cubanmiamiboy

I knew this, but didn't mention it because I could not find an official announcement. For what I understand, CCBM is done for good.

Oh...that shower scene!

What Primer Bailarin Javier Torres says is that he believes his Caribbean, sun-impregnated blood helps to bring a better experience to the stage. Primera Ballerina Anette Delgado, on the other side, says that despite the company having a wide classic/romantic repertoire she would like to explore more the contemporary works, which "helps a classic dancer to move better".

It was related to my post on the Cuban ballet company back to the days when there were not even cell phones , and the need to appeal to youngsters wasn't a priority, for which ballet dancers were more fully grown men and women obssessed with their artistic development rather than "boys and girls" trying to be "cool".

A little late, as I just happened to find this news, but I agree with bart on this. I miss Cox too. He was such a great character, very energetic and charismatic...always a pleasure to watch.

Actually, besides getting herself ahead as a school founder-(agree with that)- she also got ahead thousands of dancers carreers too... Not that much Alonso's case though. Her active career as a ballerina was over by the time she returned back to Cuba in 1960. All her years of glory took place in New York-(1939-1959), while Castro was still a Law student in Havana University. Two things, the fact that it didn't help her get ahead as a ballerina does not mean she didn't use political connections to get ahead. She used them to found her school and company become a major force to be reckoned with in Cuba, that qualifies as "getting ahead" to me. Also, and yes, OT, are you deliberately misstating the term? I know you hate twitter, but after reading and participating in that thread, you can't seriously think "Tweeter" is the correct term and using it seems to show a certain intentional disrespect that seems unnecessary, especially here where it is totally out of context. Aurora...all that I can promise you is that I wrote the term just as it crossed my head at that very minute. I might be passionate on my posts-(and even a bit sarcastic sometimes)-but I would NEVER even consider to be disrespectful to ANYONE intentionally, specially here. If I did so unintentionally, my deep apologies. Everytime I post I have to go to a painful spellchecking process, for which English is not my first language and I still write with many mistakes, and for some reason my spellcheck thing didn't seem to detect it either. I will go and correct it right now. Sorry again for giving you the wrong impression. And I don't hate Twitter, to tell you the truth...I can't hate something that I can't even identify with or even spell succesfully.

I just got "Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes" by Judith Mackrell. Can't wait to start reading it. Can't get enough of all those girls...!

(Moved from the Ashley Bouder Twitter thread). No, I don't. She had the artistry and the desire, but not the money. Yes, I do. I don't think there was such an issue. It was more the result of Mme's tyrannic management and power over artistic issues. Which is the case. This is right. Among the well known ones: Kesshinska-(Czar Nicholas II)- Lepechinskaya-(Stalin) and so on... Not that much Alonso's case though. Her active career as a ballerina was over by the time she returned back to Cuba in 1960. All her years of glory took place in New York-(1939-1959), while Castro was still a Law student in Havana University.

canbelto, I will move the answer to your questions to the Alonso sub-forum. It seems unfair to me that by getting too deep into Mme's political agenda we might interfere with Miss Bouder's tweeting ordeal, and I don't think we want that psychological burden over our heads. Said that, now I will finally proceed to give my last curtain call, formally announcing my retirement from this discussion. It's been a pleasure, as always. So here I go... (kneeling and everything, to follow that old Imperial tradition just to do it "only when royalty is present", you see...? )

But if you read what they all have to say about it when they are interviewed, right after their longing for other opportunities and repertoire and their attacks on the indefensible items-(agree with that)-then they ALL proceed to express their gratitude and devotion to her for what they became and learned under her ARTISTIC regime, tyrannical and all. This is true, and believe me...I'm very aware of it. I just try to concentrate on her artistic career, which is my only interest about her. I guess this is something people who praise Lifar can relate to also, for instance. Now, political agenda aside-(to which I agree with you 100 %, canbelto,)-I also want to get in line to declare that I have had no intention whatsoever to pour any venom on Miss Bouder-(and want to apologize if my words gave the wrong idea...given the fact of how harsh can they be sometimes...I know). Actually, even if I've never seen her onstage, I was recently engaged in a passionate discussion in which I was one of her few defendants over her Spessitseva's variation clip, which I loved-(and you know how do I get about this particular variation). I just didn't like her "my taxi driver is an idiot" thing...I know we all say things like that, but it was kind of weird to see it written in such an open, public way by her. (Edited to add: There's a language issue going on here too. The Spanish literal translation of the word "idiot"-"IDIOTA"-is RARELY used-even if it means the same-due to its EXTREME harhness. Now that I think about it, I know that it is way more popular in its English nemesis.)

Ok ... I just have to go here. But these are men and women who wouldn't be allowed to twitter, unless they defected to the U.S., because they lived in a regime with no regard to free speech or human rights. Twitter didn't even exist back then, to start with. On the other side, gossiping about the traffic situation was not a specially item of interest for the Cuban KGB. The regime is still the same as it was 50 years ago, Internet is now accessible to those who can afford a computer and still, defections occur. The current guidelines within the Cuban company are ancient ones, still under the tyrannic hand of Mme, and not very likely to survive by whoever takes control after her. Some people are tired of them, I know...as they are of her ancient stagings of Fedorova or Nijinska, but...what a wonderful level of artistry had they carried thru all this decades...! So let's see when the tweets and dweets start taking possession of the Cuban company too...

Live in NYC long enough and you'll chuckle at that tweet. I think you're kind of making a mountain out of a molehill. Can you really not watch Clark Gable films if you knew that in real life his leading ladies dreaded kissing him because of his foul-smelling dentures? Are Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers less magical if you knew that offscreen they could barely stand each other? Can you not watch Erik Bruhn and Carla Fracci if you knew that Erik Bruhn was gay? Are you really not that able to separate what happens onstage with what happens in real life? Ashley Bouder onstage is a dynamo, a force of nature. I don't expect her to be the same intense person offstage. It's enough to know that when she's onstage she's thrilling. It doesn't matter, canbelto, if it is Gable, or Bruhn or Astaire or Bouder or my building's cleaning lady. Thinking that someone is an idiot-(a cab driver, or the nation's President)-is one thing...saying it out loud-(or tweeting it for the world to read it)-to prove how "cool" or "accessible" or "normal" you are is another. Plus, I would get ANYTIME some diva-like public behavior-(a la Nureyev according to his biographers, or even if in the verge of the erratic, like Vivien Leigh or Liz Taylor). About Bruhn's sexual orientation and the issue of being able to "see" him in character, well...ever since one starts to attend ballet as a kid, the stories on the wide spectrum of its male components sexuality go on and on and on forever, from Nijinsky or Chabukhiani all the way to Gomez, to the point that one gets used to see the two-(ballet-gay)- pretty much hand in hand without being an actual shocker. The issue here is the SILLINESS of the whole thing...starting with the info being passed in many of the tweets to the way their contents are being told. On the other side, it is true that maybe this whole Tweeter thing may appeal to the youngsters, and I don't forget the current tendency to call bailarinas and bailarines "boys" and "girls", as if they never grow. This, coming from someone who spent his whole life watching the very body of his home country ballet company formed by veterans MEN and WOMEN, is still kind of hard to digest. So, let's hope that Miss Bouder doesn't get too carried away with her last trend hence going further and edgier in her wording choice-(freedom of speech and everything included). Oh, and by the way...I deal in daily basis with the traffic nightmare which is driving in Miami, and I DO get road rage. I just happen to keep it to myself.

I mean...really...? http://www.twitlonger.com/show/l6n2h So classy...

That's also depending on the "where at" factor. Maybe not where Bouder and her tweets are. But what about where THERE'S NOT TWEETER and still ballet exists in a relevant, impactful, grand level..? Then we're not talking about a general phenomenom. Majoritary, yes...common to all societies or ballet companies/dancers, definitely no.

You just hit the spot, Simon. I believe in, love, WORSHIP the grandeur and seriousness of ballet-(and visual arts, and literature and so on...). Because of that, I've came to "feel" for the likes of Nureyev, Kirkland or Alonso, and their surreal approach, willing to go beyond and above the good and the bad in their unconditional devotion to the art-(kind of Faust's children in their own different, distinctive way, aren't they?). Silliness is not welcome in this circle.

Well it's more like ... in the many ways ballerinas have "gotten ahead" or built a fanbase, or made some publicity, I find tweeting to be one of the most innocuous. And I do actually find it refreshing that many ballerinas are more open with their fans. I do think in many totalitarian regimes tweeting or blogging wouldn't be tolerated. Witness the recent very ugly fight between google and China. I'll give you an experience that took away "mystique": after the Bolshoi run of Corsaire in Washington DC, while I waited for a cab, I saw many of the Bolshoi dancers leave the theater. No one was there to even wave to them or give them flowers -- they were just carrying their duffle bags, and many of them looked exhausted and sad. I was surprised at how haggard and plain they looked offstage, but it's understandable, given they had finished a long national tour. But it didn't make me admire them any less -- in fact, I admired them more. Oh, but that I've seen many times here after a MCB's performance. Right after the final curtain call, I've driven pass the stage door-(which is on my way home)-and I've had the same experience. Tired dancers walking toward the parking garage, with no public there to greet them. But...the "mystique" is absent anyway...these are the same kids I usually see later on at my local Starbucks on South Beach, so I'm not really looking for anything beyond the theater experience. On the other hand, it is wonderful that ballerinas interact with their fans and keep them informed on ballet-related issues-(Vishneva's website is a great example). Now...what does announcing a new TV delivery will do...? Are we in the verge of degrading-(using Patrick's term)-the dancer/fan approach...? Would then be also "cute" to get a tweet letting fans know what so and so got at the last Victoria Secret's annual Sale...?

I'm not sure I got that... Are you referring to the issue of freedom of speech that has been discussed here...? Read Maya Plisetskaya's autobiography. I'm quite familiar with Plisetskaya's ordeal-(widely discussed in this board). I just wanted to know if your comment was aimed to the the issue of a dancer's right to tweet.

I'm not sure I got that... Are you referring to the issue of freedom of speech that has been discussed here...?

Cristian, do you think the public see ballet as something mystic or are merely indifferent? Depending on which public are we referring to. Ballet lovers already "hooked" won't be in any special need for all this. If the issue is the current urgency to do some "recruitment" work among potential newcomers in order to boost audience numbers, then there are many other ways that will be more appealing and helpful to them-(live ballet viewing, great performances videos, ballet personalities biographies, etc). About the "merely indifferent" one...do they need ANYTHING at all...? And yes...I would bet on the fact that many of us still like our ballet with an aura of mystery and mystique.

The ethos of the great classical artist has no common ground with any Tweeter, or Tweet or whatever that thing is pronounced.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I spotted beautifully dressed Miss Deanna Seay and hubby Misha at the event. Wait...Deanna Seay+Romeo and Juliet. ?..Now, THAT would make for a great formula. I would LOVE to see her in the role...somehow I FEEL that she would be SUBLIME !...( )

Hopefully, but somehow things are happening all the way around..! Isn't it healthier first to be exposed and successfully attracted to this multi-dimensional endeavor that the good ballet is all about, hence resulting in the lack of needing to dig into individual personalities-(and all those twitter trends and the ones still to come...)-?

For some reason, I suspect that there were casting/music tempi issues. I still have the three Miami runnings to come, so let's see...

I am all against the "demystification" of ballet/ballet dancers, I confess, but still...nice to see Miss Bouder making it front page.