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I think i'll have to find the Vodka bottle and cheer myself up. Ahhh Vodka and Coke a drink from my youth. (Whoops, sorry is that inappropriate for the board? If it is please delete)

This is fun. I was Fokine.

Nooooooooooo, I'm Stravinsky as well. I don't want to be Stravinsky! Anyone else but Stravinsky, pleeeeese.

Not summer here in good old Oz, no summer holidays yet, just work, work, work and posting on Ballet Talk. However it is a lovely day today about 20 degrees Celsius. Actually we have had very little cold weather, I think we will have an early spring and another hot dry summer. I just hope that the bush fires give us a miss this summer and we get rain, most of the eastern states are still heavily drought effected.

I also read that the RAD is holding the Genee in various cities to encourage students of other countries to enter.

I did not see the performance but as I drove past I saw dancers loaded down with garment bags (maybe had a costume inside) plus there were some photos in the newspapers with candidates in costume. If you want more information here is the genee page from the RAD site http://www.rad.org.uk/genee/genee.html

I caught an ad for the Siberian Cossacks dance troupe the other day and rushed to the booking agent to get tickets. I really feel for you Ozzie not having the opportunity to see many dance performances. We saw the cossacks a few years ago and loved the performance and have been waiting for them to return. I can barely wait for the night. Maybe I could post a review. Poor Ozzie I for you

Took the family to see "The Two Emperors" exhibit. This is a small selection of items from Chinese Emperors burial sites. The objects were amazing. The terracotta soldiers, life size figures of a general, some lesser ranked military men, archers, cavalry men plus a life size teracotta horse were superbly detailed and had such presence that I could almost see them breathing. Then there were the 1/3 sized figures of musicians, cavalry, animals such as goats, pigs, sheep with equally beautiful details. If this exhibition comes to your city it is very worthwhile culturally and artistically to visit.

Just happened to catch some of "Clambake" with Elvis. A little girl about 10 knocks out about 6-8 fouettes (was in shock and didn't count) in the playground and dances with "the Pelvis".

Checked with Grandmother and here are some of her suggestions however she did say some people may not consider them as uplifting but the books are certainly not depressing. Taylor Caldwell's novels, E.V. Timms, Sharon Penman Your hills are too high by Roslyn Taylor, James Herriot as suggested by some posters plus the latest (?) which is an autobiography, Michael Crawford's autobiography. She said she would try to come up with some more ideas for you.

I remember a conversation with two male friends at uni many years ago, they had Vegemite on toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner quite often. I'm not sure how our American friends would manage on that diet. I think our English friends are aquainted with Marmite ( not quite the same!) Some of them may have lived on this as students.

Has your mother read Angelas Ashes, A Monk swimming, A Fortunate Life. My Grandmother loved these books, stories about tough lives but have some humour. She also loved "The Winter Sparrows" ( I think, will try to check for you). She chuckled through it, a little bit of "language" through it by she didn't mind. I will check her library and try to come up with some more titles. She also enjoyed Sally Morgan's books.

I don't hate TV but I wouldn't say I hate it. There are a few programs that I enjoy and try to watch every week. TV is good for seeing things that you may not normally get a chance to watch. Over the Christmas break I watched Aereos (not sure of spelling) has anyone else seen that? Also handy for watching all those ballet videos:D

Sorry, I tried to edit but I still can't figure it out. I realised I wasn't very clear. I meant Australian poetry plus Shelley and others.

Sorry, Grace should have remembered that "Doll" was Australian. The fact was many of our required reading novels at school wasn't too my taste and many times I would only read bits and pieces from them and try to cobble together essays on the books. Which probably explains my mistake, that, and it is a good 20 years ago. The Aus. poetry (Shelley and others) was read at home, except I did have a teacher in primary who would read a bit of Aus poetry to us. She was the same one who introduced the class to poetry with "The Highwayman". I think the only literature that i liked from school were Huck Finn and Macbeth. It really was a shame that in the 1970's Australian literature didn't play a larger role in our schooling. Even these days my daughters still are not given much Aus lit, but maybe there is more balance some American, some English and some Aus.

Grace, I don't recall reading any Australian lit. at school, not even High School. Read some American, Streetcar named Desire, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Huck Finn And much English lit. Shakespeare, loved Macbeth not so keen on Romeo and Juliet I always thought they should have eloped. We had to read Donne which I didn't like either. At home I would read poetry loved Shelley and always wished we could have read it at school. I would also read Australian poets too, we didn't read Aus. poetry at school, shame.

We didn't have assemblies as such but had the occasional "special event" and often was included in mufti days. This happened mainly in high school. I remember our Italian class writing a play and performing it along with dancing a tarantella and singing Italian songs. The French class performed a similar program. The school band and choir would also perform (boy, did i have some quick changes!). On these days we usually had classes in the morning and the production in the afternoon and they were fund raising events. My school sponsered several children overseas and we all paid a "fine" for the privilege of wearing mufti. The fine was double if we forgot and wore school uniform. Other times we might fund raise for a special school item like new stage curtains etc. The only other times we had performances at assemblies were Year 12 Farewells where they would put on a show, usually very silly and the end of year Awards and Presentations where only the choir, band and language classes (singing traditional songs) would be on the program.

Ahh, The Highwayman. My 3rd class teacher introduced our class to poetry with this. We had art music and dance from Kindergarten through to Year 10 when due to University prerequisites I had to leave art and music behind (mostly) to persue other subjects. We did all kinds of art and craft in primary school from chalks and charcoal to paint and basket weaving even macrame! Dancing was done in our daggy sports uniform, a tunic and bloomers. Does anybody else remember that uniform? We would dance the Mexican Hat Dance and The Pride of Erin don't remeber the others. We also learnt the Charlston and my mother made a fringed dress for me to wear for a school show. In high school we had art and music lessons each week, sometimes for sport we would have dance, Pride of Erin again and the Mexican Hat Dance! My friends roped me in for the Choir, bad idea because I have a terrible voice but they needed more choir members, i would sing very softly so i wouldn't offend anyone. I was also in the school band and played the piano or clarinet. Australian schools still have a strong arts curriculum.

Hans, SSR could be silent, sustained reading ( in Aus. anyway) I don't remember when or how I started to read, I just know that I read, it came very easily to me. My teachers would just give me books to read that the others would not be reading. I went to public schools from Infants to High School. While in Infants and primary two other girls and I would go to the Headmistress for reading and I know that the books we read were high school books because they were stamped with the H.S name and the Form that would be reading those books. If I didn't have anything to read I would read the Atlas or the Encyclopedias at home. Infants did not have a library so when we moved up to the primary school we had our own library ( I was made a library monitor, all those books! the joy!) We were taken on an excursion to the town library where we all received library cards and after that I would pester my father to take me to the library every Saturday morning. High School had an even bigger library only problem was more study, less time to read!

I loved reading, still do. As a child I would read Grimm Brothers, Louisa May Alcott. Any books about horses, I devoured Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby series probably my favourites then. Long time passing (don't remember the author's name) Also poetry, Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson. First adult book was Wuthering Heights read it when I was about 10. From then on many of the Bronte sisters' works other classics as well.

They changed Siegfried to Daniel? But left "Odette" and "Odile? I think they should have changed the names to Kylie and Danni !

I don't like them either in classical ballet. I am reminded of a banana when I see over-splits. Dropped crotch ow... painful!

If any other people have opinions on this subjects I would be interested in hearing/reading them

I hope I'm not dragging out this thread, forgive me if I am, i'm still new here. But, what you say about young teens attempting variations beyond there physical, emotional and technical development touches a chord with me. i have seen a number of young dancers in competitions here who try very hard to dance variations that IMO are beyond those capabilities so it comes down to tricks. Then other dancers who perform something less taxing and sometimes beautifully are not recognised.

I couldn't sing to save my life but I can hear a bad note. I can see bad positions in dance but that's probably because I was taught ballet. What about people who haven't had dance training can they see how awkward the dancer is or does that come with watching and comparing various dancers over the years? Another thought. Do many young dancers get "rewarded" ( by being placed or winning in competitions for example) for incorrect line, technique, little or no turnout or losing their turnout when they do a particular step. For this I mean older students, adolescents. I'm interested because it seems that those high extensions are what many people are aiming for and I feel that there is more to ballet than how high you can lift your leg. I also recognise that many art forms are evolving but that doesn't mean that the old way has to be discarded or that the new way is some new fangled thing that old fogeys are afraid of. I just feel that technique is the base to work from. I suppose that technique means different things to different people.