cubanmiamiboy

Edited: Post erased.

Well, living in South Beach is like being in a perpetual Tattoo Parlor...and the city itself is infested with hundreds of this establishments. I see all kinds of tats in daily basis-(the majority of people here are shirtless most of the times ), and beautiful designs are being displayed constantly. This is a plus if they are being showed on a great body. I particularly like the old fashion ones, and those that portray pin-up girls...

What do you mean by that...?, Aren't more all less all Act III's endings the same, i mean, everybody being laughed at by Rothbart and daughter, followed by their quick escape and the always overly dramatic fainting Queen...? That's if you use the original Act listing order from 1877. The 1895 Petipa/Ivanov version--which is the basis for many modern productions of Swan Lake--lists it as Act I (two scenes), Act II and Act III. I tend to follow the Petipa/Ivanov act listing. I knew about this order, but i've never seen a production in which Act I and the following Lakeside are done without intermission...Which company does it nowadays...?

Ha...talk about tattoos in Miami City Ballet!. One of "Our Show" works had the boys all shirtless...wow, all the principals, Jeremy Cox, Isanusi, Sarabita...they all had all kinds of tats, and they all looked great BTW ...(Cox's is a little sun surrounding his umbilical site.. ) Oh, and yes...i like tats...

What do you mean by that...?, Aren't more all less all Act III's endings the same, i mean, everybody being laughed at by Rothbart and daughter, followed by their quick escape and the always overly dramatic fainting Queen...?

Now, THAT'S a Giselle i would love to see...

Uuh...maybe just because it was Mr. Prokofiev vs. some ghost people...?

BTW, recently a friend sent me the link to his infamous european "Vogue" photo shoot... Members of this forum: Have you seen it?

I believe that in terms of ending the ballet, there's a big divergence between versions produced in the West (which has more or less a tragic ending) and the version produced in the former Soviet Union and China nowadays. I believe it came down to two reasons: 1) the objections of Soviet-era censors I mentioned above and 2) the Russians felt a "happy" ending better suited the music at the end, which ended in a C major signature. The story with the soviet censors always leaves me thinking, considering that those same censors didn't want the original happy ending that Prokofiev had in mind for his Romeo and Juliet!...Anyways, it's also interesting to note that the tragic ending has to be really well done in order to be credible. Not everybody realizes or understand this "happy" character of the reunited soul, along with that happy C key. ( I personally think somehow one has to have some kind of belief system or certain degree of knowledge of the after life theories in order to "get" this). When The Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami did it, they used the suicidal events, and then, the dead couple made a final appearance in the top of an awful pro that i guess was trying to resemble some clouds of something...(they didn't have the required equipment to do it the way ABT does, which is less confusing). Anyways, the poor Cubans looked like a happy couple in a top of a wedding cake. No good.

I was 11/12 when i read it. It was my first serious book, and i remember vividly being caught reading it under the table while in class, and asked to stepped in front of everyone to turn it to the teacher. I hated her.

Try Alonso's version. Remember that Spain is, as we Cubans calls it , the "mother land" . Hence, Don Quijote's Cuban version has all that Latin/Spanish hot blooded flavor this ballet requires by nature in order to be successful. I haven't got my DVD yet, but i saw it live maaaany many times, as is one of the most popular productions in Cuba. When it was staged, the famous flamenco dancer Antonio Gades flew to Havana to bring up the style to the ballet, and real bullfighters also came from Spain to train the dancers portraying them.

I'm glad you enjoyed the clips. Yes, both Powers and Long are regular members of the Company. I was also very nicely surprised by Powers performance on the Corsaire PDD replacing an injured Gutierrez. There's a whole thread dedicated to her. Here it is. http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=27164

"Impressing the Tsar-(Czar)-" wow...whatever it is, it sounds grand. In another context , i can't help but think what would have been the impression of the late last Russian Monarch right before being shot along with his wife and kids. Such cowardice... But back to the subject...

Hellooooooo. Paul is still waiting for his answeeeer!

well...add 8 more dancers-(four couples plus two aditional girls)- and you'll get Mme. Alonso's-(beautiful for me)-Peasant Pas de Dix!

Well, Patrick...now THAT 's gonna be hard to top...hands down...

OK, so here i go. Alternate ending to Swan Lake: Everything goes as we all know up to the point of Odette's suicide. Siegfried gets very disturbed by it, although he doesn't follow her steps. Instead, while sobbing on the floor, everything seems to start changing around him. It looks like the spell is broken...and surprise, because of the magic of love, even evil Rothbart is having a transformation! So now, the malevolent character is getting transformed right before Siegfried's astonished eyes into...wow, the handsomest of the males creatures ever imagined. So hypnotically beautiful is this new male presence, that Siegfried falls totally in love right there...and viceversa. At the end, we can see them both holding hands and walking off the stage in total ecstasy of their newly found homosexual love. (Please, don't kill me )

Many. Mme. Alonso had one of the most famous partnerships in the ballet history with Igor Youskevitch-(to the point where people thought they were romantically involved)...while hardly ever danced with her own husband, dancer Alberto Alonso! Do you know if she chose him to be her partner? By many accounts, the answer is yes. According to Mme. he was one of her few partners able to deal with her blindness because of the fact that he wouldn't be one inch out of the place where he was supposed to, let's say, catch her in a flying fish dive...She always insists that he was a one beyond extraordinary partner.

Thanks Gina and Mel for the valuable info! I actually finished Danilova's autobiography, and saw her pics of the Ballet Russes production. Lovely endeed! True, and first Swan Lake also (1940)

Many. Mme. Alonso had one of the most famous partnerships in the ballet history with Igor Youskevitch-(to the point where people thought they were romantically involved)...while hardly ever danced with her own husband, dancer Alberto Alonso!

Mmm...I was thinking of the current POB version vs. older stagings...

Alternate ending to dearest Twyla Tharp's "Night-pot": mmm...let's see, let's see..(oh, God...the ballet is so bad, that i can't even think of anything...sorry) Note-I promise I'll get back with something... Note 2-Actually, this is not true, i DID came out with something- - but since this imaginary scene involves the ballet's creator portraying herself plus some violent atmosphere, i think it would be too much to bear for some out there...so I'll keep thinking.

Mmm, from La Samba caliente you come. (I decided that in a near future I WILL PARADE ALONG EL SAMBODROMO, dancing samba...gustoso!!! (I love dancing samba, BTW) ) Anyways, welcome, and if i remember her name, i will be asking you about a brazilian ballerina who was in one of the Miami International Ballet Festivals doing an espectacular Black Swan, with soutees on pointe and everything!

Volcano...are you familiar with the past encarnations of the ballet...? LIke from the 70's?