I’ve been looking forward to last night for about eight months. It was the night I was going to see DRACULA, a production of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Everything about it appealed to me – even the promo image was seductive. I bought tickets for several other dances at the same time, but this was THE ONE.
I don’t claim to be any kind of expert on dance. If you were to rank dance fans by their knowledge, I’d be at the low end. Still, I find that combination of athleticism and art awesome and I think I’m easily impressed. But frankly, I was disappointed by Dracula.
Not that it didn’t have its moments – there were some spectacular ones. When Dracula turned into a bat and flew across the stage, I was mesmerized. After intermission, there was an absolutely hilarious, fast-paced pantomime in dance of the whole Dracula story, and I loved that. The finale, with Dracula being impaled on a stake, was quite impressive. The gargoyles made me smile every time they came on stage. The special effects were very well done. Some things were truly masterful…but overall, the show lacked something.
I thought the choreography was somewhat pedestrian and repetitive. The dancing was competent, but lacklustre…it didn’t seem ambitious or inspired. The various acts and scenes seemed disjointed: they didn’t flow together into a cohesive whole. If I hadn’t read the production notes before the production began, I would have been lost altogether.
It had its moments, to be sure, but I didn’t get goosebumps, I wasn’t in awe, I wasn’t mesmerized, and I was glad when it was over. (They should turn down the heat in the National Arts Centre…I’m one of those people who is usually too cold, and I’m always way too hot in there. I wanted to take my shoes off.)
Now. Despite my tepid reaction, I will say that maybe on another night I would have enjoyed it more. My dog had insomnia for the two nights before the performance, and he kept me awake most of the night with his pacing and panting and staring and getting on and off the bed all night long and walking on my head. This is the first time in our 12 years together that he’s ever had insomnia, and it’s the first time he has ever gotten on the bed. By the time 8:00 Saturday night rolled around, I was having little sleep-deprivation hallucinations, and by the second act I was struggling to stay awake. I kept dozing off for a few seconds at a time during the last hour of the production. So maybe it was an absolutely rivetting production and everybody else in the audience was awestruck and mesmerized. Or at least awake.
Bummer! Better luck next time. Or should I say, hopefully you will be more awake next time
You might want to keep a close eye on your dog for more symptoms. The only times in 14 years our dog had insommnia was when she was unwell. Usually it was just an upset tummy or something. Good luck.
Julia, Sam does have a growth on the outside of the skin on his leg that I’m worried about – it has been there for awhile, but I thought it was a wart and he only seemed to become aware of it a few days ago. I’d post a photo, but it’s kind of gross. On the bright side, he seems to be back to normal behaviour now. I know I should take him to the vet to get it looked at, but he’s petrified of going there and I hate to put him through the stress unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Zoom, by all means, have the vet look at the growth. But all the old dogs I know/knew get growths when they get old. They are usually lipomas or fatty lumps that are benign, even if they are ugly. The vet can usually do a simple needle biopsy to determine if the growth is a lipoma. I was thinking that the restlessness would be caused by something else, like a tummy problem. It’s funny how some dogs are afraid of the vet. Both Uma and now Rockwell love to drag me into the vet’s office! Maybe they like to see and smell all the other pets!