Of St. Petersburg: Ballet

We totally went to a ballet, and it wasn't that bad. We were in Russia, so we figured ballet sort of comes with the territory. Your correspondent had never been to a ballet before, and to be honest, kind of feared the worst. I think we saw a production that was maybe less traditional and therefore less soporific than many. The story was kind of stupid, which I gather is standard for the genre: Some forest spirit captures a bird spirit and steals her wings; a hero saves her; they get married; the evil forest spirit captures her again; the hero and the bird spirit both risk death to be together again; they live happily ever after. Whatever. It was mostly just an excuse for the dudes to do giant spinning acrobatic leaps and for the girls to look hot in leotards. Or perhaps I missed the point.