87Sigfried87

Tough question,easy answer:Modern/contemporary dance is boring and sad. If you go and see a classical ballet you see a story,a scenery,somebody doing precise steps,an enjoyable ensemble(choreographical and not),you see technique,you see perfect bodies doing nice movements. If you go and see something contemporary you see: no story or a too abstract and conceptual/intellectual one,you often don't see much scenery and often dancers are wearing rags and instead of being made beautiful and nice,they are made uglier;you don't see technique but "strange" steps,often made to go against the academical technique,so they look bad made or "crooked".Then you maybe hear very boring musics by Mozart,lasting half an hour,repetitive and there's often too much pathos and sufference.The whole thing becomes oppressive and dislikeable. An example: Guillem doing Grand Pas Classique and Wet Woman.In the first piece you see her in all of her beauty,you have Aesthetics,you have great technique,beautiful combinations of steps...You have something nice for the eye on a happy music.In the second piece you have her,dressed in rags(more or less),with the hair up like a crazy,a mad expression on her face,a bad music and a bad ensemble of classical technique with monstruos movements of contortion and pain.The recipe to make a wonderful ballerina become horrible!Which one would you like to watch tonight?The top is "Sagre du Printemps"....top of boredom and oppressiveness. The point is that everything boring and non academical is nowadays called contemporary.There's not a precise definition.Physical theatre is considered contemporary dance.How would you consider dancers running around the stage,throwing bricks in the air and doing kind of soldiers excercises?I'd consider them runners or athletes,not dancers.Who knows... The problem coming out is also that there's too much phylosophy behind this type of dance.People do not even like talk shows on tv if they treat too serious topics.Imagine if a person going to the theatre wants to waste time doing phylosophy watching a dance piece! I have to add that dancing a contemporary piece is more enjoyable than watching it.Then not every choreographer is the same: i like something by Bejart,Mats Ek and Kylian very much.But if i had to choose between watching a ballet of repertoire and a contemporary gala,I'd doubtless choose the first one.

I love Misha but personally I think it's not at all a role for him.He puts too much technique,too many turns and double assemblés en tournant which are superficial and do not corcern the piece very much.And then Malakhov's body is better for such an evanescent role.Misha is too earthy for this,in fact I think his Basilio is the best in the world and i'd like to see him in Diana and Acteon(Hope he performed it) but this role is nothing earthy.It's more ethereal.Everyone has his role.I would be terrible in Diana and Acteon for example.Nobody's perfect;-)

Today I tried the PDD parts and found it quite easy.Tomorrow i'm learning my solo parts;then in the week-end I'll improve the style and clean up the technique to make it as much precise as possible. "a rose's fragrance suspended about the girl's body, but easily fragile and wisped away by any sudden movement she might make." I liked that ;-).

Thanks guys for your advices.I found interesting the thought of the arms as smoke.The one I am taking inspiration from is Malakhov's.The worst I've seen is Baryshnikov's.The problem is that I have to prepare it in a week time.So i'm a bit nervous and at the same time i want to be in the perfect style as the technique is here sacrified.I'll do my best.Thanks again.

I have at home these two versions of SwaN Lake: Bourmeister(Zakharova-Bolle version-Scala Theatre) and Petipa-Ivanov(Zelensky-Makhalina version-Kirov ballet).I was wondering why the Black Swan PDDs are different both in music and choreography.To say it all,the male variation in Bourmeister version is taken from Tchaikovsky PDD,the female variation on the other hand completely different and don't know where it comes from.Which one was the original version of Swan Lake as planned by Tchaikovsky?Why are these two variations different and where do the changes come from?It's the only ballet,i think,in which a variation(or a PDD) has a completely different music and doesn't corcern anything with the other version....Even because it would be less weird if it were a comparison between the sad version in which the swan (and the prince) dies and the positive-socialistic happy ending in which they both live.But they are both with happy ending.

As i'm going to play this role very soon for a gala,i'd like to ask you a question:is this famous pas de deux a part of a whole ballet that is no more danced as a whole,or is it only the pas de deux on his own?as i've always seen the pdd,so i was wondering...just as for "Diana and Acteon" etc. I'm also working on the style and expression,as the steps themselves are quite easy.I've understood that i have to be ethereal and my movements have to be very aerial.About the expression i am a bit perplexed....i am trying to have a deep expression but looking evanescent and calm especially in the pdd moments.Anyway i don't wanna be banal and taken for granted.How do you think one should depict the character?Thanks for your answers.

For me, the charming, flowing, and well-constructed McIntyre piece, comissioned by Ballet Florida and first performed at the larger Kravis Theater last February, is the one to watch most closely. It's also the piece that has, in the past, drew the highest quality dancing from the company. Oh I'd like to see the "Lady of the Camelias" by Caniparoli so much!It's wonderful.A brillant choreography and an intense dramatic story.I remember Lucia Lacarra dancing it.It's a big match between Caniparoli's and Neumeier's version.I don't know which one i like most...

Ballet is like a fairy tale: would you depict a prince as hairy,pierced everywhere with spiky hair and rude ways?That can be Shrek but that's the only case.And what about a dark,tatooed and leather dressed princess chewing gums and driving a motorbike?:-)

I've always kept my chest hairs but i have only a few in the middle of chest and a little line going down from my navel.This is nice to see but i admit that more hair on one's chest and even legs are unfair.Imagine an Acteon with much hair on his chest and legs and even worse....ON HIS BACK!It's awful!the Bolshoj corps of ballet danced last year "La Fille du Pharaon": some dancers were really hairy and the costume was a typical short egyptian one....it was a bad sight really!

When i was in the ballet school,among the first things they told us and our parents at the beginning of the first year was:"forget piercings,tatoos and don't change the colour of your hair!".Look is very important in ballet.I remember our teachers telling us even how to keep our hair.They told us we had to look like people from the 19th century.People of that period didn't have piercings,tatoos,colored-hair,spiky hair....so if we were undecided about changes in our look we just thought if a person from the past would have done that and decided consequently.The fact is: if you have to play Albrecht in Giselle,how can you have a modern look?then i have to say that at some auditions you are not taken if your apparel is not as they like.Tatoos are concerned.About girls i remember they were oblidged to keep long hair and perfectly combed in "chignon",without any single hair coming out.And then sober or without make up.This is just one of the things a dancer can't do in his life;-)

Sylvie Guillem,as others said,and Svetlana Zakharova come from gymnastics and especially from the Rhythmic one.It's just to say a few names.This is visible in the high developpés and very open legs.If you see in the Olympic games this type of gymnastics you can easily see athletes with 200° developpés and doing turns with the leg kept up there.And what beautiful feet and jumps! Ballet teaching himself is commonly incomplete.These sports really work and change your body with their hard training.Ballet should "steal" some excercises from different fields that can vary from Gymnastics,to Pilates and from Acting to Yoga etc...Of course It's not only pros but there are also the cons:Gymnastics work in parallel and not endehors,with the back in lordosis and the ass turned outside instead of inside as ballet does.Then,a ballet student coming from this type of work has turn his posture upside down.And what about the problem of children not growing tall because of this training.Nowadays too small children are not taken in ballet schools. Contamination is always good anyway,if you take the right excercises concerned to what your aim is.

I was there when it was filmed.It's a wonderful dvd in honour of Alessandra's farewell.

Yes she has taken part to an italian tv programme about ballroom dance her in Italy.She has finally found her right way maybe....

I also have that one but haven't watched it yet;-).

I just got this dvd in french and i think is a quite rare one,as i've never seen it in shops here.I am quite shocked about how charmy is this artist,even though you don't see her dancing,but only teaching.She's a perfect teacher.She shows to some ballerinas as Guillem,Loudières etc. how to perform some variations.Her attention to the most unperceptible details is surprising.She also explains where to look,what to think when they do EVERY single step or pose.She also explains what message should come through in every moment of the variation.I've never got the chance to work with such an incredible teacher.And then?Her eyes!In some scenes she's just sat down on her chair,listening to the music and imagining how she would perform that.Her biggest movement is with the hands.She's almost still...but....her eyes speak so well that anyone would understand how to interpret the role or the intention of the ballet.I'm really surprised.You can see the dancers improving under her advices and becoming just.....perfect!It's unbeliavable!have you seen this tape? I wish i could meet such an artist and being taught something.....:-)

Last night was the italian prime of "Le Parc" at La Scala Theatre in Milan.I was expecting something boring and contemporary on Mozart music.Not at all! When the curtain raized I soon realized it was a ballet i could enjoy.The four gardeners started to dance on a kind of new age music,as the ones used by Forsythe;with the sounds of nature like birds etc matched with sounds like radars of boats and mechanic sounds.Very nice choice!The sequence was unbeliavably beautiful.All the ballet itself was really pleasant and very clever and genial from the choreographical point of you. The two étoiles,Massimo Murru and Aurélie Dupont danced with so much passion,expecially the final pas de deux on a very beautiful music which is just the same as Malakhov's "Voyage".I had seen Aurélie performing Sleeping Beauty before,but she was a big discover for me.The role was made for her.She's so intense at interpreting and so much magnetic and charmy.Even if still,not moving,i just couldn't stare at anything else but her.This thing happens to me quite rarely,happened with A.Ferri.You can't teach that.Charm is innate and comes from deep inside.The corps of ballet was excellent,expetially the four gardeners and a friend of mine who was performing his first role as soloist.What I didn't like is the scenery.More than a park it looked like a PARKing place....except from the nightly scene,when stars in a dark sky were projected.The public itself was awful.Frozen or soothed i supposed.No applauses till the moment in which i started clapping my hands and shouting "BRAVO!" to the dancers. Very nice evening anyway.A ballet to be seen.I also got Dupont's autograph.She's as beautiful as shy. Congratulations!

If I want to see just a good actor,mostly not dancing,or too old to do it,I go to the cinema,not to the theatre;it's less expensive....

That's the point.Maybe outside Italy you don't know anything about that.She appears anywhere,she still wants to dance roles as the ones you quoted....it's unbeliavable.Bolle was right when he said so.Then let's admit that she still dances in Rome because of her husband who is a producer....at Scala nobody would have allowed her to dance.About my blunt ways....well,dance is blunt towards us....and we are blunt towards It.I didn't mean to offend anyone but,as you said,she created a climate of anger and intolerence...you can talk to any Italian dancer,he would just say the same.:-)

Dance is young.I hate old people not admitting that their youth and their good times are over.If she were the person of class she feels,she would have just retired with honour,admitting that she has done a great career,she has given the public more than enough and leave the public the remind of her best performances,not of the worsts.Maria Callas was a person of class;when she understood her voice was no more the perfect one she used to have,she just retired and sang no more.Look at Ferri this year.she retired with class even if could dance for many years more.The impression of Fracci I have is of a lady who is morbidly attached to her role and isn't able to get away and stay at home.Many dancers are morbid about that.Many of them go crazy when they get old and have to leave the stage.I personally know many.But that's insane. One of my teachers when i was in the ballet school was a wonderful ballerina at Scala.At her 35,she was at the top of her possibility and she decided to retire,to have children and do something else.Just because she wanted to leave at her best moment.I admire her so much.One has to admit that it's time to get away when the body starts declining.For sure Fracci does character roles but she is just....old!nothing against,but really it's annoying to see her still on stage.When they tell me:"there's Carla in this show" i just answer:"no please!once again!".I quote another ballerina: Luciana Savignano.She danced at the prime of Aida last year at Scala and she still performs.She was like a mummy.Awful!grand battements hardly at 45°,decadent skin,insane thin body.And you know what's grotesque?she performed in another show Selene,the princess of the moon with some of my friends of the Scala ballet school.And the guys were supposed to be the 3 pretendants of Selene.She at her 60s or more,and them in their 16s.Anything weird? It's the problem of people of a certain age who want to behave as teenagers and do their same things.I find it ridiculous.That's my opinion.No polemics;-)

Thank you very much.Very good;-) Now I have to match the names and the dancers.Canari is the yellow one with a feather and Violente is maybe the one who points his index around....I'm gonna check:-)

I've never known all the names of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty....I know only the Lilac fairy...can you help me giving all of them their own names?thanks.Sorry if the post already exhists.

Tuscany is your nick as you're italian?anyway welcome to the site;-)

It's not the size that makes something good,but how you use it ;-).

It doesn't answer to your question ans it doesn't directly concern the post but....don't you think Makhalina gives a very bad interpretation of both Odette and Odile?Zelensky is so good,one of my favourite dancers(not in one of his best roles but charming anyway),but I just can't watch her in this dvd.And the corps of ballet?awful!ok that nobody looks at the corps when the two protagonists are on stage,but at least a little sign of presence!some of them look like they are on the subway,falling asleep or thinking about what to buy at the supermarket!I really don't like this dvd...