Men In Tights

In an attempt to prevent my cultural horizons from becoming worn away by American TV, i decided this Saturday to pay a visit to the ballet. Charleston, y'see, has it's own ballet company and since arriving i've become acquainted with a couple of the members (It's a long story). This weekend was their performance of Peter Pan - a show that was conceptualised by the Company's own choreographer. Thus, we have Peter, Tinkerbell, Hook, a Clock and a Croc. Oh, and Pirates, Indians and Lost Boys. The show was set to music by Holst, Britten and Walton (mainly) so English themes all round (I recognised some of Holst's Planet Suite and Britten's "Simple Symphony" - most notably, the delightful "Playful Pizzicato"). And it was pretty damn good.

Of course, this being Peter Pan, it wouldn't be the same without lots of flying also - and this was done very well indeed. Ok, so the wires were pretty visible (although on some backdrops, it was hard to see so they really did look like they were flying) but it didn't detract from the fun of it. What was more impressive was when they have five characters on stage all flying at once. This being ballet, there was very little spoken (there was some here and there) and it was all in the expression of the body language. Best of all, it was humorous - i laughed a lot and (fortunately) I wasn't alone. The next major show for the company is "The Nutcracker" in December. As a fan of Tchaikowsky, you can guess i'll be in the queue!