In Which The Masculine Ballet is Attended

02.10.2008

Today was just kind of stupid. But I'll get to that later -- First I'll talk about yesterday.

Class went well enough. I feel like we have really good discussions in my Russia and the U.S. class. And I participate a lot, which is unusual -- But I think it's because it's in English, so I get to exercise my tongue a little. Speaking of which, when I go back to the U.S., I am going to be so sickeningly talkative. Which is good - at least, for my classes. That's one thing I'm excited about, actually.

Then, last night... Marc Almond concert! It was absolutely fantastic -- though, I think Marc Almond might've been wearing a grill... I don't know. His teeth were unnaturally golden and shiny. In any case, I took some photos, but they didn't turn out very well, as concert photos never do. Pavel went, too, but I was kind of avoiding him. He kept calling, but I didn't want to answer, and Bryan (who went with me) saw him and said he was running around looking for me.

OH! So, MTV Russia interviewed me, in English. Which was kind of dumb. And I gave absurd answers. Because they'll dub over with whatever they want to, anyway, so it doesn't matter... So, I might end up on MTV Russia. Apparently, while they were interviewing me, Pavel saw (according to Bryan), so I thought he was going to bound up afterwards or something, but he didn't. After the concert, I sent him a text message telling him I had my cell off, and asked him how he liked it -- He just responded with one word ["Very"], which was kind of odd, so I think he might have the impression that Bryan and I are together. Which is amusing.

ANYWAY, SO, MARC ALMOND. He sings GREAT live, but ... his newest songs are AWFUL. AWFUL. AWFUL. Terrible, terrible songwriting. I mean, his older songs definitely have a strange STYLE, but they actually flow, even if the word structure is a bit awkward. And they're not GLARINGLY BAD. Thankfully, he mostly performed old material, INCLUDING a few Soft Cell songs (Including Tainted Love, of course... I was actually kind of surprised that he did that one; I thought he would be completely and totally sick of it by now). It was a really long concert, and every time he would start to leave the stage, the crowd would be going INSANE for another song, and he would be like "Oh, alright!" and come back and do another. That happened about four times. Somewhat absurd.

The crowd was actually fairly boring. Apparently, Marc Almond is tremendously popular in Russia, so everyone likes him, including boring people. Which were the majority -- Typical Russians. Of course, absolutely none of them had any idea what he was singing about. If they did they probably would've stormed the stage and killed him for being a pederast. But Russians seem overall blind to homosexuality -- There was a big Central Station poster (I'm assuming they were sponsors) in the hall, which includes an insignia of a bunch of interlocking Mars symbols, and no one seemed to notice. HOWEVER, one exciting crowd member showed up right behind me during "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye." His name HAD to be Igor. If his name weren't Igor, by God I'll shoot myself in the foot. He was really large and strange looking, and he kept trying to sing along, and it was awful. Absolutely awful. Thank God he was only there for that song, so it was funny -- If he were there for more than that song, it would've lost its funniness. Oh, and listening to an entire Russian crowd try to sing the chorus to Say Hello, Wave Goodbye was worth the 1000 rubles spent. Of course, I sung along, too, but I think I was the only onee who knew the actual words.

After that, I walked to the metro, and walked home... Which was not unpleasant. I think I'm already over my mugging victimisation. I felt safe enough, but I was being cautious. I didn't freeze up every time I passed someone, and I didn't feel paranoid on the metro. Speaking of which, the apartment buildings are creepy as hell, and have a thousand million ambush spots. See, they're held up by a bunch of concrete pillars (called "chicken legs," apparently) through which you have to walk to get to the door. Needless to say, it's mildly unnerving.

So, today. Right. Just stupidity. I brought my laptop in order to do a bunch of stuff like update the journal properly, upload photos, etc. I didn't want to use the office computer because it was going to take me a while, and I hate hogging it. In any case, the INTERNET WASN'T WORKING. For anyone. So that was a waste. And I had a test. Which was dumb. But, while I was working on my homework for my class, Liza, one of the Russian tutors, came up and talked to me. Which was neat. Because normally people don't do that. Or something. I don't know.

But, tonight, I went to the Мужкой Балет [Muzhkoj Balet (“Masculine ballet”)] with Ilana. When she first invited me, I didn't think much of it – I just thought of it as something to fill my time with and experience. As far as I know, all-male ballet troupes tend to be centred around farce and such. I don't know, I'm not huge into ballet, and never have been. But, holy hell. I am SO damned glad she invited me, and SO damned glad I didn't miss it.

Alright, so – The first half were contemporary ballet acts. The troupe only had five guys in it, so it was a pretty small cast. The first two dances were ... disappointing, and pretty sloppy. I liked the music, I liked the costuming, and the idea, but they weren't doing very well. After that, though, it just got better. I don't really want to go through each dance, but my favorite was the third, in which you could only see the dancers' feet, and they were doing the tango in two pairs. Of course, in each pair, there was a pair of slacks and dress shoes, then the other set of legs were in high heels – It was somewhat cliché, but the fact that they were all men and this was a Russian ballet troupe just made it absolutely fantastic. Plus, they did a very good job, and it made up for their first routine. Overall, the performance was surprisingly sexual and very ... gay. Their LAST contemporary act was done to the diva's opera from the 5th Element. That, was just fantastic.

The second half of the performance were different scenes from classical ballets. All of these were just fantastic and awesome. Of course, some of the guys were dancing women's roles, and it was kind of amusing because they did one scene from the Pharaoh's Daughter, in which two dancers represent the river (and they are female roles), and one dancer is Neptune... Well, the two dancers who were the river were much taller and more masculine than Neptune. So that was mildly awkward, especially when Neptune had to do lifts and such, but it was still done very well. Their final act was done by the main dancer – I don't know the ballet, but Ilana was excited about it .. I think it was the “Dying Swan” or something like that? Something about swans. In any case, I'm really glad I got to see this. Oh, and there were so few people at the showing that we got to move down from the balcony to the best seating in the house. And, the place itself was gorgeous.

One cultural note before I end the entry. When clapping at the end of a performance, Russians clap in unison... It's ... somewhat bizarre. I mean, at first, they clap normally, then at some point everyone starts clapping in unison. Without music or anything. It's like a hive mind, because it happens all at once (or at least it seems like it, to me). I don't know. I think it's strange. Interesting, but strange.