Ballet dancers in First Lady's Christmas video

[cubanmiamiboy]

Does anybody knows who the dancers in Melania Trump's Christmas White House decorations are .? At 0:20 they greet her along the Waltz of the Flowers music. A male dancer also shows up with her partner doing a pdd pose.

 

Edited November 30, 2017 by cubanmiamiboy

[ABT Fan]

They look like students, probably from an area school.

Thank heavens they weren't wearing pointe shoes because that floor looked about as slick as an ice-skating rink.

[sandik]

They are dancers from a semi-professional group in Connecticut, run by an alum of Ballet Magnificat.  Their next bit work is to the Messiah, and their promotion leans on the spiritual aspect of the score.

[diane]

Um, the whole video is surely a joke, no?

 

-d-

[Helene]

No, it's perfectly serious.

[Dreamer]

According to Melania Trump’s twitter these were dancers from Vivid Ballet Company. I must say they were very brave dancers risking an injury on that slippery floor.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/936006319076724742

[diane]

I am stunned that this was meant seriously. 

On another note: 

It is possible to put rubber onto strategic parts of the soles of the slippers or pointes; even so, it is still not fun dancing on super-slippery floors. 

Perhaps that is what was done for these brave dancers?

-d-

[sandik]

I don't think they were wearing shoes with non-slip soles -- to me, it looked like a lot of rosin and careful stepping.

[Amy Reusch]

http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/11/upstate_ny_native_performs_ballet_for_melania_trump_at_white_house.html

 

above is an article about one of the dancers...  not sure age 22 qualifies one as a student in the same way as ABT fan meant.

[CharlieH]

Vivid Ballet is a professional ballet company based in Hartford, CT. Elizabeth McMillan serves as Artistic Director.

https://www.vividballet.com/about/

[California]

20 hours ago, diane said:

I am stunned that this was meant seriously. 

As others have pointed out, it's gotten really difficult in recent times to distinguish The Onion from "reality." Sometimes I feel like I'm living in The Twilight Zone.

[Helene]

There are several things that I find disturbing:

• Melania Trump in a floaty white dress with the dancers facing her is, structurally, a Clara substitute.  Which is very Wendy-like.
• Her facial expression is flat.
• Her stillness, while it specifically does not distract the camera through motion, is such a contrast to the dancing
• The dancing is secondary, shot from behind, with her smack in the middle..  Which, given the floors, which limits the dancers, might be a blessing in disguise.

Even the royalty in Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake are not seated centrally, and the kids in Nutcracker are often so far upstage and obscured by the dancers facing forward, that they are easily forgotten, unless the dancers are acknowledging them specifically, like the nod from the Cavalier before his variation that starts upstage.

[Amy Reusch]

The theme seems to be snowy white... yet it is Waltz of the Flowers we hear...  i wonder if there was a last minute change in plans...

[sandik]

5 hours ago, Amy Reusch said:

The theme seems to be snowy white... yet it is Waltz of the Flowers we hear...  i wonder if there was a last minute change in plans...

I think that the people who organize these things for the White House holiday events don't really have much knowledge of the works they are sampling.

[Amy Reusch]

I don't know if it is refreshing that Nutcracker could be unfamiliar, or depressing!?

[sandik]

1 hour ago, Amy Reusch said:

I don't know if it is refreshing that Nutcracker could be unfamiliar, or depressing!?

A little of both, depending on how you view the ballet yourself.  For many people, it's "a holiday show" -- more dancey than Christmas Carol, not as churchy as Messiah.

[cobweb]

That is just too weird. The kids in the photos (after the, um, ballet[?]) look way more natural and lively than Melania does.