ninjarina

loud shoes can really take the magic away from a performance , russian shoes and suffolk pointe co. shoes are like cement and i really don't understand anyone wearing them at all.I can't explain why , but some stages can make you sound really loud even if your pointe shoes are relatively broken in .... happened to me once or twice

unfortunately i cannot politely type what i think of this stupid lecture .....

Sorry to disagree, but I couldn't let this one pass:  the length of one's Achilles tendon is only one factor in determining elevation and there are some very powerful jumpers with short tendons.  This often gets misunderstood by students because teachers are always urging their students to 'get their heels down' and the ones with shorter tendons struggle with this, but that doesn't transfer over to smaller or weaker jumps

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what are the other factors...out of curiocity... i have crossed a few amazing jumpers with short achilles during my career - so my comment probably wasn't too acurate, however they have all without exception , had complaints regarding their shins and knees , and have not achived quite the same elevation as the dancers i have seen with longer achilles.

does anyone know where i can get a CD of Diana and Actaeon ?

Erika Lambe from Boston Ballet  had  an  Amazing jump. She  could  easily out  jump most  of  the  men  in the  company...

    Come to  think of  it, Sarah Lamb  also  has a  nice jump....Maybe  it  was  something  in the  former  training...

      Currently, Kathleen Breen Combes  comes  to  mind  in terms  of  jumpers  for  the  company.

        Coordination and  timing are  the  key. People  who  jump well, or  appear to  do  so,  time  the  take  off  preciisely and  they  hover....

      Take  notice the next  tiem  you  see  something  that involves  good  jumping....

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while this is true , facility to be able to achive this is purely genetic , for example - you will never see a dancer with a short achilles achive elevation...

Farrell Fan, thank you for your kind words. The ballet does closely follow the outline of the ballet. Lanchberry (the man who adapted the score for ballet) changed the positions of 2 segments of the score but as far as I could tell, nothing much was amiss.

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it is such a beautiful Ballet and is refreshingly different .

I don't think "Push" is the right verb in this context. It sounds like all these young dancers don't want to dance and are "forced" to dance major roles.

Why not let a passionate young dancer let dance a major role, if he wants it? (of course only, if he has everything). Give him an opportunity to show himself. If he fails, wait this dancer to become better!

Some dancers are earlier finished with the development of their bodies then others. A condition for letting a dancer dance a major role is that this dancer won't possibly hurt himself (e.g. I think a boy with normal physique is ready to do all these lifts only after becoming 20 years)

Personally (maybe because I want to become a dancer) I don't like all these "educational" things like let a dancer doing major roles and then the next day let him dance in the corps. If a dancer deserves a place in a company, then he should stay there!

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i agree with you

some guys not mentioned:

Vadim Pisarev

Nicholas Le Riche

and the absolute most amazing virtuoso dancer i've ever seen:

Tetsuya Kumakawa.

-goro-

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Tetsuya is incredible...those double cabrioles !!!

I saw a docmentary with Alicia Markova and she said that in the Bluebird p.d.d. the female variation is really a princess looking forward to the Bluebird. She herself isn't a blebird. I had always thought of them as a pair of birds coming to Aurora's wedding.

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me too.

My votes go to Baryshnikov, Corella and Malakhov.  Corella and Malakhov are fantastic in the Born To Be Wild DVD.

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i would have to go with... in no particular order...Alla Sizova , Natalia Markarova ,Francoise Voranger,Ivan Putrov, Edward Villela,Baryshnikov,Joel Prouty

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre brought its NEW!  TAKING IT TO THE EDGE, PUSHING THE ENVELOPE, YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT BEFORE!!!! Sting ballet to Wolf Trap.  Here's Sarah Kaufman's summary of the event in Thursday's (August 26) Washington Post:

A program note states that "A Brand New Day" has taken the company's "contemporary ballet program another step toward the edge, pushing the envelope yet again." Yet nothing has less "edge" than recycled familiarity. Pushing the envelope involves taking artistic risks, and performing mediocre choreography set to one of the biggest hitmakers in pop history is about as risky as serving ice cream to toddlers. You know they will lap it up, as the audience lapped up the Wolf Trap program. But what, in the end, has been accomplished beyond an empty treat?

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actually alot of european companies have done stuff like this - good to see that companies in the USA are starting to catch on.it can only make them better - and needless to say the opera becomes alot more bearable !!

Oh yes, Francoise is a powerhouse for sure (she was usually in the Trepak).

You asked above why such good dancers are in such a small company; and while I don't know I'd guess that it's because it's so small. There's only 20 and that means that everyone gets to dance both the big and the small roles. Also, you may have noticed that there isn't really a "mold" from very tall to very short, very thin to very muscular.

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...yes , the company seemed very diverse and most of the dancers seemed quite strong -it's just so unusual to see so much power and control come from a female dancer.She is defiantely one to watch for the future.

Its refreshing to have alot of different style dancers to look at in one production.Most companies have carbon copies for their corps de ballet dancers , and while that is still lovely , it's nice to see a change.

The only drawback I saw was the lack of male dancers in the company.I must say that David DuBois was beautiful to watch . I am quite interested to see what Mateo will do with the upcoming spring perfromances.

just thought i'd mention that I found out that Francoise Voranger was the dew drop that I saw at JMBT's Nutcracker.

Great little dancer.

Does anybody know how to find a recording of Sleeping Beauty by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Wordsworth conducting?  This is the music for the lovely Viviana Durante video.  I have spent ages looking through Amazon and CD Now and the public libraries' catalogs...no luck.  Everything else I have listened to seems to be at a faster tempo.

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try www.naxos.com there is alot there for classical music scores.

you could also have an audio engineer slow the track for you.

Michael Roberts who used to play for Stanley Holden has a new website for his class CDs.  He is quite wonderful.

www.balletclassmusic.com

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thanks - it's always difficult to find good class music.he is a wonderful pianist.

wow , glad to hear some more about Mateo - his choreography is quite beautiful.

If memory serves me correctly Elizabeth Scherben Shinzawa was performing Sugar Plum fairy on that night ,She has an amazing arabesque line .

The dew drop I saw was younger than she . I was also very impressed with the Russian duo.I read some of the reviews for the Cuban Condition and will definately make it over there to attend the spring performances as I will be passing through Boston.

Edited to remove duplication of dido's post, above.

I was randomly in Cambridge MA and saw Jose Mateo Ballet Theater , a small

( but strong) company , perform the Nutcracker.

I was quite surprised to see such accomplished dancers in such a small company.

Their budget was obviously small , but the dancing held it together tremendously well.

Mateo has some wonderfully talented young dancers , one girl in particular , was quite incredible.She danced the dew drop fairy . What amazed me so much was that she not only had wonderful lines and amazing pirouettes , but she could literally jump like a guy.

Why would such an amazing dancer be in such a small company ?

I want to go back to see them perform this spring - is there anyone out there who knows of Jose MAteo ? I had never heard of him before I went to Cambridge.

Is this a first in the NY Times arts coverage where an internet forum ("chat room", shame on you Rockwell!) commentary became the subject of the article?  And in the Sunday Times too? 

Simplicity is dull, isn't it?

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i totally agree with you. some of the best ballet dancers i have seen are incredibly strong modern dancers also.