Man of La Mancha

When you think of Don Quixote, you very likely picture an old man fighting windmills. Your probably do not image that scene choreographed in a ballet, with beautiful sets, exciting music and gorgeous costumes.

But the Atlanta Ballet did.

Last night marked the best ballet I have ever seen. I think the rest of the audience agreed with me -- it was the clap-happiest assemblage I've ever been in. By the end, people just started clapping every time someone spun around. The dancers were feeding on it -- you could see them rise to the challenge of our frank adoration. It was absolutely fantastic, and I'll never forget it, much like my younger pilgrimages to see The Nutcracker.

But my favorite thing may have been the audience, particularly all the middle school girls and aspiring ballerinas, who were everywhere. They were all dressed up (sparkly dresses!) and couldn't sit still they were so excited. The one little girl behind us said, "I took a shower before I came here and now my hair is too fluffy!" and the other two piped up, "Oh no, you look good!" and "You should do a braid one day, on the one side? That would be so cool." Every time their friend danced on stage, they would whisper to each other how good she was(!!!). Through the filter of "Mean Girls," I think I'd forgotten this part of being 12 -- the unquestioning support we gave each other, before the insecurity and meanness set in. I thought my friends were pretty fucking great. And I was right, they were.

And on a different part of the spectrum was the woman in front of me, who clearly wasn't well. Sometime during the second act, she began rocking violently back and forth, yanking on her hair. She spoke to the plastic babydoll she was holding. I found it hard to concentrate on the ballet, because I was worried about her, but the people with her didn't move a muscle, so it must not have been anything out of the ordinary. I saw her stop rocking when the orchestra played a particularly swooping, romantic piece for a solo dancer, and that made me strangely happy, like the music and the dancing just took her out of whatever was troubling her. During intermission she fed a bottle to the baby and held a laminated photograph on her cheek. She was calmer during the next acts, but they left after the second intermission.