Comments on: The natural turner and the fouette https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/ A blog about political change, among other things Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:58:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 By: Anonna https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-195988 Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:58:57 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-195988 I agree with you that athleticism has blurred the artistry that was the achievement of balance and poise over gravity. I would rather watch the gentlemen of the Troc company dance than the anorexic pinheads that pass as women in serious ballet these days.

On the other hand, I wonder if it isn’t too harsh to criticize this particular dancer in the video. What she does may be a technical achievement, but it is so perfect, a few moments so filled with the potential for disaster that their successful passage redefines the human body. It requires more than a lucky inner ear to achieve such mastery — it still requires ballet.

While her fouettes may not add to our understanding of the character whose part she dances, they do add to the wonder of being in a theater watching magic performed.

]]> By: Cardinal Fang https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-139816 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:19:00 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-139816 Yeesh, don’t be such a hater, m’kay? 😉

Maybe ballet shoudln’t be like the Olympics, but this is the way our greedy society is wired. The mob nowadays is constantly preoccupied, even obsessed with the notion that every moment, every thing, every gesture in our lives must be “the best EVERRR!”

But while performers are at least trying to give us THEIR best efforts, I don’t see reason any reason to snub. Maybe you’ve never seen a perfect fouette, but why do you even care to mention it if you’re so blasé? Because you couldn’t do them well? That’s what you said. I drew my own conclusions. Some folks don’t much care to see others succeed where they have failed, get defensive, and start to assign blame. Sour grapes.

Besides, what you are referring to are performances captured on video. You can’t even begin to compare a recorded performance with live dance. There’s an emotional connection with live performance that enhances the technical. It’s easy to watch performance on a small computer screen in low resolution and replay and study and dissect and pretty much become emotionally discnnected from what is going on. But if someone a mere 30 feet away from you is twirling like a top, kicking out 38 fouettes it’s pretty tough not to get caught up in the moment. You may be a terrific dancer, and you may be an authority in your field, but you can’t deny that just as important as the dance itself is to the performance, an equally important part is the audience’s emotional response while watching the “spectacle”.

After all, dance without an audience…well, it’s kinda like what they say about whether a tree falling in the woods makes any noise if nobody is around to hear it…

And what right has anyone to suggest the gifted should bury their talents? Shoot, if a dancer can do doubles or even triples — and dares to demonstrate — I’m going to cheer them on!

]]> By: JerryZ https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-124685 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:24:46 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-124685 I have not danced since taking it as a phys ed in college in ’65, and yet, for more than two years now the first thing I think of when I wake up EVERY morning is the fouette. I’m a guy and all I was ever good for was lifting girls, and not very good at that, and I certainly never turned, and now this obsession. I am wholly baffled. Any ideas as to wtf?

]]> By: Impossible Dream Revisited « Slow Stagger https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121373 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:56:45 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121373 […] for classical ballet (which I actually studied at one point) having abated almost completely, but this entry from NeoNeocon, along with the Don Quixote theme of a previous post, led me to surf around in […]

]]> By: Tatyana https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121133 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:21:23 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121133 Neo, I have to admit – I love watching fouette. It has sort of mathematical precision that speaks to remnants of engineer’ training in me, I guess. Or maybe it’s vice-versa and I went to the engineering school in the first place because I saw beauty in economical, perfectly executed, precise movements.
Anyway, after 40+ years of loving ballet, I can’t say assuredly I like formality and technique over emotional content and “soul of the dance”, or the other way around. There is no preference. Or rather sometimes I like former, sometimes I crave latter.

She is amazing, breathtaking.

I bit of personal background: I was on a college sports’ gym team right up till sophomore year, when something happened to my balance mechanism. It came to that I couldn’t step on a high beam without getting dizzy – and 1/2 year before I was doing flips on it. Had to quit the team, sadly. I’m telling this to explain how my experience brought me an appreciation of a difficulty; OK, it’s a trick – but a trick I enjoy watching.

]]> By: Foxfier https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121020 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:32:46 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121020 Richard Aubrey-
It’s amazing what knowing you don’t have to be a helpless victim can do for folks.

]]> By: Richard Aubrey https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121014 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:59:36 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-121014 foxfier
Forty-plus years ago, in a college field project in a dicey area, the staff suggested I teach the female participants some self-defense.
We hauled out the mattresses and spent an hour and a half at it for a week, iirc.
At a reunion a couple of years ago, there were probably three of the women from my class.
Two referenced the self-defense even before saying “Hi,” or “Long time”, or “You sure got fat.”
Apparently important to them.
One said she’d never had to use it but that her self-confidence may have put off potential predators. Whatever the case, she felt better knowing what little we were able to transfer.
For forty bleeding years.
I guess it was important to them.

]]> By: Foxfier https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-120975 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:21:46 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-120975 I kinda favor “woman’s shooting class” to learn to defend myself…. ;^p
(Not that I didn’t listen very, very carefully when my uncles told me where to aim with my little pocket knife if someone grabs me, and not that I wouldn’t stab someone with a mechanical pencil if need be. For that matter, bat-to-the-kneecaps is nice….)

]]> By: waltj https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-120954 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:54:06 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-120954 Richard Aubrey,

You’re right, katas can be a pointless exercise if you just do them to learn the kata rather than to perfect the techniques behind them. Bruce Lee took this to its logical conclusion and did away with katas/forms completely in his non-system system, Jeet Kune Do. If done right, i.e., with more than just a passing thought to the techniques that underlie them, then katas can be valuable training tools. But if you just want to learn to defend yourself, take Brazilian ju-jitsu, Krav Maga, or Muay Thai.

]]> By: Richard Aubrey https://thenewneo.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-120907 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:07:41 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/08/11/the-natural-turner-and-the-fouette/#comment-120907 waltj.
I quit progressing in judo at green belt because the katas seemed like a waste of time even then. I continued to hang around and compete and improve but I also switched over to what we were pleased to call ju jitsu but was really scientific dirty fighting.
Both have been actively useful, and the benefits of having spent time in learning forms–with the inevitable result of less time to learn something else–would have been counterproductive.

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