Casablanca Adventure: The New Normal - The Ballet, Moroccan Style

Girls at the tea tent

Richard accompanied seven lovely women to the Hippodrome D’Anfa last Thursday evening for a production of Le Voyage De Scheherazade ballet. The Hippodrome is a horse-racing venue that is also used for concerts and other events. A stage was set up for the dancers, with a large space for the orchestra in front. The venue was partially covered, and a pleasant breeze blew through as we enjoyed the performance from our padded seats. Bottled water was provided, and each woman received a bag with Sultan brand teas. The performance was presented as a benefit for the Sanady Foundation, an association whose mission is to prevent school student dropout.

Sultan Tea for a treat

Open-air venue

Stage set-up

The story of Scheherazade is based on One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as The Arabian Nights. I was very familiar with the score, as it was one of the required works I learned as a music major in college. However, this production dance-wise was one-of-a kind. I expected classical ballet, but instead was treated to a combination of ballet and belly dancing!

Video clips of the performance

Some of the dancers, and the director of the orchestra

The Oriental Ballet Revolution III troupe featured 120 artists from around the world. The costumes they wore were both colourful and enticing. In addition, the set and lighting added to setting the mood, as we were transported through the story of seduction and love. There was concern amongst our group that both the belly dancing and the sexy costumes might be offensive to some conservative Moroccans in the audience. This did not appear to be the case, as there was frequent enthusiastic clapping, both for the performers and with the beat of the music.

Colorful costumes

Professional orchestra

The symphonic suite of Rimsky-Korsakov was interpreted by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Morocco, under the direction of Pierre-Michel Durand. The music is a combination of typical Russian-style music, with an Eastern and Oriental flavour It was wonderful hearing this colourful music played by an 80-piece live orchestra.

Glitter fire

The ballet ended with a large-cast production number, complete with a canon firing glitter on the stage. But our night of fun was not over; a Moroccan band, dressed in the colors of the flag appeared unexpectedly and entertained us both from the stage and later outdoors as we left.