Ballet Revolucion
Having moved to London, I initially thought that I would write about living in London. But honestly, that topic is waaaaay overdone. There are so many blogs, much more interesting- and prettier!- than mine could ever be, about “new Londoners”. And yet, somehow, I would like to acknowledge this new phase in my life so I decided that, every Friday, I’d do a series called “Life in London.” To help with the expenses that come with the city life, I play 온라인 카지노 online from time to time.
And part of (the amazing) life in London is all the shows out there- there are SO many incredible things to watch here! And now I have to sheepishly say I’ve not been to the theatre in the 1 year I’ve been here, something which I am really glad I rectified tonight when I saw “Ballet Revolucion”
I like dance. Who doesn’t? But I often get bored in long (read: normal length) dance performances. I guess I like it in small doses? But for the 1st time tonight, I Didn’t Want The Show To End. (Guess the rest of the audience felt the same way, judging from the number of standing ovations the cast received!)
Direct from Cuba, Ballet Revolucion combines dance (ballet like you’ve never seen it before, mixed with loads of other dance genres), popular music, and humour in an irresistible mix. I’m not a dancer but I just couldn’t help tapping my (2 left) feet along to the beat! It’s the kind of show that really inspires you- to take a dance class, to get up and dance there and then, to hit a club after… it basically just makes you feel, alive.
I guess you can tell that I really like it 🙂 I’m not a proper dance critic, so other than that, I can’t tell you much- you really should check it out yourself 🙂
Dates: 7-25 October 2014
Venue: Peacock Theatre, London (near Holborn tube station)
Cost: I paid £45 for a seat in the Stalls.
And now I’m off to research dance classes in London!
Museum drawing
I’ve always thought it’d be super cool to be able to pick up a pencil and quickly sketch out (a reasonable approximation of) something you see. Sadly, art’s never been my strong suit (Craft, yes, but art, no. The art gene that my cousins got apparently gave me a miss- or, so my Art class scores in Primary School seem to indicate!) So I thought I’d do something about that and I signed up for “Drawing in Museums” with The Art Academy, London. (http://artacademy.org.uk) According to the site, in 4 weeks, and £100 poorer, we will “develop drawing and creative skills” and “express a creative response to museum artworks, as well as develop an understanding of how artworks are put together to create particular impressions upon the viewer.”
The 1st meeting was at the Tate Museum and we were told to meet our instructor who would have dark curly hair and would hold a red file at the XX entrance (can’t remember off-hand which entrance now). Do you know how big the museum is?? I had to go up and down to find that entrance (even after asking the staff :P) And do you know how many dark-haired ladies there are in the museum?? The instructor was holding the red file in such a way that it was covered and you couldn’t see it. Even if it wasn’t covered, it’s much to small to be seen unless you go quite close to the person. So the first 5 minutes consisted of me walking up to all these random dark-haired females to see if she was holding a red file… Not off to an auspicious start!
When I finally found her, another girl and myself said we had paid for the drawing pack which we were told wasn’t here yet. Errrr, OK, and we will then draw with… blood?? sweat? tears??? Furthermore, apparently they only received 1 order. (Other girl & I were exchanging looks by now :P) So we ended up having to go to the Tate shop to buy (overpriced) materials…. kind of defeats the purpose of paying £20 for an Art Pack don’t you think?? And the 1st thing to draw was space. I decided to draw the windows:
My drawing looks nothing like that. And took me 20 minutes. (I can hear you going “Whhhhaaatt?”)
After almost 1 hour (of a 2 hour session), we finished drawing space (with ZIP guidance from the teacher) & our packs finally arrived and, oh yes, we were correct- they did get 2 orders after all. (The Drawing Pack, by the way, didn’t include drawing paper. Yes I know the items were specified on the site but why call it a Drawing Pack if it doesn’t have everything you’d need to draw?? Bizzare if you ask me) Next up was the Poetry & Dreams Gallery, where we were asked to draw something that shows structure or something like that. As in draw in part of the backdrop behind the item. I can’t remember the specific instructions but they weren’t too clear as some of the others later came to tell me they had no clue what we were supposed to draw. LOL.
1 of my favourite artistic mediums is sculpture so this was the next pick:
During the allotted time, the instructor came round to see how we were getting on. I told her that I took the class to learn HOW to draw (but she still didn’t really give any instruction!!) We then all went up to the cafe to show each other what we’d drawn and were told “well done” “see you are an artist!” *YAWN* Not to be rude, but if I wanted to go for an art therapy class, I would have signed up for an Art Therapy class!!! About the only thing I learnt was to squint when looking at an item to see which bits to shade more heavily. Earth-shattering don’t you think?
So, in conclusion, would I recommend this course or go back?
No.
But I did meet a new friend to go drawing with, so not a total loss then 🙂 (We both agreed that the session was the equivalent of us just meeting random people (who know nothing about art) to go drawing with, so that’s what we decided to do 🙂 )
Note: I later asked for a refund for the other (3) classes that I missed (first time I’ve done so!) but the school wasn’t very co-operative. I was asked to email so they could make sure the request got seen to in a timely manner (still took them over a week…) then they said that I hadn’t given the class a chance (Hello 1 of 4 classes is 25%… exactly how long does it take for something to start delivering what they promise??) but that they’d be nice and offer me another 2 classes in exchange. These 2 classes were on specific dates and I wasn’t offered any flexibility on this- OK so I have no social life then?! I jump when you say jump? I held firm, and ended up with £50 back.
