What Got You Into Watching Ballet?

[Sabine0308]

What got me into watching and love ballet? First, I think when I was 6 or 7.  My Mom had 2 wonderful books about Maya Plissetzkaya and Galina Ulanova. She had seen Ulanova dance in West Berlin, when there wasn't a wall yet, so must have been before August 1961. She ADORED her and talked a lot about her. I  grew up in a small town without a theatre, but some cultural centres. Both my parents introduced me to classical music, we had a lot of vinyls, and went to classical concerts and watched ballet on TV, mostly from Russian companies. When I was in school, we travelled frequently to a city with a theatre. When I turned 10 or 12, the Cultural centre of the Railway employees (!!!) hired a professional ballerina from that city, to run ballet classes for children. I was in heaven then.  I took lessons for 4 years, we even did some performances in other small towns (I vividly remember doing the Dance of the reed flutes). I considered to go to a professional school (either in Berlin or Dresden), but since I was an only child, my Mom didn't want me to leave. Also, I think the necessary "calling" wasn't loud enough for me.

Some years later I moved to Berlin to study, and thankfully tickets to opera houses for students were awfully cheap then😀.
I mostly went to the Tanztheater performances and rehearsals in Komische Oper Berlin, I adored the dancers and their choreographers, especially Birgit Scherzer. Her piece "Keith" left such an impact, I can still member ( hear and see) entire scenes.
Also, I saw "Puck" (Midsummer night's dream) with my favorite dancer Mario Perricone as Puck (he was also in "Keith" as one of the portrayed 7 men). And then, there was "Romeo and Julia", performed by Hannelore Bey and Thomas Vollmer. To date, their dancing and the choreography by Tom Schilling, is my favorite version of this iconic ballet. I saw Puck and R&J I think at least 5 times each. All these names are probably completely foreign to you, but they were amazing dancers. Unfortunately, but understandably, Tom Schilling refuses to date to release his choreographies. Staatsballett Berlin tried to persuade him several times, without luck.

In Staatsoper, I saw also Steffi Scherzer and Oliver Matz back then, dancing a marvellous Swanlake. They are both now Heads of Zurich Dance Academy, and Oliver Matz is a frequent Jury member at Prix de Lausanne.

My favorite year was 1987, when Berlin (still devided!), turned 750 years old. I lived in East Berlin btw, and we rarely got to see guest performances by companies from the West. But for this anniversary, among other awesome performances and concerts, I got so see Marcia Haydee in "Ladies of the Camelias" (with Hamburg Ballet), and Bejart Ballet Tokyo with "Kabuki". I stood 4 hours in line for a ticket. For those of you familiar with Berlin, the queue went from Staatsoper entrance along the entire length of the building, and across the square Bebelplatz. After 2 hours, tickets were sold out. BUT we were adviced to wait, and then, Bejart agreed to let people in for the general rehearsal. I don't remember if I paid for this ticket at all or not, but....it was so generous, and was actually a full performance without a break. We were so grateful, and brought the house down!!
After fall of the wall, my entire world turned upside down, and I spent most of my time to work and money to travel the world😀. Also, when all my favorite dancers left Berlin (for different reasons), and things went south with the 3 ballet companies and their union, I lost interest and my focus went to live performances of young musicians (blues, blues rock, soul). These years, I travelled to London, Paris and even the US to such concerts.

Ballet was like a lost love, somehow.
Until 2018. Prix de Lausanne. 2 minutes before I switched the channel, Shale Wagman came onstage. The rest is history. Err...no, still very present.😀 Since some years, I'm also a happy member of SBB's "Freundeskreis" (friends circle).

[Effie]

What a lovely topic! I grew up in North America, so my introduction was seeing Suzanne Farrell dance on TV (on Sesame Street) and I told my mother I wanted to do that too. She enrolled me in ballet class the next day. Later in my childhood I got to see Evelyn Hart of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet dance Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan and Giselle Act II PDD (with Cesar Corrales's father, Jesus!). My ballet teacher got our class permission to watch company class onstage  and I remember the pianist playing "Hey Jude" during the stretch after barre - Evelyn Hart changed the words from "Hey Jude" to "Jesus", singing it to Jesus Corrales. The performances were incredible, but I think it was actually the company class that I found the most intimate and compelling.

 

I discovered the Royal Ballet as a teenager when a Canadian cable channel broadcast a British TV special about Viviana Durante and Darcey Bussell. I loved them both (but especially Viviana Durante). The same channel later broadcast the Irek Mukhamedov recordings of La Bayadere and Mayerling. I wore those VHS tapes out from watching them so much!

 

As an adult I've moved around to several countries now, including many places without a large ballet presence. I'm so grateful for RB DVDs and performance streams since I've never lived in England and love the Royal Ballet so much. And I'm so happy to discover this community as well!

[Dawnstar]

33 minutes ago, Sabine0308 said:

All these names are probably completely foreign to you

 

That makes it extremely interesting to read of your experience, compared to the majority of us on here who got into ballet in the UK. I was only 4 when the Berlin wall came down & know very little about what culture including ballet was like in East Germany before that.

[alison]

Welcome to the forum, Effie.  I look forward to hearing more from you.

[Sabine0308]

42 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

That makes it extremely interesting to read of your experience, compared to the majority of us on here who got into ballet in the UK. I was only 4 when the Berlin wall came down & know very little about what culture including ballet was like in East Germany before that.

Thank you @Dawnstar. I'm sad that most of these names and performances are "lost". Very few could be seen on TV, and these tapes are now safe in an archive of a TV station here. Recently I was lucky to get a copy of my beloved R&J performance, expensive because they are made only on demand, but worth every penny. There was a vivid culture and "dance community" in East Germany. This is a different topic (not for this thread) so feel free to ask me via private message.💖

[Sophoife]

Not as interesting as many, but here's my ballet-watching life. We moved to England (from Australia) a month or so before my fourth birthday and Mum promptly took me to Cinderella at ROH (Sibley, Dowell, Parkinson, Ashton and Helpmann). I can remember a Spanish company, Royal Danish Ballet (La Sylphide comes to mind), and London Festival Ballet too.

 

My first Des Grieux was Nureyev in July 1974.

 

We returned to Australia later in 1974 so it was Australian Ballet and touring companies (@Sabine0308 I remember the Berlin Komische Oper touring or was it just some of their dancers guesting? in the very early 80s), supplemented by ABC TV's Sunday Stereo Specials and eventually videos.

 

It was 1994 before I went to London again, and in six nights I saw six shows (one being Betty Buckley and John Barrowman in Sunset Boulevard - they were both so lovely at stage door, she had a Fur and a Small Dog) including a Festival Ballet fundraiser on the Sunday night! Mr Rencher (my first Monsieur GM) was Don Quixote and he too had a Small Dog and a Fur leaving stage door. I managed Sylvie Guillem as Kitri one night and Irek Mukhamedov as Basilio the other.

 

More Australian Ballet and touring companies, finally back to Europe in 2017 when I achieved a long-held ambition of seeing Paris Opéra Ballet at the Palais Garnier, also BRB, RB, Stuttgart, Berlin and Hamburg.

 

I love streaming and DVDs but the hardest time (as with many others, I know) has been the last couple of years, unable to travel to Queensland or Western Australia, both of whose companies continued performing, and Australian Ballet kept mostly offstage due to restrictions in Victoria and New South Wales. Happily I have now seen two live performances within three weeks, and am looking forward to the rest of this year and beyond.

 

[Sabine0308]

9 hours ago, Sophoife said:

Not as interesting as many, but here's my ballet-watching life. We moved to England (from Australia) a month or so before my fourth birthday and Mum promptly took me to Cinderella at ROH (Sibley, Dowell, Parkinson, Ashton and Helpmann). I can remember a Spanish company, Royal Danish Ballet (La Sylphide comes to mind), and London Festival Ballet too.

 

My first Des Grieux was Nureyev in July 1974.

 

We returned to Australia later in 1974 so it was Australian Ballet and touring companies (@Sabine0308 I remember the Berlin Komische Oper touring or was it just some of their dancers guesting? 

 

Probably some dancers guesting. I don't think they ever let the entire company tour. So jealous(But happy for you) that you saw Guillem live, I never managed to see her.

[Sophoife]

 

14 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

Probably some dancers guesting. I don't think they ever let the entire company tour. So jealous(But happy for you) that you saw Guillem live, I never managed to see her.

Googling tells me, Sabine, that I had remembered correctly - the company did tour in 1980! As one dancer defected during the tour, that may well be why you don't recall the company touring...😉

[Sabine0308]

@Sophoifeah yes! Above, I mentioned the piece "Keith" and Tanztheater Komische Oper. 5 out of 7 dancers from the original Keith cast and the choreographer defected during tours in Italy and West Germany and Hungary. There is a wonderful, very moving documentary about these people and the "hassle time" right before the wall came down. Unfortunately the film is geo-blocked, as Dawnstar found out already. 

[Sophoife]

Dawnstar, Sabine, it may be possible to view the film using a VPN...may I have the link please so I can try?

[Sabine0308]

9 hours ago, Sophoife said:

Dawnstar, Sabine, it may be possible to view the film using a VPN...may I have the link please so I can try?

Sent you a message. Thanks for trying💖

[Don Q Fan]

The first ballet performance I saw was on a day trip to St Petersburg from Manchester Airport! It was 2002 and after sightseeing the city, the Hermitage and dinner at 5 star hotel, we were taken to the Mariinsky no less. There I saw a fabulous Fokine triple bill which couldn't have been a more perfect introduction to ballet! The show opened with Chopiniana followed by Walpurgischs Nacht (I think) and the rousing Polvotsian Dances! Not only that in the interval our guide led us up and up inside the building to a function room where we had Russian champagne and my first taste of caviar on canapés! It was a thrilling night, then we were taken back to the airport and flew home, very tired! It was thanks to the 3 hour time difference we were able to cram in everything. Left UK at 6am, got to Russia 12 noon, left at midnight arrived back home at midnight! Would love to do it again although I did go back for a week in 2004 and saw Giselle. 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Don Q Fan
Typo

[alison]

Good grief - the concept of a day trip to St. P. would never have occurred to me!

[LinMM]

Well I thought the same but wondered whether at least one advantage might be that you don’t need a visa for a day visit? 

[serenade]

1 hour ago, alison said:

Good grief - the concept of a day trip to St. P. would never have occurred to me!

Me either but it sounds amazing, I’d love to do it but I’ve never seen anything like that available before! 

[serenade]

My ballet obsession came about via my love for lots of other types of dancing. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawn to watching dance - didn’t matter what the genre was I was glued to any dance film, musical, dance on tv. Tap, Latin, ballroom, salsa. Fred and Ginger etc.  I never saw any ballet though as I don’t recall it ever being on the tv and I grew up in the 90s/early 2000s so it was a bit before YouTube. I never got taken to a performance of anything and I didn’t do any lessons as we had no money.
 

My dance obsession continued through being a teenager and a young adult.  BRB would tour not too far from where I lived and I would want to go every time but I didn’t know anyone with any interest in dance and certainly not ballet and I didn’t have the confidence being quite young to go alone.  Then in around 2011 I was chatting with a colleague about theatre and we decided to go to Coppelia that BRB was touring. I really loved it and continued to go every time they toured near me.  At that point I did love ballet but no more than any of the other dance forms I was interested in. 

The thing which elevated ballet into an obsession was a video on YouTube that got recommended to me of Natalia osipova and Ivan vasiliev talking about Don Q. They were at the bolshoi at the time and there was some clips of their performance. I thought it was amazing and when I was reading about them read that they had left the bolshoi for the Mikhailovsky and they were touring to the coliseum and would be performing Don Q. I travelled to see it and was absolutely blown away by it and the rest is history! 

[alison]

3 minutes ago, serenade said:

BRB would tour not too far from where I lived and I would want to go every time but I didn’t know anyone with any interest in dance and certainly not ballet and I didn’t have the confidence being quite young to go alone. 

 

Yes, I think that can be quite a problem for many people.  I think I indicated that I eventually had to take the plunge alone, but it wasn't easy - although once I'd done it the once it got easier.  But it took a German student on my corridor to convince me to go to the London Festival Ballet mixed bill with her, otherwise I'd probably just have stuck with the "full-length" La Sylphide.

[serenade]

3 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Yes, I think that can be quite a problem for many people.  I think I indicated that I eventually had to take the plunge alone, but it wasn't easy - although once I'd done it the once it got easier.  But it took a German student on my corridor to convince me to go to the London Festival Ballet mixed bill with her, otherwise I'd probably just have stuck with the "full-length" La Sylphide.

Yes…even when I was in my 20s and moved to London I actually missed out on quite a lot by not feeling like I could go it alone. But when I took the plunge I never looked back although I still sometimes feel a bit awkward at the intervals at sadlers wells but that’s just me. I always feel fine at the opera house though and there’s often other people on their own you get chatting to

[Lizbie1]

42 minutes ago, serenade said:

Yes…even when I was in my 20s and moved to London I actually missed out on quite a lot by not feeling like I could go it alone. But when I took the plunge I never looked back although I still sometimes feel a bit awkward at the intervals at sadlers wells but that’s just me. I always feel fine at the opera house though and there’s often other people on their own you get chatting to

 

Now you mention it, I also find it easier to talk to strangers at the opera house than at Sadler's Wells or the Coliseum. Maybe I feel more relaxed there?

[serenade]

33 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Now you mention it, I also find it easier to talk to strangers at the opera house than at Sadler's Wells or the Coliseum. Maybe I feel more relaxed there?

Yeah I definitely do. I love Sadler’s wells and the coliseum as venues as much cheaper generally and you can actually see the stage well from most of the seats 😂 but ROH is where I feel comfiest!

[SplitSoul]

My first love is music. I went to the opera as a teenager all the time,  more often than my friends went to the cinema. I myself don't like to dance, never have, not even at a party.

 

I always loved  ballet music,  but didn't get much from a "few people hopping around on stage" to music. I saw a few ballets, Max & Moritz being one I remember in a theatre in Germany.

 

UNTIL

 

In my mid thirties, my daughter started ballet aged 3. When she was 4 we went to a first steps performance of Sleeping Beauty. I knew the music inside out, but this time I was really captured by the dancing. The narrator explained the mime aspect which I found fascinating.

 

My DD's interest in ballet meant we went to a kiddie Swan Lake workshop and another shortened performance of Sleeping Beauty at Saddlers Wells.

 

Watching her weekly classes (now at Grade 2), I started to appreciate this art form for what it is: a beautiful and immensely complex expressive art.

 

Now covid is permitting, we have seen Cinderella, Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake and booked Don Quixote. I am hooked, although my interest in the music is still a little bit deeper than in the dancing.

 

So unlike the other posts, it was my daughter that inspired me to discover a new interest.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Elz
Typos

[WoodlandGladeFairy]

I guess I got into ballet from doing ballet lessons when I was younger and when it was occasionally on the TV

 

I do remember fondly that we had a few ballets on VHS - American Ballet Theatre in Don Quixote, Bolshoi Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty, Ivan the Terrible and Spartacus, Mariinsky (or what was then the Kirov) Ballet in Giselle and The Stone Flower and the Royal Ballet in Romeo and Juliet, La Fille Mal Gardee, Mayerling and Prince of the Pagodas, so they were the ballets that shaped my childhood. 

 

Living in the provinces I did not get to watch a huge amount of live ballet, you had those regional Russian companies who toured and when the Royal Ballet visited the Bristol Hippodrome back when they visited the regions.

 

Also helped my sister and mum were super into the ballet as well, so that rubbed off on me as well.

[Stephenwolf]

On 03/02/2022 at 14:14, serenade said:

Yeah I definitely do. I love Sadler’s wells and the coliseum as venues as much cheaper generally and you can actually see the stage well from most of the seats 😂 but ROH is where I feel comfiest!

It seems that my first post on the forum kicked of this thread, for which I'm delighted. Like Lizbie1 and serenade, I'm also very happy to find that, in addition to Balletco's friendliness, in my experience, the ROH is probably (maybe including The Globe) London's most 'laid back' live performance venue. I love both theatres, but particularly the ROH. Despite being a newbie! 

[Tony Newcombe]

Fracci. Coventry. Early 1960’s.

[Dawnstar]

21 hours ago, Stephenwolf said:

It seems that my first post on the forum kicked of this thread, for which I'm delighted.

 

Yes, your post on the R&J thread gave me the impetus to start this thread, having occasionally previously wondered about the subject.

[JennyTaylor]

My mother loved ballet and I started ballet lessons at the age of 4. I think my first ballet was Swan Lake at Covent Garden and I do remember it astonishing as that might seem. It was Beryl Grey.  It dates me, but my parents bought their first record player around that time and 2 of the first LPs they bought were the Nutcracker and Swan Lake (2 LPs). They were played continuously. I was taken to the Nutcracker at the Festival Hall every year and also Coppelia.  Belinda Wright was the principal ballerina in the Nutcracker and Lucette Aldous in Coppelia.  I loved ballet and danced until the age of 11, though I wasn't very good.  My ballet class took me to see Giselle at Covent Garden, and my school, amazingly took me to a performance of Swan Lake by the RB on tour, at I think Leatherhead. It was Monica Mason in the lead role.  I was transfixed. 

 

Going to the ballet was a huge treat and a rare event. But there was some on TV and I listened to the records all the time.  I think by the age of 21, I had only seen these ballets and the Sleeping Beauty (Anya Linden) live. 

 

I didn't then go for ages as there was no opportunity, but many years later, someone at work asked me to book tickets for a Hamlyn(??) performance as these for new customers only. I did and we went to see Giselle, and suddenly I realised I could do this myself and tickets were actually available.  My mother has always had terrible trouble booking as it seemed the only reliable to do this was to go up and queue, but we didn't live in London and the train fare to do this was a consideration.  She booked on the phone but then never received the tickets on a couple of occasions. 

 

So, the rest is history really. I booked for a performance of Mayerling, which I had never seen, got onto the mailing list and that was the start of my full time love affair with the Royal Ballet. I'd always loved ballet but never found it accessible until that point. Now, it seems I go every week. 

[ninamargaret]

On 27/01/2022 at 18:07, maryrosesatonapin said:

Sometimes I wish we were old enough to have seen Fonteyn... but then we'd probably be dead by now 😁

Well, I saw Fonteyn quite a few times and I  can assure you I'm not dead!

[LinMM]

Me too! In fact still trying to keep going after a fashion in ballet classes lol!! 
Any day now I’m sure I’m going to end up saying  what my dad said about 20 years ago now and I thought he was just being weird. My mum had recently died and I was trying to encourage him to go out and socialise a bit at a local community centre and he said “I’m not going up there with all those old people” He was 80 at the time! 
Some of us might be getting on a bit now who saw Fonteyn dance but as some may actually still only be in late 50’s and early 60’s we are not only not dead yet but dancing into “old age”
 

 

[Dance*is*life]

My mother started me off at ballet classes after I'd gone on stage at the local panto and looked absolutely at home there!!   And that as they say was it!    I am sure that I saw performances before that - probably Festival Ballet's Nutcracker - but the earliest performances I remember are the three in 1956 during the Bolshoi's first visit to the West.  When my Dad saw that the Bolshoi was coming, he got up early on the first day of sale of tickets. Got a queue ticket and came back later in the day to buy them.  He was absolutely determined to take me to see them, but when he got to the box office, he was told that only two per performance were allowed as the demand was so great.    Somehow my darling Dad managed to persuade the clerk that he had to have three for each performance, as his dancing daughter was going to be a ballerina and had to see the Bolshoi!   I have no idea where he got the money from, but he bought wonderful seats in the main house for three performances and I saw all the greats including Ulanova and Struchkova!   I remember dressing up in my best party frock and sitting in the front row of the Stalls Circle.  Amazingly a few years ago, I found a DVD of Ulanova dancing Giselle from that visit and she was every bit as wonderful as I remembered.   Those performances were truly truly magical ! Today as a Grandma to 6, I continue teaching and loving ballet!  And the ROH is still my favourite place!

[LinMM]

My main “mentor”  ballet teacher was a great admirer of Ulanova and has her on the cover of a book he wrote. 

[Sabine0308]

@Dance*is*life what a wonderful early way to ballet!💖

[maryrosesatonapin]

On 06/02/2022 at 23:33, ninamargaret said:

Well, I saw Fonteyn quite a few times and I  can assure you I'm not dead!

Sorry @ninamargaret!  And how lucky you were.
(Maybe I should explain I have a congenital heart condition so my comment was in the context of that!)
 

Edited February 9, 2022 by maryrosesatonapin

[rosefairy]

I loved reading this thread back in February when many forum members posted their stories of getting into ballet and wanted to add mine too - I thought it would be the perfect first post, but I have had an incredibly busy few months since then, so even though I read the forum daily, I never got around to posting, so I've reviving this thread now😅

For context, I'm 21 years old and from Germany (near Frankfurt am Main).

 

As a small girl, I took ballet lessons briefly (once a week for about one year from age 5 to 6) and loved the idea of tutus and pointe shoes, as many children that age do. For a long time after that - I would say from age 7 to 18 - I didn't have anything to do with ballet or related art forms. My main interest growing up was literature, I spent most of my free time reading books and dreaming of writing novels myself (a dream that I still have, we'll see).

 

After graduating with my Abitur (=A-Levels) in 2018, I moved to a different city and started a BA degree in social sciences. When I was half done with this degree, the pandemic started and we switched to online learning, so I decided to stay at my family's house for the time being. I had more free time now and one day in summer 2020 discovered a teen TV series called "Find Me in Paris" which plays at the Paris Opera Ballet School.

 

Soon the YouTube algorithm recommended the ARTE documentation "Die Ballettschüler der Pariser Oper" to me - a great project which followed a number of POB ballet students in 2011 and then again in 2016, to see at which point they were 5 years later. After watching this, my fascination with ballet training/growing up in the ballet world started and I searched for more documentaries - Vaganova Academy, RBS, SAB, I pretty much watched them all and a landscape of the different ballet techniques practised around the world started forming in my head. At this point, I was still quite clueless about ballet history and repertoire though.

 

In 2021, I found the "ballet side of social media" and started following many ballet dancers who are also active on YouTube and Instagram, like Maria Khoreva and Kathryn Morgan for example. Through their posts and videos, I kept hearing the names of ballets, choreographers, company members and so on and basically clicked my way through it all, step by step becoming more familiar with them.

 

By this time, it was summer 2021 and I had unfortunately missed the whole "pandemic livestream era" but I now became aware of the options I have in my hometown, which were a) going to see Bolshoi and Royal Ballet cinema screenings in and b) watching livestreams by various companies. At the same time I started planning my first post-pandemic travel trip, which was a week in London in December 2021. Of course, I had to book for the Nutcracker - I saw a matinee performance with Lauren Cuthbertson and William Bracewell, Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Leo Dixon in the leading roles. My very first live ballet performance and it was amazing!  A few weeks later back home, I went to Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and saw the Mariinsky doing Swan Lake (Maria Iliushkina and Timur Askerov in the main roles) - I loved it and also liked the happy ending which I know most other versions don't have. So far, those are the only live performances I've seen, but I'll start making plans for the 2022/23 season soon.