Amusingly, given my almost complete lack of familiarity with ballet, I've seen his work over and over. Polunin played the Knave of Hearts in the Royal Ballet Company's Alice in Wonderland, which is one of Jane's favorite things to watch.
Amusingly, the move you note seems like one of the few things in that routine that's manageable for a normal fairly athletic person. All he's doing is taking a big step and dragging his back foot.
And a guy named Sergei is going to over-emote. It's their way. But I guess I'm revealing myself to be an anti-formalist if I say that if you're really upset, you'll crump, not pirouette. This routine strikes me as kind of ridiculous. Sentimental? Should probably save it for the post I've been meaning to write about that for a month.
Amusingly, I was pwned in a unique way.
This is more humorless than amusing, but I didn't think his dance looked at all like spiritual possession, though I'm of course typically skeptical of most of the supposed spiritual possession I've seen too.
4 - Perhaps you'd prefer this awesome cover of Joy Division's "Control".
Amusingly, the move you note seems like one of the few things in that routine that's manageable for a normal fairly athletic person. All he's doing is taking a big step and dragging his back foot.
Really?! I guess, a leap with one foot dragging will look like that. It somehow looked so much like skidding to me.
If you watch it again, you'll see that he's dragging the foot on the knuckles, not sliding on his toes.
I knew he was on his knuckles. I thought he was putting weight on that foot, the way you would in a Risky Business style slide. If he's not putting weight on it, it makes much more sense as a drag.
There's probably nothing he's doing in that video that could be done the same way by a normally athletic person, but a range of normal adults seem to have managed to create world class chaos in this dude's life, including him except he's not been an adult for most of it. He makes me feel sad. But less chilled to the bone than when my kid was under the tutelage of someone who had himself been raised in the Russian ballet world. It doesn't necessarily lead to the most emotionally well adjusted people, but then what upbringing is guaranteed to do that? Precisely none.
It's got to be a horribly emotionally wrenching time to be in the Marinsky & Bolshoi orbits, when your own achingly brief future in this by its nature collective art form is controlled by a collection of chancers and outright nuts. Alternative for a very few - "escape" to a major western company, doesn't always work out so well, cf Polunin.
I tried a couple Google News searches, but couldn't come close to figuring out what 9 is talking about.
It somehow looked so much like skidding to me.
That seems to be the illusion he intended to create. I agree it's very striking.
He bailed on the Royal Ballet somewhat spectacularly and suddenly, widely proclaiming he hated ballet and took no joy in dancing, I think bought and ran a tattoo shop in that time period? Back story is family had staked everything on him from something like age 4, he was the Royal Ballet's youngest dancer appointed principal ever after moving their from Kiev as a young teen, was totally emotionally unprepared and the entire situation was not handled well by the Royal Ballet management seems to be the consensus, but then he also seems just not that stable or mature even now. He's called a "bad boy" in the press which as I said just makes me sad, but it is a repeat story probably going back to the beginning of what we call ballet, similar to families staking everything on a kid becoming a professional athlete in the US I imagine.
I suppose next he has to face Apollo Creed.
Thanks, 12!
Is there something especially bad about the management of the Russian ballets now?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/18/danse-macabre
In middle of brief, sorry for new yorker aka tldr link. I'd say "enjoy" but it's just depressing.
I feel bad if you are reading that depressing piece, here is a palate cleanser: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XoXJPFqmOKA
Or just search for Maya Plisetskaya videos, ahhhhhh.
This is more humorless than amusing, but I didn't think his dance looked at all like spiritual possession
That descriptor struck me as pretty stupid, too. Also, is that supposed to be a good thing? I don't want to watch a possessed person. I want to watch someone who is really good at this incredibly formalized art form.
Am now rifling through ballet plots for instances of possession ...
I feel as though the word's just one off. Entranced, transported, enthused?
I feel as though the word's just one off. Entranced, transported, enthused?
Isn't what's his name in La Syphilide, the kilted dude, possessed? And what's up with Coppélia but some form of possession? There's a whole wonderful swathe of 19 c. Germanic balkets with a detour to the possessed underworld or some such in Act Two in lieu of the usual parade of gross national stereotypes.
12:
I had several months of physical therapy sessions scheduled at the same time as a fellow who'd been a principal dancer in a touring company of a performance choreographed by Twyla Tharp. He had blown out something in his knee and was taken off the tour for surgery and rehab. Somehow he ended up in southern megalopolis I lived in at the time (not a show-biz town, except for rap).
Because the tour was owned by a major corporation (I seem to recall either Disney or Sony involvement) he had as good insurance as I did, which apparently was pretty rare for a dancer.
Over the months, I talked with him enough to really get some insight into the life of a professional dancer. It was pretty sad how little control he had over his career. He was in his 30s and really living day to day, which has to take its toll. He had NO money.
I watched him go through the same hard moves over and over with his PT. Jumping straight up into the air and then landing on one arm, that kind of thing. He was a damn fine dancer and seriously fit, but it seemed like a really exploitative line of work in general.
Not necessarily exploitative as there's no reason it has to pay so poorly for most people, but certainly v physically punishing and all consuming. My kid's current teacher, reminiscing about her days as a principal, said her best advice was to find a nondancer love who could devote himself or herself to taking care of you, as all she remembered doing for years and years was class, sewing shoes, eating, sleeping and performing. I don't think classical ballet is achievable without a certain level of physical specialization and stress, but Karsavina amazed in her own times and yet from the film we have of her it's clear the physical standards have gotten vastly more stringent. If all that achieves is ever more spectacular circus tricks, though, who cares?