Even when I was queuing with the rest of the impatient, fidgeting audience, it felt like the show had already begun: bright and neon-coloured light bulbs swung in the wind and the music from inside the building was so loud it killed any other sound. It was summer in Spain and I wondered which was less bearable - the humidity or the noise. Frustrated families were in heated arguments with the men that guarded the building, claiming they would "pay the ticket later". In vain I tried to banish all this chaos, but something would always be loud enough to catapult me back to reality.
When I finally set foot in the circus-sized building the first thing I noticed was the smell of sweaty foreheads, and if it hadn't taken me so long to get it, I would've walked right back out. Every corridor was crammed with people - some of who were trying to negotiate their tickets for better seats. This was an extremely renown event - worldwide - but these people made it sound like a local market. I zigzagged through the mob until I finally flopped down on my seat; it was surprisingly comfortable given the amount of times someone must have sat on it already. After about fifteen minutes the lights faded and the music softened. We sat in a semi-circle around a podium-like middle - only it was filled with sand.
The first horse paraded to the middle of the area, its rider cloaked in shining armour while the horse wore barely a bridle. It was to show their connection, of course; they did not need more than that to communicate. The horse and its rider did their first tour solo but soon enough other soldiers joined the spectacle. They were assembled in one place all at once, and then dispersed like the shards of shattered glass in every direction. They were in battle, no doubt, but I couldn't help but only see how fantasy-like and mystical their techniques were. It was a surreal sight really - every horse and rider was in perfect balance, as if each represented their own world, still they circled and swayed around the others without imperfection.
The end of the play came all too soon; in fact, I was so possessed by the magic of the moment that I almost forgot to clap. I left the area with a haze in my head, any prior disenchantments had been long forgotten.