grace

Jane D - yes, i am familiar with all of these dancers. are you saying you preferred mark freeman to bruce sansom? (shock/horror!) - if so, can you express in what way? stephen sheriff had left the company, just when/before i came to london, and i never saw him dance. i knew people who liked him as a person, but i have never heard anyone speak of him - as a dancer - as highly as you do, which is nice. if you liked mark freeman, perhaps julian hosking's name will bring back good memories, too? he made a lovely 'paris' in R&J. and maybe mark silver? broomhead was a bit OTT for me (although FANTASTIC as the zebra in 'still life') - that probably means they appreciate him in houston, assuming he is still there...wayne eagling on a good night was great. and stephen jefferies was always wonderful, though by the time i was in london, he had mostly moved on into the demi-character roles.

groan..........

ed waffle - i think it was 'magister (rather than 'magistrar') ludi' - please tell me if i am wrong, as i haven't thought about this book for many years? i too remember enjoying that (to a lesser degree than 'siddhartha').

bit more info: she likes autobiographies, biographies, some element of history, asian themes, asian female writers, mostly stuff about women - and lots of other stuff that i can't really pin down. NO mills & boon, murder mysteries, crime or war novels, ...nothing about the holocaust......no bad language, drugs, corruption, organised religion, rape, pedophilia or mayhem, and nothing about domestic violence. too hard? ;)

i picked up that phrase "shut-ins" from someone who WAS one. i am seeking the help of you people, who are so incredibly well-read (unlike myself). your thread about your summer reading has inspired me to ask your help. here's the story: my mother, who is a voracious reader, has simultaneously (last year), had a stroke and moved house - far from her huge circle of literate, film-loving, art&crafty-type, mostly-female friends from academia. because the stroke co-incided with the move, she had no opportunity to make a new circle of friends. so, limited by her current immobility, she spends most of her time at home alone, reading. ....often several books a day... of course, this means she is getting through the good stuff pretty fast. and she doesn't want to spend a fortune on NEW books, nor to acquire more 'baggage' - having just given away all her work-related books, on her retirement. so: books that are old enough to be in the library system would be good, but new titles are welcome, too. i know this is a tough one, because anyone who reads that much is quite likely to have read whatever you recommend - but, putting that to one side for a moment - what books can you recommend that are uplifting positive reads? that make you appreciate life, and feel happy to be here (even if you are temporarily incapacitated, and having to struggle for tiny improvements in walking and feeding yourself...). please - i don't mean helen keller/'invalid' books - nor necessarily books about recovery, or triumph over difficulty - just feel good books...?

i admire you all, but i can't contribute, as i no longer read! shock-horror! well - i no longer read NON-fiction. that's more the truth... Jaana Heino: ~ enjoy!!

thank you very much. do 'we' know of any suitable (ie. pre-professional) SCHOOLS (rather than companies) in china? how about japan or thailand? i know its not 'Asia', but south african/african schools would also be appropriate... all help gratefully received, ASAP!

oh, i see. i got that impression because you posted - "Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson" - which stood out, 'like a sore thumb', from all these largely american references! i thought you were suggesting that - as is probably the case - at school NOW, in australia, they probably study australian literature, at least as much as english... i guess you realise that 'summer of the 17th doll' is (very) australian..?.

for more: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...&threadid=11814

glad you've 'found' her. all i can tell you about viviana durante is that we used to share the same hairdresser. one day i went in there and said i wanted my hair like HERS - spiral permed (hers is naturally like that, mine was just long & wavy). the hairdresser said viviana had referred to ME, as how she wanted HERS. (she knew me only very vaguely, at a distance, as a friend of a friend.) funny, isn't it. we always want what we don't have... it's years since i've seen her, but she WAS a marvellous dancer - a bit like ferri -......... but not QUITE ferri.......... you can see where MY admiration lies.

KateB - i agree with you about seeing things alone - sometimes. victoria - amazing that a family friend introduced you to what has become so important in your life. do you still have contact with that person? did/do you parents realise/know who 'turned on the light' for you? did they appreciate that, or not? - hope this isn't getting too personal: if so, please ignore me!! ;) do you recall what your response WAS to 'the red shoes', at that time? farrell fan: i have always assumed you were a woman (since i, a female, was a 'farrell fan', too) - so, when i read that after being taken to great ballet by a friend, you married HER, i was slightly taken aback at how frank 'you americans' are, about lesbian marriages... haHAH - the joke's on ME! ;) thank you so much for answering the questions i wanted to ask mel about Opus 34 ~ and i *LOVE* your Nutcracker story! GWTW - i quite like the idea of *PERFUME BALLETS*. treefrog - "Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova, under the stars in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre, age 16, while biking through france" - WOW! what a wonderful experience. diane: "too much velvet"? - how is this possible? surely it's like being too rich or too thin? ;) i have really enjoyed reading people's experiences here, including svenia's recent one. keep going, svenia!

RE: did anyone bother to check the site? i'm too lazy to have done so - yet. but it's certainly possible to have comparable tests OR the SAME test, and to adminitster it in the same way. as garyecht could tell us, such standards are the basics of 'standardised testing'.

i am amazed that you all remember what you read 'first' (e.g. 'first adult book'). as you mention titles, i recall that i read a book and that it was important at the time (example - anne frank's diary, du maurier's books, and of course: wuthering heights and thereafter ALL the bronte works) - but i cannot recall the order of things, or what made MOST impression...i am still trying! most of the books that 'mean' the most to me now are ones i found as a teen, while in california (please don't be scornful - it's too easy!). the fact that i still HAVE them and that they 'mean' the most to me doesn't mean i READ them, any more, but i have to KEEP them....these include 'the prophet', 'le petit prince', nin's journals, a sierra club book called 'on the loose' by jerry and renni russell, joan didion, all of hesse but especially 'siddhartha', 'sisterhood is powerful'!!!, richard brautigan, and the poetry of e.e. cummings (which i don't even want to open the cover of, NOW, for fear of it no longer having the magic that it HAD). also thomas hardy (tess, etc). i also recall loving american literature (thoreau, emerson, hawthorne, steinbeck, arthur miller), which i was introduced to at an american high school - after studying ENGLISH literature in australia - NOTE: NOT australian literature: that tells you how old i am, floss! ;) maybe anne frank's diary was what i might call the first 'adult' book? - can't remember what age i was ...

great thread. treefrog, your responses are spot on, IMO. mbjerk: 'patineurs' outdoors in 40 degrees? yuck-o! :eek: glebb - thanks for reminding us of the magic, which i can really relate to, too. i don't recall ever being at performances which were rained out or didn't happen, nor where anything went wrong because of the weather - but i DO remember the ones where the weather and/or the outdoor environment truly amplified the sensual dance/music experience in magical ways. every summer, in february, the west australian ballet (WAB) do a season in an old rock-quarry, which has been converted into an amphitheatre (by the late architect-husband of a nearby resident, who is a ballet teacher). it's in some low rolling hills in the suburbs, just above the city, so that the city lights are visible in the distance, if you are sitting up the back - as i prefer to. (if you are sitting close to the stage, the stage is surrounded by trees.) our summers are very reliably dry, but i know some performances have very occasionally not happened, or started late due to sprinkles... i would love to see, again, a ballet by stephen page, aboriginal choreographer, commisioned by WAB a few years ago. can't recall the title - but its atmospheric music, which included didgeridoo and nature sounds - on top of the ambient sounds of the LIVE nature...(because little creatures DO live in the surrounding bush) was marvellous - the warm night air really adds a vital dimension, and the dance (a melange of aboriginal dance, animal movements and **BALLET**!) was superb - the most refreshing balletic choreography i have ever seen. it was an indulgence for ALL the senses. another memorable outdoor story was at battersea park, in london, in the mid-80's, where i saw the rambert do christopher bruce's 'ghost dances' - a work where i love the movement style and its relationship to the music - in "the tent". now this is a BIG tent.... the performances "in the park" are (or were) an annual event, and sometimes include the major ballet companies. the evening was quite pleasant, but just as this work began, a tremendous thundercrack was heard overhead, and the skies opened. the storm continued through the work, sometimes 'drowning out' the music. there was no risk to the show, as we were ALL safely dry, inside the tent - but the extra dimension added by God was something else - especially given the dramatic meaning of the ballet. great memories. alexandra - where are you calling "the provinces"?

for the sake of keeping everything in the same place, i am going to kick this off by posting the two main schools in new zealand (asian or not!): new zealand school of dance http://www.tewhaea.org.nz/nzschdance/nzsch...dance-home.html DIR: gary harris PO box 7146 wellington south, NZ PH +64 4 389 0996 Fax: +64 4 389 4996 email karen@tewhaea.org.nz international ballet academy www.iba.ac.nz DIR: sherilynn kennedy PO box 22-426 christchurch NZ PH: +64 3 365 5600 FAX: +64 3 365 5634 email: enquiries@ibc.ac.nz

i am posting to ask your help. i need to compile a list of 'serious' ballet schools in asia, which might have suitable pre-professional candidates to send to australia for an international ballet competition, later this year (september). in the past, we have had entries from japan and, i believe, singapore. this year we hope to attract dancers from wider afield. the organising body is the Australian Instituute of Classical Dance. the competition takes place in perth, western australia at the west australian academy of performing arts (WAAPA), which is part of edith cowan university: excellent facilities, including a new (second) theatrette. the competition is similar to the 'genee' or 'prix de lausanne' style - a class audition, followed by two solos in differing styles, with further selection, down to semi-finals and finals - in front a panel of judges from the dance profession. the prizes (money for further training) total around about US $5000, as i recall. this contest is held only every second year. the last time it was held, the winner was stephen macrae from sydney, who went on, the next year, to win the genee AND then, almost immediately, the prix de lausanne! whew! given that perth is on the indian ocean rim, cities (with ballet schools) which are convenient to here, include hong kong, singapore, kuala lumpur, taipei; Japanese cities, etc. i know there are asian ballet students posting here. could some of you post the names, postal addresses , fax numbers and/or email addresses of the best schools in your geographic areas? that would be very helpful.

just heard from an acquaintance who has returned to australia after seeing this work. apparently, for the last performance, they swapped the order of the two choreographer's contributions, resulting in a better effect all-round. interesting that what was suggested here, up above in this thread, was actually tried out - and DID work better! maybe you have more influence than you know! ;)

as a child (me, that is - not HIM), i was wowed by nureyev dancing 'corsaire' (pas de deux) with fonteyn, and the full giselle. what an introduction to live ballet, eh? no wonder i've been hooked ever since! over time: anthony dowell - yes, of course. (i never got to see baryshnikov live in anything classical - only in 'white oak' performances.) but my personal favourite: bruce sansom, the purest purist. ;) also jonathan cope. the AB's greg horsman, i have only seen on video - but: what a technician - and i mean that in the nicest possible way - a lovely gentlemanly style, not unlike sansom's (but a touch more macho). irek mukhamedov in the right role - spartacus for example. but NOW, in this day and age and in MY neck of the woods (well actually now in columbus, ohio, at ballet met...sad to say ...but he's FROM here, & no doubt one day will be back): the lovely daryl brandwood. i could name lots of others in particular roles, but these are the best of the best. fond memories.

dirac, i too think there is more to teletubbies than meets the eye. (NOT saying that i watch it. but i have done, with a 2 year old...) i am just posting to say that i find vagansmom's post to be most interesting, providing food for thought. though i am inclined to think that TV-watching is NOT necessarily ENTIRELY passive, i can see what you are getting at, and if i didn't have anything else to think about today, i would certainly ponder a bit, on that worthwhile issue. thanks for your post.

"Better shoeless than bookless"? - in Iceland?!? i don't *THINK* so. brrrrrrrrrr.... gimme ugg boots. ;) interesting (& pleasing) to see that australia ranks fourth - but given that literacy is a real concern here, too - 4th may not mean as much as it should. i volunteer as an adult literacy tutor - and i know the ADULT literacy rates are not at all good, in australia. and my experience as a teacher of primary and secondary school age groups, tells me the same - or worse - about kids today.

diane - 'nurse nancy' was a little golden book. i had that one, too. i believe it came with a bandaid or two in the book, so you could acquire practical experience! you could probably find it second-hand at a garage sale/swap meet/car boot sale/whatever-YOU-call-it-where-you-live - but i'm NOT suggesting that you'd necessarily WANT to. ;) however, it IS quite interesting, IMO, to SEE again the images or ideas that caught your fancy then - and to ponder WHY. not meaning to turn this thread into baby-level books ~ but didn't anyone else have 'noddy'?

carbro - i had 'the red balloon' too. can still summon up those lovely photos of the red balloon over paris, in my imagination. i also had the original 'madeleine' book (hans bemelmans). but i'm not going to try to respond to this thread properly, till i've thought about it a bit, because it's really quite hard to remember. as a child, i had little golden books - and have since bought most of them again, just for nostalgia ('What Do Daddies Do All Day', 'Mister Dog', 'Tootle', etc) - and of course, noddy. but i know that children's books is not really what this thread is about... vrsfanatic, i have been a fan of anais nin too, over many years - and also regard 'the little prince' as one of the most special books of a lifetime. vagansmom, (i was also a hesse fan) re nin: i am unaware of 'the scandal' - so i must follow up the link provided, and find out more. i loved those diaries... you people are reminding me of books long out of my mind.

i sympathise, ed. however, with the utmost respect for YOUR point of view, i'm afraid that *I* LOVE TELEVISION! ;)

i just chanced across this, while browsing through the website of BalletMet (Columbus, Ohio): http://www.balletmet.org/ if you go down to "FUN & LEARNING", you can find the timeline in the drop-down menu. it might be of interest...

i see now we have our own thread! balletmet have an attractive website with some eye-catching B/W photos at http://www.balletmet.org/