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#balletomane
strechanadi · 2 years
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Dorothée Gilbert, Francois Alu
La Bayadere
photo: Isabelle Aubert
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ma4ykghray · 1 year
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azureasterart · 6 months
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balletomaneblog · 20 days
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I honestly do not understand the double standard they have with Valiullina and Koshkareva.
In terms of performance quality, charisma, and stage presence, valiullina is better than koshkareva imo. However, people ignores that just because of her body shape and weight and most are just giving her criticism for her performance, and that she shouldn’t be given performance where she can’t cope when clearly she proved that she can.
Whereas for koshkareva, her debuts in paquita and gamzatti are not the best. Especially in gamzatti, she even fell on her pirouette in the variation. But all I could see are comments praising her and defending her saying how such debuts are necessary for her to gain experience. Why such different treatments ?? I’m so mad seriously…
Yeah I agree, they are treated by balletomanes very differently. It's actually pretty similar to some treatment that Sevenard and Bulanova got at the start of their careers. If you're not incredibly incredibly skinny as a dancer (especially in Russia), you're gonna get some criticism. And you're right that it's blatantly unfair. Also, it's important not to forget that Valiullina is an eighteen or nineteen year old girl. It's sooo inappropriate and likely emotionally damaging for strangers to be posting negative comments about her weight online.
I personally view Valiullina and Koshkareva as equally talented, though they have very different styles. Luckily, it does feel like Vaziev really likes Valiullina and has given her lots of opportunities thus far. Hopefully, this continues.
P.S. Koshkareva recently had her second performance as Gamzatti and it was so much of an improvement. I think she must have been really nervous and/or over-scheduled in the fall when she debuted it.
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bropunzeling · 4 months
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BALLET QUINN AU (yes it is highly specific but I want it so much, too, inspired)
his haunted expression and air of palpable longing has captured the hearts of vancouver-area balletomanes and also brady tkachuk. his toes look fugly and he will stick them in brady's face if he thinks brady is being obnoxious. he makes petey watch the sens replays with him in the morning even though they need to get to rehearsal because he has to know what to text brady before he does barre. he is responsible for jack and luke knowing how to pronounce prokofiev. one time his ballet company did an insta story where he was doing grand battements a la seconde; brady watched it at the rink, thought about how quinn could hook his calf over brady's shoulder, and had to take a cold shower.
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ballet-symphonie · 1 year
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Hi, not sure if you keep up with her but if you do I’d love to hear your thoughts on Lada Sartakova and her career progression/time at vaganova. I know from comments on vba’s instagram page and forums that there is a lot of upset at her being sent to the primorsky stage spb mariinsky and a general feeling that vba really screwed her over due to her figure. She was always talented and based on her insane levels of debuts now I can’t understand why she was so pushed aside in those final years.
To add the the Lada Sartakova ask, I also know she took on a typical character student progression and that was definitely where the teachers were pointing her. But when a girl who not only comes in with talent, but manages to consistently be in the top 5 in class all way through school, you’d think vba would be more proud. The way I’ve heard it said is that the school proved that they were unable to see talent beyond the body aesthetics.
Russian balletomanes have generally concluded that her body type definitely had a negative impact on her career. She was dancing decent roles as an upperclassman, but that class was perceived to be relatively weak, especially in the wake of 2018-19.
It's worth remembering that Sartakova wasn't accepted to VBA as a child, she studied at the school of Vladislav Kuramshin, who has successfully coached two other 'last minute' Vaganova admits and now prominent soloists: Ksenia Zhiganshina and Maria Bulanova. The school prides itself on 'pyrotechnics,' Sartakova went viral several times as a very young child doing ridiculous feats on pointe, she was doing 32 fouettes on stage before many of the VBA girls had even started seriously training. One has to wonder about the sustainability of that technique and it's also worth noting that none of the dancers Kuramshin coaches are particularly renowned for their cleanliness which is generally championed by MT.
I think also graduating during 2021 helped absolutely no one, the school had a bit more restrictions than MT and she certainly had fewer opportunities to perform and showcase herself and I think she would have had to make a really good impression to get hired in such a tricky time, MT only took around 3 girls from that year.
For what it's worth, she's getting WAY better roles at Primorsky than she ever would at the main stage at MT.
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agentnatesewell · 4 months
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keep this a secret if you want - the balletomane in me wants to know if your st petersburg 1876 n comment had anything to do with tchaikovsky or the mariinsky? i know tchaikovsky was still composing then and the mariinsky was opened in the mid-late 1800s so classical arts were thriving 🩷
Hello hello! I don’t mind sharing! The comment was referring to Tchaikovsky!
He was commissioned to compose a series of pieces through the year, it was called The Seasons. One piece per month was released through the year
I didn’t know about the Mariinsky (i have a lot to learn about the classical arts!) but - YES! Definitely!
It would have been a great year for them to be there
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cparti-mkiki · 1 year
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stupid half serious take but honest to god i don't understand why generally the female dancers are the showstoppers and the representatives of the art while male dancers (except for a few star exceptions) seem to be considered to be mostly there to prop them up metaphorically and figuratively (even in balletomane circles the ratio of content and discussion re:female vs male seems to be like 3:1). like. male dancers can also do the same range of emotions, have the same elegance, move beautifully etc but they also have much more power than their female counterparts — if you told me oh they're making ballet all male forever i'd be like wow fantastic 👍 bonus points if that means generalized travesti
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patricedumonde · 3 months
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this is kind of random but it is very sad to me how cruel people who watch ballet are to ballet dancers. i've been uploading ballet videos (mostly of the vaganova, mariinsky and bolshoi) and people are just so strangely mean to everyone, even if the girls are still teenagers. at one point i uploaded a video of koshkaryova and valiullina debuting in a role together and the comment section was just full of relentless comparisons. bashing on sofya's weight (imo she looks the same as she did when she graduated...she has always had this build and it's never seemed to hold her back), calling masha robotic or boring (imo unjustified considering the video itself)...it's just so unnecessary for people to take sides and yet there's like 50 comments just fighting over who's better. both sofya and masha have found my channel at different points and it grosses me out to think there's a chance that they've seen comments like that. I know it's only worse on telegram so I assume they've got thicker skin than that, but it still sucks and makes me wonder if i should be deleting comments, but it's rough when every other comment I get is negative. I can't keep track of that.
i am not joking when i say i can count on my fingers the number of "regulars" I have who are kind to everyone and i can rely on them to say nice things about the dancers. i remember their names. that's how sparse they are.
surprisingly the only recent video I've uploaded where there was zero hate was a random short which went viral to 1M views (ie youtube recommended it to a much wider audience, outside of the usual ballet channel subscribers) and the audience was mostly people who don't know about ballet. they were so impressed and so kind. and that makes me sadder because that means the general public has more compassion and love for dancers than those who claim to be ballet fans, balletomanes etc. you like ballet but you can't even refrain from insulting the dancers? :(
I am so sorry to hear this, this was one of my biggest apprehensions when I started this blog. I was scared that it would have a lot of negative criticisms towards dancers, and they are people who have access to this content. I can't imagine how it is in your place, with everything you're describing!
It is true that they did enter the industry knowing that they will be in the public eye. I don't think that is a valid reason to be mean towards them though. Yes, critics are involved in the profession, but there is a kind way to give corrections. We also have to acknowledge the experience level of these dancers, I don't think a lot of people realize just how young they are (Masha and Sofya, in this case).
All I ask is, for any readers of this blog, if you do visit this blog regularly, you know how engaging our conversations are. Spread it elsewhere. Whether these videos are on youtube or instagram, feel free to compliment the dancers, and avoid unnecessary negative comments.
And for the asker, DM me your channel, I wanna be one of the regulars!! Or if you're comfortable, I can post it here too, I'm sure I have readers who would want to do the same thing :)
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shakishkinaa · 4 months
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DID YOU SEE RENATA AS ANYUTA !!!!!!
https://youtu.be/tcaM8eYe04c?si=DUyvWXv-tza75R5R
I sure did!!!! I really don't know much about the ballet, but the music and style of what I've seen seem comical and the main character charismatic, full of life. (Based on a Chekhov story?) Seems like a perfect role for her.
And those costumes are amazing! The women look beautiful and the men look SO good. Seems like 1890s style which I personally really like. The later acts with the coats with the fur on them are too cute! I wonder if the dancers get extra hot on stage or if the costumes are made to breathe.
I saw some videos of Renata and Timofeyev and they look soooo good together. And Sergeev! What a guy. I do agree in this instance with a certain opinionated balletomane from whom I got the videos... why aren't either of them Principals yet?
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aspiringbelle · 7 months
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Trigger warning: Eating disorders, bullying
As someone who is somewhat of a balletomane (not as much as others here), this disturbs me. I know it can be intense doing ballet, but I don't want to see dancers harming themselves by denying themselves food...and I don't like seeing dancers being cut down so. (In one case, more literal than most.) I may not be able to see the documentary, but this is disturbing as is.
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strechanadi · 3 days
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It’s Ludmila Pagliero leaving POB? Her last post on insta left a bit confused.
I don't think she is. At least no official adieux was stated for this, nor next season. (The only etoiles we know for sure are leaving is Myriam in Giselle in a few weeks and Laura and Mathieu next season in Onegin.)
I DO find it weird she's not on stage this season. She's around 40, so she technically is at the end of her POB career. She was dancing Manon during POB's tour in Japan )and several galas), so she is clearly not injured.
But I just don't know.
The same for Mathieu.
They are clearly OK, but not cast in anything in Paris (the fact he's not doing Giselle is seriously baffling to me).
It very well may be their own decision (pursuing other options, dancing elsewhere etc). For some reason however I have issues believing it...
And I'm not gonna deny it, I am a bit pissed, cause this is just not how you treat your étoiles. Not everybody wants to do the huge classics (Nutcracker, Don Q, SL) their whole career, especially at certain age, which... fair. But still. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, to say the least.
BUT I don't really know anything and nor have I heard anything from French balletomanes, so...?
The only thing I know is, that Mathias Heymann is still dealing with some major injuries, cause he was supposed to be in La Fille and Don Q, if I'm not mistaken, and had to withdraw. Which is painful, cause again, if I'm not mistaken, the last two seasons he's barely dancing at all...
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jlwilliams-us · 1 year
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The Second-Greatest American Ballet Choreographer You Never Heard Of
[Originally published in October 1995]
Ask a balletomane to list some major American choreographers, and the odds are good that Lew Christensen will not be among the first that leap to mind. Thumb through a few general reference works — or even dance-specific ones — and you're likely to find him mentioned only as a secondary entry, if at all.
It's not that Christensen is obscure. Well-informed ballet enthusiasts know the story of Salt Lake City's three Christensen brothers — grandsons of an immigrant Danish balletmaster — who brought ballet to the western United States: Harold, the progenitor of Ballet West; Willam, the founder of the San Francisco Ballet; and Lew, its artistic director from 1952 until his death in 1985. Or they may recall Christensen as the nation's first homegrown premier danseur: the first American to dance the title role in George Balanchine's Apollon Musagète, and later principal dancer with Balanchine's seminal Ballet Caravan.
As a choreographer, though, Christensen seems to have drifted away from the reputation mainstream. Although he created more than 100 works — including a genuine historical landmark (Filling Station, 1938) and a much-loved minor classic (Con Amore, 1953) — comparatively few are staged today. And few younger choreographers, even those he brought to the San Francisco Ballet, chose to follow his stylistic lead, as Arlene Croce noted in a 1978 review.
"Oddly enough, their work — on this showing, at least — derives from everywhere but the Christensen repertory," she wrote. "Maybe he's just too eccentric, and maybe his mind does wander, but it is a choreographic mind of no small distinction. The Christensen ballets hold a provocative secret. They ought to be much better known than they are."
Today, Christensen enthusiasts still feel that his works deserve more recognition than they're getting. Among those trying to do something about it are two of his San Francisco Ballet alumni: Richard Carter, now balletmaster of the Miami City Ballet, who stages Christensen revivals throughout the country; and Robert Vickrey, now artistic manager of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and former artistic director of Nebraska's Ballet Omaha company -- where he became one of the few contemporary artistic directors to build a Christensen repertory from scratch.
Between them, the two may know Christensen's works from more angles than anyone else alive. From the 1950s until Christensen's death, Carter served him at various times as dancer, ballet master, production manager and technical director. During his nine years at the helm of Ballet Omaha, Vickrey inaugurated the "Lew Christensen Project," introducing audiences to a rotating trio of ballets selected from the choreographer's early, middle and late periods: Filling Station, Con Amore, and Il Distratto (1967.) Both men are quietly but firmly convinced that Christensen was one of America's greatest choreographers — possibly the second greatest, after Balanchine, and entirely different in style and approach.
Carter, a sincere Balanchine admirer, nonetheless shows no reluctance to mention Christensen in the same breath. Often, he finds that the clearest way to illustrate a unique characteristic of Christensen's style is to point to Balanchine for contrast.
"Balanchine used to say that ‘ballet is woman.'" he said. "Lew Christensen must have said ‘ballet is man.' All his works are male-oriented. Balanchine glorified the female… Lew was more interested in the male dancing.
"The role of Mac [in Filling Station] he choreographed for himself, and no one has ever been able to do it like him. I've seen movies in the Library of the Performing Arts in New York, and it's incredible! He was a great male dancer. There was one step in particular where he'd do a series of turns in a circle, and he used to do them so fast that he'd lean into the circle. When he went to set the work on me – I couldn't do that! No one could do that! So he had to rechoreograph it. Of course I was really disappointed that I couldn't live up to his expectations – and then years later I saw that movie, and I thought, ‘My God! He was a strong, strong dancer.' As strong as I ever saw.
"Balanchine had become an American, but came from a European/Asian influence. He had his ideas set before he came here. But Lew was American from the very core. He grew up in Utah. The ballet Filling Station is the first *American* ballet – did you know that? Not very many people do. It had an American theme, American composer, American choreographer, American scenery and costumes, and was danced by Americans. There was not one European in it. It preceded Billy the Kid, which a lot of people think is the first American ballet, by about nine months.
"All Lew's works, I must tell you, have that same signature. Balanchine was able to choreograph Americana…he picked up things that he saw in America and put them, in an ingenious way, in a ballet. The "Rubies" section of Jewels – it's very American, jazzy. The last movement of Concerto Barocco starts with the Charleston step. This is Balanchine.
"Lew, on the other hand, didn't pick up and use tricks like that. His [movement] themes were very American to begin with. I don't know how to articulate the difference. I can feel it, but I can't tell you what it is. One of the differences is the flourish of the port de bras, the arms. Balanchine had a very rococo arm – actually it was French, wasn't it? He got it from Violette Verdy, very flowing. Whereas Lew thought that was too much, and he made it very square, very basic. And he wanted dancers to dance that way – not with all this affectation, if you will. That's one of the differences."
Another difference, Carter said — one that sometimes makes it hard for today's dancers to learn Christensen's style — is that his basic "atom" of choreography was different from Balanchine's.
"Lew choreographed in phrases," he said. "Like sentences, you know: da-dum, da-dum, da-da-da-dum – that was all one step, although it was a phrase of music. Balanchine didn't do that – Balanchine choreographed steps. It's hard to imagine the difference – but to a dancer, it's a world of difference.
"The steps that Balanchine created are phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. He did things such as, just a simple chaîné turn, just a chain of turns: in one ballet he would do it turned out, then in another ballet he would do it turned in, then in the next ballet he would do it in first position, next ballet he would do it in fourth position. It was incredible – he would take steps and do them in a different way, and that's the miracle of Balanchine. It was incredible the way he did this.
"But Lew related directly from the music – it came from the music. I don't know if Balanchine ever tried to do that – he never tried to explain the music. He went beyond the music, into another level. Lew tried to explain the music, the phrasing."
Getting dancers to grasp this key difference is a major challenge in staging Christensen's choreography, Carter said. "It's hard to get them to dance in terms of phrases," he said. "That's very difficult. The last company I was [staging a work] in, for the Russians it was like pulling teeth. In the Russian training, they do a step, and stop. They do another step, and stop.
"This isn't that way. Each time you bend your leg, that's a preparation for the next step. You go up, you come down, you go up again. And then you go up again. You just keep going. Russians aren't used to that. They're used to going up, down, and stop; and then you start the next step – up, down and stop. I had to get very angry and insist, and carry on, and create quite a scene to get these people to understand what I was talking about – that you can't adapt the work to you; you have to go to the work. You can't change ballet to you – you've got to become a dancer."
Even Christensen's methodical working style was diametrically opposed to Balanchine's, the two recalled.
"He'd always try to plan his patterns absolutely." Vickrey said. "He'd come into rehearsal with specific plans.'
"…Which was absolutely anti-Balanchine," said Carter. "Balanchine asked Lew to do a work; it was called Pocahontas. Lew was very enthusiastic. He came in with all these reams of notes and everything. He came into the studio – and Balanchine came and took his notes! ‘Now, dear,' he said, ‘just paint.'
"And Lew said, ‘What?!' He couldn't believe it! Lew told me this on the Q.T. – we got drunk one night, and he was telling me - he said, ‘I used to write the stuff on my shirt, and sneak it in when Balanchine wasn't looking.' He couldn't remember all the stuff!
"Balanchine was just the opposite. I used to watch him, and he was a genius. He used to come into the studio and say [imitating his voice] ‘Now, dancers, here's what we're going to do,' and then WHOOSH! The stuff would pour out, and people were trying to remember it, and it was crazy – it was coming out so fast you couldn't memorize it. And he'd get irritated if he had to go back. He was overwhelming, really.
"But Lew wasn't that way. Lew would come in, and everything was sort of planned out – he'd have worked it out at home, and he knew what he was going to do when he got there."
That preplanning extended beyond choreography to every aspect of theater, Carter said:
"He used to build [model] theaters, with lights and everything. One of his in-laws invented Celastic…it's a plastic-impregnated cloth. You'd put acetone on it, and put it over something, and it would take that shape. You could make almost anything with it. He used to make molds and then cast these proscenium arches; he'd have a whole theater, complete with fly curtains and everything, and he'd even have little spotlights made out of flashlights. And he used to manipulate these and work out his ballets.
"He knew a lot about theater. If you look at any of his ballets, they're very carefully thought out. He had a lot of background in technical theater – he knew a lot about lighting, he knew a lot about backdrops, props and all that kind of stuff. Did you ever see A Masque of Beauty and the Shepherd? It's lost now – I mean, I could reconstruct it, but… anyway, it was a charming work. It was about the Judgment of Paris – the apple, and the three goddesses vying for the apple. At the very end of this ballet they constructed a big ship, right on the stage, in front of your eyes, that happened so fast it was just BANG – ‘What? How'd you do that?' It was incredible, actually incredible. He knew how to do these things.
"Balanchine, you know, was just the dance; he didn't like a lot of scenery and costumes. He didn't do that until later, when he got into the State Theater, and it looked awfully bare. But Lew incorporated all these various theatrical things at all times, and used them in an intelligent way. He was interested in that kind of stuff, and ways that he could use it in dance."
Christensen himself attributed some of his theatrical savvy to his pre-ballet days on the vaudeville circuit. And it was there, Vickrey thinks, that he picked up another trait: his willingness to make his ballets entertaining. This accessibility, he said, makes Christensen's repertory ideal for artistic directors who need to program both for artistic quality and for audience-building appeal.
"A lot of what I always liked about his works is that they are so accessible," he said. "I think a lot of that goes back to his vaudeville history, to pleasing an audience. Trying to be intelligent about his work, and trying to get his ideas across choreographically – but always knowing that he needed to please his audience. Especially in a situation like San Francisco, where he had to sell those tickets – people had to come back."
"I read a review that said, ‘An intelligent person can see the San Francisco Ballet and come away rewarded,'" Carter said. "But I think an unintelligent person can go and see some of Lew Christensen's works, and come away rewarded too. It sort of hits you at all levels. It's not so esoteric that it's only for aficionados."
Another Christensen asset for artistic directors, Vickrey said, is flexibility. Most of his works don't demand a large corps of perfectly-matched dancers, because Christensen seldom had that luxury himself.
"He didn't necessarily have what San Francisco Ballet has now as a standard of style, or what New York City Ballet has that's come out of their school," he said. "He would have a group of dancers – some from the school, some from here, some from there, some from everywhere – and he would just work with what he had, and make them look brilliant. Some of them were brilliant, don't misunderstand me. But…"
"He worked with the people who were available to him," Carter said. "Who he had in Ballet Caravan…weren't the finest dancers in the world. They had certain capabilities, and that's the way the steps came out.
"Now, the beauty of that is that you can take a work like Filling Station and go almost anywhere with it. You have two central roles, Mac and the Rich Girl, who are dance roles. You have to have some ability to do those roles, you see? The rest of them, you don't! The last company I was in, I actually had a girl do the State Trooper and a girl do the Thief – dressed up as a man. The truck drivers – one of them was a Russian, more of a character dancer – he came from the Moiseyev [folk dance company.]  He didn't even have ballet training. And yet we were able to set it on them, because these steps are more universal, and it's more acting than actual dancing."
So why is it that this versatile, accessible, creative, decent artist ("He was a gentle man," said Carter; "a nice guy, really a nice guy.") is not more famous as a choreographer? Carter has a blunt answer:
"The reason Lew is not more famous is that he left New York! And went to San Francisco, and that's 3,000 miles away. The center of dance has always traditionally been New York. It hasn't been until recent years, with jet airplanes, that it's been simple to get to the West Coast. In the ‘50s, on a propeller plane, it took about 14 hours – it was a long, harrowing trip.
"And I think that one other problem with his fame [or lack of fame] was that he himself was more of an introvert. He was a shy man; he never tooted his own horn."
One consequence of this neglect, Carter said, is that Christensen's ballets are gradually disappearing.
"The Christensen legacy has really been lost in the San Francisco Ballet, in a sense," he said. "What they tend to do now is throw on a token Christensen work for the season, and so these works are in danger of being lost. There are a couple, I'll tell you, that are lost, and will never be done again; one of them was one of the finest works he ever did, Don Juan. It was phenomenal."
In this, as in other areas, the Christensen story is eerily reminiscent of another Dane's: a man of the theater, a champion of the male dancer, a lover of musicality and humor; famous in his own time, but later obscured by geography and shifts in critical taste; his legacy now imperiled by neglect in his "home" company. Could Christensen be America's 20th-century counterpart to August Bournonville?
Bournonville, at least, was rediscovered eventually. Christensen, his admirers believe, is still waiting for the renaissance he deserves.
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balletroyale · 8 months
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Woah balletomanes. I’ve received tons of asks but haven’t been getting notifications. Sorry about that. Answers coming soon.
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balletomaneblog · 8 months
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Where do you stay updated with Russian ballet news? I am extremely interested in keeping up with the recent vaganova grads who ended up at Bolshoi. Wonder what the general consensus from the audience was for their debut.
I've found that the Russian forum Ballet Friends is really helpful in keeping up with debuts and other ballet news about different companies in Russia. Fair warning, the balletomanes on there can be harsh and very opinionated. It's still a good source of information though.
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missatomicpointe · 9 months
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Hi there! Just wanted to say that I'm new here on tumblr and the balletomane world, but I find your blog so beautiful 💗💗
Thank you so much! Apparently I forgot that the askbox existed for a while, so I'm sorry if it took me too long to reply. I try to reblog posts somewhat periodically but sometimes I spend a long time not logging into tumblr but I know that ballet posting in tumblr needs all the help it can get, so I try, thanks for the appreciation💗
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