Last Day in Poznan...

Now that I've woken from my jet lag coma...here is a story from my last day in the city of Poznan. (Poznan is one of the oldest established cities in Poland)

Our last performance was finished the night before and a not so shining review was in the paper in the morning (Saturday)...apparently neoclassical ballet was old news and the reviewer wanted to see more choreo-drama (which turned out to be what the bulk of the performances presented during the festival). The day was technically free and the evening was filled with hopes of seeing the host company's (Polish Dance Theatre) most recent work. We enter the same theater we had just abandoned the previous night, to find a bedroom set and a woman fiddling with a vacuum cleaner. She screams in frustration, and the show starts.

Now...I find it difficult to articulate, but this evening's work (which closed the International Dance Festival) had two dance phrases in it, and not everyone had a turn executing the movement. The majority of the show centered around a script, written in poor English, where phrases, words, and actions were repeated at least 3 times (someone had a serious case of OCD). After the first hour of squirming in my seat, I began predicting the next obvious pattern.

I hate to say it...IT WAS THE WORST SHOW I'VE EVER SEEN. The most memorable moment was a repeated speech, "I do not want one of your spaghetti in my mouth, down my throat, and into my stomach. I do not want two of your spaghetties in my mouth, down my throat, and into my stomach," repeated three times followed by a dance phrase with a spoon in each hand.

The saddest part about the show was not the poor English (I study Applied Linguistics, and that stuff is interesting to me), but it was seeing such highly trained dancers do so little movement. From the sprinkled dance bits shown, you could see the dancers' training and evident technique. In the end that's what I wanted to see more of.

After the show we found food and set off for the train to Krakow.

How romantic. An actual sleeper train through the Polish country side...I hope I didn't get bedbugs. Imagine six people stacked three to each side and their luggage stuffed into every corner for eight hours. It was one of the most physically uncomfortable experiences ever.

Take a look at our compartment.