Oooh, shiny!

Yesterday was hard. Getting up with a mild hangover. Having to finish tidying and cleaning the apartment. Making polite conversation with the man who came to view it. Having our makelaars take pictures of the ultraclean and tidy apartment around us. Work. Thus, it was a positive relief to head out into the rainy evening for a spot of culture. We headed over to the Muziektheater to see Nederlands Dans Theater I perform Silent Screen and Toss of a Dice. The first involved music from Philip Glass, film inspired by FW Murnau and DW Griffiths, and incredibly bendy dancers, who sent me into paroxysms of envy. So lean, so sinewy, so flexible! All good stuff, thoroughly entrancing, fabulous dancing.

The second part of the evening, Jiri Kylian's Toss of a Dice, was also impressively bonkers. A largely dark stage, illuminated by spotlights playing over a very large, pointy metal Japanese sculpture that circled over the dancers, pincers moving viciously. Some French bint reading a poem over the top of clicky-clacky modern music. Giant pointy sculpture finally coming down to earth, one dancer interacting impressively with it -- dancing around it, almost but not quite getting impaled on it's pincers. PJ found the sculpture somewhat distracting, his more practical mind wondering about whether the pincers were moving randomly and what sort of motor it was using. I just enjoyed the dancing. With modern dance, you never have to worry that you're missing out on a key story point or character development; you just sit back and marvel at the athleticism on display.

The crowd was younger and scruffier than for the performance of Jewels that Beth and I went to see, although that could have been the effect of the quite appalling weather. PJ and I decided to walk home along the canals in the drizzle -- which got heavier and heavier as we hit the 9 streets, but it was still rather magical. And we had umbrellas and knew that we would be able to change as soon as we got in. All in all, a fine end to a very tiring day.