Victoria Leigh

There are also a couple of "Alice in Wonderland" ballets out there. Ben Stevenson did it several years ago, and a choreographer from I think Oregon, Toni (last name starts with a "P", sorry, can't remember, maybe Pimble or something like that) did it out there and also for Washington Ballet. Not very successfully, IMO. Sets and costumes were fun, and I think it could work, but there was not enough dance, especially for Alice herself. She was on stage for the whole production and never did anything. I have not seen Stevenson's production, but I know that the Alice also speaks in that one.

Oh yes, Mel and his whiskers would be perfect!

Actually, while I thought that Agnes would be perfect for Aunt Pitty Pat, there is another thought I had, and that is Lucia Chase!

Well, since so many people often call me Vivian instead of Victoria...

There it is, Agnes de Mille as Aunt Pitty Pat! That is too perfect!!!

Actually, if we can cast from the past, I might think about Moira Shearer. Bruce Marks comes to mind as a potential Rhett, and I totally agree about Julie Kent as Melanie.

Very interesting post, Leigh, and isn't it a shame that this kind of prejudice, like any other kind of prejudice, causes the issue of sexual stereotyping in the first place? The fact that ballet is considered (by people everywhere, probably, but perhaps more prevalent in this country?) to be something that straight men don't do, causes the ones who are straight to over react and over emphasize their straightness, places the gay men in an inferior position that they don't deserve and then they sometimes over react, and the end result is the same as that caused by racial stereotyping or any other kind of stupid prejudice. It has hurt ballet because it has kept away young male dancers, and anyone who teaches knows very well how hard it is to get boys to study ballet in the first place, and then to keep them past the age of 12 or 13. This is a subject that can be looked at from many angles, but these are the first thoughts I had when reading your post today.

She is teaching, and runs ABT's Summer Intensive program.

Hello 5thAveGirl, welcome to the Young Dancers board! Allegra has done a fine job with some advice for you, so I will just second all of that! Some floor exercises, followed by a full barre would be the best!

Nadedzhda, I do think that you are right about NYdancer thinking of Nadezhda Pavlova, and not Anna Pavlova. As to the Dying Swan, what I saw was an exquisite artist, and her swan looked more like a swan than a person. Totally unique and wonderful. Technically, by today's standards, she would be severly critisized, because she had no turnout! But with everything else she had, it just did not matter!

Nydancer, you have seen her??? Anna Pavlova died in 1931! Very few people have even had the opportunity to see the very few little film clips that exist of her, and most of us can know of her only from photos and the books about her. I have seen a little tiny bit of her in her famous Dying Swan solo, but that is all. I think you might be confusing her with someone else.

I see this quantity thing, especially with male dancers, being highly promoted for those entering competitions. I think that the feeling is that they will not be competitive if they cannot do many pirouettes every time, regardless of the music, and huge jumps every time, regardless of the landings or the music. I see the male dancer work on his variations and it's all about the steps only. I don't see any attention to the music, the style, the articulation of the legs and feet, or really anything to do with what I think ballet is about. Watching this is about watching tricks. Period. Very sad. [This message has been edited by Victoria Leigh (edited July 06, 2000).]

Britt, certainly you are "allowed" to use LOL, and any other acronyms you wish to use! I have not banned anything, I just simply asked the young dancers to think about using more correct use of proper nouns and sentence structure, and not to abbreviate things like you and you are. Things like starting a sentence with a capital letter, using "I" instead of "i", etc. Mainly the things that make your post easier to understand when being read by our posters from other countries whose native language is not English.

Thank you, Steve! As one who loved dancing to Minkus, I do appreciate that, and have never understood the Minkus bashing (Of course I did also love dancing to Tchaikovsky!)

I love the biographies too! The first books I remember reading, at about 10 years old or so, were Karsavina's "Theatre Street" and the bio of Anna Pavlova. Both wonderful!

I applaud Ms. Kaufman for this wonderful article, and just hope that it will wake someone up at the KC!

"Ballets of Antony Tudor"!

RozeToze, the keyword in your post is "can". That is, what Gretchen Ward Warren is saying in her (most excellent) book is not that it IS dangerous, but that it CAN be if a dancer without much natural rotation works incorrectly or forces the rotation beyond her physical limit. As the book says, one can increase their rotation when properly taught at a young enough age, but not much actual increase will take place later. What happens later is that dancers learn to "know their limitations and to work within them". They learn to use what they have in such a way that they can "camouflage a less-than-perfect degree of natural turn-out". So, the danger comes from over-rotation, or turning out from the knees or feet instead of the hips, and improper placement which prevents the correct muscle usage for turn-out.

Ed, the traditional ballet class ends with a "reverence", which is where the students are taught how to bow. Some people use a standard one, like the same every class, and some of us like to vary it bit, using different bows and different amount of music for this. Some teachers lead the students through it, facing in the same direction as the students, and some of us like to face the students and do it on the opposite leg, so that they are following us, but at the same time we are bowing to them as they bow to us. I always end the bow towards the pianist, which the students also follow, to acknowledge our appreciation for their work!

And the title of this book by Rumor Godden is????

I first heard the wine glass story used by my teacher in explaining the position of the leg in developpé devant, but she used champagne glass I have often used that description too, however have never actually tried it!

What an interesting theory, Intuviel! Makes sense to me

ABT may not be known for using Emploi, however, certain choreographers were, namely one Mr. Tudor! Pillar was out of the rep from the time of Nora Kaye until Sallie Wilson, which was quite a long period of time. My understanding was that he would not re-stage it until he had the right person for Hagar. Tudor was very, very fussy about casting, and often spent a long time working with people before casting them. I do believe that he definitely used Emploi

Casey, what is wrong with the Kirov Ballet???? Certainly I do not have anything other than utmost respect for the wonderful Kirov Ballet, and I have a number of their videos too! I'm sorry that you got the impression that I don't like them, but it's most definitely a wrong impression! (I just wish I could see the company much more often, and not just the videos ).

That was quite wonderful, Manhattnik, thank you!!!