In the Upper Room

Saturday night, Candace and I went to see the Atlanta Ballet perform a Twyla Tharp collaboration with Philip Glass from 1986 entitled In the Upper Room. The company also performed a Balanchine interpretation of Tchaikovsky and a folksy hoe-down kind of piece. Ultimately, I was a bit disappointed with the company as a whole. With the exception of the Balanchine (which was the only traditional ballet they did on the program), they seemed REALLY out of sync with each other, something I wouldn't expect from a company of the caliber I've known the Atlanta Ballet to be. It seems as if this is due to a poor combination of having a lot of new dancers and trying to tackle modern styles, something they're obviously not suited for.

All this said, I generally enjoyed the program (with the exception of the hoe-down piece). The Balanchine was beautiful (even if a little too long), and although disjointed, the Philip Glass was fun, 80's-tastic, and interesting (plus, I thought the music was great, of course). Overall, a good evening, even though I don't see myself going back to the ballet anytime soon...