CHICKEN SUITS

Sooo last night I went to a performance of La Fille mal gardee, a ballet depicting 15th century French peasant life...not only was there a touching love story - your typical girl meets boy, girl rolls with boy in haystacks but their love is forbidden, she's supposed to marry a different richer peasant (who in my opinion loved wearing those tights a little TOO much) yada yada yada, poor peasant boy and girl are happy in the end. And in a very Hairspray-esque fashion, the girl's mom is played by a dude. And she/he does a clog dance in addition to ballet. OH YEA, and did I mention there were CHICKEN SUITS?!

So...the ballet opens with four chickens and a rooster aka toned and beautiful ballerinas in giant chicken/rooster costumes. Very similar to the ones you see at most UCLA frat parties (even if the theme has nothing to do with farm animals.) Instead of a drunk frat guy, this the most graceful poultry I've ever seen. (except for myself in Teo Ruiz's History 129A performance). I'm so proud that I could have been in a professional French ballet. In fact, I think my chicken moves are even better then theirs. Yea, I said it.

Anyway, the ballet itself was very entertaining. Silly, but beautiful. The dancers did a lot with ribbons (to symbolize their love through "tying the knot" literally. at least 200 times). At one point the two main lovers make a human cats cradle. It's really complicated and apparently they only manage to pull it off every couple shows. They did it right when we saw it. Wheee!

The only thing cooler than the ballet itself was the epic building it was in. The Opera Garnier, Palais Garnier, Opera Paris, or Opera de Paris (yup, all one grand building). It was modeled off Versailles and inside I felt like a princess when descending its stairs (clearly I took the elevator UP). Even though I was with about 5 million other people. Anyway, my prof told us the Opera was meant as a place to "be seen" as well as see art, so it was built in a grand fashion with all these sick balconies for socialites to go out on and "show off". French architects came up with such clever ways to climb the social ladder (or staircases in this case). With those balconies, I bet their socialites didn't need to show their lack of panties while getting out of their carriages to get some attention.

The one thing i learned from the Opera experience: Don't wear heels in Paris. Cobblestones and metros = ungraceful in flats. and in heels? Just plain ugly. Oh and the French don't really do air conditioning. RUDE. If you're not gonna wear deoderant the least you can do is install an AC unit, Frenchies. Don't worry, there will be a blog dedicated to what the French don't believe in but they should. And I want input.

Please send any updates this way, I miss you all so much. I'd say I was homesick but that would be lying. Paris > L.A. and Tustin. It's more like friendsick and burritosick. You get the idea.


HISTORY SIDE NOTE: The ballet was inspired by Pierre Antoine Baudouin's painting Le Reprimande/Une Jeune Fille Querellée par sa Mère. Otherwise known as "The Young Girl Being Scolded by her Mom for Getting Jiggy With a Stable Boy" (He's depicted in the background zipping up his fly while running away. Letting the poor girl be the one to get scolded. Men.