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Buddy

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About Buddy

  • Birthday 19/03/1943

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    Male
  • Location:
    California, Switzerland
  • Interests
    Beauty, nature, childhood, dance

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  1. Life as a Dance (cont) (music by Paul McCartney) (sung by Paul McCartney) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeGupAqD_30 I wish I could have seen this. If I were in London for a few days, this is where I would have been. Maybe this summer there will be something left.
  2. You can find some great ‘dancing’ here, if you view life as a dance. Paul McCartney — Photographer — “Eyes of the Storm” Beautifully intimate photography ! Great book !
  3. The above video clip, besides being a very charming young girls’ ‘backyard’ performance, is absolutely what I would want to call ‘Lyrical Dance’. Also, looking at each girl somewhat more carefully, there seems to be an impressive amount of talent. The tall blond girl does a gorgeously statuesque move balanced on one foot, at 6:22 and 8:40, that if further developed (in my opinion) could be some of the finest sculptural motion that I’ve seen. All these young girls, from my brief glances, already well instructed, could go on to be finely matured dancers. I hope that they stay with it. They're also just fine the way that they are now.
  4. Renata Shakirova -- New Mariinsky Principal -- Brava ! https://www.mariinsky.ru/news1/2024/march/10/ (thanks to Sophia at Dansomanie) Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/?sl=ru&tl=en&op=translate
  5. Thanks, Bruce, for these optimistic thoughts. Here are a few sentences from what I’ve added elsewhere: As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve long envisioned a more 'dreamlike' sort of Wheeldon-Whelan aesthetic emerging at NYCB in addition to the great George Balanchine heritage and beyond….Ever since the first time that I saw video clips of Wendy Whelan performing “After The Rain” I was embraced. From what I’ve read Wendy Whelan worked through its creation with Christopher Wheeldon, adding her elements of physicality. Now that she’s NYCB’s Associate Artistic Director (also in charge of new works, I believe) this seems more possible than ever. As she says in the above Instagram glimpse, she wants to continue dancing as well as creating. Why not do the both together as she did with Christopher Wheeldon ?
  6. Can I do somewhat of an aside for a moment ? I’ve been hoping for this sort of thing at New York City Ballet. What will the future tell ? Marina Harss from DanceTabs: “I was even more surprised by how moved I was by the final piece on the program, Wheeldon’s The Two of Us, for Sara Mearns and David Hallberg….I’ve never seen a more sincere, open-hearted, grounded work from Wheeldon. Or such natural performances from these dancers, particularly Hallberg.” https://dancetabs.com/2020/10/ny-fall-for-dance-2020-digital-program-1-including-premieres-by-jamar-roberts-and-christopher-wheeldon/ Wendy Whelan “Wendy, the associate artistic director of @nycballet, where she was formerly a principal, isn’t sure how performing will fit into her life. But she knows this: “If time works for me, moving is the best thing,” she told the #nytimes dance critic @giadk. “I just want to feel good….” (see video) https://www.instagram.com/p/B393C_MHhhB/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=invalid&ig_rid=93b4cae3-0cd5-4f89-be40-956854b151da Christopher Wheeldon-Wendy Whelan — “After The Rain” See 14:10
  7. Wendy Whelan “I just want to feel good….” https://www.instagram.com/p/B393C_MHhhB/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=invalid&ig_rid=93b4cae3-0cd5-4f89-be40-956854b151da
  8. Jeannette (and Bruce, thank you) since you got me started on Alexei Ratmansky you might enjoy my somewhat lighthearted take at today’s comments. https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/47963-cool/#comment-452020
  9. Africa Guzman´s Sweet and Bitter (Pas de Deux) - Ballet West
  10. In regard to Olga Smirnova again, perhaps lost for the moment, because of the very intense political situation, is that she remains once of the finest products of the Russian ballet ever. She did perform Raymonda several times in December with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, performances that should have highlighted her ‘classical’ wonderfulness to the maximum. In a Royal Academy of Dance interview about a month ago she states that through her coach Larissa Lezhnina, former First Soloist at the Mariinsky, she hopes to help preserve the Saint Petersburg’s ballet style and tradition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLak7u3Xm20 For the moment there are no future performances listed at her site. I also wish that Xander Parish's group had stayed together. I haven't heard a thing about it since its very promising 'debut' in Costa Mesa, California in November, 2022. Maybe it could still be reformed. Does anyone have any insight into this ? https://pointemagazine.com/reunited-in-dance-xander-parish/
  11. Thanks, Jeannette, for all your thoughts, information and insights. “Russian Seasons” is an early Ratmansky work and is so loaded with nonstop, amazing choreography that it might include a large backlog of ideas. The agility of his mind and creativity is highly impressive here. This is a quick, officially posted glimpse of NYCB’s Maria Kowrowski, who along with Wendy Whelan (seen by you), were two of the most capable NYCB ballerinas, that I’ve seen live, to possess the sensitivity that this work merits. https://www.facebook.com/nycballet/videos/flash-footage-maria-kowrowski-in-alexi-ratmanskys-russian-seasons/10160194344490529/ As for seeing the Bolshoi someday overseas, since I believe that you travel a lot, you could have caught Raymonda in Oman in January, as reported by FionaM. Looks like it was a good one. https://bolshoi.ru/en/news/guest-appearance/7067-Oman-tour-2024-01/ And we do have Olga Smirnova. She appeared two days ago at a Ukraine gala at the London Paladium and is scheduled to appear at the Ballet Icons Gala, London Coliseum, March 17. What an amazing talent she is ! https://balleticonsgala.com/
  12. **** View 1:28:50-1:34:20 **** Mariinsky Ballet You are the night, you are the ocean You are the light behind a cloud You are the end and the beginning A world where time is not allowed There's no such thing as competition To find our way, we lose control Remember, love's our only mission This is a journey of the soul The perfect song is framed with silence It speaks of places never seen Your home's a promise long forgotten It is the birthplace of your dreams (Beyond — Daft Punk) Cool !
  13. Thanks everyone for your ongoing thoughts and comments. Since various Ratmansky works are being mentioned I’d like to return briefly to my comment about “Russian Seasons”, which is perhaps the favorite of those that I’ve seen, and change what I said slightly. I said that I totally agreed with this 2010 comment in The Guardian. “The evening's centre piece, however, is Alexei Ratmansky's Russian Seasons. This 2006 setting of Leonid Desyatnikov's score was first created for New York City Ballet, but its semi-abstract vision of old peasant Russia makes better sense in the Bolshoi's revival. The Russian inflections in the choreography – the fusion of melancholy and boisterousness – are bred in the bones of this cast." I would, however say, ‘exuberance’ rather than “boisterousness.” For me, it makes a big difference here. A quick aside. I just watched a video from the Bolshoi of a complete 2016 “Russian Seasons”. This viewing I actually see something of Marc Chagall, but more dramatic. The brightish, uplifting colors somewhat resemble his and the altering of reality into a modernist sort of reverie and artistically brilliant reconstruction resembles him, other Russian and related ‘modern’ painters of that time and Alexei Ratmansky at his best in creating and manipulating artistically gripping imagery. And what a ‘ride from the past’ ! Cast: Orange/White: Svetlana Zakharova, Andrei Merkuriev || Red: Natalia Osipova, Denis Savin || Green: Yekaterina Shipulina, Pavel Dmitrichenko || Purple: Yekaterina Krysanova, Igor Tsvirko || Blue: Anna Rebetskaya, Vladislav Lantratov || Burgundy: Anna Nikulina, Vyacheslav Lopatin And, yep, there’s Alexei Ratmansky, himself, on stage at curtain call. All in all, a heart touching look back, and hopefully forward again….some day….world artists on a world stage.
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