The Diavolo dance troupe seems committed to proving that gravity has no hold on them. They’re dancer-acrobat-gymnasts in the same vein as Pilobolus, but where the Pilobians build their art using each other’s bodies, Diavolo incorporates large props into their performances, like an over-sized doorway, a huge flight of stairs, a large metal cage, or a slanted wall studded with large metal rods where the dancers are human pachinko balls. We went to see them Friday night at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.
Their most exotic set (that we saw, anyway) is a huge, rocking partial-cylinder reminiscent of the hull of a ship. The dancers hurl themselves around on the “ship” in precisely choreographed movements while narrowly avoiding being crushed. I’ve never seen anything like it. The piece, Trajectoire, has a thirty-minute running time and we were riveted the whole half-hour.
Sunday morning we woke up to snow!
We trekked to the St. Louis Art Museum to see an exhibition of artifacts from the Ming Dynasty. The Ming treasures were spectacular.
Image courtesy of the Nanjing Municipal Museum.
There were carved intricacies of nephrite jade and rhinoceros horn, there were gold ornaments intended to hang from a court lady’s belt just so she could jingle as she walked. There were cloisonné containers and beautifully glazed architectural details. There were thickly lacquered platters with incredibly detailed carvings in relief, ornate gold belt plates, eggshell-thin porcelain, inlaid backgammon sets, huge vertical paintings depicting fantastic karst mountainscapes, long scrolls documenting the Lifestyles of the Rich and Imperial. There were bejeweled gold hair combs and a chunk of amber as big as my fist carved into a cup “for the drinking of potions.” And there was a pocket-sized personal grooming kit consisting of a pair of tweezers, a toothpick, an earpick, and what was either one of the oldest coke spoons on record, or a nosepick (shudder), all made of gold. There may even have been a Ming Vase or two.
It would have been fascinating to learn the history of some of the objects, how they survived into the 21st century and whose hands they passed through on the way here. Possibly, we could have discovered this if we’d bought the catalogue.
We couldn’t take any pictures in the Ming exhibition, but I took a few shots in and around the museum.
Waiting at the Museum door.
Even the statues looked cold.
This is the kind of thing that gives modern art a bad reputation (not the vortex machine, the thing to its left).
The vortex machine in the foreground was cool, but if you look to the left of the machine, you can see the faint outline of a sloppy octagon on the wall. I thought it was a cobweb until I noticed the nearby placard proclaiming it Art. It’s a wire wrapped around eight nails.
I know I’m not going to appreciate everything other people consider art, but it seems like the only art involved in this was the art required to convince someone at the museum that this piece was worthy of display.
Prince Zhu Youyuan in Ceremonial Uniform.
While we were wandering around inside, Nan noticed that the multi-story Ming Dynasty banner on the outside of the building was transparent when viewed from within. It made for a rather eerie effect.
By the time we left the museum, the sun was out and the fallen petals of the Bradford Pears were the only white left on the ground. It had turned into a beautiful day.
After our mini-immersion in Chinese art, we of course felt the need to seek out a Persian restaurant (OK, the Chinese restaurant we wanted to try was closed). We were headed to the tried-and-true City Diner when we remembered seeing a kabob place the last time we were in the South Grand area. So we stopped for lunch at Café Natasha and were happy we did. We started with Baba Ghannouj, a dip made from mashed grilled eggplant and tahini sauce, eaten with pita. For all you Alton Brown lovers out there, I once heard him claim on Good Eats that Baba Ghannouj was his favorite way to eat eggplant.
My entrée was something new, Koubideh Kabob, a mixture of ground lamb and beef, basically, meatloaf on a stick, which to me is a good thing. Nan had Chicken Shish Kabob. We shared a side of Chicken Koubideh, charbroiled ground chicken. It kills me that you can order a side dish of meat here (in truth, we ordered the Chicken Koubideh from a section of the menu titled Sides and Extras).
Chicken Kabob with lentils and raisins on basmati rice.
The Persian equivalent of the Italian restaurant red pepper flake shaker on every table is the sumac shaker. As a former Boy Scout and amateur 20th-century woods runner, when I hear “sumac” my brain puts the word “Poison” in front of it. Presumably, the Health Department would have shut Café Natasha down if patrons were constantly being carried out in body bags, so I think it’s safe to assume that this sumac must be a non-poisonous variety. Nan enjoyed it on her Kabob. I tasted it and thought it was interesting, but I was already experiencing the unfamiliar flavors of Koubideh and didn’t want to add another spice into the mix yet. And there’s the Poison thing.
We finished off the meal with “Persian Ice Cream,” vanilla ice cream mixed with pistachio pieces, saffron and rosewater.
We really liked Café Natasha.
- Poppa
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