Ballet fan

Everyone has favorites for everything in life, and ballet is no exception. We have favorite choreographers, composers, and ballets, but the ones that give life to a work and make it or break it are the dancers themselves. So we all grow fond of certain dancers in certain roles. Critics and supposed experts are not immune to this either. However, I'm curious if anyone here has experienced thinking that a particular dancer is not necessarily marvelous, stunning, or deeply moving in a certain role or maybe even in general, despite critics and a wide array of people saying so and praising said dancer to no end. It can be a current dancer or it can be from the past. I've never really experienced this myself but I was simply curious if other people actually have.

So, lately, I've been on a crazy ballet marathon, watching a lot of different dancers, including legends like Margot Fonteyn, Galina Ulanova, Alicia Markova, Maya Plisetskaya, and Anna Pavlova. And the thing that strikes me the most is that these legendary dancers really deserved their status as legendary because they were able to bring sheer magic to what the human body is able to do within the constraints of ballet. Watching Maya Plisetskaya in Mahler's Death of The Rose, Fonteyn in Ondine, Galina Ulanova in Romeo and Juliet, Alicia Markova in Giselle and Anna Pavlova in The Dying Swan is to watch something truly marvelous. These dancers became sonething bigger than themselves on stage and were able to convey the beauty of the art of dance in its purest and most realized form. They didn't rely on technical feats to attract their audiences. Sure, all of those ballerinas had excellent technique but they used it as a means for a bigger and better purpose, and that is to show the human soul through dancing. I feel that today's dancers, although technically impecable, don't manage to convey that feeling of pure art that great dancers of the past (males also included like Nijinsky, Nureyev, Bruhn, etc.). That is not to say that today's dancers are not expressive and that I don't enjoy their performances. The really good ones are quite expressive and refined in their dancing and their perfromances are a treat, but they still don't get quite up there with the rare quality of being "one of the greats". I once read a review stating that Tamara Rojo was more believable in Ondine than Margot Fonteyn. I'd have to kindly disagree. Margot used the role to express herself in such an awesome way, that I feel it's been unmatched. That is not to say Tamara isn't lovely in the role. I use this example because it's the one that strikes me the most, although I could remember a lot more. So, thoughts or opinions on this matter?

So, I recently saw a video on youtube of Alicia Markova performing Giselle and I completely fell in love with it. So I was wondering if anyone knew if there is any videos (of full length performances or at least documentaries or anything else) that feature this wonderful ballerina.

So, I've got an urge to watch a full-length Don Quixote. However, I barely know anything about this ballet. I've only seen pdd's and variations of it (like Susan Jaffe in Kitri's variation) but I'd love a full length version. So I was wondering if any of you who have seen this ballet have a DVD version that they particularly like (doesn't matter if it's new or old). It would be very helpful if you tell me what you especifically liked about that version. Thanks in advance!

I must admit that the only Royal Ballet productions that I've seen of this beautiful ballet are the Anthony Dowell one with Viviana Durante and Zoltan Solymosi, and the one with Alina Cojocaru and Federico Bonelli. So my question is which one of these do people like more. I know a lot of people don't like the sets and costumes of the Dowell production. I must agree that the sets were a bit ugly, but the tutus and everything else was fine. As far as dancing goes I loved both Viviana and Alina as Aurora. However, I found Zoltan Solymosi a much better Florimund than Federico. He has great technique but Zoltan was able to give a little more depth to his character. His phrasing and overall expression were just much better. As Carabosse, Dowell was great. Genesia Rosato was good but Dowell's Carabosse just seemed more wicked and evil. So which one of this two productions do you like better?

Hi, all. I decided to join this forum because I can discuss one of my favorite topics, ballet! I used to study ballet and when I was a little girl I wanted to be a ballerina, but somehow I ended up in the academic world instead, but my passion for ballet has never withered, but now I enjoy it as an expectator. Despite loving ballet, I haven't seen much live ballet since I'm on a country where the interest in ballet is really low. Though I did once see Yulia Makhalina when she came here. Most of my ballet watching is done through DVDs and that's also because I love watching the greats like Galina Ulanova and Margot Fonteyn. I'm afraid I'm just too young to have been able to see them perform on stage. My other interests besides ballet are philosophy, literature, movies, and video games. I've read the forums before as a guest and the people here seem pretty inteligent and nice, so it'll be pretty awesome to see what they have to say about a difficult yet beautiful artistic endeavor such as ballet.