Paquita

I'm going this friday, and am looking forward to it. Chan Hon Goh and Geon Van der Wyst are the principals, so I can get my first real look at him ( I saw him in a Delicate Battle but it's not a big role).

My teacher went last week and said it was absolutely beautiful. Serenade should be good too

Which issue of Vogue? ( Who's on the cover?)

In Canada we get a little Balanchine exposure. I've seen NBoC do Apollo and Jewels most recently. In the spring season they'll also be performing Serenade and Theme and Variations. And of course there's the Balanchine Library videos, and the video "Peter Martins: A Dancer" with Agon and Chaconne with Farrell. I haven't seen a lot of Balanchine, but the more I see, the more I want to see. Especially his collaborations with Stravinsky!

I have a great deal of respect for Balanchine and think very highly of him. He seems to have been such a fascinating person with an interesting outlook and philosophy. He was very patient, but also very hard working, even when he was getting ill.I think he had 2 wonderful gifts: teaching and choreographing. I won't get into the debate about his technique, or his emphasis on the ideal ballerina- tall, thin, all legs. But I think what he created and gave to American ballet is wonderful, and to date has not been matched.

I'd be interested to hear what everyone here thinks of the NYCB Workout book. I looked through it briefly, but decided not to buy it because some of the excersizes looked like no-brainers for people that do ballet ( plies, tendu, etc.) Are these some really challenging excersizes, because then I'd like to buy the book. I also read on the website that they're coming out with a NYCB workout video!

Thanks, Guy. I was waiting for someone to mention Jaimie Tapper. She is deffinately one to watch in the future. Before she joined the Royal, she was on a fast rise at the National Ballet of Canada, an audience favourite. We miss her now! She was beautiful as terphischore in Apollo, and as a soloist danced Swanilda and Juliet. I agree, she's a delight to watch, because you can just tell that she's enjoying herself up there and feels completely at ease performing.

Watch for her boyfriend, and former National Ballet principal, Johan Persson, he's joining the Royal this fall ( not as a principal though).

I've never seen Vladimir Malkhov perform live before, but he's supposed to be quite good. Has anyone here seen him?

Aleksander Antonijevic is a rising star in Canada. He can perform very difficult leaps and turns, but also has a really clean line & extension and overall technique. He's a leftie dancer, so in a lot of choreography he's been forced to do triple pirouettes and stuff on his 'bad' side, so he is now very strong on both sides.

Hi, It's me again and i was wondering what quotes have inspired you to keep on going ? They can be from dancers are anyone else.From interviews, books, if anyone has Tributes I'd like to heard about some quotes or poems from it and things. To start here are some of my favorites:

~"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday, is the hope of today, and the reality of tomorrow."

~''many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion." Agnes De Mille.

~"Dance every performance as if it were your last." Erik Bruhn.

~"I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance." Balanchine.

~"To succeed you need something to hold on to, to motivate you, to inspire you."

~"A dancer has to reach through the difficult to achieve the beautiful."

and "A great dancer must strive for a perfection which is always out of reach."

The Children of Theatre Street ( video).

~"Ballet of motion. Refined and defined by long standing tradition, constrained by the laws of position and gravity, it is the art of making the impossible action seem possible." from LIFE magazine.

~"My art feeds me...the more you're invloved in something, the more you fall in love with it, the harder it is to let go because nothing compares with the passion." Evelyn Hart.

~"I realize that most of the dancers I admire:....don't have perfect bodies either; it's by their extraordinary talent and passion that they transcend those thousands of perfectly shaped dancers who somehow can never sieze your attention on stage."

"I've learned that a number of choreographers get their best results by challenging dancers to give something they didn't even know they had."

Karen Kain in "Movement Never Lies."

~ALL dance, and most particularly ballet, depends upon illusion for its

magic. Behind the ease, glamour and bravura that we see on stage are years

of muscular training, the expertise of theatrical stage craft, the

choreographer's creation of a dance from elements as elusive as steps,

bodies, space and time. Ballet, the most corporeal of arts, is built upon

the human body's ability to surpass its Earthly limitations."

~"...I believe the most important attribute for the making of a dancer is the desire to become one. The obvious necessities of physique become less important if the heart, intelligence and musicality are present." Celia Franca I think.

~"No artist is ahead of time. He is time; it's just that others are behind the times" .-Martha Graham

~"life isn't about what happens to you,

it's about what you make happen."

~"The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be

expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times

when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of

words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength

that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and

emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer's justification for being,

and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art."

I look forwards to hearing some of your own.

[This message has been edited by Paquita (edited April 19, 1999).]

I'm sure many of us have read several books on dance, as there are so many out there. So I wanted to start a thread where we could post the books we've read and what we thought, and an overall rating...So here it goes:

*The Young Dancer ( Darcey Bussell contributed) is very informative and clear for young dancers without being patronizing. Good for girls under 12 who are ballet obsessed!

*Margot Fonteyn's autobiography is very good. But I'm not done reading it yet! It may be kind of hard to find.

*Karen Kain: Movement Never Lies. An autobiography. This is my #1 favourite book. I've only seen her perform once and I do admire her but I didn't buy it because I was a huge fan at the time, it was just on sale. But she gives such good insight on the hardships of the dancing world, with deep reflection on the joy and passion of performing. I *highly* recommend this to anyone. It's inspiring.

*Kimberly Glasco ( profiles of Canadian dance). I really thin, small book i found in the library. It's only 30 pages and I must stress very small and softcover. But it was written in the 80's in the earlier years of her career and had some good quotes and photos.

There's more but I can't really remember the titles and authors. But here are some titles I want to read, and if any of you have could you please reply:

~Marakova: the Legend by: Leonard Maurice

~Advice for Dancers by: Linda Hamilton

~The NYC Ballet Workout by:Peter Martins

~The Dancer's Body book by Allegra Kent

~Classical Russian Technique by:???

~MissO- My life in dance by: Betty Oliphant

My favourite dancers are:

~Kimberly Glasco (in Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, all Pepita ballets)

~Greta Hodgkinson

~Nina Ananiashvilli ( something about her is so magical, she truly is a star)

~Paloma Herrera

and retired dancers I like are Karen Kain and Margot Fonteyn.