When San Jose’s New Ballet performs “Sleeping Beauty” at the California Theatre Sunday, everyone in the audience can have the experience of sitting next to a ballet expert providing commentary and context throughout the show. But it won’t disturb anyone else in the auditorium because it’s all happening on your phone. New Ballet Director Dalia Rawson said she was inspired by her experience watching electronic sports where — like with regular football or basketball games — the audience gets the added benefit of commentary on the action. At “Sleeping Beauty” on Sunday, patrons with special Live Casting tickets will be seated together in the balcony and will dial into a conference call on their own phones (with earbuds) to hear the commentary during the 2 p.m. performance.
All else in this adaptation of film director Billy Wilder’s 1950 noirish melodrama, with Gloria Swanson and sale 30% off, multicolor python leather ballet flats, size 9 us William Holden, is pretty forgettable, and the lyrics, credited to Don Black and Christopher Hampton, are worse than that, “Sunset Boulevard/ Headline Boulevard/ Getting here is only the beginning,” goes the cringe-worthy title song, In terms of music, Lloyd Webber echoes here the swooning romanticism of period movie scores, but the effect is overkill: He recycles a handful of melody lines over and over and over, the result being that the songs are reduced to nothing more special than commercial jingles, A few are quite fetching — Norma’s introductory anthem of self-infatuation, “With One Look,” and Act 2’s galvanizing “As If We Never Said Goodbye” are sentimentally pitched in the right way: richly nostalgic ballads fit for a movie queen..
While the rich action was always moving somewhere, it lacked the depth that makes us feel the human poetry of motion. Poetry, by contrast, is what Smuin conjured in the best moments of “Symphony,” with its group processional and images of sacrifice: an upside-down cross made by a dancer’s body, a dancer held up with her legs in extreme second position and another clamped to the back of her partner, echoing “Carmina Burana” and “Prodigal Son.”. Overhead hung what appeared to be two diaphanous boulders, as though the world were upended. And except for the odd turtlenecks worn by the men that were more fitting for a hootenanny, this dance made us feel the solemnity of a world upside-down with sorrow and the promise of going on.
A coroner’s office spokesman could not be reached late Saturday, but a spokeswoman from the Insomniac group, which organized the event, issued a statement expressing condolences to the family and urging festivalgoers to look after each other’s safety, “We are deeply saddened by this news, and hope that everyone will join us in keeping his family and friends in their thoughts during this very difficult time,” Jennifer Forkish, an Insomniac spokeswoman, said in a statement, “Dance music fans pride themselves in being part of a loving community and, as we get ready to start the second night of the show, we ask that everyone help keep this event safe, … One death is too many, and we all must do our part to keep each other safe, healthy and happy, tonight and every sale 30% off, multicolor python leather ballet flats, size 9 us night.”..
As far as the writer whining about no balanced news coverage on this, what was the headline of the article supposed to say — “Bombs set off to kill people to stop animal research facilities?” If anybody belongs on the FBI Most Wanted list, it is Daniel San Diego. I am an animal lover myself but believe the pen is mightier than the sword. But I can think of several situations in which business owners had occasion to protect their establishments from mobs of 15 or more during riots, most recently in South Central Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots. That it was business owners rather than just homeowners makes no difference. So, Snyder himself makes the case for protecting the right of law-abiding citizens to own such weapons (though not convicted felons or people who are clearly mentally ill).
