Ballet and Art | Ballet To The People

#ifihadglass

February 25, 2013

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#ifIhadglass Ballet To The People (http://ballettothepeople.com/manifesto/) would invite all Bay Area dance companies to collaborate on a dance film called Glass Dances, celebrating the oddity, charm and inventiveness of San Francisco, with one- to two-minute segmen [..]

Video still from Portland performance artist Miranda July's short film 'Nest of Tens'.

SOS to my readers: provocative art urgently needed

March 15, 2012

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A reader, Ben F., condemned my position on funding for the arts. He claims that America, outside of San Francisco, L.A. and New York, is at heart "a deeply conservative country and uncomfortable with provocative art." As a foreigner I'm far from an authoritative voice on the subject, but here is my initial round-up of other American cities which have embraced provocative art. Will the rest of my [..]

When dancers are physicists

March 13, 2012

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Fouettés rond de jambe en tournant, en dehors.* *Series of turns propelled by a whipping action of the working leg, turning away from the supporting leg. See Gail Grant, Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet, p. 57, for step-by-step instructions. (Illustration courtesy of the brilliant xkcd.com)

Singing the Body Electric: Dance Encounters in New York

September 12, 2011

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Observing ABT dancers in company class on Wednesday, what struck me the most was not the 180-degree turn-out (ubiquitous), nor the extensions (extravagant), nor the pirouettes (I lost count), nor the men’s hands grazing the ceiling light fixtures every time they launched into an assemblé or grand jeté (we’re talking 16-foot ceilings at the ABT studios). What leapt out at me was how the danc [..]

Houston, We Have Lift-Off

August 22, 2011

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A ballet dancer is constantly renegotiating her relationship with gravity; we rise on pointe as an expression of our desire to fly. Joie Brown’s beautiful watercolor triptych illustrates two important aspects of a dancer’s technique: Well-developed arches of the feet, coupled with the ankle mobility needed to position the ankle bone over the toes en pointe Dancers aren’t born with these f [..]

Desire, Death & Destruction (or just another day in the ballet studio) – by Joie Brown

July 16, 2011

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Stunning artwork from one of our multi-talented ballet students: in this triptych, Desire, Death and Destruction are 3 sisters – Desire can't go anywhere without Death and Destruction following her. Executed in watercolors and inks. Joie is a 26 year old San Francisco-based illustrator who is studying for a graduate degree at the Academy of Art University. She has loved art since birth and enj [..]