Okay, yes, it's another ballet video. Le Corsaire is one of my favorite ballets. How could it not be, when you get amazing dancing, pirates, evil slave traders, beautiful slave girls, betrayal, abductions, daring rescues... The storyteller in me delights in the wonderful mishmash of plot. On top of that, you get these two dancers. Daniil Simkin is the up-and-coming talent of American Ballet Theatre. I discovered him several years ago and he's splendid in this. Maria Kochetkova is a young principal dancer for San Francisco Ballet. I'm not as familiar with her at this point but she's lovely. They performed this two years ago at a festival in Tokyo. Enjoy!
Showing posts with label American Ballet Theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Ballet Theatre. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Dancing, Other Stuff, And More Dancing
Finally, a day that feels like Spring! It's been such an odd year. Generally it's fairly safe here to plant your garden after May 1, but we've had frost at least three nights a week until this one. Then today it's been in the 70s and gorgeous.
I have at last finished my work for the costuming, (I think) with two weeks left until the show. This may sound like cutting it close, but I have known years of being sewn in the dressing room on performance day, so I feel pretty good about it. We're having photos taken the next three days, then we're doing two of our pieces for another dance group's show this Friday, so I'll be in slicked-back dancer mode, going through copious amounts of hairspray, until Saturday, then of course again next weekend. Then I'll wish I could do it all over again. Not the hairspray and the slicking so much, but the dancing certainly. I'll try to get some of the photos up on here as soon as I get my hands on them.
The writing has rather taken a back seat to all this lately, but things have been moving in my head, so I'd like to think that once life slows down again I'll be ready with a rush of inspired prose. The PNWA Conference is coming up in August, and I'd like to have something more to show for my year's work before then, but we shall see. I do still, at least, have a complete novel to peddle.
Side note: yes, I have been raving endlessly about Alicia Alonso and the Cuban Ballet, but I do so with reason. I searched and searched for a DVD of one of their performances, and at last came up with their 2007 performance of Don Quixote in Paris. I own two performances of Don Quixote: this one, and Baryshnikov's. Notwithstanding Baryshnikov's undeniable charisma, and the excellence of American Ballet Theatre, I have to say the Cuban production is by far my favorite of the two. The two leads dance with a wonderful passion and obvious enjoyment, and the same extends to the corps, who have much more meaty dancing roles in this performance. If there is one ballet DVD worth owning and watching over and over again, it would be this own. It amazes me every time.
I have at last finished my work for the costuming, (I think) with two weeks left until the show. This may sound like cutting it close, but I have known years of being sewn in the dressing room on performance day, so I feel pretty good about it. We're having photos taken the next three days, then we're doing two of our pieces for another dance group's show this Friday, so I'll be in slicked-back dancer mode, going through copious amounts of hairspray, until Saturday, then of course again next weekend. Then I'll wish I could do it all over again. Not the hairspray and the slicking so much, but the dancing certainly. I'll try to get some of the photos up on here as soon as I get my hands on them.
The writing has rather taken a back seat to all this lately, but things have been moving in my head, so I'd like to think that once life slows down again I'll be ready with a rush of inspired prose. The PNWA Conference is coming up in August, and I'd like to have something more to show for my year's work before then, but we shall see. I do still, at least, have a complete novel to peddle.
Side note: yes, I have been raving endlessly about Alicia Alonso and the Cuban Ballet, but I do so with reason. I searched and searched for a DVD of one of their performances, and at last came up with their 2007 performance of Don Quixote in Paris. I own two performances of Don Quixote: this one, and Baryshnikov's. Notwithstanding Baryshnikov's undeniable charisma, and the excellence of American Ballet Theatre, I have to say the Cuban production is by far my favorite of the two. The two leads dance with a wonderful passion and obvious enjoyment, and the same extends to the corps, who have much more meaty dancing roles in this performance. If there is one ballet DVD worth owning and watching over and over again, it would be this own. It amazes me every time.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Artists
The dancers of American Ballet theatre are visiting Cuba for the first time since 1960, to honor ballet legend Alicia Alonso, who still directs the Cuban National Ballet at the age of 90. I've attached a link to an article. I love seeing this, artists going where politicians fear to tread. In Alicia Alonso's own words:
"We need beauty inside, we need peace inside of us, I think through art. The more we advance, the more necessary it is, and the more we can touch each other -- if not the same language, at least the same feeling of humanity."
This from a woman who danced into her seventies in spite of being nearly blind, and does more to promote relations between Cuba and America than a legion of diplomats. I can think of no better example of the triumph of the human spirit.
American dancers in homage to Cuban ballet legend - Entertainment - MercedSun-Star.com
"We need beauty inside, we need peace inside of us, I think through art. The more we advance, the more necessary it is, and the more we can touch each other -- if not the same language, at least the same feeling of humanity."
This from a woman who danced into her seventies in spite of being nearly blind, and does more to promote relations between Cuba and America than a legion of diplomats. I can think of no better example of the triumph of the human spirit.
American dancers in homage to Cuban ballet legend - Entertainment - MercedSun-Star.com
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