As an early Christmas gift, my mum shouted me a couple of tickets to the final performance of The Nutcracker by Queensland Ballet. This was my first time to a ballet and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Sure I had been to Swan Lake on Ice earlier this year and I enjoyed that, so I thought why not. It was an enjoyable evening and more than once, I found myself thinking that male ballet artists must be awfully confident creatures - those tights they were wearing in the latter part of the ballet certainly lived up to their name! I’m pretty sure that if any of them had an inkling of cellulite or flabby flesh, it certainly wasn’t on their legs! But my other half and I pondered the following on the way home:

1. We all know females who do ballet are called ballerinas but what do they call the men? Ballerinamen?? Ballamen?? Ballarets??
2. How do the men stop their private parts from jostling about when they do all their jumps, twists and spins?? We figure there must be a pocket to pop them in at the front of the tights because it was pretty clear that they certainly were not wearing any underwear (no visible panty line, even of a G-string).
3. Is there a weight limit on female ballerinas?? And do male ballet stars have to be able to bench press their own weight to be considered for professional touring??
4. After doing the equivalent of a decent cardio workout, a significant weight circuit and performing under very hot lights, why weren’t any of them sweating?? They were breathing heavy but I couldn’t see a single sweat patch anywhere on their costumes. Is there some kind of hard core ballet deodorant that we don’t know about? If so, where can I get it?

Tis a puzzlement….at least to me. If anyone has any ideas on any of the above, feel free to share below!

(Image courtesy of Queensland Ballet)

December 23rd, 2007 | Tags: music | Category: Home and Lifestyle |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL