Oklahoma City Ballet @ the Armstrong Auditorium
As a wedding anniversary gift our lovely children got us tickets for the Oklahoma City Ballet in the Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond (about 20 miles north of Oklahoma City). The performance was of two short ballets - Firebird and Rodeo. The first (Firebird) was a classical ballet with a magnificent prima ballerina who danced the role of the firebird - an enormous portion of which she did en pointe. Not only were her feet and body movements brilliantly suggestive of a bird but she also had wonderful flittering hand movement to completely convey the avian imagery. It was mesmerising. Then we had the second performance which was described as an 'American ballet' (Rodeo). It was more hoe down and modern dance than real ballet including a lot of Michael Flattley influenced tap dancing by one performer. But it was a lot of fun. And the setting was truly stupendous. The lavishly appointed auditorium was lined with American cherrywood and in front of house there was a huge chandelier reputed to be the largest in North America! The auditorium is on the grounds of the Herbert W Armstrong College which is a small religious college. It is clearly very wealthy given the opulence of not just the auditorium but also of the grounds which also contain a magnificent sculpture of birds (swans I think) taking flight in a huge fountain. All in all a wonderful cultural experience!
