mnacenani Posted February 3, 2018 Share Posted February 3, 2018 https://www.prixdelausanne.org/ Competition starts at 30:35 classic dance first followed by contemp choreo. Then when jury is in recess there is a long interview with 2015 PdL winner current RB CdB dancer Harrison Lee. Action starts again at 2:34:20 with a Goyo Montero choreo for PdL 2018 followed by Diamonds danced by Kristina Shapran and Xander Parrish, which in turn is followed by the presentation of a lifetime achievement award to J-C Maillot : suggest you listen to his imho excellent speech. Finally the PdL awards presentation with the Korean and Chinese dancers carrying off the bulk of the prizes. The Brazilian girl I tagged went away with 3 minor prizes but what stage presence ! I found the Canadian first prize winner very good, though he skipped the cabriole at the start of his Don Q GP Basilio variation. The picture is clear : classical ballet will be carried forward by the Russians, Koreans, Chinese and South Americans, with the Europeans and Americans falling by the wayside (already fallen imho). And the future belongs to "long limbed hyper-extended teenagers a la Alyona" much disliked by some of our seasoned membership Link to comment
Jayne Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 (edited) I am going to somewhat disagree with you. The future for students who do not have strong school-to-company feeder connections will do well in these competitions. So yes, the kids frim Asian, South American and other places with minimal local prospects of full time dance employment flock to these competitions. Maybe Africa, India and the Middlle East will be the hot beds in 10 years? Students who are already at Vaganova, School of American Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet School, etc will get noticed by ADs teaching their classes, and ADs attending their school performances. Edited February 4, 2018 by Jayne Link to comment
mnacenani Posted February 4, 2018 Author Share Posted February 4, 2018 24 minutes ago, Jayne said: students who do not have strong school-to-company feeder connections will do well in these competitions Yes, you may have a point here. Cannot comment on American ballet but Paris Opera Ballet could probably benefit from an intake of "overseas" dancers so as not to look like "flowers on wallpaper" (not my words !) Link to comment
Jayne Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 I think there is untapped potential in the Middle East for dancers with enlightened parents. But will the governments subsidize the companies and schools? Link to comment
mnacenani Posted February 4, 2018 Author Share Posted February 4, 2018 1 minute ago, Jayne said: I think there is untapped potential in the Middle East for dancers with enlightened parents. But will the governments subsidize the companies and schools? Believe it or not, in spite of the multitude of problems my country is facing there is still ballet being danced and studied. There are two ballet academies in Istanbul at state universities and there is talent being nurtured at these. Talent shows - I happen to be associated with one academy and of the two undergraduate girls I had tagged one was taken by Helsinki and the other by Zurich last summer. The girl in Helsinki was taken into the main company beginning of this year and I will be going to Helsinki on March 24th to see Don Kixot and hopefully will be seeing our girl at the mat or eve show. Istanbul State Ballet is "watchable" too - last year I saw their classic Sleeping Beauty twice and they surprised me. OK it's not the Bolshoy but if you saw it you would also accept it as "ballet". The live full orchestra starts a bit out of tune but gets into shape and I for one would take this every time as opposed to recorded music. Link to comment
Jayne Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 Well I don't want to delve into politics but popular acceptance of the art form and professional oportunities (not dominated by Russian ex-pats) are important for the art form to succeed. Link to comment
its the mom Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 I saw on another site (and I can't find it now) that there were 14 year olds competing this year. I did note that the age range listed in the rules is ballet students born between "1st of January 1999 and the 1st of August 2003. While I realize that some students can therefore be almost 15 when they are competing, I feel it is young for a competition of this calibre. Link to comment
mnacenani Posted February 6, 2018 Author Share Posted February 6, 2018 39 minutes ago, its the mom said: I saw on another site (and I can't find it now) that there were 14 year olds competing this year "The Prix de Lausanne, an international competition for young dancers, is open to young dancers of all nationalities aged 14 to 19 who are not yet professionals" as per their website info. Link to comment
mnacenani Posted February 6, 2018 Author Share Posted February 6, 2018 PS : Shelly Power has taken her last bows as artistic director and CEO of PdL. Link to comment
its the mom Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 1 hour ago, mnacenani said: PS : Shelly Power has taken her last bows as artistic director and CEO of PdL. Yes, she is going to be the Executive Director of PA Ballet. At least, that was the last I heard. Link to comment
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