I have just learned that Richard, my partner, has never actually SEEN A LIVE BALLET performance. Perhaps some moments on TV--that's all! WOW! REALLY?
I remember my parents taking me to see the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in my very, very young years ( younger than 5 I'd guess...). A blur and swirl of color and sound and energy is all I can recall. Then, there was the ballet, film THE RED SHOES, which swept me away in my teens. Moira Shearer and her intense beauty. The experience was larger than life, but of course, not LIVE!
While starting to dance at Smith my teacher dragged me to NYC, where I saw incredible films of famous dancers--Ulanova, Fonteyn, Swetlana Berisova... In 1959, when I went to the American Dance Festival (in those days it was ALL modern dance, no ballet--and on the campus of Connecticut College...) I studied with and saw performances by the great innovating modern dancers of the 50's and 60's -- Humphrey, Graham, Limon, etc.. What incredible experiences! CLose up and so exciting!
But as yet I had seen very little live ballet. Boston Ballet is those days was not terribly good, so it was discouraging, frankly, to go to their performances. In ballet one can't fake anything; a dancer who is not good enough will not skate by on good looks or charm, alas! I believe they have gotten better over the past 20 years.
In my 30i's, I began getting more training in ballet, when I was teaching at Walnut Hill, and I used to sneak into the back of Sydelle Gomberg's or Ann Dooley's advanced ballet classes. Also as a performer with Concert Dance Company, we had company classes a couple of days a week, and Shirley Benjamen or Kitty Daniels would give us a stunning ballet barre. I began to take ballet classes in Boston, with E Virginia Williams, Sam Kurkjian and Tony WIlliams. Later with Marcus Shulkind. Ballet is about defying gravity and making everything look effortless and graceful. An interesting challenge..oh, also about perfection (and how impossible that is!) Luckily, modern dance is about other things; effort, texture, energy, flow, and so forth--not simply a pure "line".... It is demanding to do ballet, because one is trying so hard to be BEYOND human.
Unfortunately, most live ballet performances are produced in such large theatres, one has very little sense of intimacy --I hate it when I can't even see the faces of the dancers. One of my best experiences of live ballet was at the NYCBallet--Jerome Robbin's Dances at a Gathering. So beautiful ---an earthy grace that was very appealing. And I was close enough to see faces!
I'm excited to drag Richard to a performance of the Joffrey Ballet in Burlington, in March....one of the best companies in the world! I saw their production of the old chestnut, the Nutcracker, years ago when I was living near Chicago, and they took my breath away! They will be performing a very old piece-- The Green Table --a classic of modern dance about men in suits, bargaining away countries with games of war and diplomacy.