complaining, one saying she almost fell asleep because the music was so soporific. Yet, she didn't dare fall asleep because she was at the ballet in Paris! Just goes to show one person's "exhilaration" is another's "bored to tears".
The good news was the Stars for Japan or Les Etoiles pour le Japon. It was really exciting. It was a hodge podge of different pieces, which sounds awful. But, it was an exhibition of some of the best ballet dancers the West has to offer. It was a benefit for Japan. The audience was fabulously outfitted and included elegant kimono clad women as well as dance lovers and wanabees in ballet inspired outfits.
It was a crowd full of little girls who wanted to be ballerinas and there mom's who had studied dance, all long necks and ponytails. Everyone was beautiful, if for no other reason than they all loved dance and had their hearts open to giving.
The stark black stage with a white background was afire with powerful leaps and twirls. The men shone. The women seemed bound by their costumes. They could twirl on their toes and prance and pose but the men flew. Sometimes, they seemed lighter than air. I was amazed.
*The photos are from the program. Photos were forbidden during the performance.