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dancer100

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Posts posted by dancer100

  1. Hello Everyone!

    I am currently interning at the Archives at Jacob's Pillow, and was looking to spend my day off visiting places in the MA or NY area that are are related to dance history.

    We have visited The National Museum of Dance and will possibly visit Kaatsbaan.

    Does anyone recommend other places to go for a dance historian?! Even a small place with a tidbit of dance history would thrill me.

    Thanks so much for your suggestions!

  2. Just in case there's someone still interested ...There's still so much to know about her.

    Oh I have always been very interested in reading your recollections on Maria Swoboda. The personality and mannerism details you have written about intrigue me immensely. DO keep writing as I would love to learn as much as possible about this fabulous dancer and teacher. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge about her!

  3. George Zortich was one of my most beloved dancers of the Ballet Russe.

    My heart broke when I saw his obituary in the Times. Just recently he autographed a photograph of himself for me and signed it "With admiration and love, George Zoritch". I do not deserve his admiration in perspective of all of his contributions to the world of ballet.

    Here is the link to his obituary from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/dance/index.html

    May he rest in peace.

    Je ne vous oublierai jamais, mon George.

  4. Hello~

    Recently I saw Ms. Paino's final performance in Cinderella as she is retiring. I thought Cinderella was an appropriate ballet for her to finish off her dancing career. Her dynamic dancing has always caught my eye during Ballet Austin performances and Ballet Austin won't be the same without her. She is, I believe, staying with Ballet Austin to work as a rehersal director for the company.

    I thought that Paino's dancing was strong, but you could tell she has had a few foot injuries. I loved how Ballet Austin actually used costumes and scenery worthy of such a wonderful ballet rather than their usual plain and dry costumes and sets. The dream sequence made me think of Baryshnikov and Kirkland in the final Pas de deux in Baryshnikov's Nutcracker. The lifts and costumes seemed similar to me. I thought it was lovely.

    One thing I did not like was the spark that went off everytime the fairy godmother (krumpe) came on. It startled me each time and did not seem appropriate for a fairy godmother. I thought fog would have been better.

    All in all, Ms. Paino has always been one of my favorite Ausitn dancers and it is sad to see her leave. Bonne chance for Paino's future!

    Did any other Austinites see Paino's final performance? If so, what did you think of it? Also, does anyone have any memories of Ms. Paino they would like to share? I know other Ausitinites who know and love Ms. Paino would enjoy reading them!

  5. Hello everyone~

    I saw Ballet Austin's Hamlet on the Friday night show and was surprised at how wonderful it was. As I mentioned in another topic about Ballet Austin, I usually do not like Mr. Mill's choreography and music choices. Surprising myself, I was in awe the whole performance. I thought the music by Phillip Glass was a perfect choice for the tragic ballet and Mr. Mills did a great job at turning this difficult Shakespeare play into dance. The whole performance seemed very well put together with the wonderful dynamic dancers, appropriate costumes and dramatic fencing. I thought that the new Ballet Austin member, Johnstuart, proved himself to be a fantastic dancer (he is only 18!) and actor.

    My favorite scene was Ophelia's funeral. The simple black costumes against the pure white background was striking. I also loved the part when Ophelia "danced" and kicked around in the real water onstage!!

    Overall, I was very pleased at this performance. Too bad Mills doesn't make more ballets like this anymore. When I went to the "Studio Spotlight" for Hamlet, they said it has been well recieved around the US and multiple companies have performed it. Good job Ballet Austin!

  6. Hello justdanz5678! Thank you for posting your tidbit about Joyce Cuoco. It is wonderful to read about everyone's memories about Ms. Cuoco. You are so lucky to have been in the RCMH Corps. I would love to hear more about your dancing career as well as any more recollections you remember about Joyce. I absolutely adore her tutu and I am striving to learn more about it's history and about the dancers who wore it. If possible, it would be wonderful if you could scan the photos of Cuoco you have and either email them to me or post them on BT. I would love to see if she is wearing the tutu I have.

    Thank you so much for your memories and I can not wait to hear more!

  7. Hello- When I had said Mills "had" to use those flashy costumes and distracting music I meant that he needed them to cover up his unoriginal choreography, not that someone literally forced him to. And yes, I believe that Ballet Austin has a contemporary vision, as they are a more contemporary company, but Mills sometimes tries too hard and ends up just having a bunch of chaos and crazy arms on stage (for example, this recent performance). They have had great success with contemporary and innovative works in the past and have done a wonderful job when there was a message or greater meaning behind the dancing (such as in Light/the Humanity Project).

    As you had said earlier that "You have to take the risk of possible failures in order to truly achieve", I 100% agree. If no one took risks in ballet we may have never known the tru geniuses of dancers/choreographers such as Nijinsky, Balanchine, etc and ballet today would be completely different.

  8. Hello jonellew!

    I am a ballet dancer living in Austin and I did go see last Friday's opening night performance. Even though I am in the ballet academy at Ballet Austin, I despise how "contemporary" the company is and I have little respect for the artistic director, Stephen Mills. I did not enjoy his opening piece. He always tries too hard to come up with "new" and "abstract" ideas for his choreography which never really are successes. On this particular performance, I think he HAD to use all of the crazy costumes, blinding colored lights, and horrific "mission-impossible-like" music to hide and distract from his terrible choreography. If he stopped trying to be "innovative" and "modern" and did more classical ballet pieces, I think the company would be much better off. Besides the awkward men Mill's keeps hiring into the company, whenever Ballet Austin performs a more classical ballet, I enjoy it much more and anyone knowledgeable in quality ballet would also!

    On the other hand, I LOVED Episodes! The clear crisp movements of the Suzanne Farrell ballet dancers was awe-striking and I was mesmerized throughout the entire dance. Her female dancers are so slender and have such long legs (although no one will ever be comparable to Suzanne Farrell) and were excellent dancers. The Farrell dancers were EASILY distinguishable from the Ballet Austin dancers with the dynamic and timing of their dancing. Ms. Farrell has trained them well! (I actually sat a few seats from Ms. Farrell and had to refrain from staring at her admiringly all night. I really wanted to speak with her, but during the intermissions she seemed to disappear and did not look like she wanted to be bothered. I respected her privacy and had to satisfy my hunger to meet her by knowing that I was in the same theater, nevertheless a few feet away from such a legend!)

    I also enjoyed (although to a lesser extent) the 9 Sinatra Songs. I liked seeing the different "characters" each dancer imitated. The choreography was wonderful and very pleasing to watch.

    I hope you enjoyed the performance! I can not wait to see BA's Cinderella coming soon. I am anxious to see how Mr. Mills stages it.

  9. sounds like a wonderful garment, dancer100. You describe it with such zest, I can feel the magic it has for you.

    Where did you find it? Were there others there that you selected this one from? DO you have a collection?

    There was a fabulous exhibition here in SanFrancisco recently of costumes frmo hte whole range of SFB's stage life -- a couple from Bolm's dances from le Coq d'Or, danced here in 1933, made by karinska, just fantastic things to be able to stand right next to. A wonderful doublet for Romeo, made of several shades of blue velvet, with gold embroidery and rows of gold beads -- broad shoulders, incredibly narrow wais -- be still, my heart....

    MANY wonderful costumes.

    Thank you for the wonderful reply, Paul! I am glad to know there are more people who appreciate and love vintage costumes! My costume, nevertheless, ballet in general, does fill me with joy and happiness! I had bought this costume from a lady and this was all the information she gave me about it,

    "It belonged to Drew Davis (she has passed away). She was a dancer, she was in Carousel and on the Gary Moore Show. She was also a choreographer for Broadway Shows and at Radio City Music Hall. She did choreography for the Christmas show in the 70's. She was given the tutu by a ballerina from a troup that came through NYC."

    She did not tell me about the two names inside the costume! This greatly excited me when I discovered them and set out to learn more about it's history and the dancer's who wore it. Thank goodness this was the only tutu she had, because I could not afford another one or have to choose between two of them!

    I do have a collection of my own, although this is my first "real" professional tutu. I collect mostly vintage ballet memorabilia such as signed photos, signed pointe shoes, vintage little girl ballet costumes, vintage books and programs, etc. It is my favorite hobby to collect ballet items, when I am not dancing myself!

    Thank you everyone for you replies to my post, and please add more! I am always anxious to learn more about ballet's history. Have a great day!

  10. Thank you so much for responding, and please keep them coming! I will keep researching their names, but all of your help is wonderful. The vintage tutu is too beautiful for mere mortals to describe. It has a gold bodice with vintage rhinestones adorning it. The tutu itself has rhinestones scattered around it with larger ones hanging off the bottom of it. There is beautiful golden threads sewn onto the skirt and it came with a circular gold headpiece that looks like it would go around the ballerina's hair bun.

    I am intruiged by their histories and would love to hear more. Thank you!

  11. Hello everyone!

    I recently aquired a vintage professional tutu that has 2 names inside. The names are "Joyce Cuoco" and "Balesti". If anyone has information and or stories about these dancers, please post! I would love to learn more about the dancers. I would like factual information (D.O.B., what companys they were in, what they are doing now (if still alive), etc) and personal stories. Thank you so much, I appreciate it!

  12. OH, I am very emotional at ballets! The beauty and grace in them just breaks my heart. I cried like a baby at the NYCB's Romeo and Juliet with Sterling Hyltin not only because I know her, but because it was so well done and wonderful to watch. I also cried during La Somanbula with Darci Kistler. Her spirit-like bourees that seemed to make her float across the stage are what set off the floods!!!

  13. Thank you so much for your memories and recollections. I love hearing these stories. Unfortunately she is not alive today, but her spirit and memories live on in balletomanes such as yourself. I think it is so important to learn about what you do, that is why I lOVE learning about ballet history since I am a dancer and balletomane myself. Thank you so much and please add more information you can recall! The smallest tidbit about her classes, personality, and dancing intrigues me!

  14. Hi! I am trying to find out more information about Maria Swoboda. Her name before she married was Maria Yurieva. Perhaps you may know of her husband, Vecheslav Swoboda. I have a scrapbook that I believe was her's and wanted to learn more about her. I pretty much all I could find on the internet about her was the info on http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...75BC0A961948260

    I would love to hear any personal stories or information you have about her. I love learning about ballerinas from years ago. Thank you so much!

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