What's Your Favorite Ballet?

[Philidor]

I think some men are secretly scared to attend ballet in case it turns them homosexual. Chy: good point about feet. My Great Aunt was a ballerina and her feet were in a shocking state - like the effects of Chinese foot binding. Her toes were stuck permanently pointing 45 degrees off-centre. Surely modern ballet dancers refuse to put up with that? If schools did it to children they’d face child assault charges...?

[Florestan]

Originally Posted by haydnguy

I would never have thought I would like it either but I do. If ballet isn't an art form, how could you say any type of dance is an art form??

Personally, I wouldn't. It's more of a pretentious sport, IMV.

[Florestan]

What I mean is that dance, like sport, is to do with people accomplishing physical rather than intellectual feats.

OK, playing an instrument is also a physical feat, but it produces something - music. Dancers are just throwing shapes and that doesn't interest me. The music that accompanies them can be wonderful and is programmatic in itself. You don't need people flinging themselves across a stage to understand it, any more than you do with any other programmatic music. Ballet music is also generally held to be intellectually pretty 'light'.

I admit I am probably a philistine and accept that the Ancient Greeks ascribed a Muse to it, Terpsichore - and who am I to argue with the Ancient Greeks? - but it leaves me cold. I admire intellectual accomplishments far more than physical ones.

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by Florestan

I admire intellectual accomplishments far more than physical ones.

Thank God for that!

[Despina41]

Whoa whoa there, everybody... What's wrong with the ballet?! First of all, some people seem to enjoy dancing, which I would assume is one motivation for going into ballet. Unless you are imagining some scenario where starving Russian girls prostitute themselves to hardcore, athletic dancing to raise a few roubles for their dying alcoholic fathers...

I suppose anyone who watched cirque de soleil would assume those acrobats or contortionists are ALSO crazy and/or abusing their bodies, but you know, one can train up to these things. Given the amount of sports therapy information readily available today, I bet a good many ballet dancers are in better condition now than previously.

Guys, sorry, you just have to deal with the men in tights. At least they're not fat men in tights.


That aside, some people find the dancing distracting from the music. I dont know who these people are who find the music to be worthy of enjoyment on its own! (yeah, I'm one of those string quartet snobs.) For example, I can't listen to Swan Lake UNLESS I have something to watch along with it. But then, was ballet music conceived to be played on its own? As a composer, don't you write in different styles based on the genre? I don't expect fugal/motivic developments in my French ballets. It's one thing to be interested in "absolute" music and to enjoy contemplating its intricacies and beauties on its own, but applying those same values to non-absolute music just seems a recipe for disappointment. Wagner surely would be appalled if you just listened to his music on CD and didn't enjoy the pomp and spectacle of being in the theater to experience the Gesamtkunstwerk.

Haydnguy, some of the classic ballets are Adam's Giselle, Delibes's Coppelia, anything by Tchaik, and then some of the fun 20th-century ballets, brought to you courtesy of Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. Impresario Diaghilev and his BR deserve their own thread -- what a character he was! What soap operas he brought about! not to mention some of the most innovative and controversial artworks of the early 20th century... Some of the famous BR ballets are Petrushka, Firebird, Rite of Spring by Stravinsky; yes, ballets, go see them. Don't forget Debussy's Jeux (a favorite of the mid-century serialists!) and the scandalous BR version of his Afternoon of a Faun. Richard Strauss, Prokofiev, and others also wrote ballets for Diaghilev.


[Actually everyone in the arts was connected to Diaghilev in some way or another. I'm just going to have to start a new thread on this.

[Florestan]

Originally Posted by Despina41

I'm just going to have to start a new thread on this.

Please do! I look forward to it.

Edited to add: Oh! You already did. DOH!

[haydnguy]

Gosh, Despina41, someone mentioned the Giselle to me not too long ago and although I never heard of it, I thought it looked interesting so I ordered it. Glad to know it's one of the "biggies".

We'll probably watch it sometime this week.

Thanks, again, for the suggestions.

[maureen]

the tights don't distract me but the massive groin padding does
really, has anyone ever been kicked there by an errant toeshoe?
could we tone it down a bit?

likewise there are times when the overly dramatic passages bug me
particularly the running away in a big circle
the rolling around and dragging about on the ground
and the classic romance novel
hold the girl up and let her slide down your body

however, there is always that moment when movement and music seem perfectly atuned and the "production" becomes grand and beautiful and the only valid expression seems just those movements being made on stage
it stimulates my intellect as the dance always gets me anticipating or relating to the movement in both an instinctual and conceptual way and it satisfys my visual aesthetic sense in juxtaposition or in harmony with the music

i prefer modern dance infused with ballet elements
i hate modern dance not enfused with ballet elements

and classical ballet to me is exquisite in it's formality and precision
nureyev ack

[Florestan]

Originally Posted by maureen

particularly the running away in a big circle

the rolling around and dragging about on the ground

As ever, you have hit the nail on the head.

[Herzeleide]

Jeux, the Rite and Agon are my favourite ballets.


Because of the music.