I think I have a love-hate relationship with The Nutcracker. It was always my favorite ballet as a child because the music and the story is just magical: it captivated my imagination. As I grew older, though, and I danced in many Nutcrackers, I grew bored and frustrated from seeing the same choreography year after year (which, in many of the local productions I’ve ever seen, wasn’t that fantastic to begin with). Now I don’t...
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Juan Ignacio Duato Bárcia (aka Nacho Duato) is my favorite choreographer living today because his work is so organic and earthy, while at the same time so otherworldly. It comes from a place so innate to our human nature, as from a childlike heart that just wants to dance without care. In that way, watching Duato’s choreography is like seeing something so familiar, and yet so fresh and original too. I can never get tired of it! As of...
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King Florestan the XXIVth declares a grand christening ceremony to be held in honor of the birth of his daughter, Princess Aurora named after the dawn. The festivities are about to begin and the Master of Ceremonies, Catalabutte, has been entrusted with the invitation list. He announces the arrival of the palace guests and the King and Queen. Next he welcomes the six good fairies. They are the Candide Fairy, the Coulante Fairy, the Miettes Fairy, the Canari Fairy, the Violente Fairy and—most importantly—the Lilac Fairy, who is the last to arrive (the names of fairies and their gifts vary in productions). Each in turn the fairies bestow their gifts upon the baby princess. They bless Aurora with their individual qualities of Purity, Vitality, Generosity, Eloquence and Temperament (or Honesty, Grace, Prosperity, Song and Generosity).
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This whole past week, I’ve been working on some new posts which will constitute an entire project centered around The Sleeping Beauty Ballet (it will be a sort of interactive resource including lots of videos and audio clips). I hope to have the first post in the series up in the next few days. Yay! Anyhow, while doing research for this project I came across an entire production of The Sleeping Beauty by the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly the...
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