cubanmiamiboy

It varies, depending on the performance...Nutcracker is not the same as a season ballet, and different again from things like the Cleveland paired with the ballet company. But certainly-(for what I remember from my days at Miami Dade College)-more than $20.

Heats or no Heats, masses can't pay the prohibited prices of ballet. When I say "masses" I'm even excluding the professional middle class. Unless their parents pay for it, high school students-(and even college ones)-see those ticket prices beyond their range. I remember a full house of young people during my past ballet viewing life, but that's not the case during my current one.

The school expansion is REALLY good news. Hopefully at one point it will become a real candidate feeder for the company.

The whole business with the happy face during the basquet dance is a little tricky. She can certainly try a "defeated" sad smile as if telling Gamzatti..."You've got the Prince and this is my consolation prize..?, So be it", but certainly one happy wide grimace is just too much. Solor is right there next to his fiancee...a now forbidden territory for her, so it does not make sense to portray her sooo happy I think.

But that would be untrue, Amy...Villella or Lopez-(to my knowledge or based on what the playbills say)-have never intended to offer such pieces a ballets.

Just went to see this tonight. Go see it. Two thumbs up!

Well, it is just that their choreo, even as a tribute to Dolin's, certainly ommits a great deal of it, so I don't know...it doesn't sound as a good fit-(although i could be wrong...)

Baby steps . . . If Lourdes reads this...

Oh my, on my...the Romantic ballet and its sylphs, Willis and spirits of the forest ...the moonlight and the crosses...the red lips, the white ethereal skirts and lilies, the 3 meters floating, mauve cloaks and the smoking machine...darn, I'M IN BUSINESS NOW!!

Aawww..your first Giselle..! ("If I could turn back time..." Cher) BTW...happy to report that Giselle, Swan Lake and Nutcracker have been thightly even in votes for a while now. Sleeping Beauty always falls one vote less than the rest.

My answer was aimed at the most common case scenario when someone without previous experience is in the position of facing a night at the theater in which a mixed repertoire is being danced by a ballet company-(typical case of MCB). Usually they do lots of Balanchine, some Morris and Tharp and a sporadic Petipa. I have had neophyte companions who, just as boldly as Tom did, had turned to me before, during or after the performances to ask me if what they will see, are seeing or saw is ballet or danza, and how do they know which is which. Although it would be wonderful to start engaging in a conversation about placement, lines, past centuries, touching the imaginary and codified vocabulary, usually there's not enough time to do so in such situations and also the person in question sometimes does not want to go that far, wanting just a simple, valid formula that can help them separate the two types of dancing at first sight. I have given the "whatever you see danced in pointes tonight is ballet, and the barefoot stuff is not" has worked 100 % for me so far.

I don't think NT will ever recover from this. Swan song has been produced.

I I know...that's why I put that "none of them" option in the last group, because the system forces you to cast a vote in each of the groups. Thing is, I would had been forced to eliminate one ballet from the first group, and now it is too late, because it would delete all the votes from that particular ballet. Perhaps I wrongly assumed that "Giselle" was the secure choice for everybody.

The demeanor, yes...definitely.

There are many, as you and me well know, starting with their training, the type of repertoire they're capable to do, the turnout and many other details. Now, a dancer can switch from one genre to another, as it has been the case-(usually from ballet to so and so, not too much the other way around, at least as adults), which in that case we could wonder.."Mr. X is or was a ballet dancer?". Tricky question indeed. Now, the question could go as "what identifies a male ballet dancer?", which in that case I would say, out of my mouth and right away..."his ability to do Albrecht". You can definitely stage a modified Giselle to be danced by a street b-boy, but you will notice RIGHT AWAY that there are key elements missing in his dancing. If pointes are esential to a female to assure that she can do ballet, then I would say that demi-pointe is its male counterpart.

I agree. It could be then that at this point i'm not interested in seeing women dancing "ballet sans pointes". Cristian, I feel that dancing en pointe is so much a part of the ballet experience, that when I see a ballet danced without pointe shoes or with just soft slippers, I feel a bit disappointed, as if I've only seen 1/2 a ballet. An anecdote: when Suzanne Farrell went to dance with Maurice Bejart's Ballet Fin de XX Siecle in Belgium (I think that's how it's name goes), apparently his dancers danced a lot without their pointes, and there was something about a very limited number of pairs of pointe shoes she'd be given, per the contract. However, Suzanne was adamant about dancing en pointe and having the requisite numbers of pairs that she needed and he conceded and she got all that she wanted. This anecdote comes from her autobiography 'Holding on to the Air'. In the book, I think Suzanne said she'd go through 12-15 pairs a week. My book is way upstairs and I'm wrapping by hubby's birthday presents right now, otherwise, I'd check for sure. Anyway, she LOVED dancing en pointe. Oh, I do remember that, and also something about doing the barre on pointe vs. her peers, who were not. When someone told her something, she responded something along the lines of "Thanks, but I like to be up here..."

I agree. It could be then that at this point i'm not interested in seeing women dancing "ballet sans pointes".

One thing...when trying to categorize modern things we see choreographed on pointe that are so different to the ideal works-(whatever that might be in one's mind...Petipa, Balanchine or Twyla's works on pointe)-, instead of saying "No, that's not ballet, that's gymnastics", or something along the lines, I realize it is wiser and less confusing to those who are new to the art form to talk about "bad ballet", "bad choreographies", "Modern ballet", "contemporary ballet", or even "gymnastic ballet". If we just cross them and let them out of the range, people will get even more confused. Classical case scenario, the infamous clip of that Chinese ballet troupe performing the acrobatic act. Yes, that is bad, circus-like, gymnastic ballet...

Thank you for posting those clips, MH. Geltzer is someone that I've always been very curious to know more about. Usually all the focus in books and Russian ballet history goes back to St. Petersburg and the Mariinsky, but not too much on the Bolshoi. Geltzer is mentioned a lot in Ksesshinskaya's book, and she was one of the few Imperial ballerinas who, like Vaganova, did not leave her country. I would like to know more of her story during the last Tsar's era and on the aftermath of the revolution.

Give me all the line you want, but if the woman can't stand on her toes, no ballet is gonna be done. Also, I think there's a distinction in between performers and the art form itself. If the question would had been "what are the distinctive signs in a ballet dancer", then the answers would be different, because we would be talking about its carriers, which can have many trainings and can intertwine them-(although again, toe dancing would be the # 1 thing to look at, and I think that would be the # 1 question for an employer who wants to hire a female ballet performer, way before getting into the whole line thing). A ballet dancer does have distinctive lines, definitely...but one has to have a very experienced eye to see it. Now, the art form itself equals toe dancing, and Miss Taglioni sealed the deal all the way to Miss Osipova. MCB does pieces by M. Morris, and I don't think they are ballet pieces. Mark Morris company titles itself as "MM Dance group". Then, if what you want is trying to differenciate a "ballet dancer" woman from a mere "dancer" based just in lines, without knowing if she knows how to dance on her toes, there're chances that you can be fooled-(I would, certainly...). I suspect I tend to focus more in the motion, the movement, the ballet foot and its distinctive shoe and the marvels that it does, which the rest of the other dancers from different dance categories can't , instead of the placement and lines. (But again...my first ballerinas were women with very different body types and physiques that those favored by the majority, so I don't care too much for the Skoriks of the world. Give me 32 clean fouettes and we're in business)

Well, in tht aspect I agree with you. I can't bear to call "ballet" to many stuff I've seen produced lately, in which the dancers are on their toes. Then I wouldn't call it, but the programme does so...

No toe tapping...no sneakers nor boots. Pointe shoes that is. The chinese act is certainly detrimental to the artform, and it mixes it with acrobatics, but then Somova does it too, so... When someone with no previous experience asks me that very question-(and many do,when one talks a lot about it)-that's my main answer so they can forget everything that has to do with all the soleils, dirty barefoot acts, rolling on floors contemporary companies and so on and so forth. When people are given a straight answer like that, and they start visualizing ballet=pointe shoes, it is easier for them to get the whole idea. Then, and only then, and after many pointes, one can tell about Sheherezade... Edited to add: A ballerina can do both barefoot and toe dancing. A female dancer trained sans toe technique can't tell the same story, and still she doesn't cease to be a dancer. This is based on a story I heard many years ago in which Pavlova told Duncan "I can do what you do but you can't do what I do". True or not, that opened my eyes to a broad-(if incomplete, I admit it)- definition of "ballet" long time ago.

And she has that dramatic, femme fatale bearing, aside from being stunningly, womanly beautiful. Knightley was too childish and skinny for my taste.

Which is where the clear pointe distinction takes place. There's no way to go over that.