altongrimes Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 I am excited to post this brief excerpt from Tolstoy's War and Peace (courtesy of Jennifer Homans, Apollo's Angels). I have treasured this passage throughout this damnable contagion hoping that I might at last find opportunity to post it on this wonderful Ballet Alert ! " But it was Tolstoy in War and Peace who perhaps best captured the divided life of the Russian aristocracy. 'In her truest moment, the French educated "little countess" drops her Parisian airs and spontaneously breaks into an authentic Russian folk dance. She has never seen the dance before but intuitively knows it's inimitable, unteachable Russian gestures: she stands arms to the side, and instinctively makes the movement of her shoulder and waist that reveal all that is in every Russian soul." Glorious ! Link to comment
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