Fabulous Friday! God is Good - Part Deux

Friday morning, 12 October, I remembered that I wanted to watch ballet from the Dains Singapore Festival. I surfed the Net for info. Russian ballet, my initial choice, was sold out for Saturday night but there were available tickets for the second night of the Zurich Ballet. I remembered watching the choreographer’s interview over ChannelNewsAsia a few days ago and how the choreography struck me, so I decided to try my luck that night over the box office. My willingness to pay was $60, up to $80 if there’s no $60 worth left.

I left the office at 7PM, for no specific reason, mostly lethargy, I guess. I reached Esplanade 10 minutes before the show. I went into the ladies while they were announcing how it was only 10 minutes before the show and how we’re supposed to be inside the theatre soon.

I rushed to the box office, asked the lady at the counter if they still had tickets.

“For tonight’s show?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Will you be willing to pay $60 for a $120 ticket?” she asked really graciously.

“$60 FOR A $120 TICKET???” I had to emphasize because I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Normally, it’s the reverse, right?

She said, “yes, because that man over there is selling his ticket” pointing to where my prince stood, gorgeous in his three-piece black suit.

Ok, there was no three-piece suit but there was this well-dressed Caucasian guy, around six feet tall, holding two pieces of $120 tickets. I asked him in front of the lady selling the ticket if his tickets were legitimate. They said yes.

“But I don’t have cash with me,” I said, which is the truth. “I can only pay by card.”

“I don’t have a machine with me,” he replied. Hahaha. Cute!

The lady suggested that we go to the ATM where I can get money to pay him. We searched until it was only six minutes before the show. By then, we decided to go back up because we might end up late. Along the way, I was asking him where his date was. He said he didn’t ask. I asked why. He shrugged. I offered an unsolicited advice, that next time he should. He said he won’t be staying for the whole show anyway.

He told me to just leave the money at the counter after the show where he’ll get it later on. I passed him my business card just to assure him that I’m not running away from my debt. He took it and said thank you. We hurried to the theater and made it to our VIP box seats just a few minutes to the curtain rise.

I had to ask if he worked in the finance company that sponsored the box we were sitting in. He said no, he just bought the tickets. He could be telling the truth. The tickets bore the booking fee charged by online reservation.

“Enjoy the show,” he said.

“You too.” I returned with a smile.

Entree. Very good.

Around maybe five to ten minutes into the show, my VIP ticket hero stood up and left just as he said.

I felt a bit sad for the guy if he indeed could not ask his date to the show. Meanwhile there was I, lucky stranger, who had two VIP seats to move back and forth to depending on the angle I required for the different numbers.

I enjoyed the night, nevertheless. Who knew there was a very good thing waiting to happen to me over a rash decision I made in the morning.

After ballet, I met up with Melvin for dinner. He was making up for not watching with me. We had fastfood sushi, Japanese cheesecake for dessert, and a wonderful Friday night to cap the workweek.

My lethargic mood was suddenly gone. Little magical moments can do wonders for a soul. Suddenly, my faith in God's care of me, in the good, was restored very convincingly. I am going to trust my Lord for all my needs, and they will be supplied.

Until now, the guy hasn't called me yet to collect. I'm thinking he might just let me go for free. I'm hoping he would, that would be perfect! Meanwhile, my prayers go with him wherever he is. I hope he receives blessings too for his good deed (not calling me :-).


Cello Suites, Winds in the Void (In den Winden im Nichts)
By Zurich Ballet, Switzerland
12 October 2007
Esplanade Theatre

I was struck by the dynamism of Heinz Spoerli’s choreography. His dancers moved in three-dimensional space and one is not limited to viewing flat figures on the stage. Instead, their formations are fluid so that a viewer gets to feel the height and the length, and more importantly, the width of the space where the dancers move. The dancers are also made to exploit different angles of the space mostly with their arm movements and their kicks. Bravo to Spoerli for the daring and imaginative occupancy of the stage.

A friend, nevertheless, complained of the repetitiveness of some moves, to which I agree. I was particularly baffled with a certain position when the male partner carries the female with her arms outstretched and her upper leg parallel to the ground and then the knees bent. Together, the partners look like they resemble an insect. The first view was a novelty to behold; but repetitive use of said position puzzles me completely and makes me ask what I am missing!

The whole concert is made up of different numbers which would entertain primarily for its variety and then of course with the excellent dancers’ techniques. Beyond that, however, the stories conveyed in each of the numbers are rather hard to comprehend.