THE GIFT OF ART

     Those of you who love classical music and ballet will understand me. Those who don't, I just really hope that I can convey the joy that I felt today listening to this music by Chopin and watching a young ballerina dance. It was an unlikely setting: a small cafe's outside sitting area. They cleared most of the tables and chairs, put a ground cover from the nearby martial arts' studio - interlocking squares in blue and green, set a few rows of chairs. The performers were two sisters from Japan, daughters of a friend of the cafe's manager. 
     The older sister played on a keyboard and the younger one, in her ethereal tutu and pointe shoes danced. Two dances were to Chopin's music and two - dances from the ballet Don Quixote. One couldn't guess by their performance that this was a big departure from the usual stage and a Grand piano that they were used to. They gave their one hundred and fifty percent to bring us the beauty of their art. The dancer had to deal with the unusual flooring as well. You can't do the pirouettes from Don Quixote on the interlocking  mats. She did great still. 
     When her sister played Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu, I had the strongest desire to cry. If I was at home, you would, probably, hear my sobs and nose slurping. Since I was in public, I only grimaced a little and hoped that no one will notice. Such nobility is in that short piece of music! How? How does it come to Chopin, Tchaikovsky or Beethoven - this harmony of form and content, mere sounds that move us to tears?