87Sigfried87

I have it somewhere.....don't remember from where it came from. But I have it!

I am very happy for her!she deserves it!she's been through many injuries in her career....I think she will be good. The ballet,if i am not wrong,is the one in which they wear grey and very tight lattex costumes and....it requires a very strong male principal dancer(for the complicated sequence of lifts and passages of partnership) and a female principal with gymnast gifts. On youtube you can watch Zakharova and Tsiskaridze performing the pdd. I am sure Cojocaru will be great too!I love her!she is definately my favourite dancer nowadays!:-)

A very good one nowadays is for sure Marianela Nunez. She has expression,jump,turn,very strong technique.You can appreciate her in the dvd of Giselle with the Royal Ballet. Alina Cojocaru is a wonderful Giselle,too. The best Giselle ever now. My three favourite Giselle are actually: Fracci,Ferri and Cojocaru!:-)

You should take a look at the descent of the shades in Bayadere. The POB version is stunning! you will soon appreciate the role of the corps! so many dancers moving as one and creating the effect of being a living kaleidoscope is something that would touch everyone's heart! the magic of romantic ballets is more in the corps,rather than in solos! What would Giselle be without all the Willis?what would Swan Lake be without all the swans?what would Donqui be without the whole corps dancing spanish-like or without the Dryads?Then you also have to realize that the corps does a very tough job of trying and moving as one,sometimes withoutgetting attention because they are just on the back of Pas de Deux and Solos. It means you have to trust the others,you have to listen and constantly look and follow the others,you have to adapt to the average of the corps when it comes to positions,arms and legs. You have to disappear in the name of the group. Believe me,it requires a harder job than dancing your variation alone,doing what you want and getting much applause because you stick out more!

Hey everyone!I am back! Such a long time since I last posted on the site. I've been working as a professional ballet dancer in Vienna for a while and left my heart there!it is one of the most amazing cities in the World! loved every single minute there! Now I am back home. It is a very bad period for dancers....almost no contracts,struggling every day auditioning anywhere, training with lack of good classes to keep fit,almost no access to the few places in the corps, contracts of only a few months or maximum one season,no interest in promoting young dancers etc... In the meanwhile i keep on teaching to young ballet students,which I love,but which is not exactly what i have so hardly trained for. Anyway,I am happy to be here again and i hope to find brand-new brillant discussions like the ones we used to have once!:-) Though my experience as a dancer has improved a lot, I do not hear such smart conversations very often! If you want to ask me anything,you are welcome;just write!:-) Big hug to everyone!

Thank you!I hope to get the chance to take some lessons during the year,somewhere and with a cuban maitre....but here they only teach russian and try to teach french method....Let's just hope!

I know it's , but did you go to Havana to Mme.'s School...? How was it...?! I knew you would have asked me ! I studied with Ramona De Saa,the director of the school of the Ballet Nacional and her daughter.They come here in Italy every summer near Turin,so I stayed there for a while.They also gave me a sort of scholarship to study more with them. Well,I had never studied Cuban method,always Russian method, but I can say I really like it very much.The first week was very strange: I had pain anywhere (because of the tough lesson!) and it was quite hard to perfectly follow the lesson...I think you know they have different ports de bras,they don't have a plié excercise at the barre,they do hundreds of pliés-relevé also at the centre,they make you stop every jump,especially the jeté-en-attitude-croisé in plié with leg up and make you stay so for 24/8 ehehehhe .But then I have improved a lot!(and have already lost it,as my last lesson wa there three weeks ago....). I loved when they put revoltade at the end of the Grande-Valse excercise.In Italy nobody does,it would look weird! Anyway if I could study a whole year or just three months with those teachers I would be 100 times better,I'd have at least 5 pirouettes...Great method,really! I'm thinking about going to Cuba next summer and study there for 2/3 months....we'll see !

ehehe!I'm just one and I think very different from how dancers and teachers usually think.Here teachers are only keen on extensions and good bodies,without taking care of interpretation and of understanding a role or a ballet deeply....dancers are even worse unfortunately! For sure I'll keep you posted and yes,I always give them hard challenges,so that they can grow faster .I hope the director of the school will give me enough power to make my projects on them come true,and enough approval and support,too!This is hard to find and I'm a new teacher in the school,even if i collaborated with them last year!Let's just hope !

You are welcome!Who can help directing a scene better than the public who normally sees it?;-)That is why I ask in here when I have doubts on something concerning ballet.

I like your Idea of the breath IN and OUT very much....it really makes sense now!also the idea of trance/sleep serenity and separateness is very good.However I think I'll have to do a big job on my pupils to teach them how to express such feeling of "serene and enlightened separateness",which is not easy to express for young dancers....but I will make it;-)!Thank You so much!

Yes I agree with you: steps and music first.My only aim is to form artists not just dancers.I see many beautiful dancers around the world and always less artists.My pupils are not professional dancers(I am too young to teach professional dancers:-)),so I want them to be different not for the technique,as they are not professionists,they are very young and anyone can do a variation technically better in this world;but for the art and for the soul,that are very personal and don't require high-level professionists.It just requires a heart.That is why i am quite fussy about interpretation;-).But yes:steps,music and style first. Thank you for all of your answers.

Yes.It is correct: It takes place in Solor's drug-soaked mind,but he has a vision of the Kingdom of Shades....it depends on what vision of this Kingdom,Solor has.If the story takes place in India,this Kingdom is supposed to be the "Nirvana",the illumination and the total absence...so the shades should look absent and extemely calm maybe.But if it is just Solor's dream,it should reflect his subconscious;then it is supposed to be very sad and melancholic,and somehow not clear but confused.This is why I am quite confused. I think so: Directing the whole thing I should decide myself how to see this.If I were Solor,I would see the ensemble as "ephimeral"....it is not a feeling actually,it is an idea to give back to the public.I'd not concentate on a particular feeling as his drug-soaked mind cannot make a clear distinction among the shades....I suppose drugs don't make you see clearly nor make distinctions.The idea of a shade itself,is not a person,with personal feelings,precise characterization and traits.Then no feeling for the ensemble,just the idea of confusion and of something ephimeral. The three shades are a second moment of drug effects.If before he had only confusion,after that,he starts distinguishing some precise characters.I could see them as a reflection of Nikiya but in different moments:I'd put the happier music first(the variation starting with double-frappé,pas-de-bourré-suivi),so that it is the remind of the full happiness with Nikiya,then the second one which should be in the middle(the one with cabrioles),where he starts realizing that his happiness is over,in the end the third one which is the sadder,when he realizes he has lost her and start feeling bad(the one with sissonne-ouverte à la seconde with extension,assemblé-battu...)....then he sees the real Nikiya and start the pdd.Can be an idea,can't it?;-).

would that perhaps be cantilena? "Cantilena" in italian is something very repetitive and even boring.About a sound is also something very easy to listen to and without highs and lows,a bit flat....a lullaby can be considered this way too.And referring to the queue of shades doing the same movements with the same music it works.

It's that i am personally fed up with dancers performing roles without knowing anything about the story within,their background and who do not worry about being correct and sticking to the real meaning of the story or of their own role.So I want my pupils to be conscios of what they are dancing. For the corps it isn't a big deal,they just have to look ephimeral(is it correct?)to me.But for the single variations it is important to give them the right track and let them find a way to be an artist,not just an athlete;-).

You are right.The only fact is: are these shades to be seen as unhappy ghosts visiting earth because maybe they died in similar circumstances as Nikiya,so they should look unhappy and haunting,or are they to be seen as souls in their kingdom,so one can be happy and one unhappy?and also,is this heaven supposed to be Paradise or Hell,or in the middle?because if it is supposed to be the Nirvana it should somehow give an effect of serenity and absence of feelings....I think Petipa didn't think about all those things:-(....:-).I think the only way of getting out of this is listening to the music and giving back what you feel.Thank You.

Hello everybody!Sorry for not posting in here for such a long long time,but I've been away,studying with the Cubans;-). I'm preparing the programme for the new year for my ballet pupils and I was thinking about preparing with them the shades ensemble (the one starting with the queue of the shades doing arabesque penchée,temps-lié back....) and the variations of the three shades.Looking at the many different versions I discovered something a bit weird to me: some dancers performing the three shades have a happy smile on their faces;especially in the two happier pieces from the musical point of view. Then a question came up on my mind: are the shades supposed to be sad or happy?and why?Ok for Nikiya,she is sad because of the loss of his lover.But the others?It is not about ghosts staying on Earth unhappily like the Willis in Giselle....their in their world (not in this one then...);so it should be a sort of "Indian Heaven" or the Nirvana,so they should be happy and mild....I'm not a specialist in Indian religion or mithology,maybe Petipa was not,too.But if my pupils tell me how to interpret it,I'd like to have a good answer,the right answer actually:-). If you have an idea of whether they are supposed to be interpreted happily or sadly and why,please let me know;-).

I give you some of my favourites,with their own category(like the Oscars or Awards)and with the best couple. The most moving: White Swan pdd(Irina Koleshnikova or Lucia Lacarra with any partner),Romeo and Juliet(Alessandra ferri-Julio Bocca or alina Cojocaru-Roberto Bolle) and also Giselle(Ferri-Murru or Carla fracci with anyone else). the best,aesthetically talking: Sleeping Beauty(Alina Cojocaru)and Apollon(Bolle-Romagna). the most energetic: Donqui(Baryshnikov-Harvey or Corella-Herrera),Diana and Acteon(Matvienko brother and sister)and Le Corsaire(Zakharova-Zelensky). the most tender: Romeo and Juliet(as before)and Manon(Semionova-Zelensky,Cojocaru-Zelensky,Guillem-Zelensky),bedroom pdd. the best to dance: Black Swan(Gregory-Bujones,Agnes Letestu with anyone else) and Nutcracker(Nadia Saidakova,Malakhov). Some I don't like: Flower festival,Fille mal gardée,Sylphide,Raymonda,Paquita,Coppelia,Fille du Pharaon.....

I have seen many......but many....because Swan Lake is my favourite ballet. I don't like Odettes without very good extensions.I think that it is more appropriate in the style,especially in the variation of the second act and in the two pdds.Also the physical attitude is fundamental in this more than in other ballets;you need a longiline,very thin body,with very good lines(very good arch,long arms and legs...).So I don't like ballerinas such as Plisetskaya;maybe very good for a Dying Swan,but not as Odette/Odile. Thinking of the style,the arms,the fine lines,and very long and thin body etc I would say that Lucia Lacarra is the best Odette on earth.Take a look on youtube.She has the perfect style,especially in the movements of the arms,which is quite lost nowadays or limited to a banal wing movement,as a child would do.Second place is for Zakharova,which is even better than Lacarra in the variation of second act,but hasn't got a special way of moving the arms,nor a good dramatic impact on the public.Third place for Uliana Lopatkina,which is the most moving Odette on earth now,but isn't as physically gifted as the other two ballerinas.And she is the best Dying Swan of these years. The best Odile is hard to find.Nowadays It seems as if there is no(or a few?)ballerina who is able to give a good portrait of Odile,who must be sexy,very proud,very seductive,vamp maybe,brillant and very very snob;and NASTY!However,The best Black Swan PDD from the past is the one with Gregory-Bujones.She can really interpret the role perfectly.In the present I don't usually find special Odiles,a very convincing one is Agnes Letestu,from POB;but more about interpretation than for other reasons.

Noooo..... if I think that she's not human and not Swan....then she's a monster!:(...she's half bird and half woman....then she's a mermaid?yes,the first type of mermaid(from the chronological point of view),the one who is half bird and half woman....poor prince:(. The only thing which could make sense is that being all day a Swan,when she turns into a woman at night she still has the moves and the behaviour of a Swan,because she is used to behave so during the day;but her body is completely the one of a woman. Or the prince likes birds and fall in love with one of them,named Odette:D.There could be a psychological interpretation of this,too....

Swan Lake is a very strange ballet.....I also wonder how can Siegfried fall in love with a bird(the Swan) and take him to a party to introduce she/it to his mother:"Mum that's my new girlfr....ehm....bird.Can I marry her?"....hahahahah!!!!and then,if at night Odette gets back to being a woman,why does she dance and behave as a Swan in the second act,when she is supposed to meet her prince as a woman ?i don't think there is any aswer to these questions...

Ehm....if you are Corella or Simkin of course it's not a problem to be short. But if I were a special talent as they are,I would probably already have been noticed and have been given contracts for big companies and so on....I am very honest towards myself.I am not a dancer who can become a first soloist or a world known star of ballet; there is one in a million dancer,and I'm not. I can be taken as Corps right now,no more....and being short for the corps is a real problem. Someone else said to go and take more classes,study more etc....yes,studying is always a good thing to improve....but also taking classes 10 hours a day I'll never be Simkin or Corella!they are special talents....I'm a normal one,as many dancers in the corps all over the world.

I'm 1,78 m right now....I've grown a bit!I'd be happy if I got to 1,80 :-).

Thank You for all of your advices!I'll take a look and let you know;-).

Hello everybody!I'm back!Sorry for not writing in here for a very long time,but I have been quite busy as I have just started teaching ballet to a group of young girls at their first year....It's been hard!!! I have a question for you.I am soon gonna perform Black Swan PDD as guest in a Gala.It's my first time with this PDD.I've always loved it and wanted to try to perform it.Let me say that I've changed my partner because I quarreled with my last one,and now have a better one! ;-). My question is: What kind of advices would you give,as audience,to a couple of young dancers,as we are,for Black Swan pdd ? We don't need techical suggestions, but from the style point of view and also about the interpretation.We are taking inspiration from the version available also on Youtube,of Gregory-Bujones,as She dances the best black swan I've ever seen in my life from the interpretative point of view.On the other side,I can't find a Prince who can satisfy me completely....I think that many dancers do not know the real meaning of every movement or pantomime within this Pdd...I don't know myself too! and they look fake,or absent or banal. And this version is full of moments in which the price is supposed to stand still,waiting for her to come towards him,or of patomime....and as long as you have to do steps it is easy because you know what to do,but the hardest points are the ones in which you stand almost still ! So,Please,if you have any kind of advices to give us,if you know anything about the meaning of the pantomime etc,if you have a clear idea of what you would like to see in "the perfect black swan pdd" you have in your mind,you are really welcome ! Waiting for your answers;-).Thanks in advance.

Life surprises you in many ways.I wanted to become a professional hip hop dancer.I attended hip hop classes and was quite good.So I decided to start studying professionally but I had to face the fact that there was not a school of hip hop dance,but most of the professional schools were about ballet.They told me that first I had to learn some ballet and then could specialize in modern dances later on.So I had my first audition and found myself at the barre,taking my first lesson.I cannot say i soon realized the change that was coming.It's lesson after lesson that my passion and love for this wonderful art have grown. If I had to say a ballet that really made me understand what i wanted to do in life it was Giselle maybe.Not one of my favourites now,but was enough to make me say:"I wanna be part of it".