Adventure in the arts...

I'm feeling pretty cultured right now; in the last week I've been to an art exhibit, a musical, and a ballet.
I started with the  Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA.  If you live in Los Angeles, you most likely know about it and are probably planning to go.  It's pretty impossible not to know about it from their extensive campaign.  I joined LACMA just so that I could gain easier admission as a member.  Even with the huge buildup, I can't say I was disappointed.  I've been a Tim Burton fan since I first saw The Nightmare Before Christmas at the age of 8.  It was so bizarre seeing such an extensive exhibit dedicated to such a living and currently popular artist at such a scholarly (possibly the wrong word) institution - Tim Burton is the antithesis of a struggling artist who died unappreciated and impoverished only to be "discovered" posthumously, nor is he an artist of an ancient civilization - you know, the types of things I'd typically expect to see at LACMA.  I bought a fun Tim Burton deck of cards (get excited for some rousing games in Asia, Alex!) and a fun neon colored pencil pack.
I then went to the opening of a new musical, TWIST, at the Pasadena Playhouse.  Based on the name, I kept thinking I was going to see a musical about dancing in the 1950s... couldn't be further from the reality.  The musical tells the Oliver Twist story set in 1920s New Orleans.  Little "Twist" is a half white/half black orphan, and, well, you know the story.  I have seen almost everything that the Playhouse has produced over the last four years, and saw numerous productions there while I was growing up.  Never have I felt that a musical of theirs was so Broadway ready.  Debbie Allen directed and choreographed so it just looked stunning.  I couldn't believe those children dancers!  They flipped and tapped and jumped!  And that little Twist (apparently there are two little actors but we saw the main one) was just adorable and so charismatic.  While I missed some of the old classic Oliver songs, I was completely in love with a few of the numbers in this production.  I also enjoyed that the production did not hide that it was derived from another book/musical/etc.  There were a few very fun little references to the original.
Finally, I went to the ballet with my great aunt Elisabeth.  We saw a very classical production of Don Quixote by the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.  Though one of my favorite shows of all time (at least by reality tv standards) is So You Think You Can Dance, I don't really have the vocabulary to judge any dancing.  Unless they had been falling all over themselves, I'm just not entirely sure that I would have spotted any imperfections of the dancers.  Perhaps a true ballet critic would be able to comment, however, I thought this ballet was just stunning - particularly the prima ballerina.  She did one thing I've never seen before and that was, completely gracefully, hold a position, with one leg on point.  It felt kind of like listening to Annie Oakley hold that note forever in "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."  The ballerina just stayed put like that while the male dancer danced around her for what felt like an eternity and yet she never shook or strained!  I won't say that ballet is my favorite form of performance art - so much of its story telling is basic.  It says very little in a very long form.  But my god is it often breathtakingly beautiful.

Sorry for the lack of pictures... I'll try not to do that very often!