everything is beautiful at the ballet....

Yes, indeed, it was.
This was my second ballet (last year's Corsaire in Munich was the first), and it was gorgeous. Of course, it's Swan Lake. The music is familiar, the grace is pretty much a given, and it was the last performance of the run, so there was tons of electricity all around from the audience and performers alike- including a zillion bows and returns to stage.
HOWEVER- in comparison, Le Corsaire (and I don't remember what ballet company presented it) was danced more precisely than Swan Lake. The ABT (I seriously felt like I was watching parts of the movie Center Stage sometimes) is arguably (or not arguably but definitively?) the most well-known American dance ballet company...and so what I was expecting was something perfect.
Something so crisp. So synthesized. So precise with each group step.
What I saw were amazing formations, and yes, mostly all synchronized dancing when it was in groups---buuuut, not as synchronized as Le Corsaire. Really. It just wasn't pointed enough. They were doing everything right, but here and there a beat, a toe shoe, a turn, a leg...just kind of popped out for a split second.
And in comparison to the Russian ballets that you see on tv, that are perfect within an inch of their lives (probably because their lives or their family's lives WERE somehow...well, you get it)...it just didn't measure up.

Oh, and do not get me started on the orchestra.
Wow. That was kind of sad.
They have their own--and of course, being at Lincoln Center and sitting in the same seats that I see operas in, I was expecting Levine-esque proportions. Nope, not so much. And I'm talking about tuning here! And just in general paying attention and making it crisp.
Have I used crisp and precisely enough? Wow, maybe I had expectations that were too high.
But where you're used to hearing music in one way, and then you get a not-so-ensemble-y feel, it takes away from the excitement (when you know that the orchestra as well as the dancers main job--unless they are soloists within) is to make that pretty and precise picture onstage that we all oooh and ahh about.

Ok, but anyway, it was the first Swan Lake that I'd ever seen live, and I do have to say that the solo dancing did blow me away. First of all, Swan-ee (how I shall now refer to the main swan chick not only because it's a funny reference to an old Gershwin tune, but also because it makes me look sharp...how I love ya, how I love ya..)was beautiful and SO thin that from the family circle I could barely see her arms. I think her leg was as thin as my arm. But no, really, I know these girls and guys are SO built and so muscular, but they still have this perfect fragile grace about them.

She did like a zillion turns at one point--en point. Over and over, to the music, and from my FEW weeks/months of attempted ballet class from 04-06, umm, yea, I knew that was hard. (I even picked out the pas de chats, J!--cuz I know you're probably reading)...

In final review, and as A Chorus Line mentions, everything really IS beautiful at the ballet. Even the villains have a great dance, an awesome death scene, lovers jumping off of a cliff (more like flying onto what I hope was a well-cushioned mattress back there because they sure tore off that cliff like there was no tomorrow), princesses cavorting onstage, and of course all those white tutus running around and being pretty swans.