angieballerina

It has been a few years since I have seen Ananiashvilli's 'Giselle'. I was never enthusiastic about her 'Giselle' and purposely avoided it. However, since she has always been one of my favorites and is nearing the end of her career I have tickets to see her 'Giselle' during the ABT season in July. She would be a marvelous Myrtha. (Vishneva's Giselle and Ananiashvilli's Myrtha ) Danilova also danced Myrtha at about the same age Ananiashvilli is today and it would be wonderful to see a ballerina of Ananiashvilli's stature dance it today.

I would be curious to see if you notice anything about her footwork in July...

This last Saturday I went to see the State Ballet of Georgia performing, Giselle. I eagerly anticipated this event! I must say that I really enjoyed myself. The corps was very clean. The men were a little shaky, but I was most excited to see Nina Ananiashvili dance the role of Giselle. She is also the AD of this company. I thought her portrayal was brilliant. Her mad scene was very convincing. However, my dancer friends and I (seated on either side of me) kept looking through our opera glasses (though we did not need them because our seats were very good- I just like to watch feet!) She did not stretch her feet in saute', or any jumps or small transitions for that matter. They looked very "wonky" for lack of better term. I could not stop looking, but I forced myself to stop, so I would not be so distracted and could continue to enjoy the performance. Maybe she is recovering from an injury? I must say, she is beautiful and her acting is not easily surpassed. Her port de bras were gorgeous and epaulement divine! The left foot was weak.

I really enjoyed this performance and I am glad to have seen Nina. I am just curious if anyone knows of injuries, or has noticed the same thing for her recently? I did look of up some older footage, and did not notice this foot problem.

I love Giselle...have music in my head still...

In my opinion, she was very brave to expose , without masking them, all the facts that sooner or later had to be uncovered and addressed by somebody like herself. She is, for sure, an inspiration for young dancers and i admire her for being sincere and outspoken about her own demons.

I would agree! Her first book was very dark and depressing at times, but I liked it. I could not put it down. Her second book, The Shape of Love was much lighter, and inspirational; also an interesting read. I just find her fascinating!

I might go see ABT's "Beauty" in Chicago in April. Does anyone know the casting for those performances?

I would LOVE to see her perform, as I never have.

MJ, I goofed up when I replied. I did not quote the original post from mnclimber, who was inquiring about dancers stopping the show after their variations to take these long, dramatic bows. I was in that production that mnclimber was referring to, so that caught my interest. As the queen, I did get to take my own bow at the end. After all, I deserved to for my dramatic acting during the "prick" scene!

MJ, Where do you perform?

mnclimber, I just came across this as it is over a year old (your original post). I just want to say that I was on stage that evening; I was the queen. I am no longer performing. I danced with CBC for 10 years. I'm glad that you enjoyed Sleeping Beauty, and yes, it is difficult when there is no one in the audience. I am happy to tell you that not all of the performances were so poorly attended.

It is customary for principals and soloists to take a bow after their variations in a classical production. However, it's got to be a Russian thing for these long, drawn out (sometimes over dramatic) bows. I must say, during may of the performances when we had a packed house with many regular ballet-goers in the audience who were not conservative with applause, it felt appropriate. However, there were many times that the rest of us (meaning the entire company) really felt uncomfortable with the excessive bowing. The king and I started counting per performance! Gotta have something to do while sitting on that throne! LOL!

They really are quite good, and I must admit Tatiana's extensions are amazing! I've taken class from her many times and I find myself forgetting the combinations because I am just in awe of her legs.

I hope that you get a chance to see more ballets and I hope that you enjoy yourself.

I just want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with Jennifer's family, friends, fans, and with ABT at this time.

Wow, a reprise of "The Turning Point," except that Anne Bancroft's Emma had little dogs.

Turning Pointe relation, I agree: "If I had all the feet, I mean children.... "Emma"

I really enjoy the Kirov 1989 version with Larissa Lezhnina. I think she portrayed the delicate, 16 year old splendidly. It is worth purchasing.

There is an article in this month's DANCE Magazine about Kaitlyn and Raina Gilliland. They are daughters of Lise Houlton, who is the director of MN Dance Theatre. MDT was founded by Lise's mother, Loyce Houlton. So, this a third generation ballet family. Kaitlyn is 20 and is in the corps of NYCB, and Raina is 17 and a student at SAB. More siblings in dance....actually "a family affair".

Let's burn down the Louvre, Dick. Most of what's inside has lost its meaning for the 21st century, and I never loved paintings anyway.

Marc, That just made me laugh...nice analogy!

I agree, this is not to be taken as a serious review. It is definitely just one person's personal preference for contemporary vs. classical, blah, blah, blah. The sad thing is, the Arizona Republic wasted all that print space for a lot of "hot air"!

Since Halloween is only three days away, I thought I would start a new topic -- what are your favorite horror films? I'll start:

Halloween (1978)

Halloween II (1981)

Even though these movies were made three years apart, I think of them as one movie since the events of both films take place on the same night (Halloween 1978) and the films are so similar in terms of their look, feel and mood.

Halloween and Halloween II tell the story of Laurie Strode, an intelligent high school student who is stalked and attacked by a masked mental hospital escapee by the name of the Michael Myers. I love these movies for a variety of reasons. They are genuinely scary and contain two of the greatest "chase" sequences found in any horror movie anywhere. They spend considerable time and effort fleshing out the different characters and making them more than just tallies in a body count -- rare for horror movies of this kind. I also like how they try to convey the odd, eerie flavor of Halloween night itself. And, they gave us Jamie Lee Curtis -- still today the greatest of the late-70s/early-80s scream queens.

Halloween would go on to spawn six direct sequels (II, 4, 5, 6, H2O and Resurrection), a non-continuity sequel (III) and a terrible 2007 remake. Interestingly, when Jamie Lee Curtis returned to the part of Laurie in 1998's Halloween: H2O, the powers-that-be more-or-less ignored the continuity created by sequels 4, 5 and 6 and instead acted like they hadn't happened. So, if you're a hardcore Halloween fan, there are literally two different continuities in the series -- continuity 1 (the original, II, 4, 5 and 6) and continuity 2 (the original, II, H2O and Resurrection).

I have more choices but I'll let others chime in!

Ok, I keep goofing up because I don't completely understand how to navigate this site! ( I just printed the page on how to post.) Anyway, I like this thread as it is Halloween and I have been trying to get in the "spirit" for a couple of weeks now by watching some spooky movies. The ones that I own and will watch at this time of year are: Rosemary's Baby, The Blair Witch Project, The Others, and The Village. I really like "spooky" films, but not the gory ones. I think I need to go...Trick-or-Treaters!

My company uses like a shredded plastic (like white plastic garbage bags, shredded into little pieces). They are not too bad to dance on, but have to be careful of "drifts" A funny story: One time during a dress rehearsal all the snow came pounding down about mid-way through. We were covered! White out! I just couldn't take it and bent over in my white tutu, laughing hysterically! It was just too much. I'll never forget that. We keep saying that we should have sent video into "Funniest Home Videos" to raise money for the company!

I just LOVE that site! I have it bookmarked and check it out often. I really like how they now have some YouTube footage to see variations. Very nice.

I'm having so much fun poking around this site. I can't believe I never knew it existed!

I fell in love with ballet at a young age and studied at a quasi-professional school quite seriously. I'm too tall, however, to have ever made ballet into a career. No matter, my interests are diverse now -- from life in Africa to a career in medicine. I will always love the ballet though.

I'm in my early thirties which means I've seen (and remember) dancers from the mid-1980's onwards. I have lived in New York and around London, and I am most familiar with dance in those two cities.

I hope that I am using this the correct way. This is my first post/ reply on this site. I have been reading for about a month. Nice to meet you and I agree, I wish I had known that this site existed a long time ago! I am an adult who has danced professionally with a small company in Bloomington, MN since 1996. I find that there are so many interesting view points and discussions here.