Anjuli_Bai

Maybe they have a bet going to see how long it would take for their presence to be mentioned on this board.

Exactly! I once taught a profoundly deaf student and that's exactly what she did.

Musicality for a dancer doesn't mean to always dance on the beat. A dancer can dance on the beat, through it, slightly ahead and/or slightly behind - anticipate or even ignore, emphasize or de-emphasize, syncopate or dance it squarely. The dancer doesn't just "show" the music but interprets it - shows the "inside" of it. For instance if you have a enchainement of (all going to the right): piqué arabesque on your rt ft, failii with your left ft through first to 4th position, glissade, and a big assemblé porté. That's four distinct steps - but you wouldn't give each step the same "value" - give each the same amount of time or emphasis. You have to think about what you want to show your audience. I'd want them to see the arabesque, not so much the failli or the glissade, and I'd really want them to see the big assemblé porté. So, I'd linger an eyelash longer on the arabesque, go quickly through the failli and glissade and then spend all the time I could in the air in the assemblé porté. So, you might ask yourself when you are learnng a new dance sequence - what do I want the audience to see? Usually the connecting steps like glissade, pas de bourrée, are given less value. While the big jumps, the arabesques, etc., are given more time. A very good example of using the same music in different ways is the famous scene where Juliet runs to Friar Lawrence to tell him what's happening. She's desperate and she needs his help. In studying for this role Fonteyn watched a film clip of Galena Ulanova do this famous run. She realized there was something very different in how Ulanova did it. Finally, after watching it many times, she realized Galena wasn't running AWAY from her problem but TOWARD someone she thought could help her. It's an interesting exercise to take that music and use it to show you are running away from something and then use the same music to show you are running toward something. If I were working on that I would start with by "running away" - with my arms slightly behind me, my head down, a slight protective curve in my back and slightly behind the music. Then when I did it by "running toward" my head would be up, eyes looking ahead, chest leading my body and arms forward, feet in front of me. That's a whole different picture isn't it? I hope I've said something here which helps.

Sometimes it seems its a race to see if one can recover before the next thing hits. Keep strong.....you have a lot of people praying and wishing you and your family well.

"The Green Table" (I have the tape) is surely relevant but is it a story? I think of it more as a statement of human behavior.

Well, it suddenly started working in AOL - maybe the gremlins went to lunch. Thanks for your time - Janet and John - I do appreciate it.

When you get used to doing it with music with which you are familiar you will then begin to hear these nuances in new music. It takes time and thought. And I agree with you - one of the problems with syllabus work is that picking up new dance sequences quickly is a problem. "Free work" helps - but its not enough.

He is surely a continuing force in the world of dance. Happy Birthday Mr. D'Amboise!

The very best to all of you - you will come through it.

I could see my post #5 in both AOL and IE - but couldn't reply in AOL. I can reply in IE.

Well, I can reply here using IE. Let's see if it shows up when I come back. Or if I can reply in other threads.

I found it to be very helpful to always use different music - even for the same enchainement. That made me (and my students) really listen to the music. I tried to avoid simple piano music that is so often used. I liked music from shows, orchestral music, classical, contemporary - music that had some ccmplexity to it. Sometimes when the music is repetitive and/or too familiar we tend to stop listening to it. It also helps to listen to it without dancing - just sit still and really listen to it. What does it say to you? You might think of it as wrapping it around you and you are dancing inside it - making it visible to other people. I hope this helps.

I have the recording of La Boheme with Renata Tebaldi - and it will always be my favorite performance of this opera. I literally wore out the record and so had to re-purchase on tape.

Sounds operatic to me.

I would agree that Bourne's Swan Lake is successful but I think it is so very different from the original it bears little resemblence. Same for Ek's Giselle - and only time will tell if both will withstand that test of time. The original Giselle and Swan Lake have certainly passed that test. For me, the jury is still out on these newer renditions. There is also the question of "importability" - will they be taken into the repertoire of other companies? How long will they outlive their creators? One could also ask if either of these ballets are truly classical in the sense of using classical ballet technique and since they used a previous ballet (Giselle, Swan Lake) - then they are not story lines set in the 21st century - as per your original question. So - maybe the question might need to be further defined: "When will someone make a story ballet using classical technique set in the 21st century not based on a previous story - but a truly contemporary story?"

I hope and pray all goes well and your daughter's recovery is swift and complete.

There were several Soviet era ballets with themes of revolution of the masses against the aristocracy which at the time they were presented were close to contemporary to the reality of event. For the most part those productions have not proved to be successful in the long term. There were also several ballets with similar themes done by Chinese companies. They were too much "of their time" and "of their place" and to my knowledge, have not entered into the repertoire of other companies. I'm not even sure how popular they are in their native setting. People tend to move on especially when the theme is a painful one. There have also been a number of attempts to take a classical ballet and change the setting in an effort to make it "more relevant" - such as changing the time and place of Giselle and Sleeping Beauty. But - this was done with only marginal success, I think, because it's difficult to imbue the present with "magic" - reality and magic are mutually exclusive.

As to the question about why a choreographer would look to an old story.... I would assume that an old story has stood the test of time. Putting on any kind of story ballet is a huge investment of time and money with, of course, no guarantee that it will be successful. However, if the story has withstood the test of time - at least that part of the production investment choice is "safe." Even then, productions based on tried and true stories still may fail. I also think that often we go to the theatre to be taken out of ourselves - away from our own daily reality. Sometimes a story which occurs in our own time is too close. If it is sad - the sadness may be too fresh. If it is a love story, perhaps we know the reality is that the "happy ever after" is still playing out. And a modern story may injure or anger people still alive, or give a viewpoint which is one sided or incomplete. Does the company, the theatre management, the prducers, the investors want to chance the appearance of bias? Old things have a magic for us. A ballerina has just rec'd a letter from her lover and she goes from joy to despair as she dances and reads the letter - till finally she colllapses in heartbreak. Now - take that same ballerina logging onto her computer or even looking at her hand held computer/phone, reading a text message from her lover. Though the choreography and the story line are the same - somehow a letter is so much more personal than a cell phone. A shoot out with high powered guns is just not the same as a sword fight between Romeo and Tybalt. A Lilac Fairy showing the Prince a vision of a Sleeping Beauty named Aurora is not the same as showing him her FaceBook page. It's too close to us - the theatre is not about reality.

I rued the day when competitions started and I still do.

I would say that the evidence is more than anecdotal. We can see with our own eyes that the choreography which the dancers of yore were asked to do was less physically demanding. The flat turnout demanded today is certainly less of a natural movement than the turnout of yesterdays dancers. We can also see that the amount of work schedule was different. Prima Ballerina Assoluta Kschessinskaya only danced six months out of the year. Prima Ballerina Natalia Makarova says that she was surprised after she defected to the West how much heavier the dance schedule was for the dancers in western companies. She says that women in the Soviet Union were not expected to dance during menstruation. In the Soviet Union she only danced a couple performances per month whereas in the West principal dancers performed several times a week. Many dancers of yore say that much more time was given to coaching and careful rehearsing for roles. I don't think that they felt the need to dance through pain any more than the dancers of today. In fact, I think the competition is much keener today. If one compares the hours danced by students of yore in a vocational setting with the hours danced by students in the same setting of today, from what I've read - it is much more intense. In having to lift the leg higher or split wider in a jump, one can see that the stress would be greater -especially since it has become the norm. Lifting the leg to a greater height has to be more stressfull than holding it at a lower height. The compulsion to jump higher - especially for the men - has got to be more demanding on the weight bearing joints of the body than the lower height of jump in the choreography of yesteryear. The same would be true for lifts. A one handed lift over the head has got to be more stressful for the men than the lower lifts of yesteryear. One can also see that careers tended to be longer because of the less stressful demands upon the body. Sometimes the answers for which we seek are right there in front of us.

Maybe the answer is rather simple - the body is being asked to do something beyond its capability. Whether its range of motion, speed, height, duration, repetitive motion, specific or general fatigue - the demand has gotten beyond how it was intended to be used. A good clue, I think, is that if one reads the bios and autobios of dancers of yore - injury is much less common. As I think of many of the great dancers such as Karsavina, Pavlova, Nijinsky, Dolin, Plisetskaya, Fonteyn, Alonso, - they occasionally mention getting ill, and yes, some injury - but not to the degree of the dancers of today.

The Barre has been raised. And - it's not all about technical proficiency.

Swelling indicates torn tissue. Healing is still taking place after swelling and pain have ceased. She needs to give it that extra time. That will keep it from becoming a continuing problem. No jumping. No turning which puts pressure on the ankle. No demi-pointe. Supportive street shoes.

As for the who you know...... It is not unusual for a teacher in a local school to contact someone in a company with whom he/she has a working relationship. If someone one knows and who's opinion one trusts touts a particular dance student - that does get special attention, But, I think that happens in many fields.

I have danced at several dance festivals which were held in shopping malls. When I was asked to do this, my first inclination was to decline mostly because the venue is challenging. But, then I remembered that Anna Pavlova would dance at almost any venue to bring ballet out to where the people are. While it is true that there are many safety considerations and many inconveniences - if Pavlova - a prima ballerina of the Mariinsky thought it a worthy thing to do - I could do it too. Itt turned out to be very gratifying. People come over to talk after the performance - it's a good chance to truly meet the public. Often that public inlcudes people who have never even considered buying a ticket for a formal theater performance. And, then, I loved seeing the children in the audience dancing - below and in front of the stage - reflecting the action on the stage. How wonderful is that?