creative day(s) in the northern capital

last night i went to the american ballet theatre's china premiere. it was simply exquisite. to be in the presence of such creativity, experiencing moments both tender and whimsical, was bliss. and the dancers were incredible - so precise, so moving. it was all just very finely wrought. i was filled with unbounded joy just to be living those moments and seeing such beauty. i am about to go back for a second night tonight! although the programs are different - last night was contemporary ballet, tonight is don quixote. still, i am thankful for dance. for all it has been in my life and continues to be.

watching last night's pieces and reflecting on them afterwards, i found myself struck by our endless flow of creativity and spirit. that we can ceaselessly gyre forward in our means of expression and art. and again i found myself i want to find myself closer to that widening gyre (in a positive sense). closer to creativity somehow. which of course requires discipline. something else that the dancers reminded me of. i have at times run my fingers through the idea of discipline as freedom. recently a lovely friend recalled for me a passage from 'a wrinkle in time', a favourite book of mine as a sweet young thing:

Mrs. Whatsit compares life to a sonnet:

"It is a very strict form of poetry is it not?

"There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?

"And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?"

Calvin: "You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?"

"Yes. You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you."

such a charming way of circling around and into the discipline / freedom flow! i suspect that tonight's performance will be similarly inspiring.

in other news, i thought it quite noteworthy that obama's speech in japan was basically about china. it's a good thing the united states does not intend to "contain china"; the chinese keep the american economy float insofar as i understand these things and i doubt america could contain china even if it wanted to. a very clever strategy to mask your reliance / strategic weakness as magnanimity. once again, rhetoric to the rescue!

i also couldn't help but marvel at the strategic carpet the chinese threw down this morning, equating the situation with tibet with the american civil war and noting that obama, as a black president and an admirer of lincoln, should really understand their need to maintain control over tibet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/world/asia/14beijing.html?scp=1&sq=china%20tibet%20civil%20war&st=cse

really, it's just too good. it seems that creativity abounds in the northern capital these days! not just on the stage at the national centre for performing arts.