“Doing Dance”

[Buddy]

“Doing Dance” is the Number Four Forum at BalletcoForum. This is something that I posted there yesterday. (If this post is better suited elsewhere, Moderators, please relocate it.)

 

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The first three topics at BalletcoForum are 1) Performances seen & general discussions, 2) Ballet / Dance news & information and 3) Dance Links - reviews, news & features.

 

The forth is Doing Dance. Interestingly, the forth, your’s, has as many posts as the first three combined.

 

And interestingly, there appears to be little crossover of readers. Is this true? If so, maybe we could try something.

 

Maybe some folks here would like to know what us primarily audience members think and value and visa-versa. I’ve sat next to ballet students who don’t know who Ulyana Lopatkina is. I, as an avid fan of ballet, don’t know the first thing about technique. Maybe we could just float some thoughts. I for one, could perhaps suggest various performers and performances that I could recommend from a spectator point of view and say why.

 

I might also post a link at the first three, referring posters here and visa-versa.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions? It might at least be fun.

 

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This post is located at “Doing Dance” under the title “Performers and Viewers.” If anyone here would like to look in or participate that would be great.

 

https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/21090-performers-and-viewers/

[maryrosesatonapin]

I noticed your post there, @Buddy, and thought it a good idea.  However I was shocked to learn that some people who are involved in 'Doing Dance' aren't at all interested in watching dance!  Naive of me I suppose.

[Buddy]

4 hours ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

I noticed your post there, @Buddy, and thought it a good idea.  However I was shocked to learn that some people who are involved in 'Doing Dance' aren't at all interested in watching dance!  Naive of me I suppose.

 

Yes, I was just as surprised as you were, Maryroseatonapin.  But now we know. I've just begun trying to participate in "Doing Dance." A lot of attention is given to supporting the children, no matter what their interests might be, and this is certainly commendable. There seems to me, by the way, a reasonable number of posters (maybe many) who do or have danced and others who are quite knowledgeable about and interested in dance.

 

One thing that this discussion can perhaps do is focus on why the children (and adult performers) love what they're doing and why we love what they're doing. Also it's certainly interesting to get an insight into how parents try to make this possible and what goes on in dance at this beautiful age.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Buddy

[Ian Macmillan]

Something else that probably bears on the same issue: going to cinema streaming of Royal Ballet and any other dance performances, I have been continuously surprised at how few youngsters are present, given the numbers who attend ballet/dance classes.

[Fiz]

Given the sheer amount of classes and homework they have, I don’t find it surprising at all. 

[LinMM]

Yes I agree Fiz. Children going to Dance classes may have several classes a week .....certainly those who are more serious about it and whose mums are more likely to post on the Forum. They may have additional activities and of course plus homework.

Even those children who do get to the ballet this would mostly have to be at a weekend and then if you start looking at a) cost and b) convenience of travel to the nearest theatre.....which in turn may only have ballet showing two or three times a year then it's not going to be that often that children do get to the theatre.

I'm sure at the age of 12/13 I had only heard of Margot Fonteyn, Alicia Markova and Anna Pavlova!! And I was going to classes  four times a week!! 

Younger children do not really follow Ballet Companies like Adults do. 

Also many mums of keen dancers don't like ballet that much ....you'd be surprised at how many!!

If they do go to the theatre a couple of times a year it's much more likely to be to see a Show ....like The Lion King say.....than to the ballet though am sure quite a few children will have seen the Nutcracker at least! 

[Buddy]

But count the number of events that children go to that feature themselves or their friends !   🙂

 

 I've known of few instances, such as weather that could shut down a city, that  have kept a 'kid' with his or her parent in tow from attending one of these events.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Buddy

[Buddy]

I should have said in the above post "....events that 'include' themselves or their friends ! " "Featured" would have amplified things beyond credibility !  😊

 

What's important here for a child, perhaps, is the 'doing it,' not the 'it.'

Edited September 27, 2019 by Buddy

[Buddy]

I posted this a "Doing Dance" and I'd like to do it here as well. Thank you.

 

 

Help requested, please.

 

Would any actual dancers [or former dancers] please identify themselves and could others mention names ?

 

Thanks, so much.

[taxi4ballet]

10 hours ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

However I was shocked to learn that some people who are involved in 'Doing Dance' aren't at all interested in watching dance!  Naive of me I suppose.

Most of the people posting on 'Doing Dance' are the parents of young dancers needing advice or information (for the first few years of posting at least). Many of those parents will not necessarily have any prior knowledge or particular interest in dance - they have only found themselves in the ballet world because of the activities of their offspring.

[Buddy]

10 minutes ago, taxi4ballet said:

Most of the people posting on 'Doing Dance' are the parents of young dancers needing advice or information (for the first few years of posting at least). Many of those parents will not necessarily have any prior knowledge or particular interest in dance - they have only found themselves in the ballet world because of the activities of their offspring.

 

Thanks very much, Taxiballet. I suspected this after looking through the "Doing Dance" topics' titles about an hour ago. I only ask for names in the interest of adding to the discussion.

[Anna C]

11 hours ago, Buddy said:

I posted this a "Doing Dance" and I'd like to do it here as well. Thank you.

 

 

Help requested, please.

 

Would any actual dancers [or former dancers] please identify themselves and could others mention names ?

 

Thanks, so much.

 

People may choose to be anonymous here for all sorts of reasons, Buddy - if anyone *wishes* to give their real name that is of course fine, but that has to be their decision.  We don’t allow “outing” other Forum users. 

[Buddy]

6 hours ago, Anna C said:

 

People may choose to be anonymous here for all sorts of reasons, Buddy - if anyone *wishes* to give their real name that is of course fine, but that has to be their decision.  We don’t allow “outing” other Forum users. 

 

Thanks, Anna. I was only thinking about the  mentioning other posters' names who have identified themselves already as dancers, in particular high profile posters who identify themselves as such. But thank you for your clarification and concern.

[Buddy]

I posted an interview at "Doing Dance" with Tatiana Legat that I found very interesting. She comes from one of the most famous families in ballet history and recalls some of its most famous names.

 

https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/21090-performers-and-viewers/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-297658

(thanks to Katharine Kanter at Dansomanie for finding this)

Edited October 11, 2019 by Buddy

[Amelia]

Thank you, Buddy, it is an interesting interview but there are two inaccuracies there.

 

Gustav Legat went to Moscow not for the purpose “to set up the Bolshoi Theatre and the Moscow School of Ballet.” Tatiana said that her grandfather was sent to Moscow in order “to make improvements to the Bolshoi Theatre and the Moscow ballet school.” 
(The Bolshoi company was founded in 1776 and the school was set up in 1773, a century before Gustav Legat was working there in 1872-1874.)

 

Nikolai Legat is not buried in London but at Kent and Sussex Cemetery and Crematorium in Tunbridge Wells.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32471259/nikolay-gustavovich-legat