During vacation I appeased my grandparents by attending Balanchine's "Symphony in C by Bizet," a ballet at the Philharmonic in Naples, Florida. But a funny thing happened 2 minutes into the very last act, the Philharmonic lost complete power. Luckily a generator kicked on, but the generator only supplied light to the audience and barely illuminated the stage.
After 5 minutes of restless audience members squirming in their seat and staring at a dim stage with confused dancers, the orchestra drummed back up and the dancers finished the dance in the dark.
Other than finding it completely funny and comical that people were being so dramatic about the whole situation, it also made me think about gaze and audience. We had been watching them dance all night long, but now we were in the spotlight and they were watching us. They became just mere black and white blobs in the dark. To think that the 'audience' could change that drastically and in that context gave me some food for thought.
1 comment:
What a great and poignant story. I love it.
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