cubanmiamiboy

I am a great admirer of Russian literature. Perhaps it's because my favorite fairtales as a child were from a Georgian storybook.

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)

Thanks for the reminder ... to re-visit the John Waters film.

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 shushed the woman behind me at an ABT performance at the Met several years ago. She then smacked me on the head with her program.

I went back & spoke with the house manager & they made the woman leave.

It's not good form to smirk but I not toally ashamed to admit that I did.

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...!

I'm right? Really? Yay. *Something* needed to go right today, as it were!

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

With an aunt who helps get him a guesting opportunity at the Bolshoi and a nephew(supposing it is his nephew) who wins the Shanghai International Ballet Competition, Carlos Acosta has some great family connections.

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...

Especially when you consider that "The Secret" has been at the top of the nonfiction best seller lists for months. I realize that it stretches the definition of "book"--while it is printed on paper, bound between covers and sold at bookstores--it is actually a book-like object in which the packaging, marketing and distribution were more important than its content which could have been printed on an index card with room left over for a grocery list.

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...

Actually, I now fear I spoke to soon....

The young man was Yonah Yunior Acosta... and in the Jr. Division.

Apologies to all if I am indeed wrong. I saw 'Yonah Acosta' and ran....

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

And Jr. Male Gold? None other than Yonah Acosta - Carlos' nephew!

"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!

I'm a loud-and-long applauder and a producer of bravos. (Especially with performers I've seen often and have come to feel that I "know.") I've never thought about it, abut I guess I do hope that my applause will be "infectious". It's fun, and I always assume that the dancers appreciate it.

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...

Alicia Alonso was obviously an amazing dancer but when you think of the dancers who have come through her company and are adored world-wide for their technique and style you begin to realise her genius.

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...

Some of them still make wonderful reading,

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.

cubanmiamiboy posted the following comments on the book in the General Reading forum and I thought they would go well here:

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...

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...

From the English National Opera site, an upcoming Carlos Acosta's performance, for those lucky who can attend:

Carlos Acosta is the greatest ballet dancer of his generation. He is a principal dancer at Covent Garden; Tocororo, the show about his own life, that he wrote, choreographed and starred in, broke box office records at Sadler's Wells; and in his homeland of Cuba he is a national hero. Renowned for combining Cuban passion with a remarkable technical virtuosity and raw athleticism, watching Carlos Acosta dance is a breathtaking experience not to be missed. Carlos Acosta has chosen some of his favourite moments in ballet and brought them together to create one evening of spectacular dance. He draws on his roots, taking works from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba's repertoire such as Tarde en la Siesta, as well as the ever popular Diana and Acteon, and in an uplifting finale, he will treat the audience to some traditional Cuban moves from the final scene of Tocororo. For this very special programme Carlos will be joined onstage by artists from The Royal Ballet including Mara Galeazzi, Marianela Nunez and Federico Bonelli amongst others.

Performances Dates:

Mar 03, 2008 7:30pm

Mar 31, 2008 7:30pm

Apr 01, 2008 7:30pm

Apr 02, 2008 7:30pm

Apr 03, 2008 2:00pm

Address:

The Coliseum

St Martin's Lane

London WC2N 4ES

Has anyone else had similar experiences when revisiting one of your serious favorites from long ago? And how did you handle it? OR did you love the book as much or better than before?

Great topic, bart!

Recently i went back to 2 of my adolescense favorites and these are the results:

"White Nights', a tasteful and beautiful short novel by Fiodor Dostoiewsky. I enjoyed it and loved it as if i was still a romantic teenager...

"On the Suffering of the World" by Arthur Schopenhauer . Oh, God,. what was i thinking...?!?!

I've seen Guerra last January.He danced Diana and Acteon.

Bravo!

From the Sadler's Wells official site, this is the information about Carlos Acosta's upcoming London performance with guests artists from Ballet Nacional de Cuba:

Sadler's Wells.

Rosebery Ave. EC1R Islington.

23 Oct. 2007 and 28 Oct. 2007

Carlos Acosta with Guest Artists from Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

Programme:

"Le Corsaire" - chor. Alicia Alonso after M.Petipa

"El río y el bosque" ("The river and the forest")-chor. Alberto Mendez

"Muñecos" ("Toys")-chor. Alberto Mendez

"Paso a tres" ("Pas de trois")- chor. Alberto Méndez

Plus additional choreography by Carlos Acosta , featuring live music by Aldo Lopez Gavilan and his band .

Carlos Acosta is one of ballet’s superstars, known for his extraordinary athleticism and remarkable technical virtuosity. Now, for the very first time in London, he will join forces with guest dancers from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, in a programme of classical ballet which has a distinctly Cuban feel.

From the age of nine Acosta trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba. Inspired by Alicia Alonso's Ballet Nacional de Cuba he went on to become the greatest ballet dancer of his generation; and a national hero in Cuba.

The Ballet Nacional de Cuba is renowned for its unparalleled technique. Watching Carlos Acosta dance with artists from this remarkable company, including Viengsay Valdes, Anette Delgado and Javier Torres, promises to be a breathtaking experience, not to be missed.

Press Reviews:

"Technical fireworks with brilliant charm and awesome ease...":

THE TELEGRAPH on Ballet Nacional de Cuba

"Cuba has consistently produced wonderful classical dancers... bringing a joyful flair to ballet which is comparable to the Brazilian genius for football..."

THE OBSERVER on Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

I hope that we can have some attendants from BT to report back.

The site was down today for about five hours. One of our key files was corrupted, and it took a bit of digging to find and resolve it.

I apologize to Ballet Talkers who tried to get on during the downtime.

oh, it was frustrating..!!

thanks for coming back!

My beloved Mme. Alicia Alonso . I attended some of her magistral conferences back on the days, and she was ENCHANTING on her talking, aside from the fact that she's a living encyclopedia in terms of ballet history, choreography, music and the like..Also, it's worth to note that she always strongly emphazises on the fact that general knowledge and culture are a MUST and essential on a dancer's formation.

The kind of elaboration that works in 19th century novels -- with their enormously longer time frame -- would not work on a ballet contemporary stage.

...which resulted in various simplifications of some "Pas de deux a trois" to just PDD,(e.g Medora/Conrad/Ali ,Odette/Siegfried/Benno, Odile/Siegfried/Von Rothbart and so on) and cutting of dances for corps who are characters themselves, (e.g the nymphs of "Diana&Acteon" from the whole "Pas"). I would say that this is fine if these characters insertion tend to be too confusing for the story and not very strong choreographically.