vagansmom

I still don't remember how I found this site. But I think I may have found it from the BalletAlert or Dance View magazine since I subscribed to them first. And I found THOSE magazines at a local ballet studio while waiting for my daughter at a master class. I remember reading an article in my first issue of either one of those with some very witty quotes that originated as a thread here. So I suppose I searched out the website from there.

I'm showing my age. I don't remember how I found BalletAlert But I'm glad I did But I think I do remember telling you, BW, to check this forum out:D

I'm showing my age. I don't remember how I found BalletAlert But I'm glad I did But I think I do remember telling you, BW, to check this forum out:D

Can anybody tell me where to find "Baryshnikov's the Nutcracker" on DVD? Only Amazon.com even has it on VHS, and I'm finding it impossible to find on DVD. Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give me! ~Vagansmom's daughter~

Wow, just about everybody in this neck of the woods owns one of their CD's. People raved about them when the first concert hit TV. I know a number of folks who then went out and bought opera music. I'd imagine they'd be the ones who'd also be attending performances. (Some of them also go to the ballet already "Centerstage" was a lousy movie though. Couldn't see it inspiring anyone to go to the ballet.

I think we have "The Three Tenors" concerts and CD's to thank. They really piqued an interest in opera. Maybe "The Company" will do it for ballet? My fingers are crossed.

Ann Hutchinson Guest occasionally comes to my daughter's ballet school and teaches classes. Years ago, I had the opportunity to observe a class. It was fascinating stuff - definitely a whole new language to learn.

As I understand it, this book is a compilation and/or update of two previous books by Mr. Laws? Has anyone read this? Would you recommend it for serious ballet students (who also love the sciences) 17 or 18 years old?

I read that Anthony Edwards, formerly Dr. Green on ER, was a ballet dancer at least through high school. Wasn't Jane Seymour also a ballet dancer at one time? I don't think she ever danced professionally but I seem to recall that she trained seriously as a student.

Oh good, we have two here then! PK, who posts on the Ballet Moms and Dads board, is the person I was thinking of.

Well, it IS true that if you pull your hair too tightly into a bun, the hairs around your hairline might thin out. It's commonly seen in adolescent girls who've just learned how to do their own buns. The hairs get pulled out from the stress. Not permanent, of course.

I was living in NYC in 1974 and attended several Joffrey ballet performances but alas, couldn't tell you what they danced. I do remember liking it that they weren't story ballets.

We have a balletalertnik who's a ballet class accompanist. Perhaps she'll post here. I'm a musician although not a pianist. I've played for Irish step dancers in performances and know that one major quality of playing music for dancers is being able to keep the tempo. Inexperienced, or nervous, musicians have a tendency to speed up during a piece. Once upon a time, I made costumes for pre-pro school performances. I also trained volunteers in hair and makeup (if you know me, you'd laugh, but I WAS good at it) for the ballet.

In my usual tunnel-vision fashion, I'd never heard of this book till this thread. And because I rarely read best sellers WHILE they're best sellers, I thought no, maybe I'll read it later if it stands the test of time... ..till a friend whose opinion I value highly thrust it into my lap. She'd just read it, the book had two more days left before returning to the library, and she wanted me to read it. So I read it this week. It's been three days now since I closed the book and I find that it shadows me. While reading, I spent most of my time hopeful for something good to have come of such violence. By the end, surprisingly, I found the story uplifting. Does anyone know if it's true that Sebold was herself badly assaulted as an adolescent and the policeman told her she was "lucky to have lived" because the attacker had killed others? And that's why her first book is called "Lucky"? Just checking.

I read this book while in Limerick visiting someone who went to school with Malachy McCourt, Frank's brother. This Irish friend found it supremely puzzling that anyone would want to read about such doings - in fact, many of the Irish people I met that summer felt the same way. Much ado about nothing, in their eyes. But I loved the book. Part of it was probably due to my being in Limerick - I even searched out his early neighborhood but in vain. (There's now a walking tour in Limerick devoted to "Angela's Ashes"). But I also loved the language of the book; I've always delighted in the Irish accent and McCourt's prose captured it so well. I also loved how McCourt, in a classically Irish manner, found great humor in such misery - the Irish have a knack for that. Throughout that summer, I met individuals who told me stories that had me simultaneously laughing and weeping, much as I did while reading that book. I didn't like "'Tis" though. I thought he was still using the voice of a child while describing his adult life. That voice worked well in his first book but not in the sequel. I read it because I was interested in McCourt himself, wanted to know what he did in his later life, but his style prose, for that book, seemed all wrong.

I've read Kay Redfield Jamison's "An Unquiet Mind" but not her "Touched With Fire". That discussion reminded me of another wonderful book I recently read, called "A Shining Affliction" by Annie G. Rogers. It's the author's true story of her psychiatric internship while at Harvard. She was working with a severely disturbed 5 year old. That experience triggered her own descent into psychosis. The book tells of both her work with this child and of her own mental illness and healing. It also issues a fairly scathing criticism of the field of psychiatry. What I love most about it, however, is the writing itself. Rogers's prose is different; she uses words and phrases in new and interesting ways that had me savoring each tidbit. Another quartet of lovely books that deserves mention are Madeleine L'Engle's autobiographical "The Crosswicks Journal". Their stories span much of her lifetime. I took them to bed with me nightly, trying vainly to make them last.

My high school friend, Carol Crawford, was once hailed by the NY Times as the successor to Sara Caldwell. In a NY Times article several years later on female conductors and the glass ceiling, Carol and the other women (she was considered one of the top 3 female American conductors at the time) were frustrated by their inability to penetrate that ceiling. I seem to recall that a woman's chances of success in that field was only slightly better in Europe. Carol is now the General Director of the Tulsa Opera (and yes, that includes conducting).

Well, I'd say that symphony conducting is probably a far worse field for women in terms of employment and glass ceilings than AD of ballet companies!

Watermill's "BTW: Am I wrong to be a little concerned that neither Stowell or Conn seem to have done much choreography nor have any AD experience? They are both extraordinary dancers...but..." ...but they're both men. At the risk of being a little inflammatory, I have to say that I find it annoying that two men, neither of whom "have done much choreography nor have an AD experience"are being considered for such a post. Would two women with the same paucity of experience ever be considered?

Mme. Hermine, read "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys. She wrote it as the life story of Bertha (whom she calls Antoinette), the first Mrs. Rochester. It's an entirely new slant on Mr. Rochester. After reading it, I couldn't enjoy "Jane Eyre" again myself. I remember eating up Herman Hesse's writings as a young teen but feeling embarrassed about it later.

What a great thread! So many of you mentioned old favorites, esp. Jane Austen and Chesterton. My husband and I read Austen's books at the same time - we have two copies of all her novels - he's as big a fan as I of her works. We've both read them many times. I'm afraid I'm stuck with many required reading books for school but in between them, I've recently read Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" - great for lovers of anthropology, history and politics. Reread "Good King Harry" by Denise Giardina, a historical novel about King Henry V. He was the people's king, having been thrust into a post he didn't want or enjoy. He also was the king who put an end to chivalry and the reasons why he did so were compelling and still have ramifications. Great book, engrossing. In fact, all her books are intriguing. Her "Saints & Villains" still is on my top 5 list of contemporary books. Other favorite rereads include the Anne of Green Gables series (dirac, I think they stand the test of time), and the Betsy-Tacy children's series by Maud Hart Lovelace. My sister gave them to me as a wedding present 26 years ago. We grew up reading them. I continue to reread these much loved books. And then there's "War & Peace" by Tolstoy. I read it once every decade. (I'm due in two more years). That book represents my evolving maturity; it seems that with each reread I focus on something entirely new. As a 20 year old, it was the romance, as a 30 year old it was the war, as a 40 year old it was family. I suspect I'll understand and like the elders far more when I read it as a 50 year old.

And what about the occasional dance without music? Can we even discuss musicality in those cases? I think so. There are still dancers who have a robotic response to the music. There's a sameness to everything they dance although their technique might be above reproach. No color, no nuance. So maybe the musicality of a dancer has to be considered not in terms of just one or two dances but a body of dances.

I think Alexandra and Doris have both defined musicality really well. I think another indication of a dancer with musicality would have to be a generosity of spirit - the dancer is (often unconsciously) open to the audience. Not mugging for us, but including us. There are some dancers who are perfectly on the music in every way and technically clean yet they fail to engage the audience.

Facial beauty in a dancer isn't important to me but facial expression is. A beautiful stone-faced dancer is reduced to being merely a stone-faced dancer in my mind. Likewise, a dancer who doesn't have conventional beauty but an expressive face will appear beautiful to me. I had no idea till reading this thread that hair color can be so identified with certain ballets or roles. I've never paid much attention to it. I like variety. I also like variety in body types and skin colors. Once again, conventional beauty doesn't matter to me but beauty of movement and expression is paramount. The only exception I can think of is one dancer who's so thin that my stomach flips a little whenever I see her dance. I don't think she's unhealthy because she seems to be a real workhorse with relatively few injuries but I confess to having a hard time seeing her dance. It may be that I don't get to attend performances enough to get beyond that.

Joffrey has an audition class in the spring. But any dancer who calls ahead of time to set a date for a visit and brings a resume may take company class as an audition.