Tancos

I got a nice big mac and a midi keyboard last December, and since then I've spent way too much time making music with the numerous software synthesizers, samplers and sequencers I've collected. I particularly enjoy concocting wildly inappropriate arrangements of Renaissance dance tunes.

One of the local ballet directors has proposed "The Last Nutcracker: the Year the Mice Won," in which Clara visits the Land of Cheeses. By the middle of December it seems like a good idea.

It's easy to list reasons why I should loathe ballet: lousy music (for every Tchaikovsky there's a Minkus), silly stories, bizarre costumes and way too much make-up. I can't really explain why, despite the affectations, it fascinates me. The best reason I've come up with is that ballet provides a glimpse into an ideal, superhuman realm -- sometimes. When a performance is good, you're not so much watching a story as reliving a myth.

When I photograph dancers with my medium- and large-format cameras, I prefer that they wear mid-toned unitards. I want to see the long, unbroken line, and the fewer interruptions from toe to neck, the better. I also like the way that unitards idealize the dancers' forms. What I personally dislike -- this may shock you -- are the short, stiff classical tutus. They may be traditional, but they look unnatural to me, and visually they chop the ballerina in two. I'm sure I'm very much in the minority here. [ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: Tancos ]

Tchaikovsky will never be one of my favorite composers due to childhood overexposure (my mother taught ballet), but I can't resist mentioning a couple of my favorite recordings. Both, I regret to say, are of the Nutcracker, but they are eccentric enough to be tolerable even at this time of the year. Shirim's "Klezmer Nutcracker" (reviewed at http://www.klezmershack.com/bands/shirim/n...nutcracker.html ), which includes "Kozatsky 'till You Dropsky," "Dance of the Latkes Queens," "March of the Macabees," "Araber Tants," "Tants Chinese," "Dance of the Dreydls" and "Waltz of the Rugalah," as well as de/reconstructions of Mahler, Brahms, Satie and Enesco. Spike Jones, "Nutcracker Suite," on "Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics." No comment necessary. ------------------ Don McClane 500 Years Behind the Times: The Adventures of a Renaissance Man in 20th-Century Kansas

I'd like to thank everyone who offered suggestions. I have some idea where to start now. If anyone has further suggestions, I would be happy to hear them.

Most major ballets are not likely ever to be performed in Wichita. Most of the dancers discussed in these forums will probably never point their feet on stage here. And I really hate travel. Therefore, after a ferocious inner struggle, I have this month, for the first time in my life, purchased a TV/VCR. Now I need to find some good ballet videos. Has anybody compiled a basic ballet library? (I've checked the videos archive here, but there is technical problem with it.) What I'm looking for is a list of about ten videos that meets the following criteria: 1. The videos are of significant works performed well. 2. There are examples of all the most important choreographers, not just Petipa and Balanchine. 3. Most of the outstanding companies and most accomplished dancers are represented. 4. The performances cover as broad a chronological and stylistic range as possible. 5. The videos are all reasonably easy to obtain. Ideally, they should all be in stock at amazon.com . 6. The videos are of dancers dancing, not heads talking about dancing. Also, the camera work and editing should not get in the way of the dancing. (I remember many years ago watching a video of "Serenade" and losing my temper at the editor who constantly jumped from closeup to closeup and thus lost all sense of the geometry of the dance.) 7. None of the videos are of "The Nutcracker." This is a tall order, I know, but any guidance would be appreciated. [This message has been edited by Tancos (edited January 31, 2000).]