Modern Ballet

Thursday night I attended a modern ballet performance by the Trey McIntyre project.  Truly amazing performance.  It was another one of those cultural exchange events that is sponsored by the Public Affairs department of the US Embassy.  In case you didn't know, one of the things that the US Embassy does is to promote US culture and arts overseas.  At some point last year I discovered these events (they were there all along but one of my friends made me go) and started going to as many as I could attend.  They are awesome!  It makes me wonder how I can get onto one of these lists in DC, because I'm sure the US government is not the only government that likes to promote its culture and artists. 
Normally I do not really appreciate modern ballet, they tend to use modern classical music, and there is way too much symbolism for me.  Another thing about me, I suck at symbolism, if someone writes about a tree, I see a tree not family or love or growth or any of those things.  It's unfortunate, because I really want to like poetry, but I can't figure it out.  But back to TMP, the performance that I saw was very accessible because they choreographed their dances to popular music, like Simon and Garfunkel. So not only did I get to appreciate the beauty and athleticism of the dancers, but I also was able to appreciate the quirkiness of the music. 
At intermission, as a surprise, we were treated to several live Chinese musical performances.  At first I was annoyed, I wanted to use this time to get up, stretch my legs, look around the theater with the lights on, etc.  But after a few minutes I was able to appreciate these unexpected surprises too.  After intermission, I was surprised to hear kids music as the soundtrack to the dancers performance.  Who would ever think a modern ballet could be danced to "I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor?"  Not me, that's for sure. All in all, the evening was great, I liked it so much that I'm going to look for the Trey McIntyre Project in the future. 
For your viewing pleasure here is one of their promotional videos.