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Perfect classical line


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" I guess IMO she has lines, but not line, if that makes sense..."

Absolute sense to me. Another good example was Lynn Seymour in classical ballets.

She did not strike absolute "academic school positions" but instead created a mesmeric, expressive line, revealing the drama in a way that was unique.

You may hear people say she was not really a classical dancer. I would say she had more instinct about what ballet can convey beyond "geometric patterning" in line, than many other leading dancers of her generation as well as before and after.

With performances there has to be exceptions to the rule as to what is desirable as opposed to what can be achieved. For me individuality is something frequently missing in a number of leading dancers despite their undoubted gifts.

Azulynn mentions Letetsu's individuality and also refers to Lopatkina. I have heard that Letetsu as Odile is austere. I find Lopatkina austere in the white acts of Bayadere and Swan Lake but what remarkable austerity even if she does have a line at times that I find extreme.

So how do you square the circle in the matter of line?

I said earlier, "I do not agree that the appreciation of line is "subjective" I would say it is a shared aesthetic of knowledge." I would add the codicil, "Interesting and outstanding performers being an exception"

There can be no rigidity in the appreciation of the line of a dancer unless it is by common consent; unschooled, ugly, too broken or almost non-existent.

PS: Why do my quotation marks come out in postings as hieroglyphics.

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:)

PS: Why do my quotation marks come out in postings as hieroglyphics.
Not unique to you, Leonid. I think it happens when a post is composed as a text document and pasted to the board. The software translates the code for ' or " as gobbledygook. Thanks for making the corrections.
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Or you could just have a VERY old computer!

Actually, Seymour is a great example of a dancer who "made the most of what she had". Not the best body, the best turnout, or the best technique, but what she had, she applied rigourously! It made her a principal dancer, so it works! I keep having to tell that to students.

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Or you could just have a VERY old computer!

The age of the computer isn't relevant here; the same thing happened to me within the last hour when I copied some quotes from the "Suzanne Farrell Spring 2007 Season" thread in Archives on my three-month-old Dell laptop running Vista.

It has something to do with rich-format text. I'm trying to do some more research on this to see if there's a work-around.

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Cheez - some people are so literal around here!

Hieroglyphics = writing over 2,000 years old. See the joke?

Remember the Bat Brothers in "Pogo Possum"? One of them used a telephone to channel Cleopatra, and part of one side of his conversation ran: "What's that you say, a snake, an eye and two wavy lines? Aw, that's so cute!"

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:)
PS: Why do my quotation marks come out in postings as hieroglyphics.
Not unique to you, Leonid. I think it happens when a post is composed as a text document and pasted to the board. The software translates the code for ' or " as gobbledygook. Thanks for making the corrections.

Hit the wrong key. See its me not the old computer

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:)
PS: Why do my quotation marks come out in postings as hieroglyphics.
Not unique to you, Leonid. I think it happens when a post is composed as a text document and pasted to the board. The software translates the code for ' or " as gobbledygook. Thanks for making the corrections.

Your are quite correct text document to paste is what I have usually do and curiously that what I did with the above post.

As to the age of my computer- the cheek of it. But it did make me laugh as did the hieroglyphics joke. I liked the joke but I can assure you although I have crept into the sextuagenarian era, I am not a credit to the embalmer's arts or yet ready for mummification.

On a serious note you mentioned, " Not the best body, the best turnout, or the best technique, but what she had, she applied rigourously! It made her a principal dancer, so it works! I keep having to tell that to students." Do such dancers now have a chance in major companies?

Ed: to change one word

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That's a good question, leonid. I often think of that when I think about dancers of the past. Everyone is becoming rigid now. We're in a period of rules, rather than what the eye sees and the soul senses. There are quite a few companies now who will not look at a boy under 5' 10", which I think is absolutely ridiculous (and would have ruled out, to name five, Bruhn, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Nijinsky, and Vasiliev. I can't imagine a Seymour, or a Pavlova, would get into a company today. (I keep remembering the story that Fokine decided that they shouldn't force Pavlova's turnout because the lack of it "was part of her personality.")

I've lost it now, but there was a discussion above about the difference between "line" and "lines." And the discussion of Seymour implies the difference between classical line and romantic line. Fascinating how a simple question can lead down so many paths!!

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