LifeChance 2009

(Above: Seia Rassenti and Brooklyn Mack. Below: Joseph Watson, Seia, and Brooklyn.)

On Saturday night, January 24, 2009, Steve and I went to LifeChance at the Koger Center. LifeChance is an annual evening of ballet presented by Radenko Pavlovich's Columbia Classical Ballet. The one-night only performance features invited guest dancers, the company, a silent auction, and promises some of the proceeds to a local charity. (This year the funds go to Children's Garden.)

The company performed a very nice, newly choreographed version of Rite of Spring for the first act. The intermission went by quickly. The second act was tremendous. The celebrity dancers dazzled the audience with a series of classical and modern works, including Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, and a hilarious Bumble Bee. The finale ended with a well earned standing ovation.

I used to write my totally unofficial "review"...which I never called a "review". I always wrote my impressions. As a result, I've received some very, very nasty blog comments. (Most have been deleted....too foul to allow public viewing. Click here to see one remaining, earlier post....and the comments). One person very close to the artistic director has gone so far as to throw sarcasitic comments at me...in person....in front of others....just trying to embarrass me. Yet, I'm hardly embarrassed; I've only ever spoken the truth.

As a result, I resolved never to write about ballet in Columbia again. (I'm only writing this because Steve mention a "possible review" on his blog!) Afterall, my personal blog posts still appear on the first page when googling Columbia Classical Ballet company or its artistic director. These posts are two years old....pathetic! If these people can't handle the impressions of a mere ticket holder, fine! I don't have to bother writing about it. These people aren't that important. As far as I'm concerned, Google search engines prove it.

Of course, this time it is a shame that I'm not writing. The production was excellent; but, I'll say no more. I won't cite the individuals and their efforts. Why bother?

What is important to me about Saturday night is that Steve and I brought Seia Rassenti and her boyfriend Joseph Watson, two dancers from North Carolina Dance Theater, to the show. Seia graduated from the Kirov with Mathias. She hadn't seen Brooklyn Mack since he graduated two years earlier. There were hugs all around and I got to be an excited fan with a camera...asking them to pose outside the green room. It was a wonderful way to end a great evening of dance.