188 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

From Kavanagh's "Nureyev":

Rudolf to Margot Fonteyn:
"You were The Dance"...
"No, said Margot reaching for Rudolf's hand..."We were The Dance...!"

[papeetepatrick]

I found this on Zizi Jeanmaire's IMDb page.   It would be nice, but pretty ordinary, without the last part 'a way to grow old' as well as 'a way to go on...'  That makes it wise and inspiring--and therefore not secretly slightly depressing.

"As you get older you become more understanding. When I was young it was all about me. I was very egocentric. Now it is a pleasure to work with young people who have talent. It is a continuity for me. It is a way to go on...and, I think, a way to grow old."

[Ray]

Gwen Verdon to Fonteyn, in ballet class in NY:  "Look at us, the last of the red-hot mamas."

[cubanmiamiboy]

''Art has no homeland, but I do. I am Cuban. And I am a dancer. For a Cuban, dancing is the most natural thing in the world."
                                        
Mme. Alicia Alonso

[canbelto]

Diana Vishneva, asked whether she wanted to give up or ever felt bad about herself, writes:

Quote

I have received interest to ballet only for the second year of study at school when have received the first successes. Unfortunately, ballerinas often feel badly. But successes and results are a good medicine.

[Farrell Fan]

From Alistair Macaulay's review of "Divertimento from 'La Baiser de la Fee," NY Times, 2/9/08:

"Watching this, as so often when watching the Balanchine repertory, I think it is reasonable to suggest that Balanchine and Beckett were the two supreme dramatists of the 20th century."

[cubanmiamiboy]

Laura Linney on her Hollywood status...

"I don't consider myself a celebrity and I don't consider myself a star." -
Laura Linney

[cubanmiamiboy]

Mme. Alonso on her adoration of Giselle:

"I can't wait to see Giselle staged in Mars!"

Mme. Alicia Alonso

[drb]

From Nina Ananiashvili, quoted in today's Links:
Her message for young dancers:

Quote

I think we do this for people, because life has become so computerized, we have forgotten how to talk to one other. We do this for the future, for our kids. Ballet brings back human love and human life — we need to have contact with each other during these crazy times.  If you see good theater, good art, you don’t want go out and kill people, you know? If you get inspired, you want to tell other people, to share it. Once, a postman told me he used to love opera the most, but then he saw me dancing on television, and he began to really like ballet. That is why I do this job—to make people happy. There are times after a performance when fans will come to me and say that they feel lucky in their lifetime to have seen me dance. This is wonderful. It reminds me that as a dancer, you really don’t live for nothing. You live for something.

[innopac]

Henning Kronstam:

"I did Sonnambula for twenty years.  Then you really get into the role, and you really know what it's all about.  But now, with five performances, maybe with two casts, I think it's mad.  The audience gets cheated and the dancers get cheated because they never get the feeling of owning the roles."  

from Henning Kronstam: Portrait of a Danish Dancer by Alexandra Tomalonis.  page 145

[innopac]

Henning Kronstam:

"At times when I am tired or uninspired, I always go and watch the children."

from the section on the development of the company in  Henning Kronstam: Portrait of a Danish Dancer by Alexandra Tomalonis. page 385

[bart]

Here's one I love, from Alistair Macauleys's NY Times review of "Beauty in Motion."

Quote

Everyone onstage dances like hell, and when we get to hell, it will be full of ballets like this. Its loud rock score, by David Rozenblatt, sounds like a refrigerator copulating with a hot tin roof.

I won't mention the specific number.  We've all seen something like this at one time or other, I suppose.  

Thanks, dirac, for the LINK

[canbelto]

Alexandra Danilova, in "Reflections of a Dancer": "Once i wanted to get pedicure and Mr. Diaghilev said no, you can cut your toe. And of course I went, and I cut my toe. He said 'I told you that you'd cut your toe so you dance!' So i danced with an infected toe."
Wow.

[Cygnet]

"She danced like a peroxide blonde with the odd root showing. Wait a minute.... She danced Shades like the whole thing was just a bunch of dull stuff between opportunities to show how high she can kick (I give her points for doing, or rather trying, doubles in both directions while holding the scarf, though.) And those arms. Dear God. And those jetes where she'd kick her front foot up so high it was like the prow of a Viking warship. Truly, truly ugly."

(Eric Taub on Somova's Nikiya, April 1 at New York's City Center).

[liebs]

Over heard last night at the Kirov at City Center, "They are all Russian.  They all have Russian names."