Ballet. Fun Facts. Dancing Daydreams.
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You’ve always wondered…Here’s the truth… 😉
All the time. Everywhere we go. When you would never suspect it.
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If we’re listening to music, there’s a good chance we’re mentally creating, staging, or restaging ballets.
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Oops, 6 hours just passed? Oh well…
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As difficult as it is to remain still (if we’re not watching dance), we suffer through it for articles, books, and blogs about ballet…
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It must be done—like it or not. But listening to ballet music, a ballet podcast, or a ballet advice video helps pass the time…
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This is why you watch/listen to TV, right?
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They. Are. So. Amazing. #Goals
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Yes, we know we need to rest. And yet…
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Seriously, how did bunheads survive before YouTube?
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It’s a good change of pace. Then it starts to feel really weird and boring…
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Know that feeling? 😉 Hope your summer is filled with many ballet victories! 🙂
How is your summer going? What stage are you experiencing? 😉
How is ballet season over yet?!
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Just focus on summer intensive, focus on summer intensive…
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Ahh, finally…
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THIS. IS. WHAT. SUMMER. IS. ABOUT.
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Can this please be over yet?
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Time to start thinking about auditions! September is just around the corner!
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And 5,6,7,8 – can’t wait!
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Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. I need an ice pack just thinking about this…
A ballet barre from the 1820s:
“48 pliés followed by 128 grand battement, 96 petit battement glissé, 128 ronds de jambes sur terre and 128 en l’air, and ending finally with 128 petit battement sur le cou-de-pied. One inevitable consequence of this extreme training was a sharp rise in injuries.”
– Jennifer Homans, Apollo’s Angels, 2010, p. 129-130
Oh, and all of this was repeated in center. Yikes. Do not try at home.
Certainly not unique to dance critics… 😉
From the irresistible pull of swan arms to the allure of feathered tutus, swan-inspired characters outrank other bird roles in the realm of ballet. Here’s a throwback to three of the most famous swan roles as interpreted by past generations…
Distilled through black and white, foregoing scenery, and emphasizing movement as the medium of storytelling, this 1970s Kirov film brings the emotional core of Swan Lake‘s pas de deux into focus with sophisticated simplicity. Odette’s enigmatic, love-him-or-love-him-not relationship with Siegfried is told through the power of musical motion with little aid or accent of acting–flowing through reserve, release, tension, ease, energy projecting outward, and drawing inward…
Odile actually didn’t acquire her avian identity until the 1940s…Before then she was simply a femme fatale who could be costumed in a variety of colors including red and green. But, safe to say, the little black dress makeover certainly stuck. It’s hard not to imagine that this was her signature look all along. Here’s a clip, also from the 70s, of Kirov soloist Elena Yeteyeva performing the variation and coda fouettés.
“Often imitated, never duplicated”… For something seemingly simple in design–mostly bourrées and upper body movements–Mikhail Fokine’s The Dying Swan, created for Anna Pavlova, has eluded so many of its subsequent performers. Pavlova’s watermark on the work, as seen in this 1925 film, is the translucent abandon and leaf-in-the-wind quality of her arms and upper body: ballerina grace, but with a sense of unsettled drifting.
