12 replies to this topic

[Birdsall]

My name is Bart Birdsall and live in Florida. I am 44 years old. I have been an opera fanatic for 20 years, and I have always wanted to form an equal appreciation of ballet, but it simply escaped me. I would go to a ballet live here and there through the years, and I loved what I saw, but opera was my true love, and money and time tended to go toward traveling to see operas. Ballet took a back seat. But recently I have had a change of life (leave of absence from job), and I took time out to watch many ballets and read about ballet terms, etc. online. Now I can say that I find ballet just as fulfilling to my soul as opera. Since it is a new love it is actually more exciting.

I am glad to find a forum where I can meet other ballet lovers and learn from them. So far my favorite ballets are Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda. I also love Giselle. My favorite ballerina right now is Uliana Lopatkina (Swan Lake dvd and Raymonda on YouTube). I don't know why, but I simply love how she acts and dances. I wish she had more dvds available. I also love Aurelie Dupont in the Paris Opera Ballet's dvds. Dorothee Gilbert is someone new to me, and I love what I have seen on YouTube!

[carbro]

A  pleasure to welcome you, Bart Birdsall!

Exploring a new passion is very exciting, and I'm glad you're sharing your enthusiasm with us.  It's often a mystery why one dancer or another moves us especially.  I hope that as you continue your discoveries, you'll share some with us.

Realizing that Florida is a large state, let me note that Miami City Ballet is a favorite company of mine.  Do you get to see them often?

[cubanmiamiboy]

  Hey...let's share impressions on Villella's troupe...!

[atm711]

Bart Birdsall, on 17 July 2011 - 12:22 PM, said:

My favorite ballerina right now is Uliana Lopatkina (Swan Lake dvd and Raymonda on YouTube).

Oh, how perceptive you are (she's my favorite, too)  I hope you purchase her complete Swan Lake soon.
  Welcome to BalletAlert.

[Birdsall]

carbro, on 17 July 2011 - 07:55 PM, said:

A  pleasure to welcome you, Bart Birdsall!

Realizing that Florida is a large state, let me note that Miami City Ballet is a favorite company of mine.  Do you get to see them often?

      I have seen Giselle and Jewels during previous seasons, and Romeo and Juliet just last season. As a Mother's Day gift I bought my mother and me a subscription to next season, because she lives in Jupiter, and that is 20 minutes from the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach where Miami City Ballet also performs. I can't wait. So far I love the full-length classical ballets and they will be doing Coppelia and Giselle. I have seen short modern ballets in the past, and do enjoy them a lot, but my personal taste leans more toward the full-length ballets.

[Birdsall]

cubanmiamiboy, on 17 July 2011 - 10:59 PM, said:

  Hey...let's share impressions on Villella's troupe...!

      I loved Giselle, Jewels, and Romeo and Juliet (Cranko's version). Since I am new to all this and was never a dancer, I was amazed. I think some of the reviews were not as enthusiastic, but I loved everything that I saw. I have practiced yoga for years although I fell off the wagon in the past two years, and so I know how difficult it is to move the body into certain positions so my past yoga practice helps me appreciate how hard the things they are doing on stage are!!!!

[Birdsall]

atm711, on 18 July 2011 - 03:27 AM, said:

Bart Birdsall, on 17 July 2011 - 12:22 PM, said:

My favorite ballerina right now is Uliana Lopatkina (Swan Lake dvd and Raymonda on YouTube).

Oh, how perceptive you are (she's my favorite, too)  I hope you purchase her complete Swan Lake soon.
  Welcome to BalletAlert.

Thanks! Yes, I bought the full Swan Lake and love it. I have seen Swan Lake live in Orlando before and I have the Paris Opera Ballet Swan Lake on dvd. But the Lopatkina Swan Lake really opened my eyes to why people love Swan Lake. She was magical to me. I thought Swan Lake was one ballet I would never "love" until I bought her version. Now I love Swan Lake! I am hoping the Mariinsky releases a few more dvds with Lopatkina in the future.

[bart]

Bart Birdsall, on 18 July 2011 - 01:58 PM, said:

As a Mother's Day gift I bought my mother and me a subscription to next season, because she lives in Jupiter, and that is 20 minutes from the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach where Miami City Ballet also performs. I can't wait. So far I love the full-length classical ballets and they will be doing Coppelia and Giselle.

Hope you'll post your impressions on the MCB forum.   We have a small but very dedicated  MCB contingent on Ballet Alert and are lucky to have a company of this caliber in our part of the country.

Square Dance and Ballet Imperial are the works I'm most excited about this season.  Plus Robbins' In the Night  and Afternoon of a Faun.   With those 4 works, and the Great Performances telecast on PBS on October 28 (including Square Dance and Western Symphony), we'll have the chance to see some of the core NYCBallet repertoire that Villella grew up with and which expresses MCB's character best.  

Giselle and Coppelia  should be well worth seeing, especially in a real opera house (layout and style) like the Kravis.

[cubanmiamiboy]

bart, on 21 July 2011 - 12:39 PM, said:

Square Dance[/i] and Ballet Imperial are the works I'm most excited about this season.

Me too bart..! "In the night" gets a little too slow for my taste, I must confess-(still easier for me to "get" than "Dances...").  About "Ballet Imperial", I wish Villella would had chosen the tutu-ed 41-73 version instead of the reworking...

[Birdsall]

bart, on 21 July 2011 - 12:39 PM, said:

Bart Birdsall, on 18 July 2011 - 01:58 PM, said:

As a Mother's Day gift I bought my mother and me a subscription to next season, because she lives in Jupiter, and that is 20 minutes from the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach where Miami City Ballet also performs. I can't wait. So far I love the full-length classical ballets and they will be doing Coppelia and Giselle.

Hope you'll post your impressions on the MCB forum.   We have a small but very dedicated  MCB contingent on Ballet Alert and are lucky to have a company of this caliber in our part of the country.

Square Dance and Ballet Imperial are the works I'm most excited about this season.  Plus Robbins' In the Night  and Afternoon of a Faun.   With those 4 works, and the Great Performances telecast on PBS on October 28 (including Square Dance and Western Symphony), we'll have the chance to see some of the core NYCBallet repertoire that Villella grew up with and which expresses MCB's character best.  

Giselle and Coppelia  should be well worth seeing, especially in a real opera house (layout and style) like the Kravis.

      I was wondering why most ballet companies today do Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun and never the original Nijinsky version that I've read about until I saw clips of the Nijinsky version on YouTube (Nureyev's fairly tame recreation and also a very vivid re-enactment from a movie)! LOL I imagine it is still too bold to stage a dancer doing that on stage. LOL
     I saw MCB's Giselle a few years ago when they did it, and I look forward to seeing it again. I've seen Coppelia before in Gainesville and on dvd, and I find it charming. I am also excited about learning the modern rep. My personality loves the Romantic 19th century stuff (literature, opera, and ballet), but I plan to force myself to go see anything I can and gain more appreciation for modern repetoire.
     I have gone to see Momix twice, and that company is a fun company although mixing illusion with dance and gymnastics, etc.

[Birdsall]

bart, on 21 July 2011 - 12:39 PM, said:

Bart Birdsall, on 18 July 2011 - 01:58 PM, said:

As a Mother's Day gift I bought my mother and me a subscription to next season, because she lives in Jupiter, and that is 20 minutes from the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach where Miami City Ballet also performs. I can't wait. So far I love the full-length classical ballets and they will be doing Coppelia and Giselle.

Hope you'll post your impressions on the MCB forum.   We have a small but very dedicated  MCB contingent on Ballet Alert and are lucky to have a company of this caliber in our part of the country.

Square Dance and Ballet Imperial are the works I'm most excited about this season.  Plus Robbins' In the Night  and Afternoon of a Faun.   With those 4 works, and the Great Performances telecast on PBS on October 28 (including Square Dance and Western Symphony), we'll have the chance to see some of the core NYCBallet repertoire that Villella grew up with and which expresses MCB's character best.  

Giselle and Coppelia  should be well worth seeing, especially in a real opera house (layout and style) like the Kravis.

By the way, it is funny to see another Bart!!! I never run into Barts!!!!

[cubanmiamiboy]

Here, Bridsall...a clip that I watch very often with the divina Miss Kolpakova as Raymonda and Vladilem Semenof as de Brienne.  They really look like beautiful porcelain figurines...

[Birdsall]

cubanmiamiboy, on 21 July 2011 - 07:53 PM, said:

Here, Bridsall...a clip that I watch very often with the divina Miss Kolpakova as Raymonda and Vladilem Semenof as de Brienne.  They really look like beautiful porcelain figurines...

Beautiful!!!! I am glad you alerted me to that video, Cubanmiamiboy! So beautiful!