Thursday, June 14, 2007

Thursday Thirteen - 10 - 13 of My Favorite Ballets


Enter into the world that lives inside my heart every day, whether I can make it to an actual performance or not. Right now my beloved National Ballet of Canada is having its spring season in Toronto. Because I can't be there, here are my 13 favorite ballets that I can see over and over again!











Take a program, find your seat. Listen to the chatter of the crowd. The houselights dim. The orchestra tunes. Stepping onto the podium, the conductor acknowledges the applause from an expectant crowd. The lights go to black. The music starts and we're off to my favorite place: the curtain going up and the show beginning.





















1 - Swan Lake
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

My favorite choreography is the previous National Ballet of Canada version, done by Erik Bruhn after Marius Petipas















































































2 - Romeo and Juliet

Music by Sergei Prokofiev

Choreography by John Cranko

























You know I love sword fights!































































3 - The Nutcracker
Music by P.I. Tchaikovsky

Choreography by James Kudelka















































































4 - Giselle

Music by Adolphe Adam

Choreography by Peter Wright after Coralli/Perrot/Petipas


























































































5 - The Sleeping Beauty

Music by P.I. Tchaikovsky

Choreography by Rudolph Nureyev after Marius Petipas




























































6 - Manon

Music by Jules Massenet

Choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan



























































7 - The Taming of the Shrew

Music by Domenico Scarlatti

Choreography by John Cranko


































































8 - Don Quixote

Music by Ludwig Minkus

Choreography by Nicholas Beriozoff after Marius Petipas and Alexander Gorsky





























































9 - Elite Syncopations

Music by Scott Joplin and other ragtime artists

Choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan






















10 - Apollo

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Choreography by George Ballanchine




















































11 - Revelations

Music - Traditional spirituals

Choreography by Alvin Ailey














































12 - Company B

Music by The Andrews Sisters

Choreography by Paul Taylor





































































13 - The Concert

Music by Frederic Chopin

Choreography by Jerome Robbins





















Don't forget to throw flowers and shout "Bravo! Brava!"


16 comments:

Unknown said...

Those pictures rocked!! I've never seen live ballet, but I'd love to go sometime. You'll have to let me know when something hits locally.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Awesome, babe! #2's dance recital is next week; I know I won't see a four-year-old dancing like this, but man, I can dream!

I do like dance. The Tour Manager and I had subscriptions to a few series up until #1 was born.

Akelamalu said...

I've never seen a live ballet performance, but it's on my 'to do' list. Great pictures.

Miss Frou Frou said...

I was only telling a friend last night, that years ago, when I worked in a hotel, I was given 2 tickets to see The Nutcracker Suite after I upgraded the principal dancer's room, as he was next to the lift and it was too noisy. Took my Mum to the matinee and loved the ballet, and loved watching all the precious little girls in the audience...

Gattina said...

Wonderful pictures I love Ballet so much and some of them I have seen too of course not in Canada but here in Belgium.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Miss Frou, one of the joys of working the "Nutcracker" was seeing all the little girls in the audience in their beautiful dresses - and gorgeous coats, too! - twirling around at the intermission. And sometimes the boys did, too!

Anonymous said...

I saw Swan Lake performed by the Russian Ballet a few years ago and fell in love with ballet. I saw Giselle recently and it made me cry, such a beautiful story

Dara Edmondson said...

I'm not much of a ballet fan, but I do like the Nutcracker and Swan Lake too. My husband drags me to the ballet about once a decade!

Anonymous said...

Some of those photos wer absolutely breathtaking. Awesome job.
Blessings,
~Toni~

R.G. ALEXANDER said...

How beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Wow, such gorgeous pictures! Wonderful ballets, and beautiful music, too. :-D

Happy TT, and thanks for visiting my blog!

samulli said...

Wow, that is a fantastic list. Especially since I have never been to a ballet as far as I can remember (maybe as a child?). But the pictures look beautiful. It's always interesting to learn something new. Maybe I should go and see one of those sometime.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. ;o)

Ire said...

Wow,Bravo, Bravo...hehee! i have never been to a live ballet as yet! but the pictures are beautiful

Angela/SciFiChick said...

I can't say that I've ever watched a full ballet performance!

Tink said...

I love ballet, esp. the ones by Tchaikovsky. Wonderful list!!
Thanks for visiting my TT.

Anonymous said...

Wow thats a lot of pics!

I love Tchaikovsky, hear it a lot over here, even if you dont. Not a big fan of ballet, but love most of those composers.