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Hannahbella

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    All of the above
  • City**
    nyc
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    ny
  1. To change or not to change? To remain true to the original visions of the masters, or to tweak to accommodate circumstance or personal style? To allow video to take authorship as it overshadows the work of generations - or to remain true to the original work? So many answers. However, as food for thought, I'd like to mention that we don't go into art museums with crayons and "retouch" works of great art to suit our needs. We don't take chisels to great sculpture because we think it could use a few tweaks. The melody lines of the great symphonies are set forever. Just IMHO.
  2. Here is a link to Madame's New York Times YT obit, which gives some information: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6DA143DF930A2575BC0A961948260 The curious part is, the last line says "There are no survivors." The truth is, there are thousands of "survivors." She had hundreds of dancers she called "babies" - and hundreds of those "babies" grew up and started dance schools of their own (just google her name and see who comes up - beginning with Roni Mahler...). And now - several generations later, her "influence DNA" is ingrained in dancers everywhere - even if they never heard of her).
  3. Does anyone remember her "Character Class"? If not, let me offer my impressions. While her barre was fixed and sometimes mechanical, her character class was a revelation. She wasn't fooling around when she took everything she had taught us - and then stood it on its head. Flexed feet instead of pointed toes. Tilted heads instead of royal carriage. Bent knees and odd ports de bras. We didn't realize it but this was the beginning of her intent to teach us choreography from the great ballets. LOVED IT!
  4. Gold Comb! I love your posts regarding Madame Swoboda. Almost every detail rings with accuracy from the red nails and black shoes to the "babies", "old ladies" and "gypsies." You bring up so many delicious old memories - in addition to the ones posted on my behalf earlier in this thread. She was completely larger tha life in every respect. Unlike the divas of today, she had the substance - the training, the musicality, the culture - to back up her oversized personality. She was always, ALWAYS right. Really, she was. Which was why no one ever challenged her. We knew she was right, and that was that. One thing you touched upon made me laugh. She had a great deal of expertise in music as well as dance, and as a musician who also danced, I was with her all the way when she had "discussions" with her pianists. The pianists were critical to her classes. She loved them one moment, hated them the next - how dare they not have read her mind? The oddest part was, at the end of the class, you "felt" her musicality in her choreography. After hours of her punctuating our classes with the familiar "Stop-stop-stop" to the pianists - they did not run away in tears. They loved her, beacuse they also knew she was always right.
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