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Buddy

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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.
  14. Thanks for your thorough description, DrewCo. It must be “Russian Seasons” that I’m thinking of, which was made for New York City Ballet, thus my “American Ballet Theatre(?).” This is where I probably saw the Bolshoi perform it and I totally agree with this review in The Guardian. London — Royal Opera House, July 2010 “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." https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/jul/30/bolshoi-ballet-russian-seasons-review
  15. The Seasons is perhaps my favorite, Jeannette. Ironically for these times, but not really, although made for the American Ballet Theatre(?), the best performance that I saw of this was by the Bolshoi. Concerto DSCH is also a favorite. There are also substantial parts of other works that I think are outstanding.
  16. In December of last year, Gia Kourlas in the New York Times, wrote an article, titled…. "What if Dance Could Save the World?" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/arts/dance/dance-in-2023-the-cool-genre.html The second video in the previous post is from the 50 minute(!) British music and song video featured in her article. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU5tSF6k-m8 I liked some of the things that she wrote very much. Here’s one quote. “ “Maybe dance can save the world.” Maybe it’s not maybe. Maybe, under the radar, dance has already been changing the world in unassuming ways — in a street jazz class at a gym or the line dancing in the back of a Ukrainian restaurant, where movement is seen and shared through the bodies and minds of everyday dancers.” Here’s something that I wrote elsewhere and would like to add. And maybe we can go in a room, turn on some music (or enjoy the quiet) and dance. It’ll probably make us feel good, or even better, perhaps make us do something good.
  17. **** View 1:28:50-1:34:20 **** That was me clapping in the audience, thirty-eighth from the right (more or less). 🙂
  18. A quick additional thought. I’ve been watching a number of videos discussing “Now And Then.” Somewhere among them, someone suggests that a thousand years from now music listeners will be listening to only one ‘music phenomenon’ from our times — The Beatles. An interesting idea.
  19. I keep returning to the “Now And Then” song (John Lennon, Beatles), because it’s so beautiful and such a heartfelt looking back and summarizing. There’s one verse that has caught my attention because it’s so touching and almost *choreographic* (and so worthy of the Beatles' 'magic'). John sings…. “and if you go away, I know you’ll nev….stay.” Our mind, and in fact the printed lyrics, say “and if you go away, *I know you’’ll never stay* "….and our mind probably adds “you’ll never stay *away*.” But if you listen to John again, your mind might ‘feel’ this….“I’ll know you’ll (drop the incompleted “nev”)….*Stay!* " as in.... "I know you'll stay!" or “Please Stay!”
  20. There were actually two young women from Ukraine, LinMM, that I noticed in the semi-finals and they were in my top ten list. I have to say immediately that I tend to go by overall impression and beauty more than technical precision. In the case of this competition, I was fairly lighthearted in my choices because of the youthful freshness of these young dancers, especially, for me, the Juniors. Yelyzaveta Lazovska from Ukraine was very well received, whereas the other young lady less, so I suspect actual ability was more of a factor. Here’s her Contemporary which I really liked, as well as this work by Cathy Marston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXDQI5kOzVI Anna Haidai, the other young lady from Ukraine, struck a very sympathetic note for me, most felt in her Classical, although her Contemporary may have had more appeal. When I factored in the part of the world that she’s from and all the news headlines that I see each day, her sympathetic loveliness represented the alternative side of things, the beauty and warmth in being alive. Contemporary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtBiVCKaYOA Classical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNcSwhmKTCQ Natalie Vikner from France was probably my favorite because of her overall beauty in her Classical performance. I think that it might be good to have an award for just Classical, as there is for Contemporary. If I’m not mistaken, there have been some contestants from Russia that didn’t win prizes, but went on to stardom and world renown in Russia. They might at least have won the Classical, where they are perhaps unequaled, overall. And again in the somewhat lighthearted department, there were no dancers from South America (Argentina and Brazil) when I attended this competition regularly about twenty years ago. I think that they add a delightful touch of sunshine and their technique looks quite fine. The obvious example this year is the very popular, winner of several prizes, Paloma Livellara Vidart from Argentina. Here’s her Contemporary, which l really liked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBuylGqZPxM&t=2s And here’s another of several from South America who made my ’smile’ list. Antônia Manrique, Brazil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NctScDJkWsQ
  21. Natalie Vikner — France — Semi-finalist Très Elégante ! 🙂
  22. Thank you, but I’ll be on the other side of an ocean and another continent. Hopefully some other time.
  23. On February 18, she’s scheduled to perform at the Dance for Ukraine gala at the London Palladium. https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/dance-for-ukraine-in-aid-of-the-arts-in-ukraine/ On March 17, she’s scheduled to appear at the Ballet Icons Gala at the London Coliseum. https://balleticonsgala.com/ (Both posted at Ballet Alert!) This might be a very interesting glimpse back. https://www.for-ballet-lovers-only.com/ulanova-gala-2011-2.html This is where I first saw Olga Smirnova. I believe that she was still a student, but like TSR101 “I knew she was special.” (It’s also where I discovered Daria Klimentova (born in Prague, 20 years with the English National Ballet) and was very impressed.)
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