145 replies to this topic

[maestro]

(Im meant to say krysanova (ekaterina).  But shipulina is pretty as well)

Thanks again

[Agnes...]

Diana Vishneva.
She is beautiful and noble. Last week I have seen interview: she was so charming...
By the way, I am very curious about new performance La Péri (cast: La peri/ Leila   Diana Vishneva ; Achmet    Vladimir Malakhov  ; Nourmahal    Beatrice Knop)...

[Globetrotter]

I'll vote for the SFB women:  Vanessa Zahorian and Sarah Van Patten are both gorgeous.  Most other SFB dancers are merely beautiful.

[Rosa]

In no particular order:
Veronika Part
Larissa Lezhnina
Gelsey Kirkland
Marianela Nunez
Yulia Makhalina
Antoinette Sibley
Ekaterina Maximova
Yevgenia Obraztsova
Yuhui Choe
Viktoria Tereshkina

[Alena]

http://www.matvyenko...img.php?id=1706

http://www.matvyenko...img.php?id=1696

http://www.matvyenko...img.php?id=1682

http://www.matvyenko...img.php?id=1290

http://www.matvyenko...img.php?id=1470

http://www.matvyenko...img.php?id=1465

[smokeyjoe]

mohnurka, on Dec 7 2004, 03:30 PM, said:

I'd like to add several. Not all of them are dancing currently, but anyways...

(in no particular order)

Lezhnina
Makhalina
Chenchikova

and several others I'll add later.  

Not true Larisa Lezhnina is a Principal Dancer with Dutch National Ballet and she is still dancing.
Just because she is not in Kirov she is not a lesser dancer than before.
I am a big fan of her and you want to see her dance see Don Q. from Ratmansky next season!
So i definitely agree you added her to your list she is on my as well!!!

[Parma]

Tamara Karsavina, at the top of my list all alone. I stare and stare at her pictures, and wish just one ballerina like her could possibly exist in the 21st century. I am fascinated with her face, body, and entire appearance (enhanced by the dainty style of fashion of her time). Alas, it could never be.

I also add Kirsten Simone and Mette Honningen to my list. Ever since I saw them in the Disney film "Ballerina", I can't forget them. I am fascinated with both their beauty and with Mette's modest air of good breeding, a style in its last gasp at the time of this film. Kirsten Simone looks like a beautiful princess from a fairytale come to life, which is entirely fitting in the Copenhagen setting. Kirsten would be wearing "Diorissima", while Mette would be wearing a lovely faint violet cologne, suited for a well-bred young girl.

Moira Shearer for beauty of feature and coloring, well suited to the late Forties, with the gorgeous white white skin redhaired women of Scottish extract were known for. When I see her wardrobe in the film, I can just smell the elegant yet understated Guerlain perfume.

And one that I must mention just to add a name yet unmentioned-Ludmilla Tcherina from the same film, "The Red Shoes". I don't know much about her dancing, but in her scene from that movie where she is walking with a poodle to the fashion show where Lermentov has planned to "accidentally" meet her-she is just the epitome of Aristocratic White Russian glamor and French chic (entirely fitting, as she was the daughter of an aristocratic Russian father, but was raised in France). That walk, that chic ensemble, combined with that glamorous exotic air stereotypically attributed to Russian ballerinas in the popular view in that day-that scene of her epitomised it all. On her, I can smell the Robert Piguet "Bandit".

But Karsavina is my ideal, the epitome of the "look" of the Russian ballerinas just coming into their own in the West at that time-closely followed by Pavlova and Spessivtseva (appearance-wise, I'm not speaking of their dancing here). They seemed to be ballet's version of the fashionable "type" of the day, as shown by Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Mabel Normand, et al, in silent film-a dainty, flowerlike face accentuated by the dainty, romantic, styles of the era which heightened this fashionable look-the bandeau bodices, the
maiden fillet" and bandeau headdresses. I adore that style, and Karsavina is ballet's offering of the look. Karsavina would be wearing Guerlain's "L'Huere Bleue".

[Brioche]

Globetrotter, on Feb 5 2010, 04:48 AM, said:

I'll vote for the SFB women:  Vanessa Zahorian and Sarah Van Patten are both gorgeous.  Most other SFB dancers are merely beautiful.

Dating myself here   - Two more SFB women: Sabina Alleman - gorgeous (still) in the manner of Rita Hayworth and Evelyn Cisneros - lovely to look at onstage, but always took my breathe away more when I encountered offstage at high end parties and fundraisers.

[bart]

Parma, on Jun 15 2010, 01:47 AM, said:

But Karsavina is my ideal, the epitome of the "look" of the Russian ballerinas just coming into their own in the West at that time-closely followed by Pavlova and Spessivtseva (appearance-wise, I'm not speaking of their dancing here). They seemed to be ballet's version of the fashionable "type" of the day, as shown by Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Mabel Normand, et al, in silent film-a dainty, flowerlike face accentuated by the dainty, romantic, styles of the era which heightened this fashionable look-the bandeau bodices, the maiden fillet" and bandeau headdresses. I adore that style, and Karsavina is ballet's offering of the look. Karsavina would be wearing Guerlain's "L'Huere Bleue".

We have a thread about the forthcoming publication of a biography of Karsavina.  Reading it, I began to look up online images.  This one, a studio shot, captures just the impression you are talking about.  I've occasionally heard the term "hauntingly beautiful."  That's Karsavina in this shot:  http://www.google.co...ved=0CB8Q9QEwAQ.

There are many varieties of "beautiful."  This, for me, Karsavina here is the prima ballerina assoluta of beauty.

[cubanmiamiboy]

bart, on Jun 19 2010, 08:41 AM, said:

Karsavina here is the prima ballerina assoluta of beauty.

True...

http://media.photobu...savina3.jpg?o=6

[Colleen Boresta]

Since I responded to the most handsome male dancers, I can't not add my thoughts about the most beautiful female dancers.  As I said with regard to the men, just because someone is a great dancer doesn't mean they're necessarily beautiful or even very attractive.  And there are many ballerinas who appear beautiful on stage, but when you see them in person they're pretty ordinary looking.  I saw both Wendy Whelan and Julie Kent doing errands in Manhattan, and was surprised at how ordinary they looked.  I think Paloma Herrera is beautiful, and with regard to current dancers at ABT Irina Dvorovenko and especially Veronika Part are gorgeous.  I always thought Susan Jaffe was beautiful as well.  Nina Anashivilli is a another fantastic dancer I would characterize as ordinary looking.  With regard to NYCB, I think Tiler Peck is very pretty and Jennifer Ringer is gorgeous.  One of the most beautiful dancers I ever saw was Nicole Hlinka, who was a principal dancer with NYCB in the 1990s.  And she was a wonderful dancer as well.