Earplugs... for a ballet?

I went to the first show of The Washington Ballet's 2019-2020 season this evening, entitled "NEXTsteps". It was.... interesting.

Bear in mind that my personal preference is for ballets with a plot line. If these three short ballets had plots I missed them, or they went over my head. One had a theme. At least there was a lot of energetic motion and some real technical prowess.

I tend to ooh and ahh over things most patrons ignore, and am not impressed by things that are showy but technically easy. One of the woman demonstrated an agonizingly slow roll-up from flat to demi-pointe to full pointe. Twice. She must be able to crack walnuts with her toes to be able to do it so slowly.

Before the third ballet, the ushers offered earplugs to those of us sitting near the percussion section. Percussionists are weird creatures who make magical sounds out of ordinary objects. A significant contribution to the accompaniment was the sound of them punching holes in thin cardboard strips with hand-held hole punches. Then they added various bells of the type you ring to call a clerk to a vacant desk. Ding! Later, the drumming made me think of using the earplugs, but when they started beating on sections of pipe like some urban xylophone I stuffed the plugs into my ears. Fortunately there isn't a whole lot of dialog to miss with a ballet.

All in all it was an interesting night. I often say that the advantage of having season tickets is that you get exposed to things you might not otherwise choose to see. This was one of those occasions, but I had fun nonetheless.