A few nights ago Scott and I went to our first concert in Moscow. Scott had gotten two tickets to this show as a birthday present from his team at work, along with a huge box of chocolates, some beautiful crystal glassware and several other very nice, unexpected gifts.
Tickets to the Tango showcase.
I've learned that even for adults, birthdays are treated seriously here, especially by coworkers. The weird part is that when it's your birthday YOU are expected to bring or get food for everyone. I asked Scott what he did (since I certainly didn't bake a cake or anything crazy like that) and he said he ordered a bunch of pizzas for his group for a 4 pm "snack." Happy birthday, to us!?!
Anyway, back to the concert. It turned out be a really cool Tango showcase, so there was a band on stage and 3 pairs of dancers who would rotate dancing with each new song. Very dramatic and really fun to watch. His team didn't know this, but I love the tango so it was a very appropriate gift for both of us!
At the beginning of the concert, the band leader gave a speech of some sort (in Russian) and then he invited another guy up to the stage who turned out to be an authentic Argentine. We think maybe he was the show's producer. So he got up and spoke Spanish to us and there was a woman simultaneously translating his words into Russian. We missed pretty much everything but clapped anyway.
And then the dancing and music started and it was wonderful. Of the three sets of dancers, 2 were tall and blond (from Russia) and 1 was shorter and dark (from Buenos Aires, we later realized). This was a perfect show for us since there was little to no talking, just fantastic live music and fabulous dancing!
All in all it was really a fun evening and we realized we really need to get out and take more advantage of the incredible theater and arts scene in Moscow. There are theaters and art schools everywhere and while this city may not do such a good job with building maintenance, casual dining or in general just being friendly to "foreigners," they sure do know how train their artists and put on a good show!
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