cubanmiamiboy

During two beach sessions-(yesterday and today)-I started/finished Robert Musil's "Der junge Törless". I almost didn't finish it, since I have strong feelings about school bullying-(something I profoundly despise, even belonging to a national association that aims for bullying perpetrators to be promptly detected, expelled from school and taking to court of law, along with strong sanctions to school staff and parents who allows it). Anyway..at some points the author goes on and on in extended reflections about weird moral concepts and strange philosophical thoughts, and here's where I have a problem with the lecture. At the end, and despite all this obsession with "superiority"-(one of the most subjectives concepts on earth)-, we just see that the story "hero" shows no basic mercy, being completely and boldly dispassionate about real human suffering. The book was written in 1906, but this sad situation of double morality and mercilessness is just around many of our own neighborhood corners...sometimes in our own homes. http://images3.cinema.de/imedia/1283/2131283,rWZx7p8vVzQUGr8rLFjDdWAv+jhDWfARkJc7p9xGumYxB8p7Zw50lHXINS4aMZjiGVpvAqIDYMYV5UgFGC08XQ==.jpg

I thought some of you would find this interesting to watch... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLo_0J_iemw&feature=related

Oh, no...no, no, noooooooo...mess up with everything, but no with the Shades scene, pleeeease...

Can someone explain me what was that from 3:31 to 3:52...?!?!

I think I will save this quote to pop it here and there, so at least I can lean on someone else's argument... But back to Diddharta...

Done!

After an extreme grand baking session at the beach today I went to see a theater play in the little hidden gem called "Teatro en Miami Studio". This is a Cuban theater group home based in the heart of Little Havana-(the theater studio is on top of a little business where they sale used tires...hence the place is known as "La Gomera"..."gomas" is "tires" in Spanish. ). Anyway...I've been there before when craving for some serious theater, being the bulk of their productions le Théâtre de l'Absurde. Tonight they did a take on some characters from Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles' tragedies, giving the weight of the night to that of Elektra. From their website... "Kharon, the boatman, refuses to guide the ship carrying Elektra, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra on their last trip to Hades. The intrigues, hate and love of the characters along with their thirst for revenge make it impossible for him to start the trip. Kharon demands for them to resolve their old business before leaving. ELEKTRA has been the mute witness to the murder of her father Agamemnon at the hands of her mother Clytemnestra, who is helped by her lover Aegisthus . From that moment she swears vengeance, which she plans to execute at the return of her brother Orestes. Now in Acheron, the river that leads to Hades, Kharon's ship waits, but to be able to leave their passengers need to find answers to too many questions. What is life.? What is death? What are heroes? What is power? What is home? What is glory?..." http://www.teatroenmiami.net/tems/index.php?view=details&id=11%3Aelectra-la-danza-de-los-muertos&option=com_eventlist&Itemid=66

...which she ordered of the same fabric she found Carla Fracci's skirt to be made of via sneaking on the Italian's dressing room in the middle of the night and cutting a piece from the underskirt... Oh Gelsey, Gelsey...too much Gelsey.. Maybe she was high at the time? Who knows, poor thing. Great that she's alive and well and teaching in the city as per today though... Brava Gelsey ! Anyway...going back to Fracci's tutu's fabric, it seems as if she kept making her skirt of that silk tulle that almost looks as if having a life of its own-(instead of those awful stiffy nylon made ones... )

...which she ordered of the same fabric she found Carla Fracci's skirt to be made of via sneaking on the Italian's dressing room in the middle of the night and cutting a piece from the underskirt... Oh Gelsey, Gelsey...too much Gelsey..

And Wiles is definitely out of the company. I saw her dancing a couple of times and always knew she wasn't a big audience favorite, but still...looking at her departure's scanty reactions/comments from this board's members made me realize the extent to which she will be or not missed.

Wow...totally in love now. I love her physique. It could be what I was accustomed to, but I find this strong legged ballerinas very pleasant to watch. It is as if they firm ankles/calves are giving them the complete support they need. You can tell Sevillano's comfort being on pointe, with the strength almost pouring from her instep up...as if being on pointe was her most natural element. No bubbling, no shaking...great dancing legs. I wish the ballet world could revert to that instead of insisting in the current trend of loosing muscle mass with horrible results...usually unpleasant and trembling arabesques and turns...

There...thanks, Halene.!

Boo...I give up...! (just kidding...I'll keep trying... )

Me too! Refresh my senile memory, Helene...in which film did I see her just recently...?

And...don't you find yourself waiting for a super-deep 6 o'clock suported penchee, ballerina touching her supporting leg with her forheadhead in the slow movement of certain, beautiful "tutu-ballet" of him...? (Now, talk about "iconic"! )

...and don't you get some mixed feelings about it...as if telling yourself "Ah, you may get away with it with those who DON'T KNOW the choreography, but no with me girl..!"...? Wise words. I must confess that one of my biggest excitements EVER of Swan Lake was the Black Swan section...yes, I LOVED the exaggerated, femme fatale, Queen Grimhilde designed and inspired Odile....and then the pinnacle of her physical powers...the backward traveling penchee/sautés on pointe. Some ballerinas even did some fantastic port de bras signaling to Siegfried as if to attracting him, to which he would walk as if hiptonized...all this while Odile was all the way down...face and steely eyes on him. Ah, it was WONDERFUL!-(Madame Bosh and Madame Mendez were just spectacular on this). One day I saw my first Swan Lake out of Cuba...and poof...the magic was gone...forever. Dissapointing...VERY disappointing indeed, even now realizing that this was not a Petipa step.

Maybe it would take an established ballerina with an important position in a given company to be given such range of liberty to be able to substitute such a flashy step in such a flashy ballet...? For some reason I don't think every dancer would have that kind of chance...meaning to do it in advance...(nor out of an extreme measure in the middle of a sudden injury mid-performance...)-which is where the mentioned examples of Sibley and Plisetskaya with the fuettes apply.

What has been the performance history of this ballet in the last quarter of century...? Has anybody seen it...? Is it still in the POB repertoire or the Australian Ballet...? Did the ballet ever find a permanent home in America...? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhd2qhZZ_Zg http://artsalive.ca/upload/dan/3413383-m_full.jpg

In my experience (as an old, ex-dancer), many dancers will work out an alternative version of something weeks in advance when (notice I did not say, "if") they have been fighting with some injury or an unstable-joint or something; especially if a gruelling run of performances is coming up. One never knows how the body is going to be "on the night", and esp. late in a season everything hurts and one does not necessarily want to risk a potentially careeer-ending injury for a few steps which could have been altered. Therefore, yes, this probably was carefully choreographed; but for use "in an emergency". Dancers almost always have a Plan B, you know. We may look spontaneous, but that is part of the illusion; just as it should _look_ effortless. -d- Deinitely a very logic argument. Thanks Diane for offering the insider's input...

And what was exactly the issue with Sevillano...? Simon mentioned something of her having a horrible time. Was it about injuries..? Or was it something along the lines of Sarabita...never rooting themselves in a specific company...?

Tonight I went to see the film "Elle s'appelait Sarah" by French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner. It is Paris, 1942, and the notorious Vel' d'Hiv Roundup is about to happen... Go and try to catch it if it is showing in your area... http://www.sarahskey.com.au/

She is indeed. No hard feelings, Simon.

About my curiosity on how do my fellow Bt'rs feel about this substitution...one that is quite rare.

"Crap"...? Nope. That was not my intention. Wrong guessing, Simon. I know nothing...and I don't imply nothing, Simon...I believe I used the word "probably" to denote just that..that this affirmation points to a PROBABILITY, not to an absolute truth. Wow. No...better not, Simon.