stinger784

And another thing... Albrecht realizes what he has done in the opening of ACT II when he walks to the grave site. Is he sad that Giselle has died? Yes. But I think his true emotion is that he has led her to her death and he realizes the pain he has caused and feels guilt, not love.

Isn't the player known as Albrecht more the villian since he seems to run from town to town looking for a quick fix? I mean he even disguises himself and changes his name to Loys? Where is the honesty in that? So what he doesn't want to marry Bathilde, look at the controversy he created by coming across this cute little grape girl. Would Hilarion really have been "the bad guy" had Albrecht not shown up? I do not think so. Giselle may have just rejected him and she and he would have gone on their merry ways. But with the competition at hand with Albrecht showing up, I think it changed the playing field and Hilarion was trying to make things right by uncovering the truth about Loys! I always love Hilarion better. I mean even his name is cooler and he gets to dress up like Robin Hood. You really can't beat that.

'Nuff said.

Where is the link for Ballet Talk for Dancers?

If I recall correctly SYTYCD did have R+J on their show once and I think Paloma appeared at one point also. Were the live audiences screaming? Yes of course they were. Little bobby-soxers on TV screaming is about right. I find them to scream at anything that is somewhat cool and boo at anything that is negative but truthful. (Can you tell I hate these shows? ) While I wish this idea could work, I think it would have to take a lot more education into where dance started for the new generation to even begin to think that a tendue is cool. I have even worked with professional ballet dancers who do not know how to appreciate the original Petipa choreography of Sleeping Beauty and would rather have double tours and grand allegro in a Garland Waltz that is only meant to be a reflection of the court and formation and regalness. And this is the "education" we are now giving our new youth by spitting on the Kings and Queens who have danced before us. Their is beautifulness in simplicity and formation and a tendue. Look at Balanchine's M&M at the most recent Ballet Across America. It was ripped apart by the younger generation of dancers, but so appreciated by the older dancers, over 25 years old mind you, who wanted to be there and walking in formation to see where the choreography would go next. 'Nuf said till round 3.

Hey Goro The second it becomes a competition, the second it loses itself as an art. Do you think that the average Fox or MTV viewer could sit through La Sylphide or White Swan pas de deux? I highly doubt it. These shows do well for the drama of the "real life" people and the tricks and turns they do and then having these judges that are masters in their own right come on and scream at the top of their lungs to ride some hot sauce train? On these shows, I think I have only seen one moment where art prevailed and those two dancers did not even win the competition because they were looking for America's favorite dancer not America's best dancer. What will throwing art at them in a competition do? Possibly more stereotypes that we do not need and will have to debunk for the next ten or so years. When you look even at the IBC competitions, how much of it is really art? Other than maybe the Prix de Lausanne, all of them are circuses. Put a competition dancer into a full length ballet and survive the 2.5 plus hour show and succeed and then maybe we can talk. How about that?

Well said. What about the audience? That is a better question.

If I recall correctly, since I was on stage with a few of the companies, there were a handful of African-American dancers present at the Kennedy Center. Then there were Asians, Italians, Russians, South American, Cuban...... And the list goes on. I think Ms. Kaufman wanted to cause some controversy and she did. I thought it was a completely ignorant comment to make when there were many minority groups represented by 9 different companies from across the US. I have worked for a director that openly said that they would not mind hiring someone of color if they were up to the level of dancing the company needed, it is just that no one of color has ever auditioned for the company. So is it really the company to poke at or the dancer who is not auditioning? When we look at modern companies, as mentioned above, there are many African American dancers, so why not poke them and make them feel bad and diversify those companies. That article made me upset with Ms. Kaufman and I would like an explanation as to why she chose to focus on such a petty issue.

AZ Native, it's Andersen not Anderson. The playbill at the Kennedy Center happened to make the same mistake. Anywho, BAZ dancers are having a grand old time here and loving the opportunity we have been given. I think it is opening a lot of eyes about what is going on in the southwest.

That always cracks me up. It's a gala but not really a gala.

Brilliant!

I tried so hard to appreciate this morning after hearing about the ground breaking things the movie made when it came out a la Star Wars. But man, it just dragged on and on and one. However, the art was amazing, the acting was typical silent film. I don't know. I was disappointed.

I thought he did a good job on DWTS too. Thanks for the youtube link.

What's funny about this whole situation, is that Danny started in the jazz competition medium. It feels like he is going back to where he is comfortable and dancing what he wants to dance. Like I said, he already did the big company thing. I just don't find it right for people to say, that do not know him on some personal level, to judge what he is doing. While I wonder where his career will take him next, I don't worry about it. If he doesn't want the pressure of a big company, so be it. If he is in it for the money, so be it. If this is the art he wants to make, let him make it. If he is still finding his voice, let him find it. I don't have a problem with being unhappy about where he is, but perhaps Danny is happy and to me, that is all that matters.

I am perturbed by the outlash of Danny's career choices. He and I were classmates together at the KAB and graduated together. He DID dance with ABT and I think Complexions at one point as well. It is bothersome to me to say what a good career choice is as long as he is happy and doing what HE wants to do. And to speak about the KAB when you have not even been there to find out first hand is uncalled for. I am surprised this thread has not been closed earlier. Let Danny do what Danny wants to do.

Colorado's version should be Michael Pink's choreography which actually follows the book closer than any other ballet version out there. Ben Stevenson's from when I saw it many years ago is nothing like the book except for the fact of the title character.

I've learned it as a "torch lift."

Here is a review/preview (?) of Ballet Arizona's The Nutcracker. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/a...er1213revu.html

Sorry AZ Native. As you did pop Chelsea Saari into my head, as she has been out with injury recently but is now back and getting ready for Nutcracker, the girls you mentioned are not 5'9" or 5'10". Kanako, the next tallest girl after Kenna and Jessica, is 5'8". Probably much of what you are seeing is that the dancers just know how to hold themselves as Baryshnikov did unless he was standing next to Patrick Bissell. Sorry to bust your bubble on this one. All in good fun of course.

AZ Native, You are mistaken. The new dancer Jessica Phillips is still shorter than Kenna Draxton. Kenna still looms over the rest of the ladies in the company. The rest of the ladies are of average height.

Nope. No confusion at all.

I disagree with you saying that they should replace jazz with character. I think they need to add it to the curriculum. With all the neo-choreographers out there, if you can't move don't be a dancer. All the truly classical companies are gone. Dancers today need jazz. I am not talking the jazz where dancers are wearing hardly anything on stage, but jazz is just as essential as character is to a ballet dancer. And Hans, if you even look at the mid-sized companies, my former director's Corsaire has been gaining some steam and the Forban in there is quite the character dance. Here in Ballet Arizona, at least 2 productions a year require character. Character is alive and well in companies of every size. Don't forget that there are more character dances than the ones that require character shoes. Back to Eldar Aliev, my former director, his 1001 Nights is extremely character oriented and has been reproduced across the US. La Fille Mal Gardee is yet another one. Many of Balanchine's dances require character dance as well. His Stravinsky Violin Concerto is strictly Georgian character dancing. His Tzigane. His Tarantella. Have we forgotten Bournonville's Napoli and almost everything else Bournonville has done? Character is alive and well in companies of every size. Hans I think you might be putting yourself in a box. Look more at rep pieces rather than just the big story ballets.

Being a character teacher at a Russian based ballet school in the valley of Phoenix, we are promoting character classes from I believe the 3 or 4th year in our 9 level school. Whether the children realize the importance of it is a very different discussion. Many students have yet to realize that character dance shows up in many classical story book ballets that are still performed today. No matter how many times we show our students videos of the ballets and the ballets they actually perform they still just want to do pirouettes and brush off the character dances. This has been quite the learning experience for me and has taught me how to make character dancing interesting. After studying with a classic Georgian, Vladimir Djouloukhadze, at the Kirov Academy, I have been able to make the class more fun that just learning to stomp your feet. I think a lot of it has to do with who is teaching the class. Far too often there are not any qualified teachers teaching character class. Far too often there are teachers teaching character class that don't even know the names of the steps or what country they originate from, etc. So this brings me to this conclusion, better qualified teachers and starting at younger ages will make the character dances in the ballet companies better. I can not stand it when schools just hire a warm body to get up and teach the class. (Can you sense my frustration?!?!?!) Hans, I will disagree with your comment about character dances not being performed as much today, by the way you left out Sleeping Beauty. All the ballets you have named are in every major repertoire of every company in the United States today. So to say character dancing is waning is just not true. It's those story book ballets with the character dances that keep the companies in business. As for Nutcracker, how many Russian dances are truly Russian? It's sad to say that just because it is an Eastern European step makes it Russian. I feel priveliged to work with a director at the school where I teach that has been trained specifically in character dancing in Russia. She has given me a great deal of knowledge, books and video of character lessons that not many people are privy too. In conclusion I will just say this after my long rant... Just because you learned character dance does not mean you can teach it. And just because you can dance character dance does not mean you can teach it. Watching, learning and listening over and over again I think can save the character dance world before character dance just becomes a parody of itself. Thank you.

Nilsen did attend opening night on Thursday as well as the alternate cast dress rehearsal Thursday afternoon. He was actually very happy with both casts and in his preview he was very excited about what he was going to see. Not sure what happened though. It is quite the interesting editorial though.

Here is our "review..." http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/a...anrevu1108.html