Hans

Pas de quatre!

Is Lynn Seymour tall? Probably not particularly so, I imagine, considering that she danced with Nureyev. But I think Seymour is more along the lines of the original concept of Giselle as a perfectly healthy peasant girl who chooses to kill herself (as opposed to just dying of a broken heart). I think we discussed that in the Giselle forum a while ago.

That makes sense to me, Treefrog. Also, men don't have a history of being idealized/idolized in ballet--think Giselle, La Sylphide, Swan Lake. IMO, ballet is about movement. That's partly why I find the current trend of hyperflexibility in the Kirov so disturbing--it ruins the quality of the movement. So they have great bodies, big deal. They still look awful once they start to move. It's like a second-rate musician playing an expensive instrument; if they can't play well, the music won't be any good no matter how glorious the instrument is.

Well, there are certain physical attributes that a ballet dancer must have; for example an amount of flexibility in the feet that permits the women to dance en pointe, one must have fairly good turnout and be able to raise the leg to at least 90º. Also, there are certain proportions that the traditional ballet costume flatters more. If the legs are shorter than the torso, a tutu will look rather awful. Within those basic requirements, a range of abilities are proportions is acceptable, but I think we spend too much time idealizing today. To an extent, ballet is all about idealization, but IMO that is where the quality of movement comes in. There's a large range of bodies that are desirable and acceptable, and I actually think it's easier to see ballet's transformative power when a rather average-looking person walks onstage and then proceeds to glide through the air like a sylph. Not that I find beautiful bodies undesirable, but there is room for both types in the field; directors are just too busy trying to get companies filled with one body type, and if you're going to choose just one type, why not choose the most ideal? It makes more sense for companies to have a mix of bodies and abilities--such dances as the big swans and little swans are even choreographed into the classics; variety is what helps those four-hour ballets stay interesting, and seeing different types of dancers perform shorter works is interesting as well.

The Universal Ballet Academy (unless something has changed) does not perform complete ballets, but I recall them doing excerpts from La Vestale, The Little Humpbacked Horse, The Fairy Doll, La Esmeralda, and Chopiniana, as well as The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Raymonda, and Giselle.

Perky, I agree--that is hideous.

Love the last paragraph drb! I'd imagine that French-speaking dancers might be offended by the expression, but someone like Estelle would probably know more about that.

I'm surprised there would be any occasion for female dancers to wear white tights in a classical ballet. There are some pink tights that are extremely pale and almost look white, as well as shoes that color (certain Grishko shoes, for example). Is that what you're referring to?

I always thought NYCB's coffee dance was done in pointe shoes...?

I don't think any of it is meant to be a reconstruction. As wonderful as Cojocaru is as Clara, I rather wish I could see her as Sugarplum instead of Yoshida, whose dancing I find positively soporific on that tape.

Considering the large number of summer programs ABT has and the amount of performances it does (two seasons in New York, not to mention Orange County and the Kennedy Center) I'm surprised that McKenzie's salary is so low.

I feel the same, although I know how time-consuming and difficult it is to respond to so many posts!

In that picture, Asylmuratova is dancing the first act of Le Corsaire, so she probably is not wearing tights--the whole "exotic" thing. It's not historically accurate, though; in the 19th century the dancers would have always been in tights.

Which companies, exactly, rely on a handful of 19th century works? Every ballet company brochure I see seems to have a contortionist in pointe shoes suspended in an odd pose on the cover, while the text talks about all the new, "revolutionary" choreography being performed with almost no mention of the classics. NYCB barely tours at all (only to the Kennedy Center) whereas the National Ballet of China and the Universal Ballet have come to the US on several occasions. (They are both excellent, IMO.)

Having seen Stafford in class numerous times, I can attest that she is indeed very fast and, as Carbro states, exceptionally clean.

I found rather a lot of inaccuracies in that article, especially where she writes that education is discouraged (one glance at BT4D shows you that there are lots of reputable college dance programs out there, and more dancers than ever before are going from those into companies) and also her statement that "It is not uncommon for a dancer to walk into what she thinks will be her daily ballet class and find a scale set up in the center of the dance studio instead (Gordon 1983)." Completely false, at least in this day and age. Perhaps she oughtn't to have used sources that were published two decades previously?

She looks very slender and beautiful--nice arches!

Doug has described the notated choreography for the Lilac Fairy's variation before on this site, but I'm not sure where the post is. It was quite different from the Lopukhov.

I don't think falling has anything to do with training. Some NYCB dancers never seem to fall, whereas Viktoria Terioshkina of the Kirov could barely stay on her feet at the Kennedy Center.

Wasn't Beriosova trained in England?

For a pretty chaste (but possibly inaccurate) Arabian dance, see the Vainonen Nutcracker. Carbro, the Chinese Tea dance makes me uneasy too, especially the Royal Ballet's old version (I can't remember whether the new one is the same). Another thing that bothers me is the Bolshoi's Bayadère, which includes eight or so children in blackface performing rather clumsy, stereotyped movements.

Congratulations Lana, that must feel wonderful! You may also be interested in our sister board, Ballet Talk for Dancers, located here: http://dancers.invisionzone.com

Often, schools produce beautifully trained classical ballet dancers...for a company that performs a mix of ballet, modern, and "crossover" dance. Teachers and schools aren't blind to companies' repertory choices, and they have started to include more forms of dance in their training (such as the Washington School of Ballet, which offers both jazz and modern). However, considering that these are still ballet companies attached to ballet schools, I feel (Alexandra may have meant something different) that companies should allow their well-trained students to use their abilities to dance Ashton, Bournonville, &c.

Yes, I'd rather not watch that every day, but well-trained recreational students performing something close to the Ivanov/Petipa choreography would be preferable (to me) to seeing the Paris Opera Ballet do the latest Mats Ek.

Just a quick clarification: WSB is located at 3515 Wisconsin Avenue, not 3315 as stated in the Washington Post.