Tag Archives: ballet

Trockaderos Give New Meaning to Partner Dancing

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Trocadero Dancer Male and Female 643x323

Yeah, we know that “partnering” in ballet isn’t the same as couples social dancing, but if you have never seen the all-male productions of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (affectionately referred to as the “Trocks”) you are missing some great entertainment. Before we saw them, we wondered if male ballet dancers (ballerinos) ever wore the pointe shoes that ballerinas do; were their greater weight too much? Not at all. But to see men in leotards (often with considerable chest hair sticking out) and tutus is a hoot. (Unfortunately, the performance we saw included a portion of Swan Lake, so we will never be able to see the real thing without laughing.) But, seriously, these guys have to be really fit, and to dance some roles as men and others as women takes a special body (strong but not too muscular-looking or too heavy to be lifted). All of this requires special training, as described in The Wall Street Journal.

Fusion Dance Mixes Ballroom with Other Dance Forms

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Fans of ballet know what partnering means in ballet, which normally does not resemble social couples dancing. But now FJK Dance, the brainchild of Fadi J. Khoury, the Baghdad-born son of an Iraqi ballet director, is mixing ballet with ballroom, Middle Eastern, and jazz dance, including presenting “Tango Unframed” as part of a program at New York Live Arts on July 23 and 24, according to The New York Times.

Will Breakdance Replace Classic Ballet?

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Red Bull Flying Bach

The spectators were drinking Red Bull instead champagne and the performers were wearing electic casual clothes not tutus and tights, but the dancing was incredible on June 20 at Chicago’s Opera House, on the opening night of the 2014 World Tour of the Flying Bach troupe. While there have for many years been interesting crossover music and dance combinations (jazz choral groups singing baroque songs come to mind), pairing the piano and harpsichord of Bach’s Well-Tempered Claviar with breakdancing (usually done to rap or Hip-Hop music) is a real stretch. Especially because the dancers, who usually have a straightforward beat to follow, now had to each follow a separate melody line of a fugue. And we wonder how much impact such performances will have on classic ballet. Ballet is more about women than men, but breakdancing is more of a male activity because of its demands on upper body strength. And to further add to the contrast, the 2014 schedule snubs New York and includes only Chicago for its 6 U.S. performances, but has 10 performances in Chile, 8 in Canada, 3 in Belgium, and 1 each in Azerbaijan and Qatar.

Which Star Athletes are the Best Dancers?

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Not tennis players, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal’s reasoning was based on a handful of tennis players’ lack of success on the reality show “Dancing with the Stars”. But there are lots of factors beyond the stars’ dancing ability that play big roles determining their rankings on that show–the judges’ biases, the general popularity of the stars, and especially the show’s ratings (watchership). And the Journal’s definition of dancing was pretty broad, and included a bunch of stuff that goes well beyond couples dancing. But their point may be well taken. All-time tennis champion Martina Navratilova’s professional dancer partner, Tony Dovolani, blamed it on the need for tennis players to be “heavy-footed” when they hit the ball … a far cry from the classic “tripping the light fantastique” that is the goal of a ballroom dancer. Other tennis players put it down simply to lack of dance–or even music–experience due to their focus on tennis from an early age that leaves little time for recreational/social activities. And speaking of social, the smile on a dancer’s face counts for a lot, but tennis champ Monica Seles underlines that in tennis it’s how the ball is hit that counts.

Performances on dancing with the Stars is ABC’s highest-ranked (though declining) show is probably not the best gauge of athletes’ dancing abilities. Male athletes in popular spectator sports are usually big and strong, but not always nimble. Sometimes dance training can improve their athletic prowess, though. Cornell University’s football coach once sent several clumsy players to ex-Rockette Rosalie Bower Amoroso, who co-owns Ithaca Academy of Dance in Ithaca, NY, along with her ex-Rockette sister, Diane. Rosalie’s efforts apparently paid off, as she attended a game where one of her football player students did a “grand jete” (big jump) over a would-be tackler.

Financially, of course, the athletes are better off. Their performance on the baseball diamond, football gridiron, boxing ring, or tennis court is far better rewarded than elite dancers’ performance on the competition dance floor at Blackpool or other high-level competitions.