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Corresponding with Dancers

SanderO

By SanderO
in Everything Else Ballet

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artist

artist

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Can you wait at the "stage door" of the threatre with some flowers or something? Dancers do go home and rest I suppose...

I did go to the Netrebko PR event and got some memorabilia signed. She is very gracious and a good sport to sit there for a huge line of fans. The Met Opera Guild photographer snapped pictures and sent one to me... which is on my desk of yours truly smiling in disbelief next to the opera divsa herself. That was a thrill!! A kodak moment as they say.

makes me reminisce on my ROH encounters in '05. I rushed out of ROH and found Jonathon Cope just leaving and throwing away a coffee cup. (no, I wasn't about to thrust myself in the trash can) I asked him politely to sign my program....with that handsome dark features and rich hair... :) Then he just walks off into the night on the London streets, just like he was a 'normal' person. Then outcome Nicolas Le Riche, then Monica Mason. After waiting almost an hour Sylvie Guillem finally comes out. I will always keep her picture of us together. But I guess Darcey Bussell, Cojacaru, and Kobborg snuck out.

So I guess it depends, I'm sure they are all tired and don't want to deal with fans. But others are flattered, as long as it is done w/ sincerity. at ABT's Giselle, many waited for Julie Kent....

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SanderO

SanderO

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Celebrities obviously have a love hate relationship with the public. They want their attention, love and support of their work, but they also want a private lifeso they can live without harassment of being stopped by strangers.

Obviously these encounters can range from polite to being stalked... which seems to be the case with pop stars or atheletes.

Probably the best and safest environment to meet celebs is an organized event where the artists are availble to interact with their fans, such as a PR event. These can satisfy the needs of the fans to interact on a "personal" or almost a one to one level, even for a brief time, but also allow the artists their privacy. I think many companies organise variations of non performance public events for their artists. And for the fan they don't have to feel as if they are accosting somone who is essentially a stranger.

Being a well known public person creates very assymetrical relationships for fans and artists, who know will know lots about the artists, but the artist will know abosolutely nothing about the fan, except that they admirer the artist's work.

I would have liked to chat a bit with Ms Netrebko, but since their was a long line and all sorts of security, photographers etc standing around, there was really very little personal interaction possible. Bummer that.

Weird ain't it?

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ggobob

ggobob

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I found this thread the same morning I had an email from Julie Kent. I treasure notes from Magot Fonteyn, Lynn Seymour, Marianna Tcherkaasky, Cynthia Harvey and others. In July, I was surprised by a card from many of the women in ABT's corp thanking me for remembering them on tour.

Unfortunately, rereading the above, it seems an ego trip...it was not meant to be, let me begin in another way, more as a coach...

I began sending notes to dancers who impressed me, sometimes I would have the good fortune to meet some of them. Now and then there was recognition that my note had been appreciated. Meeting them again, a conversation might and often did take place. A dancer introduces you to another dancer and another conversation takes place and a correspondence sometimes begins

I have an ongoing email thread with one dancer who is an opera nut (in the best sense of the description) and we share notes on performances and perfomers. As the years have rewarded me with several friendships and a godson (now a young man, the son of two dancers), I would chance to say that dancers appreciate the correspondence...they may not always have time to reply especially at the etoile level...but they are very aware of the letters.

And two recommendations...our words have greater potency for those in a corps de ballet; and remember to keep in touch with those who have retired...until her passing Nora Kaye and I would share stories...hers were much better than mine

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ggobob

ggobob

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Slightly OT... do you think that people in the companies, dancers and so forth read Ballet Talk?

Sander

The marketing folks are aware and some are avid readers...I know some dancers are aware of discussions that involve them or their ballets. Have seem some corps members of one national company on the site looking at comments about a new production, not sure if they are posters...but they may well be.

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SanderO

SanderO

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I can certainly appreciate that they don't want to make a presence here for obvious reasons. But I would imagine that many would read here as it is quite an interesting resource and a way to get the pulse of the ballet public... so to speak. I met an ABT fan when he asked me if I was a supporter or member... I was wearing an ABT T shirt out in LI entering a breakfast place. We chatted for a few minutes and he goes regularly and often but had never heard of ballet talk. Perhaps he will be a new member? I can't imagine that the dance world would not be readers of this site. I can't even recall how I found it... Google? Diversion over.

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cubanmiamiboy

cubanmiamiboy

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How many balletomanes have corresponded with a dancer? What have you written to them about.. aside perhaps the obvious praise of their dancing... ? Are the replies substantive or simply polite acknowledgments? Have your correspondences developed into considerable depth?... veered away from ballet? Or even resulted in something beyond correspondence? Do you think dancers like to correspond with the public or prefer more privacy? What was your experience? What would you like to say to a particular dancer if you could?

I wasn't sure about posting my only experience, but here it goes, as maybe a lesson for some of us...

One time i posted a comment on a dancer, (not in BT), wich wasn't favorable, but not disrespectful -(will omite her name). On that same site were , literally, hundreds of postings praising her dancing, and i guess i was the first one to dare to have an opposite view. Mine was basically a comparisson of my last recent experience of seeing her to what i'd seen almost 10 years ago, when she had just started as a professional dancer. Days after, i was surprised to see her screen name in my inbox (i knew it from her web site). It was a short and polite e-mail in which she seemed hurt by my comment, and asked me the basis on which i disliked her dancing. I wrote her back right away, exlpaining that i didn't dislike her at all, (i even screamed and whistle on her last performance), but i just happened to had seen her since her very begginings so i was making an experience-based comparisson, (not favorable, true), but, as i said earlier, always in a respectful way. I tried to be concise and sincere. She didn't answer me back. From that time on, i learned a lesson: to refrain myself from speaking out loud, unless i'm Clive Barnes.

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Mme. Hermine

Mme. Hermine

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I can't imagine that the dance world would not be readers of this site.

True--and for all we know, you're Ashley Bouder!

I beg your pardon. How do you know I'm not Ashley Bouder?

Because everyone knows you're Jilanna. And I'm Una Kai.

Curses! my cover is blown!! :lightbulb:

well i'm george balanchine. :devil:

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cubanmiamiboy

cubanmiamiboy

Posted
Posted
I can't imagine that the dance world would not be readers of this site.

True--and for all we know, you're Ashley Bouder!

I beg your pardon. How do you know I'm not Ashley Bouder?

Because everyone knows you're Jilanna. And I'm Una Kai.

Curses! my cover is blown!! :lightbulb:

well i'm george balanchine. :devil:

ok, to be honest, here is my confession: I'm Alicia Alonso.

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bart

bart

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Reminds me of the old Dorothy Parker verses:

Life is a glorious cycle of song,

a medley of extemporanea;

love is a thing that can never go wrong,

and I am the Queen of Romania

Welcome to all our distinguished, though originally anonymous, Ballet Talk members.

:shake:

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