Celebrating Artistic Achievement

Last night, I was treated to a night at Lincoln Center to see the New York City Ballet's production of Russion Roots which celebrates the works of Jerome Robbins. The ballet was mesmerizing. I kept thinking that so much hard work and effort by so many people must go on behind the scenes to create such a work and that it is important that this kind of achievement be celebrated. I spend my days analyzing transaction documents and arguing about their terms. Eventually, issues get settled, deals close and money changes hands. Life goes on. It is reassuring to know that there are people in this world who devote their lives to creating beauty.

Fuerza Bruta

Last Sunday I stood outside for an hour in freezing cold weather to get tickets to see Fuerza Bruta (transl.: Brute Force), a new show by the makers of the long-running hit, De La Guarda. Regular price tickets are $70 but two hours before the show, they will sell 20 tickets at the door for $25. Fuerza Bruta is hard to describe. Much of the show takes place overhead and is set to a soundtrack of clubby thumping music - dancers traverse vertical shimmering curtains, a man smashes into oncoming walls while running on a treadmill, nymph-like beauties frolic in a pool of water suspended inches above the audience's head. The show is visually captivating and often beautiful to watch. Some scenes were a bit abstract for me and there seemed to be no unifying theme, but it was a novel way to spend an hour in NYC (audience members stand the entire time and are herded around while the props are moved). So, am I glad to have waited an hour in the freezing cold? Definitely, if only because I'm not sure I would have been thrilled if I'd paid the full $70, but, as it was, the show was definitely entertaining and worth watching. Fuerza Bruta is playing at The Daryl Roth Theater at 101 East 15th Street (Between Union Square East and Irving Place), New York, New York.