dido

Struck me as "weird" too, but on reflection perhaps he was trying to give an impression of the almost disorienting effect that computer generation animation has (on me anyway). Now, sadly, I can't think of any concrete examples, but when I see it, it almost always makes me feel dizzy. I can picture that being very effective for Odette's arms. Just a thought.

Does any one have casting for this weekend? I'm going to try to go twice, because I'd like to see Jennifer Gelfland one last time, but I'd like to see Lorna Feijoo too, I've heard such good things about her here. Any help much appreciated.

Read today somewhere (Herald? Globe? Phoenix? Can't remember and lost the paper) that Wang is rumored to be contemplating a multi-year contract for the Rockettes. Looking at that poll (the Nutcracker leading now at 84%) who's going to go see it the first year, much less years to come? Everybody seems to be insanely polite about this, but I seem to be missing something here, is this not the most widely attended Nutcracker in the world or something ridiculous like that? Okay, I found it, it's in this week's Phoenix (maybe somebody smarter than I am can get the link) Jeffrey Gantz giving all the pertinent information. He ends, "Boston has never done anything to deserve a ballet company this big or this good, but we got it anyway. Now, if action isn't taken, we may lose it. The international arts world will be waiting to see whether Boston lets the world's most popular Nutcracker go homeless, and whether it lets one of America's finest ballet compalies go unsupported. We already lost game seven to the Yankees. Our biggest and best daily newspaper is owned by the New York Times. Do we have to trash Boston Ballet so we can watch the Rockettes?"

Ooh, I want to come as the Ballerina from Petrushka, and wear the exact same costume as the picture of Karsavina. Can I have her eyes too?

Thanks for all of the replies. I guess I was thinking also of (how embarassing again) the Red Shoes, because Moira Shearer (well, ok, Dowell too) is the only earlier RB dancer I've seen much of. I know what silvy means about the "stacatto" effect, and I don't think it was that I was reacting to, the Violante and Canary are two of my favorite variations. Upon further viewing and reflection I realize that it isn't the whole company at all (what a dumb generalization!) and not even all the time. Just in certain places, certain times I spot something that I find something jarring, something that makes me uncomfortable to watch, as if I were worried for the dancer(s). Mostly I guess I was expecting something very like what Paul so beautifully described, and wondering if my imagination was demanding the impossible.

This is really more of a question than a comment. I have yet to see the Royal Ballet actually and so I am relying pretty much entirely on the video Sleeping Beauty with Durante and the entire company seems very stiff/jerky/rigid to me in some indefinable way. I notice it most in the smiles, which seem a little frozen, but it's more than that. Reading this thread it seems as though one of the salient characteristics of the RB was pliancy. Mostly I wonder, am I imagining the stiffness?

Can any one tell me whose foot they were using on the street ads in New York this summer? It's been driving me crazy for months now. Just a (female, toe-shod) foot pointed in tendu devant (it looked like) and maybe a hand as well? Thanks for any information that will let me get a good nights sleep.

The ballet fades pretty quickly in Come a Stranger, though C. Voight is always worth reading. Mina is starting to fill out, and she ends up leaving a summer program (I think her problem is agravated by being the only black girl there, on top of the butt-boobs problem), and most of the book is taken up with her relationship with a new preacher in town. I think this is before Dicy and the other kids arrive, but I haven't read it in a while, definitely connected with the Tillermans as Mina later becomes good friends with Dicy. I remember loving the Maggie Adams books in jr high, but I suspect they would embarrass me today... A great book that I only vaguely remember (title may have had the word Joker in it?) is about the rivalry between two "best" girls at a ballet studio. Their teacher takes them to see Pavlova, who gives the non-heroine girl a pair of her pointes.... A really dark and interesting book as I remember it. Anybody here read it?

A newer book (recently released in paper back) with a ballet theme for middle-school, early highschool is All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel by ? (sorry I'm blanking), though ballet is definitely in the background. It's a beautiful book, a little more substantial than most.

I was very much looking forward to the new season... until I saw they raised the student rush prices to $15... I'm sure that people in other places are grumbling "You don't know how lucky you are," but honestly that's a lot of money for a student... almost 2 ballet classes. Can this really be cost effective? I went to Giselle 3 times last year, and Onegin twice. Am I going to go see Swan Lake 3 times this year? Maybe if it's scheduled to run from the end of one paycheck to the beginning of another!

I really enjoyed it too. It was very much not the typical ballerina autobiography (although I think that "typical" might be notional). The political details made me swim a little bit, but eventually I resorted to letting the names just wash over me, and allowing myself to be content with understanding the bare outlines. Best of all I really felt that there was a voice behind the book, and now I feel (just a little, little bit) that I know Plisetskaya (who I wish, I wish, I wish I had been able to see.)

So glad to hear everyone is alright (so far).

My roommate (who is a strictly video games and violent-crime-novel type of guy came home to inform me of the situation right after it broke. He didn't remember what Ms. V.'s name was, he didn't even notice where she danced. All he remembered what that she got fired for being "too fat." So, I got some ammo (from this site and the links) and gave him a lecture and showed him some strategically chosen pictures of dancers... And he listened, and even watched some of the RB's Sleeping Beauty when I had it on. He still doesn't give a darn about ballet and the last 2 times I headed off for ballet class he made a point of sitting on the couch eating Ben and Jerry's out of the pint, and saying something about "Anastasia." Maybe somebody else got lucky with their non-ballet person. I hope so.

What about Suspiria? Innocent american ballet dancer goes to top school somewhere in middle Europe, only the school is an ancient, deeply sick witch coven . . . The ballet (what little there is) is pretty pathetic, but the horror is pretty decent. Scared the hell out of me anyway. The director (who is famous in horror circles, but not my circles, so I don't remember his name) is known for being very intellectual and all that, so I'm sure he had some deeper purpose in mind. I think, sadly, it has a lot to do with an outsider's view of a female dominated profession (both in terms of performance and training).

Thanks a ton, especially for the library thought. I'm pretty sure that's where the copy I saw came from.

I saw this about ten years ago, a documentary about the Kirov (I think) school, has anybody seen it around lately? My memory is a little fuzzy, in facct the only thing I really firmly remember is when they went on holiday and this little coltish girl doing jetes on the beach.