Tiffany

Hi. I was thinking that I hadn't logged on to this message board in a long time, so here I am. I am not reading much this year for pleasure because I am back in school working on a masters. Lately Vogue magazine is all that I read, and not much at that. I did try to read The Duchess (Amanda Foreman) since I enjoyed the movie; I didn't make it all the way through the book because it was not easy to read and had lots of history about that time period, and I don't enjoy reading about history in that large of a quantity. I have read the book by Sidney Poitier and enjoyed it. Last year I was in a book club when I was not enrolled in school and we read that as one of our books. Another book we read was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls; incredible, eye-opening book that I finished in 3 days-couldn't put it down.

Good topic.

I sometimes 'dance' along in my seat while watching a ballet (nothing very big, just swinging my leg in time to the beat or kind of feeling the up and down as the dancers do a series of jumps). One of my dance teachers called this a kinesthetic reaction I think? She said that when dancers watch other dancers perform a certain place 'lights up' in their brain that does not light up in non-dancer brains.

I also relate to the comment about pain. I do not have much sympathy for people who constantly complain of pain and probably have never had as hard of a workout as an advanced ballet class is.

Thanks, Ms. Leigh, for writing about your time dancing with ABT. I love reading about the lives of professional dancers.

RE: Katharine Hepburn--you might enjoy reading A. Scott Berg's book about her: Kate Remembered. Berg interviewed Ms. Hepburn about her life and her relationship with Tracy is discussed. This book was difficult for me to read because it discusses many movies I have never seen but I managed to get through it and enjoy parts of it.

I was homeschooled from birth through 8th grade, then went to a private high school and on to a public college.

Homeschool: both parents strongly encouraged reading; we went to the library every week, went to "story hour" @ library, participated in library summer reading program (when I was too young to read my mother read to me so that I could participate), we also participated in "Book It!"-I think that's the name, you read books, and Pizza Hut would give you a certificate for the individual sized pizza for free. I learned to read from another homeschool mother who taught phonics. I was the oldest, my siblings learned to read from my mother teaching them with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann, Haddox & Bruner. I am impressed enough with this easy to use book that I have bought my own copy and one of my life goals is to teach a child to read. My mother would assign for me to read those "We were there at the ____" books for history; they gave a fictional first hand account of the Boston Tea party and other historical events and were much more interesting than the average history text book. While being homeschooled my mother had us take achievement tests (not sure of the actual name) and I was always ahead of my grade level in reading.

High school: assigned to read short stories during the school year and one book over summer; test on book first week of fall semester. Books we read: To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride & Prejudice, The Scarlett Letter, none my 9th grade year. We read Animal Farm in 9th grade english. We kept a journal in one class. My mother required us to keep a journal and I still keep one; it helps me sort through what is troubling me if I write it down. One of our assignments in junior's literature was to bring in our favorite song on CD/tape which the teacher called "modern poetry". We also had to write papers all through high school but I don't really remember what the topics were. We had to write a group research paper-that was awful because my group did not share equally in the work.

College: I have a psychology and a nursing bachelor's degrees, same english requirements for both; had to take 2 english composition (some reading not much) and 2 literatures (general then choice of american/british/world). I hated American literature as we read Ethan Frome, As I Lay Dying by Faulkner and other books I can't remember--not my favorites.

I love to read and I think it is because my parents read to me and I had an easy time with it-no learning disability. :rolleyes: I recently moved and I got my library card before I managed to get my new driver's license!!

I was able to attend Ballet Memphis' show, Trey Bien.

My favorite piece was "Touched". The stage curtains open to a dark stage. The dancers use flashlights to show their arms and their feet as they dance. The dancers did a neat thing opening the piece with their arm, wrist, and hand undulating and shown only by the flashlight. They also spotlighted their feet with the flashlights as they walked. The flashlights were used in cannons with three groups. This piece also had sections that were not dark but had regular stage lighting. Dancers were costumed in baggy grey pants and black tank tops or maybe 'wife beater tops'-I can't remember. Rachel Shumake was given a soloist role in this piece; she is the company's only apprentice and has been with the company since 2002--this was a great opportunity for her and she did an excellent job.

I can't remember much more about this show; I should have written my thoughts down just after watching it.

No, carpet is not ideal for dancing in pointe shoes or ballet slippers!

I did not pay close attention to this but I would glance up from time to time to watch the dancing (I was trying to read through some notes at the same time-bad idea), and it appeared to me that when the dancers were outside the ladies were dancing on concrete on pointe! I thought this would shred their shoes?? I dance on pointe, and I scratch the platforms of my pointe shoes on concrete sometimes to be able to cut the satin off because I prefer that and it doesn't take much scratching to get a hole started on the platform...now the canvas underneath the satin may be more durable, but I have not tried to remove that. I wear grishkos but who knows what type of pointe shoes they wear in Vienna! They even turned/pirouetted on what appeared to be concrete, which looked dangerous to me because it had seams or looked like it was laid like tile.

Once again it is so wonderful to be able to find a thread on Ballet Talk about just about anything related to ballet!

A friend of mine attended a ballet high school/residency program in the USA (I'd prefer not to say which but those of you who know ballet will know which) and they performed the LHH as part of one of their programs at the end of year. Not exactly Bolshoi but anyway...

I caught the Austrian Royal Ballet (that may not be the correct name) on a great performances show on PBS on January 1 at 8pm central time PBS website TV calendar. Their website does not give detailed information about the performance. If anyone else saw it, do you think the ladies were doing pointe on concrete (they were outdoors in parts)? It was a lovely performance to the music of Johann Strauss with brightly colored costumes; the choreography was not the most exciting or unpredictable.

Enjoyed this article in Vogue. Kent writes well and is easily understood. And of course who on this board doesn't love reading the thoughts of one of the great ballet dancers of our time??

Didn't Kent write one or two articles for Dance Magazine recently? I enjoyed those as well.

I found this movie a great hour or two break from reality and a reminder that any bosses/supervisors that I have at work that are making me crazy are just crazy themselves and I shouldn't take it personally! And I loved the clothes! I want to read the book next.

How about Firebird? all of the creatures are pretty creepy; its been 2 years since I've seen it/danced in it, so I can't remember what they're called but they try to keep the prince away from the czarina maybe? and they all dance in a circle with the princesses near the end?

Also The Haunted Ballroom and Night on Bald Mountain. 'Ballroom' has ghosts in it and 'Night' has a devil and witches. 'Night' was performed by now defunct New Orleans, LA ballet company, so I have no idea whether others would call it a ballet or not.

Thanks so much, Ms. Schneider. I have been calling the USA IBC box office today with no luck (just getting a machine), so I've emailed and am waiting for a response. The machine says that tickets are available still but who knows if that is accurate. Hopefully I'll get to go on Monday, June 26, that would work best with my work schedule. I live less than 2 hours from Jackson so it can be a day trip. I don't remember IBCs in the past selling out, maybe they did and I was unaware, but in the future I will get tickets in advance!

Thanks for the info. Yes, I have Adobe Acrobat and the ticket form still won't load, must be something with my computer. I was a student at the dance school and went to the IBC every night in 1998, and was a counselor and again saw IBC performances every night in 2002, so I hate to completely miss this one but I may have waited too long to get tickets and not be able to get any...I only have 3 days that I can attend performances so I'll just call and try my luck tomorrow. As far as the schedule I wanted to know what nights are Round I, which are Round II, etc. Ah maybe in 8 years or so I will have a good enough and flexible enough job to be able to take off from work for the whole 2 weeks and see all performances (I've always missed the afternoon shows).

I have a really dumb question. Is there a listing of who is dancing each night &/or a listing of what round is being conducted each night somewhere? I need to decide what night I will go or if I will go. If such a list does not exist I guess I will just call the ticket person & pester her with questions. Oh I cannot get the ticket order form to load on my computer; I thought it might contain additional info too.

Augusta Ballet does have a ballet school, maybe that will help get them out of debt.

I don't know much about the European ballet scene, but I did talk to someone who had danced in Europe for one year. The benefits alone, at least for her former company, sounded fabulous. She got a month paid vacation, and she had retirement savings from that year of dancing. Needless to say, she has no retirement from dancing for major ballet companies (in the top 10 by size) over here in the USA.

My grandmother, not a dance authority but still knowledgeable about a range of subjects, said once that in Europe, young children go to the ballet. Everyone goes. Tickets are cheap enough for people to afford. Ballet is subsidized by government. I'm sure that has many implications that I have no knowledge of. That is what she thought, anyway, I haven't researched it. But, education is probably a great weapon against ignorance and lack of appreciation of ballet.

Where I live, in the south, many people have never been to a ballet. Or they've only been to Nutcracker. There are a lot of great ballets more entertaining than Nutcracker. Friend of mine just saw Coppelia. He had formerly only seen Nut. He loved Coppelia and was so impressed. Of course, it has humor and a stronger story line than Nut., IMHO. But lets not debate which ballet is 'better'.

Of course in MS there is only one professional ballet company, Ballet Magnificat, who does not perform many (any?) traditional ballets. Ballet Mag. mainly appeals to those seeking a show with Christian content. They only cater to that type of audience. This is not great for raising awareness of ballet in general. That is not to say that they have poor technique or anything like that, they simply don't perform the 'normal' ballet rep. We used to have Ballet MS. Then they closed down in the '90's I think.

And then there's the unusual dispersion of ballet/modern companies...There's 1 ballet company in MS, 2 in AL, 3+ in GA, tons in SC & NC...Its not equal by state....One BT4D member commented that perhaps its related to population-more dance in GA because larger population = people more interested in the arts, more educated, etc.

How many states do not have a classical ballet company (as in performs the classics and/or contemporary works too)? I would qualify MS as one.

In regards to training, I've always hated that it cost so much more to learn ballet than a sport. People volunteer their time to coach community sports teams, but ballet really is a 'rich person's activity' unless you are lucky enough to live where the public school system has dance.

Sorry this rambles on and on. I feel very strongly, in a negative way, about the lack of support for ballet companies in the US.

Or what about another point of view....overdancing in the studio, non-professional venue. In the movie "The Company" with Neve Campbell & Joffrey Ballet, there is a short clip of young students and 'young Neve' is dancing more enthusiastically than the others. I see this at my former studio, non-professional but non-dinkle also, just a good recreational studio, where there are one or two that are the best in their class and dance with more energy than the rest. So are they overdancing? Or is the rest of the class underdancing (who don't use as much energy, have as good of mastery of their dance, have as good technique, as the best one or two)?

Thanks for your thoughts. My parents and I were surprised that all of these studios were in good parts of town because we hypothetically thought that the majority of studios would be in the not so nice, cheaper rent sections of town. I agree that many factors play into studio location and I didn't consider the convenience of being located close to a theatre for performing.

I recently auditioned for 3 ballet companies: Ballet Memphis, Augusta Ballet, and Atlanta Festival Ballet. My parents accompanied me and were amazed that all of their studios were located in good parts of town (not the ghetto) and were near hospitals (handy for me, the nursing major; would make it easier to get to a dance class after work if I don't get a job dancing). Is this common? Are ballet companies studios normally in good parts of town? And just for fun, near hospitals too? All were within 10 minutes of driving to a hospital.

There is one ballet company in MS, Ballet Magnificat!, and their studio is in a good part of Jackson, MS. Its probably within 10 minutes of a hospital, I'd have to time it, but they're both off I-55...

No colleges that I know of. I can definitely say no colleges in MS, USA, where I live. No ballet companies associated with colleges, period, in MS; the University of Southern MS has 2 resident student made up companies that are modern, the University of MS has a student musical theatre company (Showstoppers) and student company (not sure of name, but directed by Jennifer Mizenko) that sometimes does a satirized version of the Nutcracker called Mixed Nuts, MS State University has no dance company that I know of, and Belhaven College has a dance major but I'm not sure what type of company they have or don't have. They are in the same town as Ballet Magnificat!, which would be Jackson, MS and there is some assoication there, not sure what.

Especially a built in audience...dance classes often have to go see performances and write a summary as part of their grade for the course; theatre classes might also have to go see a dance performance, especially classes like "movement for the actor"; universities attract the type of people who are more likely to be interested in dance than the general population so hopefully audience attendance would be higher than normal.

Part of his cremated remains were strewn at sea off Seattle, some were retained by Gerald Arpino, and some were immured in the columbarium of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine!

Dance Advance

Ballet Black

I wonder if Europe, as opposed to USA, is more receptive to companies not named for location or founder? Or rather European audiences/patrons/supporters/etc.?

Thanks, for your replies, I knew someone would be know more about this than I do!

In my experience (dancing a princess in Firebird), wigs are very, very hot. We wore long wigs so that our hair color & length would match (they were past our shoulder blades) & that had bangs. Now, just adding a hair piece to make a bun would be different, not as hot, but I can't imagine dancing principal roles, night after night, in a wig. I am so glad that wigs aren't the standard anymore (didn't they used to be?). Just to clarify I don't dance many principal roles, I am thinking of "real" ballerinas. I sweat enough without a wig....