Dancers Who Make You Cry (or feel very moved)

[Sophoife]

Stella Abrera (ABT principal) as Giselle with Australian Ballet.

Leanne Stojmenov in Ratmansky's Cinderella and Murphy's Romeo and Juliet.

Elisa Badenes and David Moore in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet.

The first time I saw After the Rain - Kirsty Martin and Steven Heathcote - silent tears started falling as they began the pdd and didn't stop until about 15 minutes after they finished! 

Kelvin Coe in the premiere season (1980) and years later (2012) Andrew Killian in the final part of Murphy's Beyond Twelve. Noone else in this role and I've seen them all.

Marianela Nuñez as Giselle (on film).

Vadim Muntagirov in The Two Pigeons.

Leanne Benjamin (guesting) and Robert Curran in Manon in 2008, and in 2014 Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Sydney in what was to prove their final Manon together.

[jm365]

Lynn Seymour as Juliet and Giselle

Alexander Grant as Alain, looking at the ring when he realises Lise will never be his.

Almost anybody in the last section of Song dof the Earth.

Beriosova and her partners at the end of Enigma Variations (Derek Rencher and ANOther - to whom I apologise for forgetting his name)

Fonteyn in Giselle

Durante and Mukhamedov at the end of one very special performance of Manon

[Don Q Fan]

I rarely cry at the ballet but Irina Perren reduced me to tears in her performance of Giselle when I saw the Mikhailovsky in Venice. This is the one that sticks in my mind. Wish I could see them again. 

[northstar]

Fascinating thread. I see Giselle mentioned a lot in the responses and the most immediate memory that springs to mind of being tearful at a ballet is the RB cinema broadcast of Giselle with Marianella Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov (2016 I think), I can still recall now the heartbreak, desperation and anguish and fatality of it all. Nunez astonished me, I'd always thought of her as a dancer of stunningly beautiful technique that I'd love to see dance live, but never imagined her ability to dramatically portray tragedy in her dancing. I'd never been so moved at a ballet and had to fight to keep myself from breaking down. I'd just like to concur with ToThePointe on the 'crossing' of the Wilis in Act II, with the music swelling, it's so powerful and again another strong memory in the RB performance I saw.  

 

Otherwise other time I remember was seeing Elisha Willis dance Aurora in the Sleeping Beauty at the Lowry, Salford in 2012 with BRB. In her solo and the coda of the Wedding Act III, her sheer brilliance and poetry of motion was just too much and I felt tears pricking my eyes. Hard to explain this sort of emotion, I suppose it's a bit like a real wedding or maybe even a great sporting achievement where despite the obvious happiness of the event,  the perfection of it all is just too much. 

[JennyTaylor]

I'll start by saying that I cried today, but that was for slightly different reasons because I took my step granddaughter to the ROH for the first time to see the Nutcracker and she was entranced. Watching her face was entrancing for me too and I found the ballet moving - I love the Hans Peter/ Clara pdd.    But I was also thinking that I first went at the age of 4 (Swan Lake and Beryl Grey) which astonishingly , I do remember - a look how that started a lifetime of loving ballet. Let's hope it's the same for Meg.

 

Now down to the nitty gritty.  I don't often cry at ballet, but I am moved and my benchmark is the hairs on the back of the neck feeling.

 

I did cry when I saw Francesca Hayward's debut as Aurora with Alexander Campbell which was phenomenal and incredibly beautiful.  

 

My Top 10, not necessarily in any order as that's too difficult

 

Francesca Hayward and Alexander Campbell in the Sleeping Beauty.  

Thiago Soares in Mayerling

Daria Klimentová's final performance as Juliet with Vadim.  Electric - and when he went down on one knee and opened his arms to her in the balcony scene...........

Marianela and Thiago in Onegin

Sylvie Guillem and Jonathan Cope in Manon, Marguerite & Armand

Zenaida and Roberto Bolle in her last Manon

Carlos Acosta in Spartacus

Irek Mukhamedov in Mayerling (last performance)

Thomas Edur and Agnes Oakes in Swan Lake (in the round)

Francesca Hayward and Gary Avis in the Invitation

 

I feel bad about not including favourites like La Fille and , but they just make me happy, not emotional in the same way.  

[nickwellings]

Recently I have seen Ferri in Woolf Works, which has moments seared in my memory. Aside from that her turn in M&A was splendid. True tears for Woolf.

Olga Smirnova in Swan Lake.

Semyon Chudin in the same.

Osipova as Lise in Fille, final act and in "ribbon carousel"

Osmolkina as Odette - stunning characterisation, small details...beautiful beyond words.

Sara Mearns as Odette.

I think were I to see Muntagirov as Lensky again, I'd be moved.

Nunez in Onegin. Harrowing.

I recall enjoying Polunin on the Bolshoi Giselle. I really felt Albrecht's love for Giselle.

Brandon Lawrence and Delia Mathews in any classical ballet. Their Odette/Siegfried destroyed me 😭

 

 

All these dancers have produced tears.

 

 

And as above a moment which works well: Two pigeons.  I recall loving Choe in the role. What an ending. Pigeons might not be dancers but they produce emotion inside me! 😄

 

 

 

[Balletfanp]

3 hours ago, JennyTaylor said:

Daria Klimentová's final performance as Juliet with Vadim.  Electric - and when he went down on one knee and opened his arms to her in the balcony scene...........

 

 

Oh my word, how could I have forgotten that?? I was already pretty tearful at the Balcony pas de Deux, but when he fell on his knees I almost lost control and started bawling out loud in the Albert Hall! Had to swallow very hard a number of times and concentrate furiously in order not to disgrace myself....🙂

[capybara]

12 hours ago, JennyTaylor said:

 

Daria Klimentová's final performance as Juliet with Vadim.  Electric - and when he went down on one knee and opened his arms to her in the balcony scene...........

 

 

I agree. Muntagirov opening his arms to her Clara in ENB's Nutcracker was similarly affecting. And, since his more to the RB, there have been many similar moments when his  gestures have touched the heart strings, not necessarily because the moment is emotional in itself but because his portrayal is so real and true.

[Vukasin]

Most recently I was very moved by Ekaterina Kondaurova in Infra and Alessandra Ferri in Woolf Works.

[Guest]

Watched Vladimir Vasiliev in Spartacus last night. Real lump in the throat territory.

[Guest]

On 12/19/2017 at 15:51, jm365 said:

 

Beriosova and her partners at the end of Enigma Variations (Derek Rencher and ANOther - to whom I apologise for forgetting his name

 

I think it must have been Desmond Doyle