canbelto

I don;t know, hopefully open some minds to how offensive and insensitive and unnecessary Lacotte's depiction of Ramze's attendants is.

For anyone who thinks blackface in Pharaoh's Daughter is okay, just watch this and how the minstrel show shuffling dance is recreated by Lacotte:

Doesn;t change the fact that these "historical" blackface details more resemble an early 20th century minstrel show than any historical necessity. I'll add that if you cannot enjoy a ballet without these blackface getups (as in without the blackface then you don't want to watch the ballet), then maybe that ballet isn't worth reviving.

The awesome thing about the internet is that you can research. Here are the original Petipa-era costumes for Ramze and her pageboys. Here is Lacotte's vision: So you can see the exaggerated eye makeup as well as the exaggerated, offensive, stereotypical red lips are all Lacotte.

Also the good thing nowadays is that most TV appearances are preserved on YT. So I did a quick hit to see some of Misty's TV appearances and not in a single one does she appear to have either darkened her skin or overcurled her hair. So everyone is entitled to their own opinions about misty but you're not entitled to alternative facts.

And? Ballerinas (or celebrities) can choose the makeup they want on any particular day without there being a sinister nefarious purpose. Certain celebrities use bronzer when they go on TV because of the lighting. What Lacotte did was entirely different which was he is using Caucasian dancers and slathering them with blackface makeup in order for them to look like an African parody.

So ... you're saying racist stereotypes onstage is a good thing?

And? Misty has to keep her hair straight in ballets because that's the look. Many ballerinas have short/curly hair and wear wigs/extensions/falls to achieve the classical ballet hairdo. In real life Misty doesn't wear her hair the way she'd wear it in Swan Lake. This is a really different issue from Pierre Lacotte making a ballet that has a costume that's so offensive to 21st century sensibilities and looks like a minstrel show. It isn't like a screening of D.W. Griffiths' Birth of a Nation where you can accept a work made in a different time and era. Pierre Lacotte made this ballet in 2000.

This is a false equivalency. Something Bournonville choreographed in the 19th century would have 19th century values about race and we can't hold it against Bournonville. Pierre Lacotte's Pharaoh's Daughter is not even a reconstruction of Petipa's ballet, but a fantasy "based on" Petipa's ballet that he made at the end of the 20th century. There is no particular reason Ramze has to look out of a minstrel show for the ballet to function.

As it happens I went on YT this morning and it seems as if how much body makeup to wear has been at the discretion oft he ballerina portraying Ramze. Here is Nina Kaptsova who is wearing a lot: Anna Tikhomoriva wearing way less:

Also Pierre Lacotte is French. And Frances definitely does have a very ugly history of racism towards its colonized territories and also towards its large minority populations.

Here's the thing. When the Mariinsky brought La Bayadere to DC they took the blackface off the little kids. They did the same with the international livestream a few years back. So they clearly know that to a larger audience it is offensive. Also the Bolshoi and Mariinsky are Russian companies but they also have a huge international fanbase. They make a lot of money doing lucrative tours to places all over the world. So it's not like they're in a cocoon.

I think it's really naive to say that Russia doesn;t have baggage with racism. I mean just at the World Cup there was a lot of worry about how African players would be received: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-42283328/world-cup-2018-african-fans-in-russia-downplay-racism-fears http://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3519781/world-cup-2018-and-racism-how-will-fifa-police-discrimination-in-russia I actually suspect that blackface is okay in Russia because of the casual, accepted institutional racism.

Kretova does not look "Nubian." She looks like a Caucasian who slopped a ton of black face and smeared it all over her body. You are 100% right that Pharoah's Daughter is a "fantasy" which is why it's absolutely acceptable to have a "fantasy" makeup that doesn't become offensive.

This is absolutely disgusting. I can't believe this kind of makeup is still considered acceptable.

If you're going to use "not a Vaganova grad" then you can apply the same standard to Timur Askerov, Maria Shirinkina, and a number of Mariinsky dancers who are not Vaganova grads. As well as the number of Bolshoi dancers who are not from the Moscow school.

For those who are figure skating fans, Denis Ten died in a shocking murder today. RIP. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/sports/denis-ten-olympic-skater.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fsports&action=click&contentCollection=sports&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront The figure skating world has been very shaken with people posting their tributes all day. Here is Alexei Yagudin:

Yes. Maria K said on instagram that she has a foot injury.

Looks like we have a new Diamond in the making ...

Wow that hasn't been my experience. They've always been extremely accommodating and friendly. There have been a couple times when Life Happened At the Last Minute and I couldn't use my tickets and they've always been great about finding a new date to exchange. Now the Met box office needs a lesson in manners and etiquette.

It's confirmed that Kelley Potter is leaving:

Just so this particular dead horse won't get another beating, I've changed the title of this thread.

I also think Olesya Novikova is a classicist. Not many ballerinas can pull this sort of thing off the way she does:

Viktoria Tereshkina? Her dancing sounds very much like the great Imperial dancers like Legnani and Kschessinskaya. Extremely strong legs and feet, great at par terre footwork, the Prima Ballerina as a beacon of technical strength and security. And for those who say that Tereshkina doesn't have the most beautiful body line, well, the same criticisms were applied to Legnani and Kschessinskaya.

Oh can't believe I forgot this. Swan Lake from the Mariinsky with Uliana Lopatkina and Danila Korsuntsev. La Fille Mal Gardee with Marianela Nunez and Carlos Acosta.