cubanmiamiboy

Hi, Tifma, and welcome!. I hope you enjoy the site and its wonderful people as much as i do... Also, congratulations for you and your husband on your anniversary

The world should just stop viciously digging in and arguing on this subject, and just try to enjoy performances more often. I personally agree with Lewis Segal statement as that ballet form is racially stereotyped by nature. Let's not forget that the most of today's well known choreographies were created in the XIX Century, and princesses, kings, queens and african slavery were still current at the time. Let's also not forget that Russia was still living in a pre-capitalist stage, and from there they abruptely jumped into communism, without having the time to develop a strong middle class. Hence, the characters on this stories talk about all of these extreme social differences. We shouldn't change anything, and just try to understand a little more the stories and the times when they were created. If Abderrakhan or Othello require a specific dark makeup because it's intrinsec to the role, let's work on it. If the Willis require some lightening makeup because it's intrinsec to their nature, let's give it to them too. Overall, let's respect tradition, history and accuracy, and soften up a little the subject of race in ballet. On top of everything, i would hate to see choreographies getting lost, mixed up, cofusing or forgotten becaused of lack of comprehensive knowledge and common sense. At the end, i can't forget the fact that i never had the opportunity to watch Raymonda back in Cuba. It's considered racist and offensive, and has never been staged. Do we want that?

I divide my vote between Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Carlos Acosta.

Thanks, Hans...

Oh well, bart, so i guess you're the only backing me up on the swan issue!. My all time favorite PDD , he,he.. the old "Black Swan PDD,(Mme.Alonso after Gorsky) for its choreography and plotline. Next, (and i think i will be the first to mention it, right?) the "Sugar Plum Fairy" (the Fokine/Mme.Fedorova version, specially when the Cavalier rocks the arched Sugar Plum Fairy like a pendulum, the back of her head almost sweeping the floor.) I just love it for sentimental reasons and beautiful music and choreography, and then, as we're expanding the concept a little bit, the "Waltz in C minor" from Chopiniana (Alonso after Fokine) just because i have to watch it at least once a week. I know, i know...i have a kitsh taste, some say... Note: It's worthy to mention that my top three favorites are based totally in the choreographic fact. In other words, my choices would be different if these PDD are staged by different choreographers.

Reading was very encouraged back when i was in school. Then, when i got to seven grade, things started gettting..mm, different. We had classes such as "Political knowledge Fundamentals", and "Marxism-Leninism:Theory", all the way from there to college. By the time i was 12, we were forced to read Karl Marx "Capital" and "The Communist Manifesto" and Engel's "Anti-Duhring" and "Ludwing Feuerbach and the end of german classical filosophy"among other books of the like. People were really reading-discouraged, IMO...

It's true that high tech is a non stoppable force, but still i would be concerned about: -Affordability- This things are really expensive,(at least for me). Iphones and the like are, and will be for a while -Durability-They are very sensitive and easy to break. I see people loosing tons of information constantly because their phone dropped in the water, (talk about mother nature force vs. high tech force) or their laptops got a virus. Water is an issue where a regular book wins over its electric competitor. -Human understanding on the high tech matters. For some, (me included), the less complicated an item gets, the better, and in that field, regular books can't get less complicated to manipulate and understand its use than, say, e-books...

Oooh, lovebird, i hadn't read the beggining of your first post on this thread. Now that i realize about your mentioning of the russian fairy tales, i must say that this is a very special topic to me because these beautiful and enigmatic russian fairy tales, in their soviet editions back then, were esential in my reading training as a kid. I had tons of books of them, and would reread them over and over. Those stories are precious to me, as they remind me my very early happy childhood. "Masha and the bear", "The Princess and the pea" "Alionushka and Ivanuschka", "Frost", "The little snow girl" and many many others. My favorite of them all was always the lovely "Vasilisa the beautiful"...(sight)

Yeah, thanks for the reminder...I actually bought it, along with "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble" I know....

Oh, my God, this is a very old thread, but it just brought back memories. I too devoured Enid Blyton's books when i was about 7 or 8 y.o. I specially remember the "Mallory Towers" series, set at a boarding school for girls in Cornwall and its heroine Darrell Rivers. I remember i found the books in the children section of my local old library, in their spanish translation, (like Silvy stated back in 2004). It was interesting because at that time, those kind of books were somehow considered "part of the capitalist bourgeoised infamous past", according to a popular official old mantra, and erased from all libraries. Somehow in my town they were forgotten in the shelves, and managed to stay around, 'till i discovered them. I also remember her other series "The Famous five", "The Secret Seven", "The Mistery" series and the "St. Clare" series among others...I know they have been very critizied, but hey, i do have wonderful memories of them...they made me dream of another world...I wonder if Silvy's nephew, now 12, ever got to read them...

I remember when years ago back in Havana my friend and i were attending a Don Quijote performance. My friend has not patience at all, and shushed several times an annoying young lady seatting in front of us, who obviously didn't care at all for the ballet and was laughing non stop. After a while, giving that the girl wouldn't stop sabotaging the performance, my friend finally lost it and suddenly pulled her long hair,quick and hard, at which she softly screamed and inmediately interrupted her laughing. I was embarrassed, have to say, but it worked...!

Here's my 5 fav. pick. They are randomly listed. 1-Kirov/Marinsky Ballet 2-Royal Danish Ballet 3-Bolshoi Ballet 4-Ballet Nacional de Cuba 5-Paris Opera Ballet

Family of winners, ah?

Javier Bardem is an excelent choice. I loved him is his early 1992 "Jamon, jamon", (aka-"Ham, ham") , then in his Academy Award nominated portray of the prosecuted homosexual cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in "Before Night Falls" and finally in his 2004 Venice Festival awarded role from "The Sea Inside". As for Penelope Cruz, not my favorite actress, particulary when she is out of Almodovar's domain...

Let's also not forget that it was Paris Hiton's book of choice for a while, according to many pics of her reading it that were recently published in some magazines...

You did not wrong, ami....!, it's him

"De tal palo tal astilla", is a cuban saying that comes to my mind when i read this, which in its english translation would be something like "From that wood stick, here is a splinter". That boy will make ballet history, like his uncle. Here is a fragment of Wendy Perron's article "Under Cubas's spell" from the march 2007 issue of "Dance Magazine": "As we were filing in to observe a men's class, one 17-year-old boy instantly caught our eyes. Yonah Gonzalez Acosta looked heaven-sent, with a lithe body and beautiful feet. He is Carlos Acosta's nephew, and he radiates the same extraordinary grace his uncle has". http://www.dancemedia.com/issues/March-200...der-Cubas-Spell Congratulations, Yonah!

Same here bart ! What can i do?, I can't contain myself to do it, specially after the succesful completition of a certain difficult step even before the variation ends...

Absolutely true. I think that the Alonso phenomenom goes way beyond the ballerina herself. It is the school,(the biggest worldwide), the training method, the spirit and finally, the assimilation of the latin flavor by the public within the very euro-centered ballet world. That's what makes Mme. Alonso a genious.

Oh, well..this is a very interesting topic that can develop a wide range of opinions. Overall, i just want to state that in the past i used to formulate the question "What are you reading?" as a part of a "get-to-know-you" primary conversation. After many dissapointments and all kind of reactions and answers, (many of whom i wish i would never had to hear), i just gave up and stopped asking...

Like when i recently went back to my all time adolescence favorite: Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights". It was as delightful and tasteful as i had remembered it, so i fell in love all over again...

I just wanted to pay my respects, even if delayed, to the late grand dame Mme. Melissa Hayden ,whose presence and trayectory within the ballet world turns to be very special for us cubans being her, back in Havana in 1948, among the brave members to assume the non easy task of founding a small new ballet company to be named Ballet Nacional de Cuba. R.I.P Mme. Hayden.

Thank you dirac for placing my post in the right Forum ! I didn't know there was a thread already about this book, and i have to go thru it it to see people's reactions. As for me, i found it refreshing and easy to read...nothing major...

I just finished reading "The Unmaking of a Dancer. An Unconventional life" by Joan Brady. It's a refreshing light book in where Ms. Brady, a former ballet student at the San Francisco Ballet School and later at the School of American Ballet in New York, describes her struggling truncated attempts at becoming a professional dancer within the Balanchine's company. It's worthy to note her interesting portrays of some of her former teachers, well known personalities within the ballet world, including Balanchine himself, Lew and Harold Christensen, Anatole Oboukhoff, Pierre Vladimiroff, Mme. Felia Doubrowska, Mme. Alexandra Danilova , Mme. Rosella Hightower and others. Without trying to be too pretentions, Ms. Brady manages to let the non expert reader feel that that the mantra "everything is beautiful in ballet" can be left open to discussion...