Celebrating Rubies, Emeralds and Diamonds

Standard YouTube Licence


In Attending the Ballet in Florida: Miami City Ballet's Program Three 6 March 2017 Gita Mistry wrote:

"Having seen an American company in action I think I now understand what is meant by the American style. The dancers are very athletic, very polished, very precise and seem to project a measure of pride and showmanship that I have only seen in dancers from Russia. When the corps moves it moves in sync with military precision. When the dancers turn they are ramrod straight. The English style is softer more lyrical. It is difficult to say which is better. They are each pleasing in their own way, but different."

The American style is celebrated in the second act of George Balanchine's ballet Jewels.  Each style is represented by a jewel: the French by emeralds, the Russians by diamonds and the Americans by rubies.  Emeralds represent the romantic style and is danced in green with the women in long romantic tutus to Fauré's music. Diamonds is in sparkling white to the music of Tchaikovsky.

I have only managed to see the ballet on a live streaming from Moscow. Here's my review of the performance with a YouTube clip featuring the American ballerina Merill Ashley (see  Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds - "Jewels" streamed from Moscow 22 Jan 2014).  The Royal Ballet will perform this work between 1 and 21 April 2017 and it will be streamed to cinemas on 11 April 2017.

We think we have found a ruby in the Miami City Ballet who have included this work in their repertoire since 1992.  The company has just announced that it will launch its 2017-2018 season with that work.

The Legal Ballerina

The Inns of Court the Royal Opera House are a few hundred yards apart but ballet dancers and barristers don't have a lot to do with each other even though (as I said in From Bar to Barre 30 March 2013) they have far more in common than one might think. There are, of course, notable exceptions like Professor Webley and Tracey Summerell who share my passion and profession but they are few and far between.

It may be different in the USA. A few weeks ago I found the blog of The Legal Ballerina, a personal injuries lawyer and dancer. She is married and, judging by the holiday snaps that she posted to her blog, she has two delightful children (see "Disney Vacation Part 2" 13 May 2014). The Legal Ballerina is about half my age but has been dancing for a little bit longer:

"I started ballet in November, 2011, after a friend asked me to join her in a class. I always wanted to try ballet, but I thought (like most people) I was too old. After a few months and a few bad lessons, I realized that if I really wanted to be good at dancing I had to approach it like any other venture – Practice, Practice, and MORE Practice."

She is so right about that. She adds:

"I want to SHOUT TO THE WORLD that, no matter what your age, you can achieve your dream of becoming a ballet dancer. All you need is to do is put in a little “can do” attitude and MAJOR elbow grease."

And it seems to work.  She writes about her sense of triumph at mastering a fouetté, double pirouette.("Fouetté, Double Pirouette… Really?!?!" 25 June 2014). We can almost feel a glow of satisfaction radiating from the other side of the Atlantic.  Legal Ballerina's blog is a joy to read. It's very funny but it does pass on some useful tips such as Allison DeBona's stretching video that appears in today's issue.

I don't know whether The Legal Ballerina has plans to visit London but if she does I should love to show her the Inns of Court and Covent Garden. Maybe we could take a class together at Pineapple or perhaps see a ballet at the House, Wells or Coliseum.

Fantastic New Blog: Dave Tries Ballet

I have just added "Dave Tries Ballet" to my blogroll.

Dave describes himself as "a 23 year old graduate student in New Jersey, studying for a PhD in Mathematics" originally from the UK but in the USA for graduate School. He doesn't say which graduate school he attends but both Princeton and Rutgers are in New Jersey and they are outstanding universities. Like me he claims to be uncoordinated and was a portly 270 pounds (19 stone 4 lbs or 122.4 kg) at age 17. Remarkably he shed over 6 stones by giving up chocolates, sweets and crisps and taking up rowing. He rowed in the First VIII for his "college" which suggests that he was at a collegiate university here. As there are only a handful of collegiate universities here and they are all good I would venture to suggest that Dave has a pretty powerful intellect. His posts "Pythagoras and Pliés" reinforce that impression. I really love his Mathematical Beauty (5 March 2011) where he shows a connection between a sequence of numbers and choreography.

Dave reminds me of myself 40 years ago. I had my first ballet lesson at about the same age when I was an undergraduate. I also went to graduate school in the United States (UCLA in my case). And I got into ballet for very similar reasons to Dave (see "Why I'm Trying Ballet" 4 Aug 2011).

So I wish Dave every success in his research and lots of fun with his ballet.  If he ever comes back to Blighty I should very much like to meet him.