Presentation...

[SpanCox]

So, this is my official presentation. I can feel the pressure on my shoulders and my heart beats a little bit more intense the it usually does, but let us just carry on with it.

My name is Thomas Koos, I am 32 years old and live with my lovely wife in Stockholm, Sweden.

I think that my reason for loving ballet as much as I do, is the time machine effect.

I visit the ballet, sit down in the red velvet chair and everywhere I look I see people who tried to look at their best this night. That is a good start which is followed by the silence of expectation of the audience. Then, suddely the ballet. Not a single move is neglected, when falling from a chair the only audible noice is the rattle of feet on the floor.

It is the single most opposite experience to my everyday life, where it is all about beeing effective, running to trams and closing deals no matter what it takes. No one ever stops to consider "why do we not try to do this as pleasant for everyone else as possible".

Ballet is pain hidden behind smiles and a great deal of "let us try to do this as pleasant for the audience as possible"-spirit.

I used to dance myself at age 8-12, before an injury ended that.

Is there anything else you would like to know, please ask.

Oh, if you find any typos, please feel free to keep them.

Best regards,

Thomas Koos

[Giannina]

Welcome to Ballet Talk, Thomas; it is very nice to have you with us. What a wonderful description of ballet and the way you look at it in comparison to your every day world; food for thought for all of us. We hope you continue to love ballet, and we share that love with you. Enjoy the board.

Giannina

[Pamela Moberg]

As a fellow countrywoman I feel obliged to wish you welcome to the board. I am almost a founder member and during these years I have enjoyed BalletAlert tremendously - I normally pay a visit every day and I must be really pressed for time not to visit. There is such a wealth of accumulated knowledge here that it is unbelievable.

Hope you will post what you see in Stockholm - I never go there these days and my local opera house (Gothenburg) only does modern which I dont appreciate much.

[balletmor]

Velkommen!

[Paul Parish]

Bravo, Span Cox.

Well said, sir!

It's TRUE.

Ballet is a fantasy of ideally frictionless interaction, like it must be in the world above us, in hte heavens. Grace abounding, wit in overplus. This applies to behavior as well as to jumps and turns and lifts -- and if htere's no generosity when the boy offers his hand to the girl, there's something wrong right there at hte start...

I's wonderful that you just came right out and said that -- after acknowledging that it makes hte heart beat faster to have something like this to profess, you then do espouse it. It takes courage to do that. Thank you.

[SpanCox]

Pamela Moberg:

I agree with your opinion on modern ballet, it never really touches me the way a real classic ballet does.

I will try to post when i visit something good in Stockholm.

Balletmor:

Takk! ;)

Paul Parish:

Thank you, sir! *blush*

Ballet truly is what life really should be, wonderful.

Best regards,

Thomas Koos

[bart]

I think that my reason for loving ballet as much as I do, is the time machine effect.

[ ... ]

It is the single most opposite experience to my everyday life, where it is all about beeing effective, running to trams and closing deals no matter what it takes.

Welcome to BalletTalk, SpanCox. I identify completely with what you say.

I attend operas and plays, but it's at the ballet that I experience these feelings most -- freedom from time; the disappearance of daily concerns. I don't know why. Perhaps it's the lack of words in a talk-filled world.

On the other hand, when the performance is OVER, it's good to have friends to talk with about the experience. I hope Ballet Talk will be one of the places where you will feel free to do that.

[SanderO]

Bart,

I suspect the otherworldliness that attracts so many ballet lovers is that it is really removed from this world. The creatures of ballet are extremely beautiful move or even when still show amazing grace and perfection. We just don't experience other humans moving and interacting as they do on a stage.

When a ballet is a story ballet we can recognize reality abstracted and see how meaning can be communicated in abstract movement.

Ballet is a trip out of this world! We don't need to be high to go there, and in fact the more intensely we observe the ballet the more we are taken away!

I wonder how the performers experience it from either side of the proscenium. It must be very different.