I know that’s the burning question you’ve all been asking yourselves for years: was “Swan Lake’s” swan queen Odette a swan, or was she a woman? Did Prince Siegfried actually have an interspecies romance? And I’m here to answer: Odette … Continue reading →
Who’s Myrtha, you ask? It’s a role in the famous Romantic ballet “Giselle,” one of the earliest ballets in existence and still performed today. Myrtha is the head honcho of the Wilis, those spirits of dead girls jilted by lovers, … Continue reading →
I found these two videos in an old post of mine. They both feature the same well-known pas de deux from the second act of “Swan Lake.” The first video is of Natalia Makarova and Ivan Nagy in 1976, a … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is part of a series I’ve done. So far I’ve featured dance teachers Stanley Holden and Finis Jhung. There are plenty more I could write about.] Last night I was musing about the changes in dance in my … Continue reading →
In 1957, we see why Elvis was nicknamed The Pelvis. We also see – or at least I think I see – the roots of his dancing in James Cagney. “James Cagney?” you ask, puzzled. Not in Cagney’s tap dancing … Continue reading →
I often complain about how ballet has lost much of its charm and art, sacrificed to ever more spectacular technique and tense gymnastics. The greatest of the olden-day dancers didn’t raise their legs as high, and didn’t perform as many … Continue reading →
[nOTE: Part I can be found here.] Singing while doing much dancing is rare for several reasons. The first is that unless the dance is very simple and slow, the dancer gets out of breath (that also can be a … Continue reading →
Let’s have a happier discussion. In this thread, I was asked to give my opinion on Fred Astaire versus Gene Kelly. So here it is. Kelly was excellent. Astaire was transcendent. Kelly was a strong and very good dancer. Astaire … Continue reading →
Sometimes the great and the famous are arrogant, or they become arrogant. But not Fred Astaire: His perfectionism was legendary, but his relentless insistence on rehearsals and retakes was a burden to some. When time approached for the shooting of … Continue reading →
I’ve periodically searched and searched for a video of this particular dance by this particular dancer, and I’ve finally found it. Blurry though it may be, it captures at least some of the qualities of the mesmerizing, uniquely beautiful and … Continue reading →
The news of the death of Italian ballet dancer Carla Fracci on May 27th has made me sad. Fracci didn’t have the perfect physique, she didn’t have the most solid technique or the highest extensions or the most spectacular turns … Continue reading →
I’ve gotten fascinated by the process of songwriting, something I don’t understand. I think I can safely say I will never write a song. But there are people who do it from childhood on, over and over. Sometimes they never … Continue reading →