Helene

I have such mixed feelings about the choreography and performance. I mostly dislike how the music is slowed to molasses to support the first set of balances. In many ways the changes to the choreography make it immodest, the big lifts in particular. What I loved about the performance was how Valdes maintained a sense of modesty throughout the glitz and the big moves, with details like the one that bart describes of making the flowers part of the choreography, the way she took a longish look at her parents after putting down the flowers, and engaging with all of the princes. In terms of virtuosity, the height for me was the way she went quickly, without hesitation, with a quick step-step, into the first of the final attitude balances, and the first prince started to promenade her a beat after her supporting pointe hit the ground. That was fearless.

I'm about to put a damper on this thread, to explain that we have a standard list of companies that go on the Calendar, and the number is limited to what we can sustain year after year. We do the work ourselves, and restrict permissions to Moderators, because in the past we've found entries that are off mission to Ballet Talk (often student performances). We rarely expand the list; Corella Ballet is an exception this year, although not yet done, as it has become the major ballet company in Spain and was created by a dancer in whom there has been significant interest. There are several other companies that have been on the Calendar in past years (Malakhov's Berlin Ballet, for example) that will be added as information becomes available on their website (or in a usable way).

I was trying to change the screens to get rid of all of the photo references, but there were a couple I couldn't figure out.

More of the princes are involved in this than in any other version I've seen.

I just found "yucky" and added it: Is this the one you mean?

We don't support uploading graphics files on Ballet Talk, including avatars, with the exception of rg's photo collection that rg so generously shares with us.

Have you clicked "Show All" at the bottom? If so, and it's not there -- odd because the only global setting is "all or nothing", try typing: colon(no space)CAPITAL "P" ":""P" (without the "'s)

Welcome to Ballet Talk, dramos! You will find lots about ballet on this site, which is focused on the watching rather than the doing. To get a grounding, the best to start is the Discovering the Art forum. Since you are the parent of a pre-professional dancer, we recommend that you join our sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers, where you'll find information about the doing aspect of ballet and fellow parents who have stood and are standing in your shoes.

My favorite scenes in the documentary are Vladimir Vasiliev in street clothes coaching Loudieres in "Giselle".