Loves / loathes

Loves:

1. Seeing a ballet almost exactly 20 (or maybe 19) years after I first saw it, and being transported all over again!
2. Now knowing just enough about the original Sleeping Beauty to want to go and read all about it, and bore people with the notion of social convention / politeness being reinforced by fairy tale.
3. Expanding my mental Birmingham, and situating the Hippodrome within it.
4. Finding that the Hippodrome have a collection of costumes on display - now I want them to do Arthur (Parts I and II) all over again, just so I can see those costumes in use!
5. The lighting at the end of the second act - they really did dance off into the sunset, and it was great.

Loathes (or perhaps just irritations):

1. People in front of me who consult their mobile phones via lit-up screen throughout the performance, and thereby create a very distracting light in the corner of my eye.
2. Finding myself just to the side of the main spotlight, particularly in the third act, when there are a number of very short solos, so that the light keeps blinking on and off (like a car driving past your window).
3. The bizarre conventions of applauding particular ballet solos, which mean that some groups of the audience end up clapping before the solo is over (like people who clap between movements in concerts).
4. Small children who need to talk to their parents / snap their bead bracelets / kick the back of seats during the show.
5. Whoever gave a small child a packet of crisps just before the final act.