I love the ballet. I also love free stuff. So when I have an opportunity to see free ballet I am all over it.The Washington Ballet performed The Waltz of the Cherry Blossoms for us on Saturday, their version of The Nutcracker dance. It was beautiful and worth wading through the whining children who came out for family day.
There was a litany of boring speeches after the ballet, including one by Eleanor Holmes-Norton. There was also singing of the American and Japanese anthems, a bunch of kids on violins, a Stomp-like group of Asian women, and a Japanese hip-hop dancer. They were o.k., probably not worth coming out for.
The most interesting part of the festivities was a performance by Jero (Jerome White, Jr.). He's an African American from Pittsburgh who sings Japanese blues music. It sounds a lot like James Bond theme song music. I had never heard of Japanese blues or Jero, but apparently this guy is huge in Japan. Tweens and elderly Japanese women were screaming like he was Michael Jackson in the 80s. How could I not know about this?
I made a really poor quality recording of Jero with my camera. Check it out.
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