They All Laughed—and danced
Here’s a video (with subtitles) of an interesting Russian entertainer named Ksenia Parkhatskaya, performing on a Ukrainian TV show. She starts out giggling—and gets practically everyone else giggling, too—but don’t let that fool you. She a good singer, with no Russian accent at all, and an astounding and amusing dancer, in a style all her own.
Did I write that Ksenia dances “in a style all her own”? Actually, it’s a style that’s a bit reminiscent of some of the 1920s dances of Josephine Baker, a black American woman who took Paris by storm with her risque act (some of it far more daring than the following videos) and a 1000-watt smile:
In an interesting circular US/Russia history, the song the Russian woman chose to sing, “They All Laughed,” is by George Gershwin, whose parents came from Russia and Lithuania. It was written for the movie “Shall We Dance,” with Astaire and Rogers, in which Fred played an American dancer who (back in the days when American and British dancers liked to give themselves Russian names) gave himself the Russian-sounding name “Petrov.” Here is the scene where the song and the dance occurs:
[NOTE: If you go to Ksenia’s website, you’ll find a lot more information, and many more videos of her dancing in highly varied styles. Note this performance by Ksenia as a chicken (start watching around 3:25), which also harks back to certain moments in that first video of Josephine Baker, the one where she’s dancing with her shadow—particularly 1:20-1:26 in the Baker video, and at 2:00 where Baker notices the audience and tries to cover up.]
“Silence!”
Classy.
The chicken dance reminds me of the show “Arrested Development” in which several characters had their own style of chicken dance.
Michael: Has anyone in this family ever seen a chicken?
My favorite show, just had to bring it up.
I have, over the years, come to the conclusion that there is a good deal more genuine talent on the edges of the entertainment world and in the public at large than there is among most of the stars and superstars of today. The Madonnas and Gagas and Perrys and Cyruses and Beyonces are just beyond me. Perhaps Rogers, Charisse, Hepburn, and Caron ruined me for modern ‘talent’.
Huh. I followed the link on to her website. It appears she’s not just some American Idol Ukraine contestant.
Clicked on her Pathos Band performance on Youtube. Would almost make a pretty cool screen saver.
While I was at it, YouTubing, it gave me a chance to revist this performance in Nice from the Rosenbergs.
Summer is great. Here, there, everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzFcA2zzdo4
Happy Summer.
“there is a good deal more genuine talent on the edges of the entertainment world and in the public at large than there is among most of the stars and superstars of today”
Oh, yeah — sometime in the last years of college at CSUN, I went to a presentation of Lysistrata, put on by the drama department at CSUN – hey, I was in a classical literature course, and our prof recommended it. One of the actors – he was playing the chorus as a sort of flaming gay – was so damned funny, so GOOD and so entertaining … I wondered for decades afterwards if there weren’t better actors in any little theater group across the land, then there were currently treading the hustings in Hollywood’s latest rancid offering.
I’ve noticed that the Japanese have an accent when they speak English, but when they sing English words, spelled in Japanese, in their songs, I don’t detect that fluctuation any more.
Perhaps because musical tones are often stable, so keeping pitch can reduce fluctuation.
When a person engages their speech centers, it’s like activating an OS, an operating system. Thinking in a second language or using musical tones, then adds on another OS like a DosBox or a virtual system like Wine inside the first OS.
If a person tries to speak words in a foreign language while thinking in their native language, it automatically confers the sound system of the native language to the foreign language absent conditioning. But if the person runs their program inside the second OS, it’s isolated. The second language is isolated from the first by a barrier.
On a side note, the ancients often prioritized a Renaissance style education in liberal arts, including separate languages. Partially I think that was because many scientific and philosophical texts were in different languages, and paying for scribes and translated books could easily bankrupt even lower nobles. But also, having different languages to think in, different operating systems, made thinking more efficient, I thought. Like parallel processors.
I wondered for decades afterwards if there weren’t better actors in any little theater group across the land, then there were currently treading the hustings in Hollywood’s latest rancid offering.
Hollywood is corrupt. That’s obvious. Which means many artists, if they had a choice, would go to business somewhere else, even if that was minor sub culture of America.
Ayn Rand understood the goal behind the crap that the leftists in Hollywood put out. From The Fountainhead:
Hollywood aborts the virtues of a culture for profit and fame, similar to how PP aborts the future children and inheritors of freedom in a country. While making boat loads of cash.
The Charleston and similar dances require a lot of energy. So does this:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/jZ572yLH9sc?feature=player
Thanks for giving us Ksenia Parkhatskaya. Very talented performer and she gets better as you find more videos of her. In exchange, we give you Yeol Eum Son.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNU-XAZjhzA
This young lady seems to channel Mozart directly to the keyboard.
Love her. Absolutely.
Also of note: watch the visage of the one woman on the panel and the difference between the woman panelist and the men. If looks could kill.
Why do women hate other women so?
Absolutely delightful.
Having a more than nodding acquaintance with Russian tv, I think the contrast with American tv is gigantic.
The production values are quite different, but irrelevant. Russian tv is far more people oriented. Things are done on a human scale, not a Hollywood scale.
Russian tv is very family oriented, and very “realistic”. Russian concerts often (almost always?) will have a segment starring children, as well as a segment starring babushkas in traditional dress. Or you might get the Army Choir singing Moscow Nights preceding a satirical (or maybe not) Russian version of rap.
It is all very down to Earth.
There is a dating show called “Let’s Get Married” where the candidates are pointedly questioned on things like their romantic history and their psychological ability to handle a relationship. The questions are the opposite of Jerry Springer but still entertaining and revealing.
And the talent which shows up seemingly from nowhere is quite amazing.
GeorgePal@ 5:41: absolutely agree!
I still remember a high school (Jesuit) production of The Mikado from the 60’s which is in my all time top ten most enjoyable and amazing shows I have ever witnessed (a list which includes Jerome Robbins Broadway).
Harvard puts on their annual Christmas Revels. I saw it in the 70’s and was overwhelmed emotionally, intellectually, visually. I hope they have not changed it. I cannot more highly recommend seeing this (although it may be too late to get tickets for this year). It was a once in a lifetime experience. I literally was weeping with Christmas joy at the first intermission.
PatD @ 7:44 AM: WOW. I watched the first quarter and bookmarked for later. TY!
and all of them were copying Martha Graham (and Lillian Powell)… there is another i am trying to find that there is only one clip of her dancing, and she danced in a very free form style much fitting the advertisements of the art nouveau age… and who could forget Vernon and Irene Castle, who were copied by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. i guess everyone forgot them…
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on the modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.
Lillian Ruth Powell was a Canadian-born American Denishawn-trained dancer who performed in early experimental silent film musicals. She would later teach dance and physical education before embarking on a nearly two-decade career in television. [she danced with graham]
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers who appeared on Broadway and in silent films early in the early 20th century. They are credited with reviving the popularity of modern dancing.
In 1939, the Castles’ life was turned into a movie, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, produced by RKO and starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
oh no, you cant take that away from me….
I’m in agreement about amateur/local productions. See this.
Paul A’Barge:
I’m a woman. I’m even a heterosexual woman. I think she’s charming and delightful.
Certainly there are some women who don’t like other women. I don’t think it’s as common as all that, but it certainly exists and the group is sizable. Like you, I had noticed the grumpy look on that female judge’s face. Since she had it before the dancer even came out, though, if just may be her habitual look.
All I know is that video really makes me smile. Thanks so much for posting it, Neo.
Yes, that was great. Ksenia reminds me strongly of a Greco-Romanian lady I know who’s probably about the age of Ksenia’s mother, if not beyond, but who has a similarly giggly disposition, just with not quite as much energy (and I’ve certainly never seen her dance like this).
It’s perfect time to make a few plans for the long run and it’s time to be
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I want to learn more things about it!