¡baila baila baila me!

If you know me, you know I love live theater performances. Ballets, musicals, contemporary or modern dance, the odd stage play, music, I love it all! I've been dancing since I was a tiny tot, and majored in dance at college so there's of course a personal connection to it as well. That said, I was thrilled to go see a ballet at the Royal Opera House the day after I arrived in England!

About a month before moving, I saw online that the Royal Opera Ballet was turning the Spanish novel, Como agua para chocolate, into a full-length ballet. I love this story, and am very familiar with it as I had read the book and watched the movie for Spanish classes in college. When I saw the ballet was opening the weekend I would come to England (and that tickets were much more affordable than I expected), I bought a pair of tickets for me and Ben.

We went to see the Saturday matinee, and it was... INCREDIBLE. The use of ballet as storytelling, and the costume design both gave it the feel of a contemporary ballet, but the movement itself was definitely more classical than most contemporary ballets I've seen before. It was lovely to see! I also found the story line easy to follow along with, and felt they translated the more abstract scenes from the book into a ballet quite well. The author, Laura Esquivel, was part of the creative team throughout the ballet's production, which I'm sure had a significant role in maintaining the clarity of the story. My favorite scene in the ballet was the wedding! The choreography looked super fun and I could tell that the dancers were all genuinely enjoying themselves in that scene as well. The prop they used for the horse when Gertrudis rides off was also impressive - it was like a wire and mesh sculpture of a horse, I do not understand how it worked but it was brilliant. I wish I could have seen the performance a second time, but it was lovely.

And the Royal Opera House is so grand! There are costume pieces on display in glass cases, a beautiful gift shop, a restaurant and bar, and the prettiest theater bathrooms I have ever seen. Getting a program booklet was an additional £8, so I got one because I knew I'd want it as a keepsake. Another add-on option to the ticket purchase was wine and/or ice cream, which I passed on, but would absolutely go for in the future. It seems like a fairly standard thing to do, have wine and a cup of ice cream in your seat at a performance.

the program book was full of stunning photos of the dancers, rehearsals, and costumes. I used a page of some photos to make a sort of scrapbook spread in my travel journal.

Then about two months later, in late July, we went to see a local production of Zorro the Musical, at the nearby Apex Theatre. While I've watched the movie with Antonio Banderas many times, I had never seen the stage musical performed in full before. I was so excited to see the whole thing! As a community production, it had a few mishaps but it was still really good and made for a wonderful night out at the theater. A little funny bit that now lives forever in my mind is when, during a blackout scene change after a very serious/emotionally heavy scene, a rubber chicken tossed into a prop basket let out an indignant squeak. In response, someone backstage with a hot mic stifled a giggle. I could not stifle my giggles.

once again, other audience members had ice cream and alcoholic beverages in their seats. I resolve to get in on this aspect of British culture next time I see a show.

My favorite scene was Baila Me!, as it is also my favorite song from the show. The choreography for this scene was, again, super fun and the whole cast looked to be enjoying themselves. I suppose I just like dance numbers where it's clear everyone is having fun on stage... but those really are the best! I would love to see another production by this group. Seeing this show sort of makes me consider doing something like this again...

Have you ever seen a theatre performance (musical, stage play, ballet, etc.) in another country? And/or, what is a favorite performance that you've gone to see? Tell me in the comments!

take care of yourself<3

~heather

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