Funny Face

Mel, I've observed that students in class at the U. have the most questions about getting into the first turn, and the counts for so doing. How would you break that down? Thanks.

Just wanted to give a heads up to those who would like to watch some non-competitive figure skating this weekend, and get to see some skaters we haven't seen in awhile. New mom, Kristi Yamaguchi is presenting "Kristi Yamaguchi's Salute to American Music" this Sunday, at 3:00 p.m. (CST) on network tv. Check your local listings. The program will run two hours and features Kurt Browning, Paul Wylie, Nicole Bobek and Katia Gordeeva. I'm especially looking forward to seeing Wylie again. (For those interested in watching competition, Cup of China is on earlier in the day, also on network tv).

Wait -- what's wrong with talking to furniture? As in, "Blast you, you @#!$@#!S!!!" when I cut the corner too sharply in walking by a desk. I talk to walls too. The ones I clip with my shoulder. I can't be the only one people chide, "Dance much?" I know, I know, off topic ... However, in reading through this thread, it seems that because, as vagansmom pointed out, autism was once recognized only in its severest form, there seems to be a hazy blend of the effects of autism and abuse. In other words, there are many souls whose problems were exacerbated by others' lack of understanding as to just what was 'wrong' with them. These are the people who may have seemed relatively functional, but somehow didn't fit in. As a consequence, the problem worsens.

Well, the jury's still out for me on this one, as I'm interested in points of view on this topic. I, too, find focusing and memorization to come easily. The reverse aspect is what intrigues me because the person to whom this came so easily was not a very talented dancer (I'm being kind), but at the same time had this one particular asset.

Question: what do you think accounts for someone's ability to reverse any combination without thought, no matter how complex? I knew one student who begged to reverse every combination in center (while almost everyone else groaned at the request). I kidded her one time that she must have exited her mother's womb backwards. I understand that some have a greater facility than others for reversing, and of course this often factors in just how much training they've had to reach a certain comfort level with this. But what about the person who thrives on this, and seems to do it automatically?

I did charms for awhile myself, and modernized the look by taking them off the bracelet and having them attached to a long necklace. I never really wear it -- it's more on display. I've also done the matchbooks, which I keep displayed in a gigantic snifter. However, I've collected so many, I've on occasion put some in a smaller snifter and given them as a present to someone else. I also like the idea of turning almost anything into an ornament. We have one house in our neighborhood that has had a long tradtion of keeping a holiday tree up all year in the bay window, and changing the display, depending upon the season, whether it be Easter of Mardi Gras, etc. I did this on a smaller scale one year for Valentine's day, since all kinds of hearts seem to come into my life. I'm also picky about my ballet ornaments. It's always kind of embarrassing when someone who knows you dance points to something (a sculpture, etc.) and says "Oh, you'd love that!" just because it has to do with dance, when it might be perfectly grotesque.

I recall hurrying into place one day in modern class by walking quickly in a semi circle with my entire body leaning into the direction I was walking. It was just a natural way to cover the distance in the quickest way, but the teacher stopped, grinned, and said, "That was so post modern!" Who knew?! It appears that this term can apply to most anything, from poetry to anthropology to medicine. Here is one definition from a sociological viewpoint: "......is the belief that direction, evolution and progression have ended in social history, and society is based instead upon the decline of absolute truths, and the rise of relativity......" For those inclined to delve deeper, a variety of sites: http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Kl...lages/pomo.html http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/so...MODE/post11.htm http://www.poetry-portal.com/styles5.html http://www.holistichealthtopics.com/HMG/postmod.html http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm

A number of years ago, one of my ballet teachers, who danced with Rambert's company decades ago, went with her granddaughter into the pet shop a couple of doors down from our school to buy a dog collar. I asked them what they were up to, and "Mary," my teacher, explained that she was starting her granddaughter on her old tradition of collecting and displaying key chains. Key chains, she told me, were small and affordable souvenirs she had collected over the years of her touring and travels, and she had kept a large stuffed dog on her bed with a dog collar around its neck and the chains suspended from the dog collar. I thought it was a charming idea, and realized that I also had one stuffed dog at home given to me by one of my brothers and plenty of key chains from my travels and I did the same thing with them. Mary told me that she had been robbed recently, and the crook(s) took her beloved stuffed dog and all the chains. She therefore decided to have her granddaughter carry on the tradition with a new stuffed dog and collar. What kinds of things have our touring dancers collected? Any themes? I've been a photographer for many years, and so I particularly love not only to shoot a lot of pictures but find inventive ways to frame things. For instance, while performing on the same bill with a company of Soviet Georgian dancers, they gave our dancers a tiny Georgian female dancer doll in a plastic case. It didn't look like more than a trinket in that package, but I took it to a framer who I love to collaborate with, and he mounted the doll on a sort of pedestal and framed it in a very ornate frame, and it's quite beautiful now. On another tour, while we were in Prague, we picked up a few flyers of the resident ballet company there, and the art work on these was so incredible that I had to do something special with them. They'd been sitting in a drawer for years, and I finally took them to the same framer to have them mounted in the same frame together. There's really nothing you can't find a way to frame, and the slightest souvenir can become quite special looking, even if it's just a collage of menus, train passes, etc. I've also given small presents to others when going overseas, and it's fun to come up with things that are indicative of our culture. I've given items made from vintage quilts, like a baseball or ornament or collar. Some of my company members have given away lots of bottles of Tabasco sauce, since we're from the land of gumbo and jambalaya. When I was in Paris, I so wanted to get along with everyone, that whenever I was in a shop or a coffee house, I would put an especially colorful strand of Mardi Gras beads around the neck of the proprietor. They were very receptive to this. Perhaps the most memorable gifts I saw a company member distribute came from a male dancer in our troupe. His brother had been a very beloved priest in his area, who had a diverse congregation that included many elderly as well as motorcycle gangs. He went for a walk one evening outside the rectory and was shot dead for a dollar. He had been given many, many stuffed animals over the years by his parishioners, which his brother, the dancer, took to France. As we paraded through the streets that summer, he distributed them to many children. It was like seeing his brother's spirit continuing to spread.

Hi Xena. The closest I can come is having relatives on my maternal grandmother's side from Hungary. And, including a Hungarian suite in our dance company's repertoire. I swear, you all sound so exotic. I am also wondering how many of you who have posted in this thread are multi-lingual.

I've never had problems with where I've sat in any settng. But, I do identify with this problem in performance. Many years ago, I was dancing on a platform 30 feet above the stage in a Las Vegas industrial show. I kept thinking of the fall Ann Margret took and it gave me the shudders. I just had to focus on what I was doing, but I didn't enjoy it, particularly on such a narrow space that far up. I guess these experiences are rites of passage in a performer's life.

Bujones. I saw him when he was 18 and 32 (in Swan Lake, the latter time). Different qualities each time. I saw Nureyev in 1988, 14 years past the 'decline.' Even so, I would have paid to see him walk across the stage.

Yes, but how could anyone not have seen this coming?

I'd also suggest signing up for a basic course in music lit -- if there is a public college nearby. It would be well worth it. Such courses emphasize being able to absorb both with the mind and the ear. And -- to be aware of what was happening in the other arts and with the world in general at the time various compositions were written. That helps a great deal as well. Precision is a starting point, but not the be all and end all. It's important to be able to 'feel between the lines.' Teachers can help facilitate this by emphasizing how important this aspect of training is to students. We don't want to take away that universal excitement about getting the first pair of pointe shoes, but they simply have to understand that to make their mark in this business they are going to need a lot more than pulled up thigh muscles. We can do this by such things as pushing them to keep the foot out in frappe until the last possible moment before bringing it back in, or to emphasize the stretch and sensuality of a rond de jambe en l'air. To take the deepest possible plie before chasse. Or by ensuring they really BREATHE prior to grand plie or doing cambre forward. We can give regular exercises where they are required to hold 2, 3, 4, 5 counts and so forth. Or during jumps all together in center, have the pianist strike one chord every 8 beats and challenge them to feel in sync with each other. We should certainly be demanding that they hold their ending positions until the last faint note of music, but how often is this really done? When we give musicality the same emphasis as other parts of training, it will happen. I simply don't believe it's stressed enough here (in the U.S.), but rather left more to chance that a few naturally gifted (or trained) will display it as the rare quality it currently is.

My experience is that musicality is extremely rare. I just don't see it very often. I've heard a number of conjunctions throughout this thread -- the one I would be inclined to use is dancing THROUGH the music. There should be a sense of sound and movement interweaving. I also believe it combines skill with feeling. In other words, even though I have been trained as a musician and had musicians as parents, when I dance, I do not count. It's a matter of having something so ingrained in you that you can actually 'forget' it and let instinct take over. If you think about it, the highly trained dancer doesn't say to herself while on stage, "Okay, I've got to remember to take a deep plie here, then stretch my legs out, oh, and yes, land through the foot." Not only is she not focusing on her technique, she's not focusing on the actual combination either. "Okay, this is where he enters and I've got four counts to reach him, and then he's going to place his hands just so, etc." At this point, the skill is at the level that things become instinctual. I know some may disagree with me on this, but I think instinct often follows solid training. It's true that some people have inherent gifts, but you'll often discover that they picked up a great deal via osmosis in their early environments.

Yes. Is it just me, or do Lara and Dr. Zhivago seem like children in this version compared to the duo as portrayed by Julie Christie and Omar Shariff? I also realize how much the music from the movie meant to me. It was incredibly mood setting. I have the soundtrack still and all of it is so powerful. The PBS version has some pretty graphic scenes with the dismembered bodies, etc. Yet, it doesn't have the same effect on me that the movie did. I need to rent it soon. It was a great 'date' movie when it first came out. The kind people actually dressed up to go see in the theaters -- at least up in the Midwest.

Yes, I've enjoyed that series a number of times. Other favorites I have on tape are the Lilly Langtry series with Francesca Annis, and "Pride and Prejudice." I'm wondering how many of you caught the recently aired "Goodbye Mr. Chips," and your impressions. Hope everyone is also contributing when they can to public tv and radio. It's such an artistic refuge.

Interesting comments. I'd always wondered about Tara Lipinski's public statement about retiring from amateur competition because she wanted to spend more time with her father from whom she'd been separated during much of her training. Then, she proceeded to tour throughout the U.S. as a professional (close to her father?). When the hip story came out, it made sense. There have been far too many injuries in recent years for these to be flukes. Elvis also suffering so much and unable to proceed as planned in his career. I recall watching Kurt Browning getting a massage back stage, in obvious agony, and saying that the hip that was being worked on wasn't even the "bad" one. Granted, he is somewhat older than the others, but you still have to wonder what is going on. Sarah Hughes looked considerably heavier the last time I saw her in competition. It interfered with her line, for me, anyway. Maybe Kwan's not getting into triple triple combos, and trying to maintain a life in college and with her personal relationship, has kept her in good stead. I wish Mr. Button could/would visit this board, esp. since he was the first to land a triple in competition. He could shed some additional light on the injury problems, I'm sure.

I think getting teens to dress up is like taking a guy to church. They'd love to do it -- but would rather have it seem it was YOUR idea. I do remember those years as a teen, going to ballet performances (or anywhere, for that matter, that was out of my regular weekday routine). Bunheads LOVE to get dishy, are you kidding? (After a week of sweating in tights and t-shirts and warmers). Just going to a restaurant every Sun. night with my dance roommates in college was a thrill -- for us it meant being clean as a whistle and puting a blazer on with our jeans to "dress it up." A little tradition makes everyone feel that things are right with the world. My bet is that these teens are waiting to take their cue from you. Just make sure you compliment them on how "good they clean up." Have a wonderful time.

I like being fined for sitting in your costume. Another gamepiece: the bathroom scale ... ouch! Of course there's worse than "gain 10 pounds." How about "gain 10 years?" I keep getting this wicked thought - - "Lose a turn. Pack your bags and take the next train from NYC to Podunk, teaching at a Dolly Dinkle school." Or the thinly veiled: "Congratulations. You keep a diary of your first fledgling season. It gets published and the royalties pour in. Collect $1,000 from each player and advance to Boardwalk. If it's already owned, conduct a hostile takeover."

Wow. I actually know where that is. I am wondering what kind of ballet culture is present there, because of its proximity to both Russia and the Middle East.

Mom2, competitions are not necessarily aired at the time they take place. As to the feet pointing or not, as well as other aspects of artistry, it's not really indigenous to any country. I believe it has more to do with what particular coaches emphasize. Case in point, while we often associate Russians with ballet, it is the American women who currently have much better spirals. It almost seems that Michelle Kwan set the bar in this respect. Other skaters coming up the ranks are following suit and trying to emulate her. One of the things talked about a good deal in the men's competition today was what a difference it makes when a skater looks up and acknowledges the audience (Vlascenko), as opposed to looking at the ice (Honda). When I was watching this, I thought how applicable this was to dancers as well. It's so important to dance in every class with a focus that is outward directed, so that it becomes second nature when it's time to perform.

I don't know if any of you caught the men's competition today. Of all the men, the one who really caught my eye in terms of presence and line was Vlascenko of Germany/Latvia. Not one wasted movement. Every bit of music was accounted for. Although he didn't fall, his jumps were not as strong as those of other skaters, with him singling and doubling many. But the performance quality and artistry were quite beautiful. He had that extra something I didn't see anyone else show. (He came in 4th). His highest standing ever was in 1998 -- 5th at Worlds.

Eureka, I got it today! My schedule has been such that I haven't taken a walk into the French Quarter in several years, even though it's a stone's throw from my office, but today the weather was so beautiful, I had to take a stroll, and right near where I ate is a fantastic vintage-y used bookstore with a great dance section. It took me about two seconds to find it. $8.00 -- I'm a happy camper. And, by the way, it was written in 1982. It's a short book -- totals 150 pages. I'm going to reread tonight. :rolleyes:

The Tomboy Cowgirl from "Rodeo." No tutus or tiaras, please. This role would be 7th heaven for someone who grew up with six boys and likes her ballet tempered by high stepping fun. And gosh, this will be one night this hyperextended dancer won't have to worry about keeping her heels together. Giddyup!

Thanks for that comprehensive explanation, nlkflint. I've seen programs on this from time to time about a high impact exercise taken to extremes, resulting in fragile bones instead of the opposite. This -- combined, of course, as you explained, with problem eating and hormonal disturbances. When that body fat dips below 12%, it's time to be concerned. It may seem convenient for dancers and skaters, etc. to be skipping periods, but it's not healthy.