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Int. Dance Day - who are you having dinner with?


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Happy International Dance Day 2021!

 

I thought it might be nice to have a bit of fun with this and ask: 

-If you could have dinner with any dancer, dead or alive, to celebrate International Dance Day, who would it be? 

-Where would you be having dinner? (Let's pretend Covid rules don't apply)

-What questions would you ask them? What would you want to know? 

 

 

Edited by ToThePointe
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  • ToThePointe changed the title to Int. Dance Day - who are you having dinner with?

Interesting topic!  I really had to think about this one, as my list was very long.  However...

 

Carlotta Grisi, at the end of her life so that she could look back with me.

 

We would be having dinner on a warm summer's evening on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Miss Grisi spent the second half of her life.  I have also lived there so we would already have something in common!

 

I would want to ask her about what it was like to create the role of Giselle.  How did it come about, how much input did she have on the choreography and drama, etc.  I would also ask her to show me a pair of her pointe shoes which, from the paintings of her, actually were points!  They looked desperately uncomfortable and I would ask her how she wore them, if she stuffed anything into them to protect her toes, did she have a naturally arched foot...did she even need one?  I would ask her to dance some bits from Giselle for me (our magical evening would transport her back to being a costumed Giselle, right in front of me!), so that I could see how ballet looked in its raw, original form, and with those pointe shoes.  I would also ask her to talk about the companies she danced with, and how they differed in style, teaching and technique.  She travelled a lot so I would chat with her about the different places she visited, what the audiences were like, which were the most beautiful towns back then.  She had more than 40 years of living to do after she stopped dancing...how did she fill the time?  What did she do?  Finally, if we'd had enough wine, I would ask her about her rather colourful private life...but that is where this post must stop.  :)  

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Surely there must be someone else on this forum who has a “dancer dinner” fantasy??!!  I feel a bit exposed here on my own!!  😅
 

I would love to know who you would like to have dinner with!

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2 hours ago, Sim said:

Surely there must be someone else on this forum who has a “dancer dinner” fantasy??!!  I feel a bit exposed here on my own!!  😅
 

I would love to know who you would like to have dinner with!

 

Sim - quite a lot of Forum Members were 'celebrating' by listening to Carlos Acosta talk for over an hour before the AGM of The London Ballet Circle. He was terrific - inspirational.

As for my personal choice of dinner guest - now that would be telling!

Edited by capybara
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7 minutes ago, bridiem said:

At the risk of breaking the rules by inviting two people, I would have dinner with Clare Calvert and Alexander Campbell and I would ask them all about their wedding plans. 😍

 

 Well, on the 29th June, they will both be talking to the LBC and there is a CHAT box on Zoom, @bridiem !!!!

 

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Guest oncnp
2 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

 Well, on the 29th June, they will both be talking to the LBC and there is a CHAT box on Zoom, @bridiem !!!!

 

Will it be recorded for members?

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Well, I had dinner with a former dancer.  Nowhere exotic, just at home, but the odd dance topic came up.  Had I been able to follow TTP's fantasy rules, I might well have been with Mme Yanowsky, somewhere in France, asking how she dealt with her dramatic range from, say, the submissive Bride in Les Noces to the manic Red Queen in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  (Don't tell anyone!)

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9 hours ago, oncnp said:

Will it be recorded for members?

 

The LBC's Zoom talks are recorded and, provided that the guest and the interviewer agree, the videos are put up in the Members Only area of the LBC's website https://www.tlbc.org.uk a couple of months or so after the event.

Currently there are Cassa Pancho, Brandon Lawrence, Erina Takahashi and James Streeter, Anna Rose O'Sullivan, Ernst Meisner, Adam Cooper, David Nixon and Cesar Corrales.

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10 hours ago, bridiem said:

At the risk of breaking the rules by inviting two people, I would have dinner with Clare Calvert and Alexander Campbell and I would ask them all about their wedding plans. 😍

 

And their home decorating 🙂

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I would have dinner in a very fancy french restaurant with wonderful champagne and in the company of Mischa Baryshnikov.

We would then tango discreetly around the dance floor. By some miracle I would not be taller than him. He would hand me a rose at the end of the evening which I would press and treasure forever.

And then I woke up.....

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In real life, and thanks to the Ballet Association, I really have had dinner with Mara Galeazzi, Ed Watson, Martin Harvey, Federico Bonelli, Lauren Cuthbertson, Ivan Putrov, Thiago Soares, Nicol Edmonds, Ricardo Cervera and Cesar Corrales so I am very very grateful ....

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1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

I think Robert Helpmann would be a lot of fun; it would have to somewhere with old school glamour; and I'd be after all the gossip.

And I am sure he would give it to you!  

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1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

I think Robert Helpmann would be a lot of fun; it would have to somewhere with old school glamour; and I'd be after all the gossip.

 

I'd certainly be interested in his Vivien Leigh gossip

 

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6 hours ago, alison said:

... not to mention the wind-up which I thankfully never put on here, when I was in a restaurant and found Federico Bonelli was sitting on the table immediately in front of mine :)

He and his family were also in a restaurant we went to!

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