Best concerted effort I’ve seen in a long time.

The choreography using this “japanese lithograph” method, in all 11 movements: the frame of the stage, like margins of a painting, are only limiting our vision, but not the continuous action.

That BAM performance sounds most unusual and intriguing.

Just returned from this performance and have been thinking: you’d like it . especially the first part.

i couldnt find his photo of her, but i did find a place that has some of his work for sale. some of the pictures i remember. file cabinets full.

when he left chicago and his first wife (who i never knew), he married an opera singer.

as i said, i came from an arts and sciences family (i attended bronx science, cousin top of his class at juliard, grandmother research chemist before feminism, etc)

DANILOVA, Alexandra
http://www.rgrossmusicautograph.com/dance2/danilovab2.jpg

seymour in his time was quite famous. he is the man who photographed the russian ballet.

if it wasnt for him, you wouldnt know what most of them looked like (they cheated the other photographers, maurice taught me to always get paid first when dealing).

FONTEYN, Dame Margot
http://www.rgrossmusicautograph.com/dance2/fonteyna2.jpg

maurice was a head shot photographer. his photos are the portraits that famous people used to get jobs, and to give out as autograph photos.

[i am a celebrity photographer, a software engineer, solutions designer, and more]

this post makes me a bit meloncholy.. maurice loved to play chess. he and my father would play the guys in the park, and later when he was in NJ he would play chess with me. i was not so good, but he loved playing me because when he cornered me, i would whip out moves that kept me alive till a numbered draw.

this was the time of the russian and american chess masters always squaring off…

i went off to live life and forgot for a while, by then he was gone.

I come from a poor family (we lost everything thanks stalin, and hitler, then stalin again), while we didnt have much, we did somehow manage to be connected or where one wouldnt expect us. My father being the black sheep in the family doing ‘art’.

And maurice always said to me that Bolshoi was “Great” as in large grand big… in that way it always made a bit more sense to me.

MARKOVA, Dame Alicia
http://www.rgrossmusicautograph.com/dance2/markovaa2.jpg

and just to make it fair and the last

MASSINE, Leonid
http://www.rgrossmusicautograph.com/dance2/massine2.jpg

i remember the ballet photos more non specifically, though american stars and people i remember well, like his photos of amos and andy that got him his whole career… and blue eyes, and even milton berle (a photo can be found in this http://www.rrauction.com/content/pdf/309pdf/ent.pdf pdf of a young berle by maurice)

thanks for the walk down my childhood lane…

As I said, I’ve got another post coming on her.

I was immediately struck by her skill level being so high that the technical component of the dance was effortless, so that she could be theatrical and ‘alive’ while dancing. She clearly was a master of the fourth dimension, where too many dancers only manage to master three. Fluid is too rigid a word for her movement. Also, her abandon- that leap where she is completely committed- no hesitation, no sense of fear- total confidence.

For me the problem with ballet is that, despite the fact that the raison d’etre of ballet is to look as if it is defying the laws of gravity, too often the effort is so in the forefront of the performance that the laws of gravity are thrust in your face instead. Not so with Plisetskaya. Truly amazing.

I think one lesson I get from this is- if you have the chance to see someone considered one of the all-time greats in their field (be it artist, athlete, speaker) see them- even if their art form or style aren’t your preference- those who truly excel are worth watching because they transcend the art form they work within. They understand that the art form is the medium, not the goal itself. Reaching other people at their souls is the goal.