Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

scherzo

Senior Member
  • Posts

    123
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About scherzo

  • Birthday 10/16/1990

Registration Profile Information

  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    Fan and moderately avid balletgoer
  • City**
    Manchester
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    UK

Recent Profile Visitors

526 profile views
  1. I think it might be Galina Stepanenko rather than Lopatkina.
  2. scherzo

    Natalia Osipova

    I have seen Osipova live in Don Q ('her' role from here on in as far as I'm concerned) and some other ballets, and I agree that while on video she appears rather overbearing when seen live she is simply exhilarating. But I do wonder, without wishing to offend, whether she is causing such a sensation simply because she is the first dancer in a while to have such energy (often compared to Plisetskaya) which we associate with the Bolshoi's golden age, and not necessarily due to remarkable artistic merit?
  3. Oh, well in that case I shall use it more often. Thank you kfw for the link to the previous thread (note to self: there is always a previous thread!). Oddly enough, bart, I had an idea that plastique had to do with the actual poses, though that is probably due to my unimaginative mental link with the word 'plastic'. I like the idea of a type or quality of movement. Anyway, thank you all!
  4. I've read many reviews which refer to a dancer's 'plastique' but I've never quite understood what the term means....Any thoughts?
  5. I like this DVD a lot. A good opportunity to see the previous Kirov generation, especially Yelena Pankova, Larissa Lezhnina and Lubov Kunakova (saddled with a tutu best described as 'eccentric') in (mostly) good repertoire: I watch the Paquita a lot in particular. Very strong performances all round.
  6. Lots of interesting stuff here! I realise I might be taking your words the wrong way but surely ballet 'opened-up-for-the-masses' would be a good thing? There is always the conception that only a certain type of person goes to ballets (the idea of dressing up and sitting in opera houses surrounded by other 'patrons'), whereas cinemas are universal and unthreatening. Of course, it would be difficult to 'get it right', but surely with appropriate artistic consultation a satisfactory result might be gained. Although this is hypothetical since as you say there would be little or no budget for such a fiilm, unless some Hollywood dignitary makes it their pet project (Spielberg does Corsaire, anyone?). I think there could be real potential for filmed ballet as an art form in itself as opposed to ballet dressed up in film glitz. What does anyone think about using ambient sound in certain places? I think it works really well in Nureyev's Don Q (my favourite filmed ballet, btw). Unlike bart (and probably others) I like the idea of filming in real locations: a bit of glamour and the thrill of the unusual. I'd have to add myself to the Big Fat No list re: animation, though.
  7. What with the phenomenal size of the budgets of some Hollywood films, it’s about time ballet got in on the action! Would there be a future for ballet feature-films? I mean those in the style of Nureyev’s Don Q, Fracci’s Giselle or the Thesmar-Denard Sylphide: realistic sets, (dare I say) special effects, dance filmed cinematically on a large scale. Surely an opulent Swan Lake or fantastical Nutcracker would pull in the crowds? Which ballets would (or wouldn't!) you like to see treated cinematically?
  8. Hey, living in it's not so bad either......Though right now I could do without the weather.... Anyway, the Royal Ballet does use children in its traditional (tired?) Nutcracker. There are some quite interesting versions around England, e.g. Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! and ENB's version which I suppose is best described as 'zany'. Europe seems to go for 'concept', I guess which is not always so beneficial. (I heard bad things about Shemyakin's for the Mariinsky....?) For me, BRB all the way... Sorry,
  9. There is a clip on Youtube of a younger Maria Allash as Gamzatti in Bayadere: it contains what must be one of the more spectacular falls caught on film. Of course there is other stuff on Youtube floating around, the most dangerous of which is a Black Swan pd2 in which the man tips over backwards attempting a presage lift....
  10. Urgh, could very well be - I just have a vague memory of a picture in a book. I'm confusing my myths! (And languages....oh dear....)
  11. Thank you both for clarifying. I was partly moved to ask this question by the extraordinarily cavalier way in which Margot Fonteyn flings her arms out in preparation for supported pirouettes in the film of Sleeping Beauty Act III. Hans, is Vaganova 3rd sometimes called 4th position in other training? I'm slightly confused..... For supported pirouettes are the arms usually wrapped, then? I assume a proper 1st position is impossible without inflicting pain on both parties involved.....
  12. I think Cranko's Antigone was created on the beautiful Svetlana Beriosova. She recited Russian text as she danced....
  13. Especially in supported pirouettes, I've seen a large variety of arm positions, some less beautiful than others. (I mean ordinary pirouettes when the choreography doesn't specifically have the arms in fifth or anywhere else.) Do different schools have different ideas of where to put one's arms during pirouettes (of any kind)?
  14. I like the idea but I'm not sure there are enough women in Lord of the Rings to constitute a ballet... I agree with 4mrdncr about the importance of melody. Apart from anything else, a full-evening ballet won't really be a box-office smash with difficult music - that's combining two 'scary' art forms! Would it be true to say that ballet is an art form which is now less respected by modern composers who wish to be taken seriously? Re: a story, I have a feeling it's already been done, but how about Don Juan?
×
×
  • Create New...