The Dying Swan

[angelcookie]

[yt][/yt]

[OCLittleFlower]

Ahhh, Anna Pavlova.  <3



-- A few little tidbits --

Pavlova died because she refused a life saving surgery that would have ended her dancing forever.  Couldn't live without it.  The show went on without her the next day, with a spotlight on her empty place on the stage, as per tradition.

The Dying Swan is the reason ladies wear white figure skates.  They used to wear black like the men, but Sonja Henie did a program inspired by Pavlova's Dying Swan, and she didn't like how the black boots looked with her white dress, so she had white ones made.  And of course all the young skaters wanted to be just like Sonja, and then it became a tradition.

Pavlova herself was known for being very expressive and ethereal but not always having the cleanest, most classical technique.  (To say the least!)  Stylistically, though, especially in terms of her looks, she was the prototype for the more modern dancer.  And she also invented the modern, more stiffened pointe shoe.  She relied on them due to lack of strength and flexibility in her feet, but others later used them to achieve greater technical feats than ever before possible.  I do wish we had video of the 32 fouettes from Swan Lake before the invention of modern shoes.

[Non Nobis]

Ahhh, Anna Pavlova.  <3



-- A few little tidbits --

Pavlova died because she refused a life saving surgery that would have ended her dancing forever.  Couldn't live without it.  The show went on without her the next day, with a spotlight on her empty place on the stage, as per tradition.

The Dying Swan is the reason ladies wear white figure skates.  They used to wear black like the men, but Sonja Henie did a program inspired by Pavlova's Dying Swan, and she didn't like how the black boots looked with her white dress, so she had white ones made.  And of course all the young skaters wanted to be just like Sonja, and then it became a tradition.

Pavlova herself was known for being very expressive and ethereal but not always having the cleanest, most classical technique.  (To say the least!)  Stylistically, though, especially in terms of her looks, she was the prototype for the more modern dancer.  And she also invented the modern, more stiffened pointe shoe.  She relied on them due to lack of strength and flexibility in her feet, but others later used them to achieve greater technical feats than ever before possible.  I do wish we had video of the 32 fouettes from Swan Lake before the invention of modern shoes.

It would be interesting to see a video of someone dancing the same piece with a more classical technique...  I enjoy ballet but see little of it.

[OCLittleFlower]

Here you go.   

I give you Svetlana Zakharova.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW3GAjAKges[/yt]

The difference is subtle -- look for less bent knees and more precise control.  That said, Pavlova had superior stage presence.  There was just something magnetic about her, even when her technique wasn't dead-on.  Zakharova is lovely, of course, but...

Here's Natalia Makarova -- also amazing to watch with very solid technique.  Vaganova trained, and it shows.  Zakaharova also went to the Vagnova, and so did Pavlova (when it was called the Imperial Ballet school).  Of course, the influence of Vagnova herself came later -- the technical training improved a lot because of her.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V86TrI-Ba8[/yt]

And, just for bonus -- the Dick Clark anti-aging award goes to Maya Plisetskaya, shown her at age 61(!!!) -- she was another who wasn't technically flawless (her training was impacted by difficulties in the USSR at the time, including the time spent as a young member of the Bolshoi, interrupted by WWII).  Her arms are amazing, though.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luz5g-doa34[/yt]

Personally, I would love to see Evgenia Obraztova do The Dying Swan -- I don't know that she ever has and it isn't listed on her website and there is nothing on YouTube of it, so alas.

[Non Nobis]

All beautiful.

Let's see, age 61... If I start now I have about .. (never mind).

Ballet is the last thing I could ever have done (I'm a natural klutz, not disciplined, and can't take much pain) but even as I got a little older it was a faint dream (like wanting to be a fairy princess when you are a little girl). (I suppose a lot of girls/women feel this way about ballet).

I never even had ballet lessons and realistically think I would not have enjoyed them. Easy to dream, hard to do.

[Carleendiane]

Non, to have the freedom of movement, plus the grace to go with it would be a dream come true. Though not a klutz while young, I was short and we'll rounded shall we say. I was one of the heaviest girls in my class for gym. I weighed 128. No graceful long elegant limbs. More suited for sports rather than dance. I think I was born at 128. I have no memory of ever being thin. Now I can only wish to be 128 again. Think I'll go back to my disgusting diet plan. 

[OCLittleFlower]

I don't have the feet for it, sadly.  Love it as a spectator, though -- and my daughter dances ballet.  My mother did ballet for ages, en pointe and all, and then I was born with foot problems.  I can't even point my feet.  So I did figure skating -- lack of foot flexibility doesn't matter, no one has it with a steel blade screwed to their boot, after all.    Katherine Healy (not shockingly, a former professional ballet star) is the only exception -- how she bends her foot that much in a skating boot, I'll never know.  :p

[Carleendiane]

I grew up in skates. Spent all my winters at the rink. Father was a great figure skater. His dad was a gymnast. Short like me.  Brothers were speed skaters. I think I came out of mom with figure skates on. Dad always made sure everyone had skates, good skates which he kept sharp and ready to go. It was fun skating with dad every winter. He was graceful on skates and taught us a lot. Those were good days.