Word: ballerina
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...pretty much from left to right too. This ballet looks somewhat shallow; it does not try to fill the stage in a proper Petipa way. In most other respects it is very much in the classical style. For one thing, it takes very seriously the imperial role of its ballerina, Martine van Hamel. In the past few years Baryshnikov has invited several innovative choreographers to work for A.B.T., and not all have been successful. With her pure, ample style, Van Hamel has been much in demand and as a result has soldiered her way across some very murky terrain. Here...
...Ballerina Merrill Ashley has considerably more than a character to offer in her painstaking book. Today she is one of the glories of the New York City Ballet, a sunny allegro virtuoso. In his introduction, British Critic Clement Crisp likens her style to bravura pianism or flawless coloratura. As Ashley documents it, however, her career was not a prestissimo ascent. It took a decade of intense, disciplined practice to perfect her astounding technique and years onstage to learn how to present herself effectively. In the early pages, the author-dancer shows just how lost a youngster can be, even...
...kept on working with what Ballet Instructor Stanley Williams called a "keen concentration that is inborn." And she prevailed. Her account, with its cool assessments of rivals and careful record of all-important praise, betrays the tough, self-absorbed core that a ballerina must have. But she attributes her success to her profound submission to the will of Balanchine. "All knowledge, all power was his," she writes with total seriousness. "As I saw it, I had no choice but to place all my faith and trust in him." A particularly valuable section recounts in detail what went...
...same time she met her future husband, United Nations Translator Kibbe Fitzpatrick, and he, brave fellow, undertook to give her dancing its final finish. Onstage, said her love, Ashley was "no fun"-- pursed lips, stuck-out chin, blank stare or silly smile. Out went the mannerisms, and the ballerina began to show that she enjoyed her own performances. Ashley's perfectionism shows in several picture sequences, photographed expertly by Jack Vartoogian, in which she demonstrates how to perform some basic moves of ballet. Her explanations are models of clarity. They take time to follow, but the material on the humble...
...intangible fantasy. Capitalizing on this inspiration, Duncan's are symbolically restricted to role-playing and fantasy fulfillment, and his subjects snatched exclusively from the performing arts and inserted into a bare studio. Some of the stars are content to glide on their images: Makarova as a buck 'n' wing ballerina, Marcel Marceau as the eternal mime, and Joan Rivers in one of those flouncy $2,0000 haute couture gowns that on her becomes transformed into WalMart weekend specials...