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cubanmiamiboy

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    avid balletgoer, fan
  • City**
    Miami Beach
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    Florida

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  1. I have seen the three attempts at restoring the original fourth act wedding/temple destruction, namely Makarova's, Vikharev's and now Ratmansky's. This is the most comprehensive one.
  2. Leave that SL on where it is, my friend!!😍 That double suicide in profile with the heavens apotheosis while the swamp thing is convulsing on top of the rocks is iconic!! And then....I can go back and forth between that and my home company 's great recon....😎
  3. True. But because I dislike so much the usual narrative that Latin automatically disqualifies someone from being white-( the perennial "they were many Latinos at the party and a few whites")- without knowing that many of those whites ARE actually Latinos, I usually check "other", and write "Caucasian". It is up to them to figure what do I mean by that.πŸ˜‚
  4. Of course generalizations are always a bad idea. For instance...I am Cuban by origin, just as my two parents and four grandparents, and I have successfully traced the origin of the families of the four of them back to the 1700's, having come to Cuba from France, Spain and England. On my maternal grandfather's side-( the English, Barnstaple, one)- they are all blue eyed blondes, a trait that went all the way down to my mother and the three of my first cousins. I only inherited the blonde. But...long story short, there's a difference between race,. ethnicity and COLOR. The notion of either "Latin or white" is ridiculous, because you can have the whitest skin and the bluest eyes and still be born in a Latin country and have three generations of Latins behind you in your family, particular in countries colonized and inhabited by an array of European nationalities.
  5. Hello Jack...long time no see!! I have also become nostalgic. I just saw Serenade and Theme and Variations by City Ballet, followed by Serenade by MCB, and yes...those faster, crispier performances with spitfire Catoya bouyanty coming out encircling the corps, back when we still hwd Eddie, are certainly missed.
  6. Aaah....so there must have been then two different tours. Although if Kent is reporting, by the time she finished writing her autobiography, that this was her ONLY opportunity to see the Hermitage, then even if Kirkland and Kent were together in yet another tour, where Kirkland made the observation about the marble and the slippers, still contradicts Kent's account of have never been in the museum.
  7. Edited to add that now I've been corrected in that the dancer Kirkland speaks about was Von Aroldingen, not Kent. Original post. Maybe you have also observed little details here and there that seem to contradict a recollection of an event from dancer to dancer..? Event in question. NYCB tour of Russia during Balanchine's lifetime. Gelsey narrates a passage in which she observed Balanchine holding Kent by her arm and both of them wearing paper slippers while walking the marble floors of the Hermitage. I just finished Kent's recollections of the tour. According to her, she missed the only one opportunity she had to visit the Hermitage because when she finally made it there, it was closed as it was October Revolution Day celebration, and the museum was closed.
  8. That would be entertaining in a case of a boring performance of Swan Lake. Trying to locate the guy in disguise as a maiden, venturing into pointe shoes and a tutu.😎
  9. Yes...someone echoed the "Gelsey Brava" scream. Undeserved it this time, IMHO.
  10. I have attempted to write this three times since last night, and three times I erased it. If I let myself go all the way, I usually come out as bitter and too harsh. But long story short. Last night was off. Everything was off. Serenade was off. Mearns was off. Orpheus as a ballet doesn't work any longer and Theme and Variations was off. T&V particularly. Fairchild had problems with the turns and placement during her first variation. Huxley cheated on his pirouettes, LeCrone looked aesthetically harsher than ever and unmusical...and even two Corps women collided toward the end...I believe right before the Polonaise. I was reading John Martin review of the first performance of NYC at City Center in 1948, and of course....he deemed Orpheus as follows. "Certainly it is worth the time, effort, money and possible expenditure of wrath, for such esthetic satisfactions do not happen along too frequently in a life time of theater going". vs "a regular choreographic fourth of July celebration. Roman candles and pin-wheels which follow each other more or less in straight sequence against a definitely light weight musical background...". That is, Symphony in C. Of course, there will always be an audience for everything. For "The Nose" vs "La Traviata"....for Scandinavian teak vs Hollywood Regency and so on and so forth. But when Pavlova said once..."I only dance with musique dansante", she established the definitive line of demarcation. But even myself, the ultimate lover and advocate of musique dansante, have been transfixed by the beauty of Bugaku -(stabbed to death by the PC and now probably buried forever by the Powers that Be). Orpheus wasn't Bugaku. The greatest thing it has is that it has been untouched. Meaning that by looking at such a Midcentury aesthetics product, we can visualize and appreciate the streamlined process that went through other works like Apollo and The Four Temperaments. Martin gives the audience member an ultimate advise regarding Orpheus. "The advise here, if you're inclined to be irascible about art-(πŸ˜‚)- is to buy two sets of tickets and see it twice. The first time to get acclimated, as it were, and the second to enjoy it". I did so. Second time coming up tonight. Let's see, Mr Martin.
  11. Amen. Which makes me wonder....what would had been his reaction to Angle's choice, would he had been faced with it
  12. Orpheus..!!!!😢😢😢 Talk about vintage....
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