Sunday, January 31, 2010

Galina Ulanova's Giselle

More Youtube goodies today! This isn't a complete performance, but it's most of Giselle's dancing in a performance from 1956. Nikolai Fadeyechev is Albrecht, and Rimma Karelskaya is Myrtha. Unfortunately I am unable to embed the videos, so here are the links. Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Saturday, January 30, 2010

A Month in the Country

There is a complete recording of A Month in the Country performed by the original cast on Youtube!

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



Part 5:

Monday, January 25, 2010

Bolshoi's New Esmeralda Reconstruction!

The wonderful Youtube user Russianballetvideo has posted a feature on the Bolshoi's new production of Esmeralda, which is a reconstruction of Petipa's staging, complete with new, gorgeous sets and costumes. I'm not able to embed the video, but I strongly recommend watching it here!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Fonteyn Again

Continuing with Fonteyn, here she is in one of her most famous roles: Aurora in "The Sleeping Beauty".

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Margot Fonteyn

Today we have Margot Fonteyn performing a small part of Frederick Ashton's The Wise Virgins.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Firebird (and new layout)

Altynai Asylmuratova's exotic, dramatic looks are perfect for the title role in Firebird, choreographed by Michel Fokine. I have included three videos below.

Also, I am trying a new layout so as not to cut off the edges of the videos--let me know what you think!





Friday, January 15, 2010

For people who don't like opera

Many people will recognise this first duet from the movie The Shawshank Redemption, in which it is played in a prison. It is gorgeous, especially this version sung by Lucia Popp and Kiri Te Kanawa. If you like this, you will probably also like another duet, this one from "Norma" by Vincenzo Bellini. I have posted "Canzonetta Sull'Aria" first, and "Mira, O Norma" second. Enjoy!



This next video has some rather 1970's outfits and hairstyles...please ignore those and concentrate on the gorgeous singing. Be sure to listen to the whole thing, through the lovely "friendship cabaletta" at the end. :)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Antony Tudor Ballet Trust

Today I am highlighting another excellent blog: that of the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust. The latest entry is written by Sally Bliss regarding her creation of a Tudor syllabus. I think this is an excellent idea for building knowledge and appreciation of Tudor's works, and if it is done well, the US would produce artists, not just technicians. I am very excited to see what happens, and I hope the syllabus will be on a par with other ballet teaching methods, starting with child beginners and continuing through university age. Read Bliss's post here.

Edda Moser sings Don Giovanni

No one does fury like Edda Moser!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Swan Lake

Today we have students from Canada's National Ballet School performing the pas de deux from Swan Lake. What do you think?

Part of the Problem

I hope Carla Korbes is one of those dancers who doesn't read reviews.

In Tobi Tobias' review of Pacific Northwest Ballet's performance at the Joyce Theater in New York, she refers to Korbes as 'hampered...by embonpoint'.

Excuse me?

Ballet dancers are known for being extremely thin--the 'average' weight of a female dancer in a major US company such as PNB is below the average weight that is considered healthy, and well below the average weight of the general US population.

To an extent, this is understandable. Considering how physically active dancers are, it makes sense that they're thinner than average, and when one must go onstage sometimes wearing nothing but tights and a leotard, one would certainly want to be in good shape. However, artistic directors have for decades pushed female dancers to an unnecessary degree of thinness under a variety of false pretexts, such as aesthetics (skeletal, unhealthy women are not a pretty sight) the need to be lifted (lifts are more about coordination, timing, and technique than weight) and, perhaps most pernicious, by suggesting vaguely that losing five or so pounds makes one dance better.

Models have to deal with a similarly skewed set of expectations, but lately there have been calls for change in the modeling world, and some designers and agencies will no longer hire models who are below a certain size. No such luck for dancers, who continue to be at the mercy of a director's whim or risk unemployment. A job as a ballet dancer is never easy to come by, and dancers are so devoted to their art that many will do almost anything to remain hired.

Thus, dancers must very carefully keep themselves in a state in which they fulfill their artistic directors' aesthetic expectations yet still have enough strength to 'give 110%' whilst dancing. It is a precarious balance, and given such standards, there is simply no way Ms. Korbes or anyone else at PNB is embonpoint, which refers to being plump, stout, chubby, or full-figured.

Furthermore, if an artistic director were to defy the reigning aesthetic of the ballet world by allowing his/her dancers the freedom to look like women and not skeletons, s/he ought to be applauded, and the dancers complimented on their healthy, feminine appearance.

Unfortunately, by using the word embonpoint in reference to a dancer who is closer to underweight than to average, Ms. Tobias is part of the problem.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Mariella Devia and the Eternal Note

I don't think I will ever understand how she is able to hold that long high B and then crescendo! Just breathtaking, as is her beautiful singing throughout this scene from Donizetti's "Maria Stuarda".

Saturday, January 9, 2010

I'm back!

Sorry, it's been a busy week for me. With this post, I am back to posting daily. :)

Today, we have the clog dance from "La Fille Mal Gardée" by Sir Frederick Ashton.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Earworm: Callas

I can't stop listening to Maria sing the cabaletta "Coppia Iniqua" from Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" so here it is!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year!

In celebration of the new year, here is the ballet from the New Year's Day Concert in Vienna: