Buddy

As usual, I return to this video from time to time. I still consider it to be one of the most beautifully created and performed works of dance that I’ve ever seen, alongside the ‘The White Swan Duet’ from “Swan Lake” and Fokine’s “The Swan.” I also see some interesting and lovely similarities in the video clip, “Moira Shearer in The Story Of Three Loves (1953),” probably created by Frederick Ashton. For me, “The Midsummer Night's Dream,” Pas de Deux, as performed by Allegra Kent and Jacques d'Amboise, is a wonderful, poetic enactment of the beauty of the female-male relationship.

And I’d really like to bring this one back.

Thanks, Dirac. There’s something special for me about “Begin Again.” Not only does she do what she thinks is morally right, but she’ll succeed.

You can’t have her Cristian. She’s mine. 😊 I have read all that you wrote. It must have been great to see what you did. A video can give a limited representation, especially a blurry one, but as wonderful as she was at so many things, if she could perform a Swan Lake Odette like the video that I mentioned shows, she could transcend everything else. Her facial aura is carried throughout her entire being. I have seen a well defined photo that shows that she actually could look like that. It’s as if she decided to be Anna Pavlova.

I just finished watching Lorna Feijóo perform the famous Lakeside White Swan Duet (Swan Lake) for the first time. I’m Mesmerized !! It’s from the Lorna Feijóo & Osmay Molina - Swan Lake Act II internet video and starts at 3:35. It’s certainly one of the finest White Swan duets that I’ve ever seen, even though the video is rather blurry. It seems like a flashback to the world of Anna Pavlova and Galina Ulanova. Wow !!

Thanks so much, Helene. This review could very well explain a lot, perhaps everything. This observation, “….fabulous performance of Lorna Feijóo and Gonzalo Garcia…,” may be the obvious answer to one of my major questions. Lorna Feijóo was simply that good ! The following statements go a long way to answering the rest. “It is easy to see why Lorna Feijóo, similar in steely technique to Ms. Ashley, and Mr. Garcia, with his buoyant dancing, caught her eye. "Like her sister, Lorna is an astonishingly strong dancer. Her air turns, landing on toe in fifth position, were only some of the marvels on view, not to speak of her forceful fouettés. In her hand-to-hip solo she evoked a leisurely folk dancer, but when it came to hard-core Balanchine speed she was able to shoot her leg out in arabesque after every piqué turn well within the musical phrasing provided by Hugo Fiorato's conducting." Lorna Feijóo was overall brilliant and performed in a style that Merrill Ashley could strongly relate to. This gives added insight. “But while Ms. Feijóo has the required technique and Mr. Garcia has the amazing spring for a high-jumping male role, their style is not standard Balanchine. It is more muscular and romantic. “….Ms. Feijóo adds an emotional resonance through her expressive torso and arms. Even in Balanchine's time it was possible to dance his ballets in different ways without betraying him.” With my extremely limited knowledge of Lorna Feijóo, I do have a certain feeling. One of her most impressive characteristics was her ability to combine exciting, sensitive, highly accomplished dance with very impressive acting and do it with such personal, warm and loveably down-to-earth naturalness. Added thought: She perhaps humanized it all like no-one else who shared(s) her particular and accomplished excellence.

For me, watching the video clip of Sean Lavery’s performance (with Patricia McBride) of George Balanchine’s “Who Cares” might touch on this. The comparison of his performance (from the world of Balanchine) with the Facebook clip of Lorna Feijoo’s Giselle solo after being made Queen of the Village perhaps shows lovely and interesting similarities. Added: If I had to chose from the ten or so Lorna Feijoo video clips that I’ve just seen, I’d chose the Diana and Acteon one with Maximiliano Guerra (specifically -- the beautifully expressive and challenging duet starting at 1:00) to best illustrate what Merrill Ashley might have had in mind.

Getting back to Merrill Ashley’s quote for a moment. “If I was reduced to one ballerina in the world, Lorna would be the one I'd want to see in anything.” For those of you who are much more familiar with these two remarkable artists, what do you think it is about Lorna Feijoo that would be so compelling to Merrill Ashley ? And by the way — Lorna Feijoo and Rolando Sarabia Wow !!

There appears to be a Feijóo Ballet School in Texas. It’s hard to tell from these posts how active she still is. “Feijóo remained in the Boston Ballet until her retirement. She went on to direct the Feijóo Ballet School in Dickinson, Texas, and taught at Carlos Acosta's Acosta/Danza in Havana as a guest teacher.[13]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Feijóo “Ms. Feijóo is thrilled to join her sister Lorna as Ballet Mistress and Director of the Pre-Professional Ballet Program at Feijóo Ballet School. Lorena resides with her adorable daughter Luciana in League City, Texas near her sister and their mom.” https://www.bahbt.org/lorena Lorna Feijóo International Ballet Star & Prima Ballerina Founder & Artistic Director © 2024 Feijóo Ballet School. https://www.feijooballetschool.com/lornafeijoo “If I was reduced to one ballerina in the world, Lorna would be the one I'd want to see in anything.” Merrill Ashley Former Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet https://www.feijooballetschool.com

Once upon a time in The Land of Smiles a man sat watching and searching. Years went by and he saw many, many wonderful dancers. Then one day he saw videos of Lorna Feijoo. She danced like a burst of sunshine. This man was in love. 😊

Some personal highlights. Elizaveta Kokoreva, as Princess Aurora, was a gem. In the the Rose Adage, just before the final receiving of the roses, she had an absolutely lovely, solo dance sequence. Again in Act II, her solo in the vision scene with a more relaxed and focussed, facial expression, was equally beautiful. And in the always lovely Act II pas de deux her solo was extremely fine along with the opening partnered dancing. Her dancing had a perfected excellence and she modulated her youthful radiance to best suit the moment. Alyona Kovalyova, as the Lilac Fairy, was her usual, radiant wonderfulness. Artem Ovcharenko, as Prince Desire, had finely articulated, airy jumps and impressively statuesque moments. Anastasia Stashkevich, as Princess Florine, in the Bluebird pas de deux, actually excelled, for me, in her finely articulated solo, following the iconic opening duet. Daria Khokhlova, as Cinderella, was charming. I’m not sure how much of this production can be credited to Yuri Grigorovich, but it does contain at least one of his trademarks in interpreting the classics, and that's his noteworthy ability to condense. In the sequence of fairytale dances this is handled extremely well. There’s a juxtapositioning of all the couples at the ending that works exceptionally well and the highlighted duets are charming. I sometimes feel that Valery Gergiev keeps the best of the outstanding musicians for himself. Whenever he conducts, the music always sounds better, even though all the Mariinsky/Bolshoi musical accompaniments are highest quality. Still, the music is normally secondary for me, but there were times in this performance when the music crystallized with such beautiful clarity that it stood out exceptionally well. All in all, this was a performance of remarkable beauty. Added: There’s a video clip easily found (unofficial, so I won’t post it) of Elizaveta Kokoreva dancing the Act II Aurora variation from several years ago that I would really recommend watching. She already had many of the remarkable qualities that were seen today. I think that it summarizes a great deal from all of today's performances.

I just finished watching the Bolshoi live performance of “The Sleeping Beauty.” An announcement said that it would be rebroadcast, but for the moment it appears to have ended. There are times when Beauty does seem to transcend everything else. For me, this was one of them.

A live performance of the Bolshoi’s Sleeping Beauty may be viewable here tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 7 at 12 noon EST. https://vk.com/video-52257710_456240163 (Thanks to a friend for this) Casting https://2011.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/sleeping-beauty-grigorovich/roles/#20240907190000 Loosely related might be this interview with Xander Parish which could help keep this all in perspective and also give some interesting insight into his future plans. https://www.thetimes.com/article/5b46f19e-0e23-4cb7-b69e-32475446460a?shareToken=2dffaa0c6637971481b20fde7d799b6e (Thanks to Sabine 0308 at BalletcoForum)

Yesterday evening I watched the movie “Begin Again” and the more that I think about it the more I really like it. It’s sort of a light romance followup to the very charming “Once.” But what this movie does that’s so special is that it carries the same format into the ‘Ideal.’ This happens at the ending. It’s reinforced by a second ending that is combined with the final credits and not shown in the Amazon presentation, so be sure to catch it somewhere else. The ending makes 'ideal existence' an actual event. The entire movie reaches for this, hints at it, moves in many unexpected directions and finally there it is.

From the very brief video clip above (posted by her partner) and another longer one with her performing the same sequence with Aran Bell, she does seem to have a very effective, dramatically colorful, yet also highly refined and statuesquely beautiful, style of motion. What I can’t see from these clips, because they are filmed from a distance, is her facial expression, which in an earlier clip had a naturalness that I’ve never seen before in a ballet dancer. I hope that she’s able to conserve this. She does seem to have a fine sense of expression. The Odile duet, in contrast to the many ways that the character has been interpreted, is actually a very beautiful one. I think that she performs it commendably.