And now for something truly spectacular
 

I know this should probably go in the Lounge, but I think posters over here on the Europe boards will appreciate it more.

There isn't much about ballet posted here, but I've been poking around on youtube and here are some truly breathtaking, classic moments in ballet caught on film.

Who knows, maybe they will pique someone's interest in going to the ballet while on a trip in Europe, but we can all appreciate and enjoy these regardless:

Here's Nureyev in his prime, in 1963, doing the solo in Le Corsaire that he made so famous:

http://tinyurl.com/4n2g7g

and Baryshnikov dancing the same thing in his prime, about 10-15 years later:

http://tinyurl.com/4pzzap

What can I say? They both leave me speechless.

Misha and Gelsey Kirkland doing the coda from Don Quixote:

http://tinyurl.com/4mcmw8

And Nureyev again, in Nijinski's lush L'Apres Midi d'un Faun:

http://tinyurl.com/4apo5w

Don't be deceived by the seemingly simple choreography- what the dancers are doing is very hard and requires a lot of strength and balance.

I've always loved Misha and enjoyed these clips. The height he achieves with his jumps is just amazing. Thanks for posting.

And lastly, the piece that made me go looking around on youtube in the first place- Maurice Bejart's Bolero, which I had mentioned recently in a post and got to thinking about because it's such an amazing piece, and the Paris Opera ballet are doing it in their upcoming 08/09 season.

I was hoping to find the video with the great Maya Plisetskaya, and I did. Here it is, in two parts (and it suffers from bad filming/editing IMO but ballet is rarely filmed well)

Part One:

http://tinyurl.com/49cmlx

Part Two:

http://tinyurl.com/3skjr3

Part One takes a couple of minutes to get going, and as I said, the editing is really awful and intrusive, but you do get small glimpses of her genius in both parts, when the camera allows you.

This is another piece that's deceptively simple, but actually so incredibly physical and technically difficult.

And here's the same ballet again, done more recently by the Bejart company- the main role can be done by a male or female dancer, and here there's some special effects (which I hate) so you can see both male and female:

Part One:

http://tinyurl.com/5mx8s5

Part Two:

http://tinyurl.com/5kxkcb

I am insanely jealous of anyone who is Paris when the Paris Opera Ballet does this piece. I wish I wish I wish I could see it live. I wonder who will do the lead, and if it will be a male or female dancer.

I have to look up the dates- maybe if I live on oatmeal for the next several months I can fanagle another trip to Paris next year.

Hi travelgirl, I didn't see your post before. Yes, Misha is amazing. His Corsaire is so ridiculously brillant, it's absurd.

I have a soft spot for Nureyev myself- maybe because he didn't start ballet until he was 17 yrs old, or maybe because he was such a crazy egomaniac, lol. But he always exudes such raw masculine power.

Thanks. I was never a big ballet fan, but I could watch Baryshnikov all day long. Managed to catch a couple of his performances on television in his prime and all I can say is WOW!

Thanks for the link, AL.

Who says White guys can't jump?

((I))

You have to come and see some of the current ABT guys too.

Apres_Londee wrote: "I know this should probably go in the Lounge..."

Yes, it should.

Thank you so much for sharing these links - I really enjoyed them all!

Oh, come on Padraig, don't be such a grump ((K))

Part of the reason why I posted this is that there are always so many threads about the Moulin Rouge et al but people often seem overlook the idea of going to a ballet, maybe because they don't realize there's a lot more to it than the same old stereotypical old-school yawners.

Anyone who titters at the idea of seeing nipples at the Lido would probably faint if they saw something like Bejart's Bolero live (and that video of the Bejart company doing Bolero has got to be some of the best porn ever made)

Besides, people post about things like opera and fashion on the Europe board and anyways, I'm trying to bully someone- anyone!- who will be in Paris in February 2009 to go see the Paris Opera Ballet do Bolero so I can hear about it and live vicariously through their trip report in the event that I'm unable to scrape a trip together for poor little old me myself.

As an aside, Plisetskaya was 52 years old when that film of her dancing the lead in Bolero was made. She had more sex in her baby fingernail than 10 million tits at the Moulin Rouge.

I am glad some people enjoyed the clips.

Fifi, your right, I should. I'm really out of the loop when it comes to today's dancers. I've been out of that world for over ten years now and haven't kept up and unfortunatly, ballet has been dead as a doornail for quite some time where I live.

Another reason to travel to Sankt Petersburg and visit the Mariinsky.

http://www.mariinsky.ru/