Dance*is*life

This is a delightful interview with her - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1r040Cbmto I seemed to remember that she danced with Festival Ballet - does anyone else remember that or have the sands of time muddled my brain?

One of the reasons that I like teaching RAD Grade 7 is because it's in the style of the Romantic period and it gives me a chance to teach my students a bit of ballet history. I always take in some ballet books and show them the pictures of ethereal fairies posing an arabesque on a flower (the flower is presumably strengthened by a metal rod or something). It's so nice to work on something which concentrates on quality and style and not just technique. Surprisingly enough, all these ambitious young dancers who normally think that the height of success is being able to do over-splits, really enjoy dancing it and manage to pull something very lovely out of themselves, that hadn't been there before. My parents, bless them, took me to see everything they could and whenever there was ballet on the TV, I was allowed to get out of bed to watch it. (That was in the days when kids went to bed early!) I remember to this day certain really special performances that I was lucky enough to see, and so regret not having seen Baryshnikov in his heyday at Covent Garden. TV, DVDs, live screening, youtube - there's ballet everywhere today, but nothing can replace a live performance. What will the youngsters today remember? Some YAGP candidate whipping off multiple pirouettes?

I will never forget when a young but very much up and coming dancer was given the role of Franz in Coppelia. He complained to me that no-one had really directed him in his acting when he was supposed to climb the ladder to look in the workshop window - he didn't know why he was doing so!! I explained the story to him, but was rather shocked that I had to. Surely every ballet student should be studying the great classical repertoire as part of their training! I believe that ballet classes and technique should be taught as part of the whole performing art. So many students learn variations from La Bayadere, Paquita, Sleeping Beauty etc etc without having a clue where the solo came from and where the variation appears in the actual ballet. How can you dance a variation properly if you don't know the ballet it came from?

I wonder who the dancers were? Any ideas? Gosh yes technique has indeed changed - especially the men - pirouettes with feet round their ankles, double tours landing any old way - and the ladies' arabesques left much to be desired!!!!! And then just 8 short years later the Bolshoi came to London for the first time and revolutionised ballet technique. As a little girl my parents took me to see three performances of the Bolshoi - my Dad queued most of the box office opening day and bought good tickets in the Grand Tier and Stalls Circle. Those performances made such an impression on me that I wrote to Ulanova and told her so (and invited her to tea!!!!) . The point is that I thought that I would probably be disappointed if I saw the same performance today, but they issued a DVD of the Bolshoi from that period and Ulanova was indeed as brilliant as I remembered her, and Raissa Struchkova too. Just amazing!

There is the American Academy of Ballet Summer Intensive in Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY. You can attend that for one to four weeks, I believe. They have a page on Facebook. It's a very good summer school. I've had several students go there over the years, with partial scholarships luckily for them - two going this year, but they're 14 going on 15. They do have younger students though as well. They will accept individual applications - probably with a video or something.

Personally I am a Boris Eifman groupie - I go to see every new production he brings here. Some are better than others, but they are always interesting and different and the dancers are amazing - both technically and dramatically. Not a tutu to be seen and not always on pointe, but it is obvious that his dancers' technique is built on classical ballet. Perhaps that is one way Ballet is going? I would hate to see the great classics disappear and have often wondered why people would even consider that - no-one would say that Bach or Beethoven have gone out of style, so why should Giselle or Sleeping Beauty be passe? However, I agree with Naomi above, that good contemporary ballets can be very exciting, whilst some neo-classical works are so similar, lacking in highlights that they fail to inspire sufficient interest. In addition it sometimes seems that dancers nowadays are in danger of becoming almost clone-like. Same perfect bodies, endless legs and divine feet. All of them with legs round their ears, whipping off multiple pirouettes. Some years ago, I saw the Zurich Ballet in Heinz Spoerli's Goldberg Variations. The dancers were all absolutely perfect, but I personally found the performance rather boring - I suppose I prefer a bit of imperfection!

I do think it is so important to get ballet students in particular, but not just them, to watch live ballet performances and not make do with youtube. There is something so magical about watching a live performance whether it is ballet or plays, musicals, concerts, operas. The thing is that on stage you accept the fantasy of the concept and let it carry you away. I dislike pandering "down" to the young generation, in the belief that they won't appreciate classical music or ballet. I know many ballet teachers choreograph end of year ballet dances to pop music or popular songs from Disney etc, in an effort to make it more accessible. I do the opposite, I search for the most beautiful classical music that I can find, that lends itself to dance, and use that. No one has ever complained or said that the end of year show was boring because of that.... If we want an audience for traditional ballet then we have to educate the youth to appreciate it. I always took my sons to see ballet performances, so they're happy to continue in adulthood - in fact my middle son is disappointed when there are no tutus, because that's what he associates with ballet! Still he is happy to take his two oldest children, both boys, to see ballet performances with Grandma and watching their faces, I can see that they have been drawn into this special world too. I asked the seven year old which bit of Cinderella he liked best and he answered in a very excited voice "Everything"! My nephew, on the other hand, has three boys and a girl and he really doesn't want the boys to go to see ballet. I think that's a shame, because he's already prejudicing their tastes. I make a big effort to encourage my students to see live performances especially if some of them are a bit anti. They enjoy dancing themselves, but often say - Oh I saw that on a DVD -it was boring! Unfortunately, our performances are generally danced to recorded music, so the goosebumps that I always get in anticipation when the orchestra warms up, are lost. However, I do find that, even without live music, when they see a ballet performance live they understand that it's not boring at all. Sitting in a theatre, watching the curtain go up, the scenery, costumes, music and dancing all weave their magic.

There's contemporary and there's contemporary as in all things. I have been to a performance where the "music" was cats miaowing and doors squeeking and I actually walked out - not because the dancers weren't good, but because my ears couldn't stand it! That was the one and only time I have ever walked out of a performance, I should add, but it went on for ever and after about 40 minutes of the same thing, I just couldn't any longer. Our one classical ballet company was getting into financial difficulties and so the founder Directors were ousted after 45 years and a new person took over. He tried all sorts of things to bring in more money, but all that happened was that the audience was actually made up of the modern dance crowd and the ballet lovers stayed away in droves. He tried a joint production with a company which primarily drums on every available surface including their own bodies. He did give the classical ballet dancers some sections on their own, which were quite exciting, but watching these highly trained dancers standing and shaking and drumming their bodies was rather nightmarish at least for me. Some things worked, others less so. Someone else has taken over now and I like what he and his associates are doing - presenting lots of real classical ballets that are also popular with children. There are so many modern dance companies in Israel, we have to keep the one classical ballet company functioning not just to offer the public home grown ballet performances, but also as a means of employing our ballet students when they graduate.

I really don't understand why there is still such an obsessive belief that male ballet dancers are gay - out of all the dancers in our local company I think only one is gay and pretty much all the rest are married and with children! Look at the generations of Russian male dancers such as Nikolai Fadeyechev and his son Alexai, Maris Liepa and his son Andris - I am sure there are others. Dancing ballet does not make a boy gay! And if he dances and happens to be so, so what? I think one thing that has come to light with the more open gay community is that they are in every walk of life, doing a myriad of jobs and careers. And yet boys who dance ballet are still being teased and are afraid to own up to their so called friends that they are learning ballet! Grrrrr!

Still the lovely thing about ballet IS that it's all so implausible! You just have to suspend your common sense for a couple of hours and forget about reality! I mean princesses turned into swans - honestly! And what about Willies making the "baddy" dance to death???????????? So who says a harp can't shoot a swan?

Romeo and Juliet is a prop hazard - all those swords! In the production I was in as Nanny, one got left on stage after the fight scene just before the bedroom pas de deux - bang in the middle of the front of stage. I thought perhaps, having narrowly avoided tripping over it during the pas de deux, that Romeo might grab it when he ran off stage. That would after all have made sense. However he didn't and I was given the task of getting rid of it somehow! Well, I bustled on stage with Juliet's gown in my arms and made a big show of "What's this sword doing here in Juliet's bedroom?". Shaking my head in bewilderment, I picked it up and dropped it into the wings, before continuing in my scheduled choreography. You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the audience that the annoying sword had finally been removed!

Talking of props and disasters - my problem was that I was/still am extremely short-sighted. My mother refused to believe that her "baby ballerina" should be wearing glasses and so I never wore them except for school to see the blackboard or in the cinema (whilst it was dark and no-one could see me). I had a dance where I was supposed to choose between two apples and at the end of the dance I threw one away and pretended to eat the other. Have you ever tried finding an apple on stage when you can't see? The next girl was waiting to dance and I was still desperately searching for that stupid apple. I hated that dance - it was a nightmare finding the apple at the end. This stupidity went on for years, with me getting on to wrong trains, waving back to someone I didn't know etc etc. Thank goodness at 17, after my first year at the RBS, they insisted I get contact lenses. Oh the joy of actually recognising people's faces and of being able to read the adverts in the tube! The awful thing is that I still can't bear the sight of my face in glasses - oh vanity thou art my downfall...........

Knew there was a reason why we bought tutu skirts without the bodice for our students! So glad you sorted it out! I have a funny story to add to this wonderful thread - We ordered new romantic tutu skirts in pale blue net from a dressmaker - 20 of them. My class put them on and tried out the dance. It turned out that the tulle was so stiff, that when they lifted their legs the skirt stayed up even after the legs were lowered! Not enough time to make new ones and we couldn't use them like that, so I volunteered to soak a couple of skirts in my bath tub and see if that helped. Unfortunately not - even after leaving them soaking overnight! So I stuck them in the washing machine {normally guaranteed to totally ruin tulle and turn it into a limp rag} and lo and behold they came out perfectly. Am happy to say that coupled with blue leotards the skirts looked lovely on stage!

Just to say that our last RAD examiner made a point of telling us several times that there are no extra points for high legs! On the contrary - if the legs are high at the expense of proper placement and turn-out, the candidate will get a lower mark. However, I do think that good flexibility is very important - not necessarily over the top flexibility - ballet is not gymnastics - but for better lines and movement. If a dancer is hoping for a professional career - 90 degree extensions are just not enough nowadays.

Sorry, I didn't realise it's not their first trip to London! In that case yes Camden Market might well be fun for them as something different. The two nearest tube stations are on the Northern line although they recommend not using Camden Town station at weekends due to congestion. Chalk Farm is a little further, as is Mornington Crescent. You could take a taxi to the South Bank if they haven't been and then take the Northern Line from Waterloo or the Embankment. Euston is also on the Northern Line for coming back, so nice and easy.

If they are ballet teens, which I presume they are. I am sure they would adore Covent Garden. It's the most amazing place and honestly not to be missed! The Opera House itself is so special and the Shop is great, but outside you have street entertainment and speciality shops and an arts and crafts market, masses of cafes and restaurants around - totally fun area! There are of course several dance wear shops in the area too. Leicester Square is nearby and China Town - Shaftesbury Avenue with theatre after theatre. I could wander around there all day! You can also walk up Charing Cross Road (think bookshops) to Tottenham Court Road/Oxford Street and do some proper shopping in Oxford Street. They might also enjoy the Kings Road, Chelsea full of boutiques, which is a bus ride from Battersea. When I go to Headquarters, I actually get a bus from the main road (five minute walk) to South Kensington Station and you can get the Picadilly Line from there to Leicester Square/Covent Garden. Last time I was in London, Covent Garden station was closed - possibly it's now open.

Actually it's more noticeable going down the steps - as in point your foot, put it down through the ball into a nicely turned out position and repeat all the way down the stairs! If you're wearing a party frock and were coming down the grand staircase from the Opera House Crush Bar, in the days when there was a vast mirror in front of you, then you would also hold your head high and hold out the frill on your skirt too and of course admire yourself in the mirror as you're doing so

But that was why I failed - my instructor also put in for an early date for me, but it was so early that I was nowhere near ready and managed to mount a pavement trying to turn left after a steep hill. Luckily for me and the examiner, there were duel controls in the car!

Thank goodness for that! The way they were talking about the future of ballet - they seemed to imply that it would be metamorphosising into that!

I don't think that being co-ordinated for dancing has anything to do with anything! I was always hopeless at sport for example and I never learnt to swim properly. I have no sense of direction and only drive because I have to! I actually failed the test twice before I passed it when I was six months pregnant. I had to literally re-learn when I eventually started driving again, because I stopped for so long whilst I was having my kids. There were no compulsary baby seats then and I didn't want to drive on my own with a baby or a child loose in the back, so I just walked or bussed everywhere with them. I remember walking in the middle of our road one winter with all three kids stuffed into my huge Silver Cross pram, because the pavements hadn't been cleared of snow and it was impossible to walk there with a pram! I wonder when child seats became compulsary???? I must google it!

Good luck to you all!

I was actually once guilty of approaching a perfectly strange young woman on a tube train and asking her if she happened to be a ballet dancer! She absolutely looked like one and I was so curious I just had to know - after all that she wasn't one!

I just watched Darcey's Heroes on Youtube, so I can put in my two cents worth. I found it enjoyable and I think would be quite informative for the general public. The fact that we buffs on this forum didn't learn much new is perhaps beside the point. You had after all Clement Crisp, Judith Mackrell and Julie Kavanagh talking quite knowledgeably and informatively on the subjects and she introduced some interesting people too and gave quite a varied picture of male dancers today. I have to say I was rather put off by Ed Watson sliding around in some yukky looking substance and do hope that that is NOT the face of ballet in the future! I agree that the end clips were daft and absolutely unneccessary! She was charming, although I thought she played rather too much the ingénue, but obviously that's what they thought the general public would like and goes with her image on Strictly. I think that there could have been a little more about the role of male dancers before Petipa came along and gave them back their standing. I mean until Camargo shortened her skirts, ballet was all male virtuosity, but then they were demoted to supporting cast for the ethereal ladies of the Romantic era. There were even ladies in male costumes dancing the male roles - en travesty - I think it was called. I read that in France men slipped so low that Franz in Coppelia was danced by a woman! The real men only came forward when they needed to lift the women! It's a long way from that to the Superstars of today and there are indeed amazing male dancers in every company nowadays. Perhaps the earlier historical background could have been covered, but it was okay as it was and a pleasurable hour's entertainment!

When I go to a film in the cinema I always check the age certificate - if it's a PG13 I know that I won't be subjected to swearing!

Of course one of the wonderful things about today's technology is that we are not reliant on the TV for our ballet treats. You can find most full length ballets on youtube from any number of companies! Ballet documentaries, ballet extracts - all there with the click, click of a finger! I sat in in the comfort of my own home and watched the live screening of the Genee earlier this year - and WhatsApped a friend who was watching it in London in the theatre in order to hear her opinion! I have some amazing ballet DVDs too including the original Lise - Nadia Nerina - in La Fille Mal Gardee. I can't see TV ever showing that! Companies also travel more nowadays and we get the opportunity to see such a wide range of works and dancers. Also, when we do get something good on TV, we can record it for posterity - which reminds me that I recorded R & J on the Mezzo channel a couple of weeks ago and haven't watched it yet! And instead of the little 13" spotty black and white TV we had when I was a very little girl - my grand children and I are watching on huge colour TV screens in HD! Life may have been simpler in the "old" days, but the possibilities available today are endless! Oh by the way - it's just gone midnight here ! HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!