Comments on: Chase Johnsey: the male ballerina

By: PA Cat

PA Cat — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 17:30:13 +0000

Can’t resist posting a clip (hat tip to Ann Althouse) about ballet that goes beyond gender-bending to an interspecies pas de deux: Rudolf Nureyev on the Muppet Show, partnering Miss Piggy in “Swine Lake”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbGqJ_MonU&ab_channel=EspritDeGrace

By: Lee

Lee — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 23:52:59 +0000

Not a saying whether his allegations are true or not. But he seems like a whiner.

https://www.dancemagazine.com/chase-johnsey-interview-trocks-allegations-2528105578.html

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 23:02:23 +0000

Chuck:

I agree completely.

Holden was of a different era, and he was very familiar with music hall dance and popular dance. He didn’t even train in ballet until his mid-teens, if I’m not mistaken. He was a great guy–funny, friendly, exuberant. Unflagging energy. He was very short–sort of like a jockey–and very wonderful.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 22:06:44 +0000

> Stanley Holden

After watching that clip (again), I went on to watch some other performers in the role. None seemed anywhere near as good, they tended to be too “balletic” and didn’t capture that uniquely English take on men playing women. Holden ruined the role for everyone else by being too good in it.

By: om

om — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 16:21:22 +0000

neo:

The Bookwormroom has a post today that includes men dancing as ballerinas, and of course males competing in women’s sports. The males in female sports would seem to destroy the Title IX regulations? Probably not, the goal after all is to burn it all down….

http://www.bookwormroom.com/

By: Susanamantha

Susanamantha — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 13:38:26 +0000

As a former tennis player and enthusiastic fan of the sport, I often noted the gracefulness of some of the players, myself not included. Evonne Goolagong was a joy to watch as was Bjorn Borg. Especially on clay courts, the possibility of sliding, stretching for the ball and a full followthrough provides the opportunity for beautiful, graceful shots, then the scamper back to ready for the next. Lovely game.

By: PA Cat

PA Cat — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 07:01:47 +0000

Neo–

Speaking of the differences between male and female feet en pointe, maybe you should repost the video you posted a couple years back of Georgian male dancers– I’m not sure this is the exact same video, but you can clearly see the guys are doing pointe work, and forcefully too. Somehow I don’t think they’ll recruit Johnsey anytime soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCUGDMOURI&ab_channel=GeorgeChugunadze

By: Esther

Esther — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 03:53:34 +0000

I watched the Johnsey clip first, and, believe it or not, kept thinking, very nice, but his feet remind me of clogs. Well, then I watched the Holden clip, hahaha!

By: miklos000rosza

miklos000rosza — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 01:59:07 +0000

I used to think of my windup as a kind of dance, and worked on it for a few years until it was entirely comfortable and felt from the inside that it made sense. I went from being a high school pitcher with bad control who could throw hard to one who threw harder with much better control. The repetitions were pleasureable.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 01:41:14 +0000

PA Cat: Agreed. See this and this. From the latter:

I noticed once again how handsome baseball players are, and how graceful in their movements. Of all the team sports I know, baseball is the one where the athletes most resemble dancers in their combination of enormous strength, agility, flexibility, and fluidity. It seems that the best way to deliver a ball as fast as possible from third base to first tends in nearly all cases to be the most graceful way as well. Funny thing, that.