Ballerina Who Loves B-Boy a Beaut!

For an amazing, astonishing, astoundingly awesome evening of jovial joyous jubilance, then the blithesome Ballerina Who Loves B-Boy is your ticket. Done with no lyrics, no dialogue ala ballet, it's a wonderful visual experience. Yes, it's flawed, the story's kind of syrupy, almost corny, but, oh the dancing is sick (that's a really, really good thing in the US). Did I love the music? No, not that I don't like hip hop music, but this was like "canned elevator" hip hop music. The beautiful ballerina's turnout was poor, and her fouettes sloppy (but then again, as a former ballet dancer, I guess I might be nitpicking, although my 12 year old daughter who is an accomplished ballet dancer noted it as well). To her credit, her arms were gorgeous and her extension and control excellent. The truth is, it was more of a display of break-dancing, locking, krumping and popping than ballet and I was gasping at the incredible moves of this Korean Extreme Crew.

The story is of So-Yeon (Yoo Eun Hye), a ballerina whose classical training is frequently interrupted by the noise from the street below. She and one of her classmates step out to watch. This leads to a showdown of dancing genres as both ballet and street dancers try to outdo each other. But it's not long before So-Yeon falls for the lead B-boy (Joung Young Kwang) and we eventually find her frustratingly trying to master the B-boys' moves. I don't think I'm ruining anything by telling you that she does master the moves, shows up in hip hop regalia, dances with her B-Boy and off they walk hand-in-hand. That said, the dancing is worth the price of admission. And what I thought was a very good marketing move, the audience was encouraged to take as many pictures as we wanted. You can see some of my photos in The Matinee's Gallery.

Fresh from three sold out years in Seoul and a hit run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it's currently playing through October at off-Broadway's 37 Arts Theatre. (They're apparently on a world tour, so look out for them.)