MLK Day was the last day of the Interfusion Festival. I only signed up for two workshops, but I ended up taking three. I paid for the entire weekend, so I figured I might as well get the most out of it!
Starting the day off with a meditation was very relaxing. Yonah Levy led the practice, and I liked that he burned sage to create a relaxing atmosphere (the whole room smelled of relaxation). I'm not very good at meditating because my mind regularly wanders, but I won't get better at it unless I practice, so I am glad I had this opportunity to try it out again. We did some belly breathing, which I normally don't do, but I think it did help me center my thoughts. This workshop was scheduled to be 50 minutes, but it only lasted a half hour. In a way I was disappointed because I signed up for something more, but it was already hard enough for me to sit with my eyes closed for 30 minutes, let alone nearly an hour.
I thought this was going to be a workshop involving singing bowls*, but it turns out that we were making the sounds! We sat with our eyes closed, and then made different sounds (spending about 2-3 minutes on each sound, and then rotating back to repeat all of them). We made elongated sounds that were kind of like these words: Ohm, I'm, Cream, and Glum. For me it was like the meditation I did in the morning, except my mind couldn't wander as much because I was thinking about the sounds I was making. And if you've never been in a room full of people saying "Ohm" at the same time, it is very powerful! We also did breathing exercises, like fire breathing (i.e. fast, quick breaths) and breathing out fully with our tongues sticking out. One point that the teacher, Maryamma Paratan, made was that we should sit up very straight to properly do all of this. Since this workshop was nearly an hour long, sitting cross-legged with my back straight for that length of time was kind of difficult; some people in the class actually just laid down! Maryamma complimented me after class for sticking it out for so long. I think I would try doing this again while meditating at home, but only for ~10 minutes!
*In case you want to hear what singing bowls sound like, here's a clip (or nine hours of it...):
This was a class that I had not originally signed up for, but luckily there was enough room so I could join in. I thought this would be a good way to end the whole Interfusion weekend. I liked that the teacher, Anita Chandra Bliss, covered lower back issues, as well as those for the neck and shoulders, because I would say that is where I hold the most tension in my body. She has the mantra, "Support creates release," meaning that when you support your back and neck in the right way, that tension will be released. During the stretches, she talked about relaxing any muscles that aren't necessary for the benefit of the stretch; relax your hands, feet, face, etc. I thought some of her instructions were really repetitive, because in an hour we only did a handful of things, but she insisted on giving the same notes for both the left and right sides; she covered a lot of the same things twice, or even three or four times. I can appreciate this for safety purposes (i.e. to not hurt ourselves during the stretches), but the poses were not so complicated that we couldn't remember what we had done on the left by the time we were doing it on the right. I will say that I liked the spinal twists the best, because I do those at least once a day to crack my back (probably not what she has in mind by release, but it is so satisfying!). And then Interfusion 2019 was over! I'm not sure what the next one will hold, but I will definitely be there, because I already bought my ticket! Buy tickets for the 2020 festival here.
This was another yoga class in which I was hoping to learn something new or get something special out of it, but it mostly was just an extra-long yoga class. Alena Interrupted was the instructor (I assume that's not her real name), and I liked her calm, whispery voice, which is perfect for yoga. The hardest part about the class was holding certain poses for a really long time, or moving through them more slowly than usual (for example, coming in and out of a lunge using eight counts instead of two). So at the very least it was a good workout. But then the shavasana portion of class was WAY too long; I don't need 20 minutes to lay on the ground (and that's not what I paid for when I signed up for the festival). At the end of the class we paired up with different people, asking them about their experience in the class: what was the hardest part, how did they feel afterward, etc. I really liked one of the people I talked to, and he and I ended up getting lunch afterward together; connecting with new people like that is one of the main reasons I love Interfusion!
Lisa C. Adams taught this class, and since her website is called "Goddess Powered," I knew she had to be a pretty kick-ass lady (she even has a Wonder Woman tattoo). This entire workshop was dedicated to thinking about the masculine/feminine dichotomy we all have inside of us (she was upfront at the beginning of class that the discussion would be very binary, so as not to offend the transgendered community). And she made the distinction that we should focus on the masculine/feminine, not the male/female (the former are inner aspects while the latter is physical sex). I certainly understood what she meant by having both sides inside of us; while I consider myself to be very feminine, I also can be strong, determined, and bold (adjectives that are usually used to describe the masculine).
There are positives and negatives to both sides. We first started talking about the "wounds" of each, since this was a healing workshop. Masculine wounds would include not being acknowledged, and feminine wounds would include feeling unsafe or abandoned (I think the idea is that lots of wounds can come from these overarching ones.). We broke up into groups to discuss what words we associate with masculine and feminine, and it was interesting to hear everyone's ideas and to notice how some of us attribute traditionally masculine traits to the feminine (like with me and strength). I was really surprised how some women reacted when we talked about the negative traits of the feminine, like being manipulative; they actually said they thought that's how women were supposed to be! It's all about how you were raised and how your culture, and society in general, teaches you to view these traits.
Lisa was a thoughtful teacher and had a good energy about her. She became very emotional when talking about how, during what sounds like a man-hating time of her life, she described the masculine as "dumb asses." But she rethought that, because if the masculine is a part of her, that means she was calling herself a dumb ass, too. She started crying and admits that she always cries when talking about this, because she hates how she was describing others and herself that way. She said it is important to check in with yourself when you react to something or feel a certain way, and to determine where that action or feeling is coming from regarding your masculine and feminine sides. You can also do the same thing when reading others, so you can understand where they are coming from, too.
One side note: Lisa doesn't like to use the word "single," but instead uses "sovereign." This essentially means that you are the sole authority of yourself, and you shouldn't describe yourself in terms of your relationship to others. It is the relationship you have with yourself that is most important. I LOVE this. I never thought about it in this way, but when I think of myself as being single, I don't think "lonely" or "alone." Rather, I enjoy being single because I get to do what I want when I want without having to answer to anyone else. Which is what a sovereign ruler would do. :)
*I just realized this whole day was about tantra. Alena defined tantra as expanding consciousness; I define it as
connecting or harnessing energy. I think much of Western society interprets tantra nearly exclusively in a sexual way (as evidenced by my Google search). But that's not all there is to tantra. Wikipedia can tell you more.
This was the perfect class to start the day. I regularly practice vinyasa yoga, so I felt very comfortable with it. The instructor, Kate Hishon, was very warm and welcoming, and she lit incense sticks to create a relaxing atmosphere for the class. She admitted that when she is teaching, a British or Australian accent seems to come out (she is American), and since she is studying German, that sometimes shows up in her speech, too (for example, she would say "goot" instead of "good"). I did not have any expectations for this class since I already practice yoga, so I think that helped me enjoy it more.
This was a much better acro class than the one I took the day before. Brian Cruikshank and Maren Hill were the instructors, and my group actually got a lot of personal attention from them, which helped us with our technique and therefore allowed us to do a better job. One woman in my group had never done acro before, and she was very hesitant, but I was proud to see how well she did; I hope she was proud of herself for the strength she didn't know she had! Some of the moves were similar to the previous class, but others were new. And I definitely preferred the warm-up for this workshop; we did high kicks and squat jumps, exercises you would expect from this kind of class. I did leave early for a lunch break, but I enjoyed my hour of acro that day!
This was the first workshop I had ever attended at Interfusion that was more discussion-based as opposed to participatory. Dr. Timaree Schmit was the teacher, and while she started off a little shy (or just without a lot of confidence), by the end she had gotten into her groove. She is a sex educator, not a sex therapist (she made that clear distinction, which I think was good). We covered a lot of topics, but here are my main take-aways from the class:
In general, our society equates more experience to more value. For example, the more education or work experience you have, the more valuable you are (to your workplace, to society in general, etc.). BUT sex is the one realm in which more experience is seen as a bad thing, especially for women: you're seen as a slut and whore whom no man will want to marry because you've slept with many men. She gave the example of stomping on a $20 bill: even though it's dirty and been stepped on, you'd still want it, because it inherently has value (value that society has given to this piece of paper). We must remember that each of us has inherent value, and our experiences (sexual and otherwise) do not devalue us in any way.
She doesn't like the word "virginity" because the idea is a social construct. And she doesn't use the term "lose your virginity" because you haven't lost anything. Instead, she likes the phrase, "make your sexual debut." I have to say, I kind of like the sound of that.
We did an exercise where we wrote love letters to certain parts of our bodies (face, hands, stomach, butt, etc.). While I didn't do this part (I love all parts of my body already), I liked hearing what other people wrote. Someone said she started her letter to her face, "You are so beautiful," and then she started crying when she wrote that; her whole life people told her she was ugly, but now she is at the point in her life where she loves herself and won't let others put her down in that way. Another woman thanked her stomach in the letter; she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and after her double mastectomy, fat from her stomach was used to make new boobs for her. Someone else made the point that, even if we don't love our bodies, our bodies love us unconditionally: your body breathes for you, makes your heart beat, gets you from one place to another; I had never thought about that, and the idea was really moving.
She emphasized the need to speak clearly, candidly, and more openly about sex. She gave the example of how many nicknames we have for vagina or penis, but how an elbow is just an elbow; the elbow is not stigmatized or taboo in any way. And while she turned this into a discussion of how to talk about sex/touch to kids (which I have no interest in), she did tell a pretty funny story. When a friend of hers was little, she loved touching herself. One night at dinner (with guests there, mind you), she started masturbating at the table! But her mother calmly said, "We do not touch our vulvas at the dinner table." Dr. Schmit likes the story because 1. the mother said "we" as to not single out the daughter as the only one who does that sort of thing, 2. the mother used the anatomically correct term, and 3. the mother was giving context to the act, saying that while it isn't something to be done at the dinner table, there is a time and place for that.
She mentioned the book Sex at Dawn, which is about how sex for reproduction became sex for love, intimacy, and pleasure, and how all of that impacts our relationships. I'm definitely adding it to my Goodreads list! Throughout the workshop Dr. Schmit would throw in historical context to explain why modern Western society holds the views that it does, like how the idea of owning land and property turned into seeing women/wives as property. I appreciated those history lessons, and I liked the fact that she said we should be compassionate to our ancestors, as much as they messed up; these were people who didn't understand germ theory, which is so obvious today, so we must be fair to remember they didn't know about the things we know about today.
Someone in the class mentioned that you are your primary partner, and I liked that point. It's sort of like your body always being there for you: YOU are always there for you.
This workshop was led by Monique Darling and Peter Petersen. I LOVED the workshop I took with them during my first Interfusion Festival (read about it here), so I knew I wanted to take at least one with them this time around. Some parts were familiar, like eye gazing with a partner, but others were new.
We imagined some sort of intention that we wanted to set for the new year, and then "planted" it as if it were a seed. Then we danced around the "seed" using the elements: earth inspired grounded movements (I felt closest to this one; I am a Taurus, after all!), fire was fast and passionate, and air was light. Then we watered the seed with flowing movements, and continued this around the room, helping others' seeds grow. This turned into an ecstatic dance, with all of us jumping and moving every which way (which is a great release). This part of the workshop was more energetic than I had experienced in their previous classes.
Afterward, we partnered up with someone and sat cross-legged across from one another, knees touching. Then we touched each others chakras, from our foreheads down to our bellies (we did not go further down!). As social animals, we need to be touched by others, and when you can do so with a stranger in an environment where you feel safe and a sense of community, being touched feels so warm and peaceful. I happened to be paired with an older man, and I got the sense that he (and many of the other older people there) do not have that kind of personal contact in their day-to-day lives. It made me sad to think how some people aren't touched by someone for days, even weeks or longer. (I see friends and family all the time, so I get a hug almost every day.) I was glad that I could (hopefully) bring even a moment of joy and connection to those who may feel lonely on a regular basis.
I skipped the last part of the workshop; I'm still deciding whether I regret that or not. The exercise was to get into groups of three. One person would be in between the other two, and the two people on the sides would give compliments to the person in the middle (in different roles; for a few minutes they are parents, then they are your lover, etc.); they would say, "We're so proud of you" or "I've been waiting for you my whole life." That sounds really nice! I would have definitely loved being the person in the middle. But I was afraid to play the other roles, because I wondered if I could think of enough nice things to say, and I would feel bad if I just repeated everything from the first time again to the second person in the middle. So I guess I kind of chickened out, which is NOT the point of the Interfusion Festival; you're supposed to let go and try new things. But I'm also a little glad I left the class early, because I was hungry!
Listen to Monique and Peter talk about a similar festival that focuses on sexuality exclusively. It'll give you an idea about how I (and others) feel about Interfusion:
Random: I saw Peter from afar at the Caps hockey game just a few days later!
Fundamentals of Ayurveda
We didn't do anything like this! But that is the teacher. Image found here.
This class was taught by Anjali Sunita, the woman who led the yoga class from my first day at the festival. As the founder of Baltimore Yoga Village, she teaches not only yoga but also offers ayurveda consultations and treatments. Ayurveda is the ancient holistic philosophy of India. I had heard of it, but honestly knew nothing about it, so I was very excited about this two-hour workshop.
Anjali started off by explaining the three different "doshas," or basic constitutions that one's health can fall under. The photo above has the break-down that she wrote out for us. The idea is that each of us falls under one of these categories, and those adjectives describe our digestive systems, our personalities, etc. The idea of ayurveda is to do different exercises or eat certain things to balance out your constitution. For example, "Vata" people may be thin and tiny in stature, so strong, sturdy food would be good for them. There are lots of dosha quizzes online; I happened to find this one, but I would think that quizzes with more questions would give you a more accurate result. I'm mostly pitta, which I think comes down to the fact that I like routine in my life and my good health (in general) stays the same.
We did several breathing exercises that would be balancing, too; sometimes we would breathe in one nostril and out the other, or hold our hands in a certain mudra (or position) while breathing. During one exercise, we breathed through our mouths while smiling really big, and after a few breaths, my mouth and teeth were so cold from the air; I could see how this would be helpful if you felt very hot (these exercises can also be done to to bring balance for just a particular moment). We also listened to music from "Ayurveda: the Art of Being," because different sounds or songs can fall under certain doshas, too. She recommended the book Ayurveda: the Science of Self Healing: a Practical Guide, which was written by Dr. Lad, who was Anjali's teacher. Definitely adding that to Goodreads as well!
I LOVED this workshop. I always enjoyed school (teacher's pet right here), so learning about new things always excites me. And ayurveda is something I could see myself wanting to learn more about and practice myself. Sometimes I wonder if I was from India in a past life: I took several Hinduism classes in college, I practice yoga regularly, and now I want to get into ayurveda!
This was my third time going to the Interfusion Festival. It's a different experience every time, and while I knew what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised.
This year's festival was the most organized it has ever been: everyone signed up for classes ahead of time, and there was always a volunteer to check people into each workshop so the classes weren't overcrowded. And while I still think there needs to be more time in between workshops for bathroom breaks and lunch, this time I planned my schedule so that I would have those breaks; perhaps staggered start times for the workshops would help. The hotel was too cold (as usual), but that's not the festival's fault; the ipads were a bit finicky for check-in, but that should be an easy glitch to fix for 2020. I might go back to the regular plastic bracelets as opposed to the cloth, satiny ones we got this time (if you got water on the fabric from washing your hands or taking a shower, it would stay wet for a long time). But I will say, in past years I feel like I've had a million words of advice on how to make the festival better, but this year they really turned it up a notch! This time I'm not even doubting whether I'll go again; I WILL be there next time!
I took so many workshops over that weekend, mainly because I could attend classes on Friday (since I'm only working part-time). Here are the workshops I attended during my first day at the festival:
AcroYoga - In the Beginning
I had done acroyoga at the Interfusion Festival before, but this time I didn't feel very confident. The warm-up turned me off from the get-go. Rather than just doing some stretches or even a quick yoga practice, we had to cross the room mimicking different animals (both physically and verbally). I just could not get into that (although I appreciated that some people really had fun with it). We also played a silly game where everyone closed their eyes and had to whisper to each other to find "home" until everyone was there (I'll admit I left the room so I wouldn't have to do that part.). I thought the instructors (Kelly Marburger and Eric Sipes, from AsanaRoots in Baltimore) were very good, but they didn't offer enough supervision for us as we practiced (well, at least not for my group), so we struggled a lot. In the past I have left acroyoga sessions feeling good and strong, but this time I felt like a failure, as if I didn't learn or improve upon any skills. Perhaps if I want some real direction, I need to go to a real acro studio.
This was the most disappointing workshop I have ever taken in all my trips to Interfusion. I was excited to learn about reiki because I think the idea of using your own energy (and that of someone else) for healing purposes is fantastic. But this workshop was just a sales pitch in disguise. The instructor, Linda Pisani, is the founder of Holistic Grotto, and she really just wanted all of us to learn reiki through her (and pay her a lot of money for it). She spent the first 10-15 minutes just talking about her own life's journey: how she's from Australia and hated her job and had her daughter and then found reiki...blah blah blah. Then we did a brief meditation exercise, where we held our hands toward one another (like a prayer pose but with a few inches in between the hands); I could feel the warm, rolling energy between my palms, so that was really neat. But that was it! The rest of the time was spent with her telling us about her business, which days we could take classes with her, what kinds of certificates she offered, how much the classes would cost... It was like she was saying, "If you actually want to learn or do anything with reiki, you need to pay me directly, because I'm not giving you anything during this workshop." I hope the festival does NOT bring her back!
I should have read the description of this Gui Prada workshop before I signed up for it. It was a partner exercise in which pairs would intimately sit across from one another, getting closer and closer, from eye gazing to pressing foreheads together to one person sitting in the other person's lap, all the while breathing at the same rate. This sounds like an amazing exercise and an incredible way to connect with your partner. I just didn't feel comfortable doing all of that with a stranger; I've done similar exercises with strangers before, but only for a few minutes, not for a full hour-plus with one person. I did know someone in the class, and I would have been happy to do it with him. But his wife was with him, so clearly he already had a partner! So I ended up leaving and using that time as my lunch break.
Hardy Cook is an old professor, which I really liked because he was funny and comfortable addressing a group. He told us about his life and how chronic pain brought him to meditation, and how much it has helped him (I didn't mind him telling his life story because he was scheduled for a two-hour workshop, not just a 50-minute one.). He taught us some good breathing techniques to help keep our minds from wandering (like different ways of counting); he also recommended tools to use, like the Insight Timer app and Muse headphones. I am glad I took this class to learn more about the history and philosophies of meditation, as well as ways to practice at home. He even gave us a printed packet to take home with us! Once a teacher, always a teacher.
This was really just a regular yoga class. I was hoping for something a little special, because I already take yoga once a week on my own. The best advice the instructor gave us was to activate our inner thighs to imagine bringing our legs closer together, mainly in lunge and warrior poses. The instructor, Anjali Sunita (founder of Baltimore Yoga Village), was very good, but she was annoyed by how little time she had; she was slotted for 50-minutes, so she should have been prepared to teach a shorter class!
I should note that I did not take any dance workshops or go to any of the evening dances during the entire festival. I dance about once a week on my own (mostly blues dancing, but sometimes Latin dancing), so I didn't feel the need to do that. Plus the evening dances started really late, and this year I spent the night with friends in Alexandria, so I wanted to spend my evenings with them instead.
*Read my previous blog posts about the Interfusion Festival:
February of 2017: here and here
September of 2017: here and here
I love the story of Cinderella, so of course I wanted to see this New Adventures' ballet at
the Kennedy Center. BUT, knowing my taste in dance and how I've felt about ballets based
on other stories (ex. Dracula) before, I should have been prepared not to like
the show. It's not that it was bad; it's just that these modern ballets tend
not to focus on beautiful dancing, which is the whole point of ballet. It's
more like a silent play with some musical-like dance numbers. Plus, this story
is based in London during the 1940 Blitz, which is clearly a modern take on the
original fairy tale (Prokofiev wrote the music for the ballet during World War II); an interesting spin on it, to be sure, but the story loses
some of its magic that way. Every time I consider buying tickets to a ballet, I
should ask myself, "Is it The Nutcracker or Swan Lake?" And if the answer
is no, I probably shouldn't go because I won't like it
We start in the family's home, and the set is completely gray, from the walls
to the furniture. Even the costumes were all in gray tones, too. Our Cinderella is kind of dweeby-looking, which made me sad. I imagine that Cinderella is beautiful whether it's before or after the ball. This version was a nerd
(and remains so after she meets her prince). Again, if we're talking about
ballet here, I want the dancers to be gorgeous throughout (I think there's no
need for me to say that no tutus were present during this production. Alas.). And her
prince wasn't much better. He's not a prince at all, but a wounded American
solider whom she cares for in the house. The stepsisters never try to woo him
themselves (they already have boyfriends), so that main part of the original
story's plot line was completely erased.
This is not the family you picture in Cinderella. Image found here
You also notice right away that there are extra characters in this version. There's a
father-figure in a wheelchair, and along with the two
stepsisters, there are three stepbrothers as well. The personification of the
brothers actually really bothered me. The youngest is a teenager with bad skin
but is dressed like a boy ten years his junior. Another brother is portrayed as
being gay by liking fashion design; what a cliched stereotype. And the third
brother is supposed to be creepy with greasy hair, long stares, and a foot fetish.
I hate that this piece continued the taboo of a harmless kink, making it seem
gross and undesirable. "Don't yuck someone else's yum." I felt like
these characters were being personified in a way that was disrespectful to
marginalized communities; we should be more accepting and forward-thinking than
that. Plus, these characters aren't important to the story, so why they were
added to begin with is beyond me.
Does this look like pretty ballet dancing to you? No, I didn't think so. Image found here.
The dancing, particularly in this act, was nearly
cringe-worthy. It's not that the people are bad dancers; not at all! It's the
choreography that was so awkward and not graceful in the least. In a way this makes
sense because of the characters performing the dance, but this is a
ballet, which in my mind means beautiful dancing. This was not that. There was
even a bit with dancers wearing gas masks and dancing as if they were in
West Side Story (without the snaps). They were holding flashlights, too, which
annoyed me to no end: I hate props like that in ballet, and the lights
would blind me periodically. Perhaps to save me from the bumbling moves?
Toward the end of the act, a male angel shows up in silky pajamas as a
stand-in for a fairy godmother (He reminded me a bit of Caesar Flickerman, Stanley Tucci’s
character in The Hunger Games.). Our Cinderella is wearing a white trench coat
rather than a gown, and she rides off in the "bitch seat" of a
motorcycle. No pumpkin carriage drawn by horses. No mice to help her make
a dress. Sigh.
Act II
The best part of this act (the entire show, really) was the beginning of the first scene. We're looking inside a building that has been destroyed by a raid;
furniture is strewn all about, the building's structure is collapsed, and
people are lying on the floor. But then they begin to move in slow motion, as
if they were set to rewind, and they slowly move the furniture back into place,
and the whole set comes back together until we're inside a dance hall called
the Café de Paris. This whole part was very cool and effective.
This set had much more color, with red linens on the tables and pink and purple
sparkles to highlight the sign and stairs.
There was more dancing in this part than the first act; it is a dance hall after all.
But I still wasn't thrilled with the choreography; they actually did the floss
and something like the patty-cake game! Their “drunk” dance was kind of funny,
but honestly, I'd rather watch people at the social dances I go to in real
life. And when Cinderella makes her big entrance in a sparkly white and silver
gown (and a horrible blonde wig), emerging from the dry ice smoke, barely
anyone even notices. I thought she would make the room go completely still, or she'd
get dirty looks from some of the other women, but none of that happened. It was
quite anticlimactic.
She does find her "prince" at the club, and they go back to his
place. This part was actually beautiful, looking into his bedroom bathed in
orange light from the early sunrise (or sunset?). Their pas de deux was really the only
thing about this show that was reminiscent of ballet. It reminded me of
Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain," which is one of my favorite pieces of
all time. Watch:
But the act ends with everything falling apart, since this was like a
flashback. A brick wall falls, smoke and flames come up, the drapes and
curtains come down along with the scaffolding. The way the set is destroyed is
almost as cool as the rewind part at the beginning. Once the clock struck
midnight, our Cinderella is back in her street clothes laying on a stretcher,
and we see her soldier is still bandaged (which he was not wearing at the
dance). So was all of this a dream?
Act III
This act was the most confusing part of the entire production. Since it strayed
so far from the original story, there were times when I didn’t even know what was
happening. Plus they crammed five scenes into 40 minutes, so it was a little
all over the place!
We start on the streets of London with the prince looking for Cinderella.
Some men attack him on the street randomly, and then he goes into the
underground. There are prostitutes and gay men (also prostitutes?) down there
trying to do business. At no point on his search does the soldier go to
Cinderella’s house to find her. He knows
where she lives! This is so ridiculous. Granted, she’s not there straight
away, but she would have been eventually; he could wait a few days, show up on
her doorstep, and there’d she be. But I digress…
Eventually we’re in a hospital, and people are dancing in white lab coats
with screens, camouflaging parts of the set as they moved. Cinderella is laying
on the hospital bed, and her stepmother comes in and tries to suffocate her
with a pillow! What?! And then the soldier gets electroshock therapy? None of
this makes any sense, with the original story or with this modern version. They
do eventually get out of there, thankfully. Well, not the stepmother. I’m
pretty sure she's taken to the pysch ward.
The last scene is at Paddington Station, where the couple is leaving on a
train after their wedding. She’s dressed in black, which seems a bit depressing. The family gives her a happy send-off,
again going against the entire evil step-family trope. Hmpf. But the scene shows
several couples kissing goodbye, and it was quite romantic, I have to admit.
All in all, I can’t say I liked this show. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t
what I wanted to see when I tell people, “I’m going to the ballet tonight!” I
did think the modern twist was unique, and this production used surround sound
along with the music (like the sound of airplanes overhead), so that was pretty
neat. But in general, I wasn’t wowed. I mean, I was thinking about what I was
going to have for breakfast the next morning, so that’s not a good sign. I
already felt like the show was dragging on, and then the cast did a dance
number during the curtain call and another one afterward! They just couldn’t
let it go! End of scene, fin, stop!!!
