Bolero Variations

Last night at the Pompidou Centre, we saw Raimund Hoghe's Bolero Variations. We only saw the first half, thanks to Sofie who impressively sat through forty five minutes of slower than slow movements when she expected to watch a dance performance. The choreographer's interpretation evidently included some of the slowest, probably difficult, manipulations of the human body, very subtle, fingers bending. Arms slapping around their bodies in the fashion of a hug were some of the most sensational of the moves in that first forty-five minutes. The first ten minutes taken up with an old hunchback (possibly Hoghe) walking slowly at an odd slant around the stage forming a large square.
Because we had just viewed a huge amount of Modern Art at the Pompidou previous to this event, it all melded together to make for a most amusing day. Anja walked around the museum exclaiming loudly in English things like, "Do you think they painted that canvas white or just hung it up as is?" The girls did their own version of Bolero at intermission before we left for good. Many an amused expression was cast in our direction. The usher asked if Sofie was suffering from ennui - boredom when her and I were the first to exit the theater. It was all a bit too artsy for me. Made me want to don my black, and go to a cafe to consume coffee and cigarettes all night, but we uneventfully came back to our apartment and turned on the TV, yes we have TV for two weeks, to view another interpretation of Bolero which was at a much quicker pace though admittedly we still didn't view it in it's entirety.