All Robbins

So Seattle hadn't changed in the (less than) 24 hours since we were last there.

Everything still seemed to be in place and we were able to get to the McCaw Hall to see the evening's performance of "All Robbins", which was the season ending performance for the ballet.

I didn't know what to expect, as I couldn't recall many of the pieces we've seen over the years that were choreographed by Jerome Robbins. It turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

The first piece was titled "Fancy Free".

The theme was about a group of three American sailors on shore leave around 1944.

As they wander about town, picking on each other and looking for a place to have a drink, they see a couple of pretty girls. Since there's three of them and only two girls, the scene turns into which two guys are going to get lucky and which one gets to be the odd man out. They dance and show off, and the girls are suitably impressed, but then they start to fight amongst each other as the girls can't decide which two guys they like best. The fight gets rowdy and the girls leave.

The three are left scratching their heads and then apologize to each other and go to have a drink when about that time another pretty girl walks by. Did they learn their lesson.....?

With music by Leonard Bernstein, it was a very upbeat and fun dance piece.

The second piece was "In The Night".

The was a dance performed by six dancers (three pairs of couples).

Each couple represented a different stage of love; tender young love, mature & balanced love, and fiery, passionate love.

Accompanied by just a pianist with selected works by Chopin, it was a very short, and moving piece.

The last piece of work by Robbins, was the showstopper.

It was titled "The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody)".

The curtain for the stage was designed by Edward Gorey, and the ballet itself is very reminscent if his style of humor.

It's difficult to describe this and convey how much fun it was to watch, but it was truly a fantastic performance by the dancers and a delight for the eyes. If you aren't "into ballet", this could very well win you over. It was laugh-out-loud funny.

The basic premise is this; a group of people attend a concert. Everyone has their own ideas of what the music means as they're listening to it, and so each new piece brings a different vision to the stage.

There's one where a group of ballerinas are off-cue and and uncoordinated, which is a tremendously hard thing to do since their whole life is spent training to be in sync with each other.

Another one involves a guy (a cigar-chomping, sports page reading guy) fluttering about the stage as a butterfly and trying to win the affections of another pretty little butterfly, when suddenly his wife shows up.... Oops!

There were others in this piece that were equally as fun, but I don't want to give them all away.

If you've been sitting on the fence about going to the ballet, then I really recommend attending this one. It is just pure fun.

A couple of reviews from the local paper can be found here and here, if you want to see what the critics had to say and don't want to take my word for it.

Afterwards, we were feeling a bit peckish as usual, so we went to Pomodoro for some post- performance nibbles.

We just had appetizers since we didn't want to fill up and be too full that late at night.

We had the calamari:

Rock shrimp:

and Halibut ceviche:

When we were done we talked with the owners for a bit and then headed home to go to bed since

it was after 1:00 a.m.

Today will be filled with yet more laborious work outside as we try to tame the beast men have named "The Yard". (That is... as long as the rain holds off and it stays dry while we're out there)