Lost in transit

clap clap clap...collapse

Everybody put your hands in the air, like you really really care! Now... keep them there!

I went to a ballet last week, and I’m still thinking about it. In particular, I’m thinking about how much we clapped. We clapped until our hands were absolutely numb, and then we stood up and we clapped some more. And although fifteen minutes of solid clapping seemed a pittance considering that the performers had been dancing non-stop for ninety minutes, it also seemed like an awful lot of human percussion.

I probably get out to big cultural events two or three times a year, and every time I’m surprised by how much the people here clap. When the Tuvan throat singing band “Huun-Huur-Tu” came to perform, they gave three encores. They performed, we clapped, they came back and did an encore and left, we clapped some more, they came back and did a different encore and left, we clapped some more… Finally, the lead singer protested, “Our horses are tired!” so we let them go, but honestly, we might have kept going for hours if they’d been able to keep coming back with a different number for an encore. When the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater stopped in Brno, they came out and did the SAME encore number three times in response to insistent applause. Last week, we gave the Aalto Ballett Theater no less than five curtain calls, despite the fact that they didn’t seem to have an encore number, nor probably the energy to do one. I mean, they just came out and bowed five times. And by the fifth time, they looked a little… perplexed. But we were on our feet, clapping like we couldn’t bear for them to leave.

So the lack of extra numbers at this performance has me persuaded: it’s not an insistence on getting our money’s worth, on sucking the last droplet of marrow from the performers. Nor is it some sort of weird high culture permutation of the rock concert, when you know that Suzanne Vega is not going to leave until she’s sung “Luka” (or whatever performer with whatever signature tune—if they don’t open with it, you can be sure they’re going to close with it, and the “encore” is really kind of a formality). Anyway, nobody in the audience at the Janacek Theater waved lighters in the air.

So what is it with the ardent applause? It’s definitely not what I’m used to in the U.S., where the curtain has barely touched the boards and people are swarming towards the exit doors with their car keys already in hand. Local wisdom would indicate it’s a Czech thing, that Czechs clap both more than their other European counterparts, and more than Americans. I’ve asked why that might be, and the answers range from the idea that we’re just really grateful for touring performers (although I’ve seen this kind of curtain calling for local theaters, too, so…) to the thought that maybe it’s just not a jaded culture, and it seems normal to be enthusiastic at cultural events.

My internal jury is still out. But I’d like to cast a wider net: Do people clap a lot at performances where you are? How much is a lot?

Posted by anne at May 23, 2004 08:16 PM