fandeballet

Horror is not my genre either, but in my younger days, there were three that I found spine-tinglingly frightening. Rosemary's Baby tops the list. Farrow's air of vulnerability is what makes that movie. I'm not sure it could've been as frightening with anyone else in that role. I think, though, that another reason for my reaction to it was that Catholics were banned from seeing it! I was right at the point of questioning everything Catholic, so I simply had to see that movie to find out what the Catholics were trying to hide me from. Turns out that the end had nothing to do with my shakiness, but the path along the way sure did.

An earlier film that frightened me when I later saw it for the first time at the ripe old age of 16 was 1963's The Haunting with Julie Harris. I thought it was deliciously frightening.

Probably the horror movie that scared me the most (besides the monkey scene in The Wizard of Oz, which my kids loved to mock me for) was one I don't know the name of. Maybe someone here - it'll have to be someone over 50, I fear - will supply it. I saw this film several times as a very young child. All I remember is that people were turning into zombies. Hopefully, I'm not mixing a couple movies up, but I think they went out into the desert somewhere and the ground swallowed them up (yes, quicksand was an ever-present reality in my youthful thoughts!) and then they turned into zombies. You knew it by what looked like an ash stain at the nape of their necks. The most frightening scene, one that supplied me with a couple years of nightmares, in that movie was when the little boy (and girl?) are seated in the back seat of their car and realize that both their parents had that mark! For a few weeks after that, every time my parents seemed unreasonably irritable, I'd check the nape of their necks just to be sure.

Dear Vagansmom: I think the movie starts out with a boy looking out at sanddunes, when he sees a spaceship go right into the sand. I think it is called "Martian Invaders" I was about 7or 8 when I saw it. Creeped me out! The sand beneath a victim would be blasted by a special ray gun being aimed by the martians at the roof of one of the tunnels the martians dug. The Martian leader was a head without a body that would be carried in a glass container. They would use a special drill to insert a mind control device into the nape of your neck. They brought in the military to deal with the aliens. The real creepy part is at the end of the film the boy wakes up and realizes it was all a dream...until he really sees a spaceship do the same thing it did in the dream!!!! By the way the zombies were humans captured and drilled with the mind control devices.

Thank you Bart. Thanks GWTW and Dirac.

I saw an advertisment about a movie opening, with Acosta in the ensemble cast. Anyone know anything?

I swore she would get to do a Kitri.

Dear volcano..........When I first him at the Met (1976) in "Adriana Locuvier" (sp.?), Jose had about the most beautiful and purest sounding voice, I have ever heard in person.

Of course going to sing with the German conductor Herbert Von Karajan, singing roles that a young tenor should not be singing, helped to ruin that sound. I heard him 3 years later in a concert with Caballe, at the Met. I was shocked that he had none of that pure sound left! His vioce was ragged, especially next to Caballe who sang with Jose 3 years earlier in "Adriana" and sounded pretty darn good for a heavy and middle-aged lady.

Jose was a passionate singer, and a descent actor who got better as time went on. But that early sound was lost forever in a really short time. What a shame.

Not in any particular order:

David Blair's White Swan PDD ....new production has lost some of its luster in comparison.

Black Swan PDD

Corsaire PDD....as a diversement.

Cranko's Eugene Onegin, the very last PDD. Devastatingly emotional ending.

Bayadere Shade Scene PDDs: The first PDD as the dream couple. Supreme academic classical dancing

The second is the scarf PDD........classical and romantic at the same time! When done right.....a unique PDD even for Petipa!

Blue Bird PDD.....stylish and devilish. Very few dancers get it right.

Giselle.....the first two times he tries to partner her, Albrecht seemingly misses or goes thru Giselle. Very subtle move, but when it is done right, it really sets the table for the rest of the act, in terms of the supernatural atmosphere.

Diana and Acteon PDD.... With Nureyev, Jose Manuel Carreno and Carlos Acosta.

Napoli....last act festivities and dancing galore!!!!

Why do the ushers prevent people from taking photos in the MetOpera - not only during the performance, but any time and anywhere?

1-Says it on the back of the ticket. Your agree to abide by the contract (ticket) for the nite.

2- Numerous signs throughout the Met say at the bottom that pictures are not allowed in the Opera House.

As a counterpoint, there are still many pictures taken ANYWAY! People ASSUME it is ok to snap away. Ushers are just doing their jobs.

Geeeeeeeezzzzzzzz! How could I forget about Marcelo the Magnificant???!!! :blush: One of the great partners and dancers over the past 10 years and before!!!

I agree about Soloviev, on video.

I also love(d): Nureyev, Bujones, Dowell, Herman Cornejo, C. Acosta, Jean-Claude Gil (danced with R. Petit's company in the mid-80's), Misha, JM Carreno and Peter Martins (as James in La Sylvide with the RDB in 1976). All live.

Rojo is soooooooooo cute! She is so petite. Absolutely beautiful!!!! My first crush was not a ballerina. Donna Wood from the Ailey Company! With those big and alluringly expressive eyes! Great body! Gorgeous! And, by the way, a great dancer!

My first ballerina crush was a soloist with ABT during the late 70's. She was movie star gorgeous. Blonde. Can't think of her name! Pretty good dancer!

Some of my other crushes over the years- yes I now consider myself a dirty old man, as well as a fan- are:

Tamara Rojo....already talked about this superb and beautiful dancer.

Veronika Park....drop dead gorgeous. Dancing has improved a great deal over the past two seasons.

When I was a dirty young man........ Violet Verdy...what a looker! What a dancer!!!

Eva Evokimova....tall and regal. Not a classical beauty. Still, a very appealing lady. Great dancer. I cried when I read about her death.

Two wonderful artists. Dancing as one. I also wish for a tape or dvd of Nina's Giselle. She is the last of her generation. An end of an era is upon us. Nina's contemporaries are all retired now! Nina is an international dance treasure. And, the wonderful Marcelo Gomes. The most underrated dancer in the world. Such a subtley wonderful all-round great dancer. Supreme artist. What a great partnership. If they only had more time! Two great artists!

I have one arm myself. I trully find it inspirational. I always wished to dance on stage. I did take a modern dance class, once. It definitely challenges the idea that only people with the ideal bodies can move others with their "unusual" type of dance.

Hi toeprints! Never saw Rudi in Bayadere But, I have seen pictures of him in Bayadere, and I always thought that with his elevation and abilities in the 60's, would be a great, even definitive Solor! Was shocked that the BBC did not televise Rudi's prod. with the Royal Ballet of the Shades Act.

Thankyou so much Christian! When I think of Solor, I think of Rudolf!

Does anyone know of any film or video of a young Rudi doing Bayadere? From the Royal or Kirov Ballets years?

Its great for Martins!!!! All of the rep. that NYCB has, and their last two broadcasts are Swan Lake and R&J!!!!!! Just great!!!!! :

I DO agree that 50 million is not enough. Esp. with alot of performing arts orgs. in dire financial. I wish they would have jacked up funding 200-300 million. It use to be (in NYC anyway) that for every dollar city hall would give to The Arts (Fine & performing) the city would get eight or nine back. Too many politicos don't understand that it is a stimulating ripple effect for the economy. One of the first things cut is funding The Arts. In dire times u need to keep funding The Arts, because of its effect on tourism.

Heck, we needed to bail out The Arts. How about a one billion dollar budget for the NEA. What would that be? One-thousandth of 1% of the Fed. Budget? We spend that much on the two wars per day?

At least there was not a cut in funding! And adding "only" 50 million dollars is not insignificant. The budget for the NEA has ALWAYS been puny compared to other national programs like subsidies to businesses or the Pentagon.

True, fandeballet, and thanks for posting, but there’s puny and there’s puny. $50 million sounds like a lot, but given the savage cuts the NEA has borne and the prominence Obama gave the arts in his campaign platform, it’s not as much as some expected (and it is a tad self-serving of his wife to trumpet the figure as if the fifty mil was a really bold sum). Given the economic climate, the government really needs to lead from the front on this issue. Early signs indicate that the Obamas will, so let’s hope this is just the beginning.

When you consider what the previous administration thought about the NEA, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Don't forget that this $50,000,000 was probably as much as Obama's Admin. could get anyway with the way alot of our

dear members of the House and Senate feel about funding the NEA.

At least there was not a cut in funding! And adding "only" 50 million dollars is not insignificant. The budget for the NEA has ALWAYS been puny compared to other national programs like subsidies to businesses or the Pentagon.

To Helene and all the Moderators...... Thank you for all of your hard work and just good old common sense in keeping this forumn the best of its type in the world!!!!!!! I think that whatever we give is a bargain. I've learned soooooo much! Ballettalk is also wonderfully entetaining. Keep up the good (and sacred) work! A Fandeballet!

Yes it is a mess. But necessary. Potential good news. I talked to a Lincoln Center Security guard. He claims that the plaza should be finished by the summer. We shall see. I know that they are installing the plumbing for the fountain.

A great improvement for the roster of women principals at ABT. There will be electricity for and from this great artist. Top-shelf!!!

It seems that the choeography was created for him........even eminates from him!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a Soviet Doc. It probably was done soon after he committed suicide in 1977. Rudi was the one who got me

into ballet. He is my"first love" in ballet. Owwwww..........BUT.........SOLOVIEV!!!!!!!!!

I went to see "The Turning Point" with Misha. A woman came by and said to me, "You should have seen Soloviev!" I did not know anything about him. But I heard from people in the know that he was a better technical dancer. But, until I saw him in the Russian Doc.- I could not get over the sheer power mixed wth superb phrasing and musicality! The beauty of his dancing!!!! It takes my breath away. I have only seen him om film. My mine can only begin to imagine what it must have been like to see him in person!!!!!!

One would have to (and in theory could) scale T and A so that a dancer with (T, A) = (10, 8) would be just as good as one with (T, A) = (9, 9) (18 for each).

I thought ballet was about so much more than T and A. I guess Chorus Line was right all along.

I agree with you, but during a perf. of Merry Widow, I noticed someone in ABT's box at the Met taking down notes. That's the box on the parterre, where the artistic staff sits. So are dancers talked to after the perf.? And/or graded?