Ballet Pixelle's "Avatara"

I attended Ballet Pixelle's show "Avatara" last night. I hadn't been to one of their performances in well over a year. The shows I saw then were essentially in the classical ballet mode, making little use of SL's possibilities. Interesting, but nothing I'd write home about. "Avatara," in contrast, exploits SL capabilities to the extent that it fully enters the realm of the "not possible in real life," joining the company of the ZeroG SkyDancers. (And without harkening to the movie "Avatar," much to my relief.)

Regrettably I didn't have the presence of mind to take photos until well into this short performance (under 30 minutes), and the only worthwhile one I took is from the curtain call. But in it you can see representatives of two different sets of alien creatures, one silvery and somewhat insect-like, the other a simple orange sphere on a tall cone. Although objects like the orange aliens don't exactly have the greatest dance moves, along with the silvery aliens they demonstrate that in SL, dancers don't have to be human or even humanoid. (That said, Ballet Pixelle made damn sure we recognized some of the silver aliens as female. Aren't there enough "not possible in real life" breasts in SL?) Nor do their bodies have to be stable: large caterpillar transform into people, who then transform into butterflies. And gravity need not rule ballet either, as dancers occasionally flipped upside down.

I don't know if Ballet Pixelle has been doing this sort of work all along or has progressed toward it, but it's good to see and I hope they keep at it.