I recently got to check out the latest show from national-level ballet company, Charleston Ballet Theatre. As a finale to their 20th Anniversary celebrations they presented three oldies-but-goodies: Poetry with a Splash of Blood, Wings and Rite of Spring. The latter was powerful despite featuring male dancers ho looked like they were dressed in swimming caps and diapers.

Here's what the City Paper A&E editor John Stoehr had to say:

"Nick Smith, always up for seeing svelte dancers emerge from a pile of dirt (not kidding), enjoyed the show and sent us this review."

John sees right through me. I'm an ODB at heart.

See what I mean about the diapers?

Also in this week's City Paper: my review of the Little City Theatre Company's musical, Songs for a New World. I'm not a huge fan of musical theatre - I'm no Rent boy - but this collection of songs was well performed. I expect more good things soon from this brand new local company.

Also on the artsy front, my hard-rockin' pals at Chamber Music Charleston will perform Dvorak and Francaix at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 67 Anson Street, Charleston on April 13.

Like CBT, they're excellent at what they do and man, do they know how to have fun.

Balanchine Ballet

On Saturday I caught a production called Best of Balanchine by Charleston Ballet Theatre and I was reminded how long ballet intermissions are.

There were three short dances in the show - Serenade, Rubies and Who Cares?, all choreographed by the late great George Balanchine. But there was an intermission between each dance and some of them lasted longer than the dances themselves!

Okay, so the ballerinas need to go wipe the sweat of their backs and the male dancers need to adjust their packages. But surely ballet isn't all about the inter-dance drinking and schmoozing?



Thanks to a late start and the two intermissions, a show that should have been 90 minutes long was strung out to 2 hours 20 minutes. Why do ballet intermissions have to be so long? I think we should be told.