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sunday

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About sunday

  • Birthday 12/10/1968

Registration Profile Information

  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    fan, balletgoer
  • City**
    Barcelona
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    Spain
  1. Carolina, I'm sorry to disagree, but I liked Natalia Tapia (in spite of some travel during the fouettés). It helped that I brought my field glasses and was able to see her facial expressions. Perhaps she received the same amount of applause as Angel himself, I dare say. Also, past year the corps de ballet had some rough edges, but has improved since then. Great synchronization overall, and the soloists are world-class. But the performance of the score by the orchestra was only so-so.
  2. Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa is the winner. Yay! His Wikipedia page is going to be severely edited now, methinks.
  3. I surrender. From a purely egotistic POV, I hope that SanderO succeeds in his efforts of "organizing" balletomanes and NY ballet companies. Even I would applaud the founding of Ballet Organizers for Reform Now!, a.k.a BORN. With a little luck, some of that superb American dancers -accompanied by some chunks of cash- will found a nice exile in Spain, and mend the Attila-like consequences of Duato's tenure.
  4. I found a review of Le Corsaire by the Bolshoi, written by a young Spanish ballerina, also fellow BTer, that left me wondering about the futility of finishing my review. See the google translation here
  5. Point. But from I know abut EPA's past performances and its heavy-handed approach to safety, that lobbying *could* be a sensible thing to do, while sponsoring *real* research on cancer. Probably EPA would want to ban MDF board and other timber-derived goods, driving the industry to search for substitutes more expensive, with less quality and/or less environmentally-friendly. What would happen to Ikea furniture, then? There is a interesting section in Bjorn Lomborg's "The Skeptic Environmentalist" where the author presents some quantitative values on ratios of cost of preventing a risk vs. estimated number of lives saved because of not being exposed to such risk. Very informative. This is not a pure utilitarian, cold-blooded consideration: it's basic economics: if there are still people dying for the lack of, for instance, $1,000, spending $400,000 for saving only one life does not make much sense.
  6. SanderO, Obviously you're free to boycott anything that you think needs boycotting, but as you don't seem to be a expert on Chemical Engineering, nor on Chemistry, nor a MD, perhaps you may want to read this. Despite of being wikipedia, it seems a good introductory article. Formaldehyde is a important chemical, not only for its economic importance to the evil chemical corporations, but also as an affordable antiseptic that saves lives.
  7. So, Are the Wilis of the French version the spirits of the women who killed themselves after being scorned by their lovers? It would make sense, as cursed souls who are denied the access to Heaven because of being driven to suicide by Casanova wannabes, and would make a very popular Goth/Zombie themed terror ballet. Or, indeed, a movie by Tim Burton: Johnny Depp as Hilarion, Bonham-Carter as Myrtha, and that couple from Twilight as Albrecht and Giselle. Natalie Portman could be a convincing Giselle. But only if her career survives Black Rac..., er, Swan.
  8. I have gone back to read your reply twice and each time I have laughed out loud. I thought of Darwinism in action
  9. From the POV of a foreigner, some musings: I don't think this thread is about laundering blood- or mob-money through ballet. Don't see the theaters making a politics test to prospective tickets buyers in order to check that their politics are "right" (or "left" ) either. Boycotting Ballet Nacional de Cuba because of the politics of the current Cuban government does not seem a sensible thing to do. Having contempt, for instance, from one political side, for Maximova, Plisetskaya, Vasiliev, Fadeyev, or Alonso or, from the other side, for Petipa, Diaghilev, Balanchine, Baryshnikov, Makarova, or Pavlova may stink of bigotry. Perhaps not so much as despising artists for their sexual orientation, but still bigotry. Private and corporate money seem to be a blessing for the Arts in USA. The partisanship of the original New Yorker article seems open to discussion. In another forum, of course.
  10. Really enlightening thread. Thanks to the posters.
  11. Perhaps a question of shoes. I was wearing my lowest ones.
  12. I'm 5'10" myself. Last weekend, I found Anna Nikulina about 4" shorter than me, at least. Both Vasiliev and Osipova of comparable height to me, and taller than Tamara Rojo in 3" heels. Alexei Loparevitch (Don Quixote in DQ) looked 6' tall. Osipova could have been wearing high heels (I did not look), and/or I could have been unconsciously bowing before her, of course. On stage she seemed a little bit shorter than Alexandrova, it should be said.
  13. Don't think so, atm711. First, a gamekeeper is a respected member of a small community such as Giselle's. So he could satisfy her possible desires for upward social mobility, and save her of the worst chores of a farm wife's life. Second, there was no TV and no marketing in those times, so her knowledge of fine things would be limited: can you imagine a peasant girl asking for silk slippers, perfumed gloves, expensive jewelry, and the like? Game meat would be a fine thing in those times, and a gamekeeper would be able to provide. And Giselle does not know of the wealth of Albrecht when she falls in love with his pretty face. Albrecht has to hide most of his worldly manners in order to woo Giselle, actually. Third, Giselle likes dancing. Going for the wages that most of today's ballerinas earn, seems that being able to dance is a reward by itself. Fourth, Giselle bad health and 19th century healthcare. Probably she wouldn't survive the birth of her first child. No much time to make the life of a man a living hell in only 9 to 12 months. But those are cold reasons and delving in them too much could ruin the pleasure of the ballet, so better make a suspension of disbelief (as HRC would say) and enjoy the Art.
  14. When I said to a certain ballerina that I consider Giselle a stupid girl, she couldn't stop laughing. I think she agreed. One could consider Giselle a good natured but silly peasant girl that rebukes a perfectly good husband candidate to fall stupidly in love with a charming stranger. The rebuked solicitor realizes that the charming stranger is of high rank and, probably wants only to have a roll in the hay with Giselle, and forget her. So Hilarion decides to show Giselle the wrongness of her ways but, alas, he misjudges Giselle frailty and causes her death. It could be considered also that the night of sex and prompt fleeing of her paramour will cause the death of Giselle. And so, one may conclude that the evil one in this history is Albrecht. And then that stupid girl goes and saves the culprit from the gentle hands of Myrtha. Women...
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