The Nutcracker's Winter Circus
"When beautiful girls go up on their toes, chin high up and dance slowly and steadily to mesmerizing music like angels- twisting and turning, that's ballet." I am busy watching the Indian Film Loverati while typing this blogpost and it proved to be apt to quote the lead male character's description of ballet since the reason for my blogpost is the ballet sensation that has hit South Africa.
I was invited to see The Nutcracker's Winter Circus on Thursday at Sandton City. The bottom floor of Sandton(Unit U61a) has a huge tent which can accommodate quite a few people -just about a hundred for one show. There are four shows daily at 10:30 am, 12:30 am, 15:30 pm and 18:00. Tickets go at a steal of R15 if booked in advance or at R20 if purchased by the door of the tent entrance. It was ideal to have a show of this caliber in a thriving mall to offer shoppers a break from their shopping and a chance to quickly enjoy an alternate art-form in between the art of Christmas shopping. The shows started on the 12 December and will run up until the 6th of January for those who have not yet got a chance to catch it with all the festivities.
Due to Sandton City being so busy on Thursday, we got to the venue at exactly 12:30 on the dot to see a large crowd waiting to get through the opening of the tent. The line moved relatively quicker than expected and within under ten minutes we were seated and ready for the show to start. The show starts once the tent fills up making sure there are no spaces on the makeshift stairs that form the seating place for the show. The show runs for slightly under an hour so it's not too long or tedious.
There are only about 7 characters in this rendition of the Nutcracker which subtly tells stories that won't necessarily be grasped by the young minds who are the most frequent customers for the show. The finer art appreciators will certainly understand the message behind the entire facade presented in akin with normally known circuses. Firstly the show in its entirety is dedicated to providing comedic relief which has some acts that will have you giggling insanely. The clown or trickster in this circus rendition is not dressed at all like a clown and you might not even realize the necessity of his role all throughout the show. The wordless acts with a few screams here and there show just how potent mimes as an art form really are. It pays homage to various types of dancing including ballet, the can-can dance style as well as gymnastic dance forms using ribbons, hula hops and other objects as props. It also helps the younger audience believe in magic and shows them just how easy magic is to create. The in-depth story is that of love and how love is much like dancing.
There are colorful and exciting characters that will fascinate audience and thrill them keeping kiddies at the edge of their seats in hope to catch more of the madness that tends to be evolving constantly on stage. There is a toy monkey and at first, I didn't realize the relevance of using the toy monkey but eventually realized it was a way of mocking practices of olden circuses which ill-treated animals for the purpose of providing entertainment for the audience.
The ballet for me had to be the show stopper as ballet as a dance form is so graceful and mesmerizing that you can't help but love the flotilla of swans sweeping the stage on tippy-toes when performing this dance form. There was a lead ballerina only who enticed audiences as she slid across the floor. gracefully and swan-like.
The best part had to be the close proximity of the audience to the stage itself. Furthermore characters constantly engaged and interacted with the audience which gave it that added personal touch. The children loved it (most of them except one who got scared at first but eventually had to watch too rather sneakily from her mother's arms).
For more details on The Nutcracker's Winter circus visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nutcrackerwintercircus/
I was invited to see The Nutcracker's Winter Circus on Thursday at Sandton City. The bottom floor of Sandton(Unit U61a) has a huge tent which can accommodate quite a few people -just about a hundred for one show. There are four shows daily at 10:30 am, 12:30 am, 15:30 pm and 18:00. Tickets go at a steal of R15 if booked in advance or at R20 if purchased by the door of the tent entrance. It was ideal to have a show of this caliber in a thriving mall to offer shoppers a break from their shopping and a chance to quickly enjoy an alternate art-form in between the art of Christmas shopping. The shows started on the 12 December and will run up until the 6th of January for those who have not yet got a chance to catch it with all the festivities.
Due to Sandton City being so busy on Thursday, we got to the venue at exactly 12:30 on the dot to see a large crowd waiting to get through the opening of the tent. The line moved relatively quicker than expected and within under ten minutes we were seated and ready for the show to start. The show starts once the tent fills up making sure there are no spaces on the makeshift stairs that form the seating place for the show. The show runs for slightly under an hour so it's not too long or tedious.
There are only about 7 characters in this rendition of the Nutcracker which subtly tells stories that won't necessarily be grasped by the young minds who are the most frequent customers for the show. The finer art appreciators will certainly understand the message behind the entire facade presented in akin with normally known circuses. Firstly the show in its entirety is dedicated to providing comedic relief which has some acts that will have you giggling insanely. The clown or trickster in this circus rendition is not dressed at all like a clown and you might not even realize the necessity of his role all throughout the show. The wordless acts with a few screams here and there show just how potent mimes as an art form really are. It pays homage to various types of dancing including ballet, the can-can dance style as well as gymnastic dance forms using ribbons, hula hops and other objects as props. It also helps the younger audience believe in magic and shows them just how easy magic is to create. The in-depth story is that of love and how love is much like dancing.
There are colorful and exciting characters that will fascinate audience and thrill them keeping kiddies at the edge of their seats in hope to catch more of the madness that tends to be evolving constantly on stage. There is a toy monkey and at first, I didn't realize the relevance of using the toy monkey but eventually realized it was a way of mocking practices of olden circuses which ill-treated animals for the purpose of providing entertainment for the audience.
The ballet for me had to be the show stopper as ballet as a dance form is so graceful and mesmerizing that you can't help but love the flotilla of swans sweeping the stage on tippy-toes when performing this dance form. There was a lead ballerina only who enticed audiences as she slid across the floor. gracefully and swan-like.
The best part had to be the close proximity of the audience to the stage itself. Furthermore characters constantly engaged and interacted with the audience which gave it that added personal touch. The children loved it (most of them except one who got scared at first but eventually had to watch too rather sneakily from her mother's arms).
For more details on The Nutcracker's Winter circus visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nutcrackerwintercircus/
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