sylphide

Thank you Francoise! I really appreciated your help. Now, may I ask you where I could find a picture of Sophie Boulineau?

Thanks for your reply Dido... but I am afraid that I might not have expressed myself correctly since english is not my first language... So I will rephrase my question: Would anybody know of a female dancer from Afro/Caribbean descent that has been employed at the Paris Opera Ballet around the late 80's - mid 90's? Hope this is clearer...

I have just finished a very simple yet extremely interesting book called "Reverence" by Elise Ropers, a former dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet. I would actually recommend the book to anyone...who reads French that is . (I read it in one evening!). The author herself says that all the facts are real but that she has changed a few names in telling her story. So this is my question to anyone who has knowledge of dancers in POB: I would love to know who are/were the female members of the company from Afro/Caribbean descent? Mrs. Ropers talks in her book about a dear friend of hers that was of Caribbean descent and the problems they both encountered while at the POB. I would love to know who this might be! According to the book, she would have been employed around the late 80's to mid 90's. Aside from Raphaelle Delauney, nothing comes to my mind.

Mel, "gaveuse" is the feminin form of the noun refering to a person that stuffs poultry (ie. to make foie gras for example)... I don't know... I kind of thought that if they made up a Ballet called "La Vivandiere" (which I love), they could have also made up a ballet called "La gaveuse"...about a beautiful and dreamy peasant girl... Ok, maybe I have Too much imagination.

Same goes for me...Just wondering though, could there be a slight possibility that the word might be "gaveuse" and not "gayeuse"? :shrug:

I must say I was very pleased with the National Ballet's performance on Saturday. Paquita, you made a very good review of the performance and I pretty much agree with what you have said. I also particularily loved the costumes and the set: the way all colors matched was extremely pleasing to the eyes. I really had a feeling of watching an "alive" painting. Overall: clean and neat, very adequate dancing. I must admitt that the end of performance aplause was quite moving and there were a lot of people crying around me, since it was Mr. Harrington last season.

I have recently purchased "Kirov Ballet Classic Ballet Night" and I think it is a real gem! It features Diane and Actheon, Esmeralda , Flower Festival in Genzano, La Vivandiere, the Venice Carnaval and the Pas de quatre, all very beautifully danced by the Kirov dancers. What is nice is that I finally got to see some pieces that are rarely danced here in America. Although some did not like it, I would stongly suggest anyone who has respect for dancers and the hard work they endure to get " Etoiles", a documentary by Nils Tavernier on the Opera de Paris dancers. I probably watched it a 100 times and am beginning to know it by heart. True, there are not alot of dancing scenes since but M. Tavernier wanted to focus on the "work" that goes on behind the scenes and he did a marvelous job at it! So you get a real feel of what goes on in the life of a dancer for a major company

I will be seeing the NBoC's Onegin on opening night with very good seatings. I think I should be honest and admit that my 2 favorite companies in the world are the Paris Opera Ballet and the Kirov Ballet and will unfortunatedly have a tendency to subconsciously have higher expectations when I will be watching the performers this Saturday. I just love the story of Onegin and am a big fan of A. Pushkin's work. So my question is, What is in your opinion the major strengths of the NBoC , so I can look for their most positive assests during the show. thanks

Merci Traviata! les extraits sont super

Sorry, this is the valid address: www.dancetheatreofharlem.com

Hi Fraildove, I believe Rasta Thomas joined the Dance Theater of Harlem in 2003. If you go check their website DTH you will find a small bio on him. Hope this helps!

Mr. Mel, could it be that when she starts her glissade, she is not fullly "brushing" the floor with her right foot? Although I would LOVE my glissades to look like this...It appears to me that she is lifting her heel at the very end of her demi-plie.

I totally agree with you . "What she doesn't want to do is have some sort of "program" introducing inner-city kids to some ballet classes " Although I am not from the USA and have not seen any of those programs, which I know also exist in South Africa, it is a shame that most of them SEEM to consist more of recreational activities based on ballet and do not seem to have the rigor and discipline of ballet. As my Russian teacher said to me once in private class: The beauty and grace that comes out of ballet is due to all the hard work and physical effort you put in in every lesson. The rest is purely movement to music and therefore cannot be called ballet. This is why we need more SERIOUS type training for those kids and not have them pretend that they are doing Ballet if we want more non-white dancers emerging on the classical dance scene. And this is just for inner-city kids ...If we start to talk about upper-class non-whites that have set a foot in a school but are discriminated on ....I will not start on that subject... All the best to you and your daughter!

I just wanted to add something... even though you have all well debated on the subject. Its the mom: How lucky you are to have a daughter with such determination.WOW, I am sure that she will go as far as she wishes in ballet since this path is one of many hurdles and it takes fierce determination to succeed. I just wanted to say that when I took ballet for the first time at age 11, I did ask my teacher a year after beginnig classes why were there not any black ballerinas and she plainly replied that it was because they broke uniformity. Needless to say that for the fragile, insecure and dreamy child I was at the time, it was enough to send me home crying to my mother ...and never setting foot in a studio for the next 7 years of my life. So, I think that a major non-economical reason why there aren't any more non-white dancers in classical ballet: pure logic makes me deduct that to be a pro in this field , you need to have uncomparable extremely rare human quality ( at a very early age) which is called determination and self confidence, 2 attributes I think a MINORITY of human being possess. So if you are a non-white young aspiring ballerina, this is a lot that is asked from you at a very young age, plus all the other issues and pressure you have to deal with (to sum it up:being always different in a field that converges toward classicism and uniformity). In addition, I am sure that in various studios around the world, non-white children are not being corrected enough since their teacher does not see them as pro material which could lead to lack of improvement. Also we all know that in the most prestigious ballet schools in this world, the decision makers attempt first eliminations by simply looking at the child(proportions, rotations, arches..etc) So we will never be sure if wether or not some children are not turned down simply because of their skin color. (Although this method is generally unfair to all anyways) Any how, I could go on forever on this topic and I just wanted to say that we are all somewhat responsible as ballet lovers to make this beautiful art accessible to any soul that is drawn to ballet and this starts by making people like this teacher aware that it is a shame that in 2003 one could still make inappropriate comments like that.