The White Bat

The first time I stepped into Istana Budaya was with my son - who was equally excited about the Sunday matinee ballet show..... The White Bat. Yeah! It's our first time viewing a LIVE ballet performance! All these while, only watching on the TV screen.

I bought tickets online via Ticket2U. Big mistake - had to pay ticketing and credit card charges. I also did not get my 10% early bird discount price despite buying before 10th December 2011. When I realised what happened, I called up Istana Budaya but was told nothing can be done i.e. they can't refund me and they can't even upgrade my tickets. Note to self -  just drop by the Istana Budaya box office next time to purchase the tickets. Anyway, I printed out the online purchase statement and presented it to the box office on the event day itself and collected the tickets.

The White Bat was presented by Danceworks Production with choreography by Jie Choong Wan-Chin. Since 1998, Danceworks has staged five major productions, including Carmen, Paquita, Don Quixote & the International Ballet Gala 2010, raising money for various charities.

Part of the proceeds from The White Bat will go to Hospis Malaysia, Kiwanis Down Syndrome Foundation, SPCA..... among other charities. 

Program books were given out by donation only of RM10 each. DVDs of last year's Don Quixote was selling at RM30, 'Just Dance' magazines were selling at RM10 for 3 copies (old issues) and the latest issue is RM10. All proceeds go to charity.

Smart Casual wear - no shorts, no slippers, no round neck or v-neck tee, no torn jeans, no babies, no cameras, no handphones, no food and drinks allowed in the auditorium.

We were seated at Upper Circle - cos that's the cheapest ticket price at RM50 only. Premium seats command RM220! Evan's ballet teacher said we should have taken the better seats i.e. RM100 or RM140 ones..... but it was OK - we could see the dancers but can't see their facial expressions. Again - note to self - buy seats in the Grand Circle next time. The entire performance was about 2 hours with a 20-minute intermission.

 The stage

view from my seating position

The main roles were danced by 3 Japanese : Hironao Takahashi (from Northern Ballet Theatre, Britain), Ena Hirose (Ena Ballet Studio Company, Japan) and Nobuo Fujino (formerly from Hong Kong Ballet). Music by Johann Strauss II -  an opera - Die Fledermaus. Overall the performance was enthralling. Costumes were beautiful, the set was very well-done and the neo-classical ballet - so creative!

I will definitely be back to Istana Budaya again for the International Ballet Gala 2012 in July this year.