At the NYC Ballet and its Ancillary Show

WASHINGTON DC – I found myself stuck between a ballet historian and a Lady Dame last night at the John F. Kennedy Center’s New York City Ballet (NYCB).

Works by choreographers George Balanchine and Alexei Ratmansky were presented in an amazing three-piece show, while I was an unwilling participant in a show of ballet knowledge.

An old geezer to my left fashioned himself a ballet historian with a barrage of unsolicited information and a remarkable display of namedropping. Lady Dame to my right, dared to compete with the ballet pundit but conceded when she discovered her mere American ballet knowledge failed to match the internationally knowledgeable ballet enthusiast.

At the end of the first piece, the Square Dance, the dancers relished in the audience applause—a mark of their approval for the spectacular performance. Then, the curtains fell. I could not wait to see the second piece (Odessa, combined with Tarantella) after the first intermission, while the Balanchine historian apparently could not wait to flex his verbal ballet muscles.

“Have you seen Odessa?” he started. Lady Dame puffed an irritable sigh and shrugged her shoulders, bumping my right arm ever so lightly in disapproval of the foretelling ballet maestro. “I saw the original in… blah, blah, blah...” director and classical composer names, he bragged. Admittedly, I found his knowledge admirable, despite his intrusiveness, but his ridiculing of the first piece increased my desire to escape his chitchat.

Brilliant! Simply the way I described the second piece—to which the old geezer stated no qualms. The third piece, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes, followed the second intermission. This time, I was not having it. I pardoned myself and slipped pass the old geezer. I needed a breath of fresh air, as well as a strategy to ignore him upon my return.

My timing was impeccable. As I entered the hallway to the cavernous Opera House the lights began to flicker, a signal for the audience to return to their seats before the show resume. The old geezer was seated and peering through the pages in the program’s booklet.  Lady Dame was standing, as if to avoid conversation with the old geezer during my absence.

Bravo! The third piece ended, and the Curtain Call was much to my delight as it was to the dancers. My evening of the NYCB and its ancillary show had ended.

Perhaps I will take along a Ratmansky maestro to battle future Balanchin-ists while I enjoy the artistic brilliance of choreographers George Balanchine and Alexei Ratmansky in peace.

By Denrique Preudhomme

Copyright© 2017. All Rights Reserved.

iDeclare the Truth

I have sworn to not do and stood firmly on two things (amidst my Type A list of many things): 1) vote for the pretentious and obnoxious Donald Trump, if he were the last man on earth, who, I strongly doubt would survive among women—given his obvious sexism; and, 2) purchase no other smartphone than a BlackBerry. But, when an unexpected paradigm shift threatened the latter, I was forced to consider an option as unimaginable as the former.

My prolonged relationship with Blackberry has parlayed from the BlackBerry 1700, introduced in 2003, to the BlackBerry Q10, released in 2013. Blackberry phones were designed to concentrate on wireless communication (email, mobile telephone and text messaging), which has satisfied my wireless consumerism for over 10 years. So, the iDea of their competitors capturing my iNterest with devices designed to offer an array of entertainment, while iNadvertently creating a host of petty crimes, was as iMpossible as my voting for Donald Trump. But, in August 2013, when BlackBerry announced its intention to sell the company due to increasingly unfavorable financial position and competition in the mobile industry, I feared the worst.

On June 29, 2007, when the first generation of iPhone, designed and marketed by Apple, Inc. (Apple), was launched, I was among the cautiously optimistic, waiting for all of the technological glitches to present themselves and the remedies and upgrades to prevail. But, when iPhone’s remedies and upgrades quickly spiraled into a massive fanfare with billions in revenue (resulting in sales of approximately 700 million iPhones to-date, according to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook at a conference on March 9, 2016), I refused to contribute to an Apple wireless device monopoly. In fact, I was adamant, because I needed to maintain my wireless device, preferred and self-described name, BlackBerry Chic.

In November 2013, despite previously announcing intentions to sell the company, BlackBerry’s interim CEO John S. Chen released an open message saying “We are committed to reclaiming our success,” and I was extremely pleased. However, due to the popularity of the iPhones and similar devices, wireless companies were forced to discontinue sales of BlackBerry devices, causing me to ultimately reconsider and shamefully purchase an iPhone.

Yes. This BlackBerry Chic is now an iPhone consumer. A broken AC power port on my 22-month old BlackBerry Q10, along with wireless companies such as Sprint®, discontinuing sales of BlackBerry devices, has [with the support of statistical data, being, 80% of BlackBerry users are now iPhone users] lead me to become a part of the Apple monopoly. Therefore, the purpose of my message is to out myself before the 80%ers, and the otherwise 2007 fan-craved iPhone users spot me with my new iPhone and label me as a two-faced, contradicting wireless phone user. Frankly… aren’t we all?

Copyright© 2016 Denrique Preudhomme. All Rights Reserved.
Note: Research and data obtained from various reputable news source.

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