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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ballet fans: Catch the Bolshoi on Oct. 16

Dan Webster

Just because you're interested in one art doesn't require you to be interested in all others. Here's an analogy: Just because I've grown to like grilled asparagus, it doesn't mean I'm ever going to like beets.

Seriously, the very thought of eating beets makes me want to … well, you get the point.

So just because you may like going to the movies, reading a good book, catching the occasional stage play or musical concert, doesn't mean that you have to like, say, modern art, Broadway-type musicals — or ballet.

Especially ballet. Watching men and women dressed in tights and tutus prance around a stage to the sound of piccolos and bassoons simply doesn't appeal to everyone.

And yet … if you do ever catch ballet at its best — watching Mikhail Baryshnikov leap, for example, or Natalia Osipova perform in "Giselle" — you're likely to feel some sort of tug at what could be termed appreciation, if not outright admiration.

So, yeah, even the plebeians among us can see the value in toe-dancing. Which is why it's a good thing that Fathom Events will be presenting a special live screening of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet performing the Shostakovich ballet "The Golden Age," with choreography by Yuri Grigorovich, on movies screens nationwide on Oct. 16.

The performance will be screen in Spokane at Regal's Northtown Mall Cinemas.

You might want to consider attending. You never know. Ballet just might speak to you — even if beets never, ever will.