The Beautiful Odette

The Beautiful Odette 

there's no need to conceal her name but I'm not telling, if this ballerina were American, not Soviet dancer, she would be a household name forever, if Andy Warhol lived a few more years, he saw her in NY or LA tour or PBS program, he would do a lot of block prints on her. For most artists, poets, scholars... anyone wants to learn, or gain, the trick is looking for the good material, the gold mine, the secret cave that stowed treasure troves, the original manuscript, the ancient buried scroll... so to open sesame:D

I do a screen capture prints series to honor this Odette/Odile ballerina. In poetry, the music is in the flow of thought, so the wordsmith razzle-dazzle is not true art, an illusion; dance, the music is in the body movement, the energy. to measure a poem, just translate whole body of the text to colloquial/plain language, so the writer cannot cheat, to deceive by using his dictionary short-cut. to see a dancer, just kill the music and give her a mask, so everything is in her body, movement. often there are just too much noise, people can't focus, they are tricked. Words are not communication tool anymore, become emotion; the body need not follow the music, becomes that music. Often, poets, writers meditating on some feeling of thoughts, honing their lines and words to fit that precise emotion, so even poem composed in native tongue is a form of translation, the 2nd language, same as musicians they have been singing their melody silently for some time when they put on paper; and dancers hearing the same piece music for 500 times, or even more, basically they can hear it in their sleep, some classic ballerinas hear Tchaikovsky since 7yr old to 17 to 27 to 37... to the point that they don't truly hear the music when they perform, and they need not to check their technique since they throw 10 years or more to all the movement and pose... so what they all really do then?

Expression of their Emotion. Their Emotion, their own emotion, not Shakespeare words or lines from the Bible, or the songs, lyrics, or old idioms and cliches, not music composer's feeling and thought anymore, not interpretation of others, but their own. so many dancers still dance in other's music and step their coach's movement, so they don't really let it go, it's still imitation, just as many writers, a lot of them even the big names, you can read 5 lines you know they don't write their own thing, they still follow the books formula they picked up thru MFA or some great ancient writers, even they sound really modern and 'innovative', but they are just stiff in their lines and movement. there's old Chinese saying about writing composition: Read 10,000 volume books, one composes naturally. In the end, one has to give up all that reading so he can write his own.

Poem Examples:

Kiss me, my love, kiss me
Your lips are sweet as wine.
                                   - The Song of Songs, OT

(The greatest poem line that can't be copied)

--- --- ---

Mixing memory and desire
stirring dull roots with spring rain.
                                   - Wasteland, T.S. Eliot

(No academic poets can top this, yet, miles away)

Swan Lake DVDs done by Russian Ballet Corps

Swan Lake DVDs done by Russian Ballet Corps

Swan Lake DVDs
DVD Name	Odette(Age):	Year	Odile(Age):	ISBN#
Stars of Russian Ballets	Galina Ulanova (43)	1953	Natalia Dudinskaya (41)	9780769787343
* Film Version, Bolshoi & Kirov
Swan Lake (Bolshoi)	Maya Plisetskaya (32)	1957	Maya Plisetskaya (32)	9780769787336
* Bolshoi Stage
Schwanensee (Kirov)	Yelena Yevteyeva (22)	1969	Yelena Yevteyeva (22)	4028462600107
* Film Version
Swan Lake (Bolshoi)	Natalia Bessmertnova (43)	1984	Natalia Bessmertnova (43)	0-7697-8667-7
* Bolshoi Stage
Swan Lake (Kirov)	Galina Mezentseva (34)	1986	Galina Mezentseva (34)	0-7697-1475-7
* Kirov Stage
Swan Lake (Bolshoi)	Alla Mikhalchenko (32)	1989	Alla Mikhalchenko (32)	807280071399
* Bolshoi Stage
Swan Lake (Kirov)	Yulia Makhalina (22)	1990	Yulia Makhalina (22)	0-7697-8241-8
* Kirov Stage
Swan Lake (Bolshoi&Kirov)	Nadezhda Pavlova (36)	1992	Lyubov Konakova (30s)	5050725802521
* Performed and Recorded in Iceland, small traditional stage venue.
Swan Lake (Bolshoi&Kirov)	Nadezhda Pavlova (36)	1992	Lyubov Konakova (30s)	8717423028475
*The DVD packaging info content is incorrect. The Content is same as ISBN#5050725802521.
Swan Lake (Perm State Ballet)	Nina Ananiashvili (29)	1992	Nina Ananiashvili (29)	089948445098
* Performed and Recorded in Japan
Schwanensee (Moscow Classikal)	Ekaterina Beresina (20s)	2003	Natalia Burak (20s)	9120005651296
* by Moscow Classikal Ballet, small stage venue, pretty cool. Also Spartacus of this version, a lot fun!
Swan Lake (Kirov)	Ulyana Lopatkina (34)	2007	Ulyana Lopatkina (34)	044007432167
* Kirov Stage
Art of Zakharov at Bolshoi	Svetlana Zakharova (36)	2015	Svetlana Zakharova (36)	3760115306158
* One of her 4 Ballets, at Bolshoi

Note:
I also put on the ballerinas age in (#) at their time of Swan Lake DVD recording so viewers would know they were in their peak years or not. Ballerinas are first Athletes, technicians, then Artists, they live on monkey diet thru teenage to adulthood to mold their body light as gibbons and hone their technique better gymnasts, especially ballet that dance art is based on technique and athleticism, so age plays very important factor when they are older and have grown much stage experience and matured artistry. Dancers have much different interpretation in same repertoire when they are 20s, 30s or 40s, their movement, speed, strength... all different.      

The Swan Curse

The Swan Curse

Laijon Liu 20190917

I have a white tutu

I put on a pair of toe dance shoes

I know my choices

to be a maiden or a swan

I know that curse

my forever transformation

my soul and body in separate places

my identity crisis in the lake of tears

I know the spell to undo

if love comes and takes a vow

if that love is unyielding and true

if then, then all ought to be through

Why I love Swan Lake?

The music is great, that leaves to the musicians to explain; the choreography is stunning that for dancers to show us; I like the themes and story reflect the poetry of that folktales that the legend has it Tchaikovsky picked a German folktale for the base of the story. the 3rd Act of the Swan Lake could be the Cinderella narrative of the Prince' Ball scene, you see all the big names and the dolls, the dames come to the banquet each family last name announced, all they dress like xmas trees glowing in their laced gowns, and they glide around like a super sized carousel, accompanied by dancing music that played by the best musicians in town, and the prince Siegfrield feels numb of the usual cliche of the floating world, that he never has to work for anything, never feels lacking anything, no sense of longing or hunger or thirst... blowing of the horns, this exotic and never-heard dazzling seductive woman pops up on the center stage, and her move he has never seen in his high class etiquette guided society, she's hot like Rita Hayworth, and romped like it's her last dance, so the Prince who has just sworn his heart to the pure-beauty of the swan-woman he met previous night, thru a quick reflection, he breaks his vow.

I don't like the happy ending, it's not original story how the creator has planned. the swan queen is just another farmer girl lives in a village. like Giselle, the prince falls head over heels for her, it's not because her original form and identity, it's the swan form, an abstract metamorphosis form, swan resembles pure beauty, if the prince killed the 'evil' owl magician, broke the curse and freed the girl from the swan form, they are not gonna end up together forever, in Tchaikovsky's society, the EU social environment, the high class and bottom class don't mix, that reflected from most 18th and 19th century novels, read Tolstoy, that's how Giselle speaks a loud voice at the time their time than today, so the ending only a wish of vision that the prince sacrificed his life trying to save the swan girl, that they happily live together in the heaven. The prince as most of us are doomed to fail, we always pick things and people for the wrong reason, that's the real curse. the swan, the magician more like having a bet, a bet on humanity, or the magician making an experiment, picking a prince who has seen all the women, the worldly, the high class, the country girls, the all the folk dancers from the wide land of the Europe he has seen all, so he is not easily moved or enticed like we the commoners dirty rag missing teeth filthy low class or no class men, any women walk by we blow a long drawn wolf-whistle, and praise our life is beautiful. no the prince has high standard, just as he falls for something purely beauty that no women on Earth can represent, or say that's the best perfect form of beautiful woman resembles, yet, he cannot even keep his vow for another 24 hours, when the totally opposite concept of beauty that Odile expresses thru her dance. We have seen so many princes Siegfrield fall on the stage when they are offered two choices of power, pure beauty(always victimized and useless for the material world), or, the world-dominating presence. it's kind of curse how the owl-look magician turns the village girls to swans, to set the bar of pure beauty, with his great power; it's curse how commoners can see how the high class lords ball and banquet on the stage, everything so beautiful so grandeur and glamorous; it's a curse that the prince just moment ago still feels sad and lost and comes around bends his knee in front of a totally opposite person that he swears again; it's curse we for a hundred years still make it happy ending because we cannot live with it, we can only live in the swan lake where everything suppose to be beautiful, serene, lovers must be together, otherwise we just can't take it for a tragic ending, so before we go to see the swan lake show, or buy a dvd, we have to know that's the good ending version. but how about Romeo & Juliet, or Hamlet. do they come out without a scratch on their pretty faces? that shows a dance, that ballet show is more powerful than drama, the music, staged scene, the acting, the dancers' movement to tell a story gives more experience than theater play can deliver. So people must change the original ending to the happy ending, that settles it.

 

There's another curse too, well, some call it blessing. An art form we pick to transform ourselves, to transcend our body and movement that for a moment we are free of this material world, when a body dances, it defies its original function, which evolves for purely for survival, that does not move for the purpose of hunting, fighting, consuming, copulating, breeding, swindling to gain something, posing as a threat, dawdling on a minimum wage, or necking, fooling around, shaking hand, backslapping, rubbing elbows… none of that, it's purely for the purpose of out of world spiritual expression. Just that moment. Yet, that glimpse of moment top on a lifetime struggling, starving, rigorous hardworking of the body. It is the temple we take care and purify it. And when that body grows old, loses it prime-time figure and movement, the eye of that body looks into its memory to somehow recall a few past pictures of some tens years ago, and the question is no one can tell the true form should be that past dancing moment or the present old clunker. I go with the prime time, because I don't care how many times we fall, or we grow old and rotten, I don't even care if the principal ballerina fall flat in spotlight, it's the dancing part that counts, that defying moment.

I'm just moving from point A to point B, feeding;
I'm just moving from point B to point C, fighting;
I'm just moving from point C to point A, balling;
I'm just moving into the realm, within the realm;
I'm just moving, like a cloud of particles or dust;
I'm moving, alright~

I wish I sometime feel like dancing, hysterically, like the lottery commercial showing on tv, the winner(s) all dance like crazy, no melody or beats can match their movement, there's no other way to express that feeling of their soul being freed, suddenly the human forms just burst out of normality... yet I also wish on the cut-check day, let's say Friday, I feel my body lighten a little bit, I may just feel gliding a few steps or got a phone call Hired! for a dream career job, like go attend some social dance lthat my friend tells me to do it someday, even that form of dance is not art, yet I could feel blooming and ballooning... I wish I do not hold my body still, all the time, afraid of it will break out any moment, and it will shake like taking a cold shower, like a dying body trembling to fight to prolong for a little while... O, the loony tune echoes in my brain. I wish I dance because I'm happy, because I'm doing art, not because I'm sad, trying to shake off fear, or just do self-resuscitation, pump the juice, pump up the air, rub myself so I feel warm, 'pas de duex' every stride, leap, every step of the way into the night til sunrise. I wish my body and limbs can move like my lips, instant magic in the present existence. I wish I will feel dancing, and I dance.    

 

Russian Ballerina List

Russian Ballerina List



I love Russian Ballet, have all the Swan Lake dvds done by Russian ballet companies: Kirov, Bolshoi, Perm. dance, especially the Classical Ballet, it's an art form that purely based on years of detailed practice of technique, poetry in motion, literally, that an artist has to learn her body, learn to move, mood, music, all that express in the moment, similar as soccer, a dribbler and a passer are artists, make all the movement effortlessly, of course ballet does not requires one to juggle the ball and not to lose it, most soccer players footwork goes down into the drain when a challenger hell-bent come at them to tackle for the ball, only a few naturally talented ballplayer can be calm and dance away with the ball, like Brazilian players do have deep dribbling creative culture, so a lot of Brazilian players can keep the ball effortlessly, and while every their pose and gesture, movement like samba dance. Classical Ballet share the same, only it's purely more art form than soccer, I guess some of the Kung Fu movie also trying to do some kind of art stuff, more like experiment. as a boy kicking the ball in the backyard, to devout his childhood to learn keeping or tackling the ball, a ballerina learns to make her body to an instrument to the classical music she listens, she has to make that music hers, so her mind and body react naturally to the melody and tempo, I have watched a Russian ballet Swan Lake dvd, in the 2nd act ending part the conductor seemed rushing thru the end, and what surprised me the three big swans totally kept up with the fast tempo and pulled it off :D, probably for other dance corps would be a flop. the solid technique is foundation of every art, and the reason people especially young people focus on the technique is because we know we lack of that, and slow down the music or tempo that won't give audience or dancers or players that thrill they deserve to have. it's drug, or liquor. imagine Micheal Jackson music played in slower tempo, so common people (none trained dancers) can dance to it, or Flames of Paris play slow tempo, then all the pumped up emotion is gone, there' no flames, no joyous celebration mood. it's like the Chinese restaurant down the block, it serves no Chinese, neither should be qualified to call it a restaurant. but stomach is easily pleased, but the taste of art form, especially Ballet should be the best, the highest, the top as the music fits. all the classical music, are from folks or lifetime great musician's blood work, the source of the story are folktales, poems of some great famous poets, or novelists, and all the ballerinas give away their priceless childhood to hang on the bar daily to transform their body to swan, of course people and the business should all respect that, no matter they are Russian, or Soviet, or color of their skin, or language they speak, they belong to the art form, not certain political camps or business circus, we cannot just put today's American musicians among Bach Mozart Beethoven, they definitely earned more cash, and more awards than all three sum up, but we cannot just shamelessly fool our kids and ourselves just for the market reason. Steve Job cannot be paired with Da Vinci, that's just wrong. So, Russian Ballerinas are better than the rest of the world, because: 1) they have the tradition, a culture to breed, 2) their state funding to feed their talents to grow. what the rest of the world have is just one circus and another circus, artists have to entertain to get by, kids not really get picked and trained by the best who grow up in the system. what I hate is that the media spreading lies to our public and kids, so we don't know we get beat. imagine if ballet is a boxing match. so since ballet is not physical competition then we can always talk, because talk is cheap, act is easy so this way this serious art is still a cheap production for the cost-cut measure purpose. Art is first to discover the truth, and speak the truth, like Keats say Truth is beauty, beauty is truth. otherwise we cannot work on it, knock something together is not creation, and improvement is not perfection. great should be truly great, and I still don't understand what "fine" means. the critics and experts are more like politicians. they suppose to be fair and true. purely judge ballerinas or footballers by the art, but... any ballet fans seriously think themselves as lovers should spend time to watch many dvds and youtube, suppose we should just trust the words of big media experts, because they suppose to save our time,  but they just won't tell us the truth, so we have to do the legwork. so I recently got some spare time, made a short list, it's incomplete, but it's helpful enough. here.





Galina Ulanova, Vahktang, Dudinskaya from Stars of Russian Ballets show their great technique well past their 40s. Old people can dance.

Maya Plisetskaya, her Don Quixote better than Swan Lake, and Swan Lake 1957 shows the whole ballet corp the best of Bolshoi, best 2 pair Spanish dance (also the best Spanish dance on Iceland recording DVD by Nadezhda Pavlova and Lyubov Konakova), the six little swan repertoire way better than mechanical usual routine four. those ladies can dance, none of today's ballet corp possess the skill and intensity as that DVD.

Raisa Struchkova, Ninel Kurgapkina are equal to Plisetskaya.

Ekaterina Maximova, great movement, no ballerina can spin twirl like her teen years, and Spartacus is must see.

Bessmertnova's Bolshoi Swan Lake housed some the best soloists, the third act is a feast of all national folk dancers.

Yelena Yevteyeva the best film version to own, dazzling technique. one of the best Odile dance.

Galina Mezentseva, the best of the best Ballerina, lyrical technique, most artistic. her Swan Lake and Giselle are must own, not only two great historic performance of Swan Lake and Giselle, the whole Kirov 70-80s gang there, they are the best generation of last century Ballet, Zhanna Ayupova, Irina Christiakova in her Swan Lake; Tatyana Terekova and Altynai Asylmuratova(great Odile) play willis in her Giselle! in soccer fan term, that's the Barcelona squad of Messi, Ronaldinho, Xavi, Inesta team up era.


Lyubov Konakova, one of the best Odiles, see her Iceland recording dvd; Larissa Lezhnina, one the best Sleeping Beauty. Why at the same period, Kirov got so many talents?

Ludmila Semenyaka, she dances light, a poet.

Tatyana Terekhova, most technique ballerina, only she can dance Don Quixote, while others include big games can only make it gymnastic floor routine, the recent Mariinsky's soloist Olesya Novikova runs well with Terekhova's baton.

Nina Ananiashvili, a very matured artist, great Odette and Odile, amazing Giselle dvd, and Nina Speranskaya plays Myrtha, she can reach high effortlessly, like breathing, a great dancer.

Zhanna Ayupova, if her dance exercise video released in dvd format, would be sold out. she can put a spell on viewer by only doing position 1-5.

Makhalina Yulia, also appeared in Mezentseva's squad dvd. She is great Odette.

Uliana Lopatkina, most lyrical, fluid and technical after Mezentseva. She is the perfect swan. The recent Mariinsky principal Ekaterina Konduarova is an opposite, a very interesting interpretation, her dance movement and figure like marble swan, adorable.

Diana Vishneva, the online and everyone says she is great, but the problem is where her dvds? what I only watched her Giselle on youtube, great! She plays best Giselle.

Svetlana Zakharova, perfect ballerina, her Giselle with Sergei Polunin is one of the best, packed with so much emotion and intensity, she goes all out on that stage. Anna Tsygankova of Dutch National Ballet danced airy Giselle, awesome.

Natalia Osipova, best Flames of Paris live recording.


I really want to get some Western ballerinas into that group, I have spent time watched most their dvds I could borrow from library and online, but they are not on that list.


The reason I do this list is that I have wasted a lot time listening to those big dance critics and magazines and online source, after I bought or borrowed the dvds, I felt I was cheated. in case any ballet fans want to save some money, above list of ballerinas to find on Amazon or eBay.

Russian Ballerina List from VHSs, DVDs and Youtube
苏联女芭蕾舞蹈家，视屏记录表
Dancer Name，姓名	Dance/Prima Period 时期	Birth 出生	Company 舞团
Ulanova Galina	1928-1962	1910	Kirov, Bolshoi
Chabukiani Vakhtang	1930-1960	1910	Kirov
Dudinskaya Natalia	1931-1983	1912	Kirov
Lepeshinskaya Olga	1933-1963	1916	Bolshoi
Shelest Alla	1937-1963	1919	Kirov
Zubkovskaya Inna	1941-1970	1923	Kirov
Elvin Violetta	1943-1956	1925	Kirov, Royal
Plisetskaya Maya	1943-1967?	1925	Bolshoi
Struchkova Raissa	1944-1978	1925	Bolshoi
Kurgapkina Ninel	1947-1974?	1929	Kirov
Moiseyeva Olga	1947-1973	1928	Kirov
Samokhvalova Maya	1948-1972	1929	Bolshoi
Osipenko Alla	1950-1971	1932	Kirov
Kolpakova Irina	1951-1987	1933	Kirov
Kondratieva Marina	1952-?	1934	Bolshoi
Timofeyeva Nina	1953-1988	1935	Kirov, Bolshoi
Kasatkina Natalia	1954-1972?	1934	Bolshoi, Kirov
Fedicheva Kaleria	1955-1975	1936	Kirov
Komleva Gabriela	1957-1989	1938	Kirov
Maximova Ekaterina	1958-1980	1939	Bolshoi
Sizova Alla	1958-1988	1939	Kirov
Makarova Natalia	1960-1980?	1940	Kirov, ABT
Sorokina Nina	1961-1987?	1942	Bolshoi
Bessmertnova Natalia	1962-1989?	1941	Bolshoi
Yevteyeva Yelena	1966-1993?	1947	Kirov
Ludmilla Kovaleva	n/a	N/a	Kirov
Bolshakova Natalia	n/a	n/a	Kirov
Mezentseva Galina	1970-1990?	1952	Kirov
Semenyaka Ludmila	1970-1992?	1952	Kirov, Bolshoi
Tayakina Tatiana	1973?-?	1951	Bolshoi
Terekhova Tatiana	1973-?	1952	Kirov
Chenchikova Olga	1970s	1956	Kirov
Nadezhda Pavlova	1973-1992	1956	Perm, Bolshoi
Speranskaya Nina	1973?-2002?	n/a	Bolshoi
Konakova Lyubov	1974-1992	n/a	Kirov
Mikhalchenko Alla	1976-1999?	1957	Bolshoi
Semizorova Nina	1978-1998?	1956	Bolshoi
Asylmuratova Altynai	1978-1999?	1961	Kirov, ABT, RB
Ananiashvili Nina	1981-1999?	1964	Bolshoi, NYC, RB
Ayupova Zhanna	1984-2009	1966	Kirov
Makhalina Yulia	1986-1996?	1968	Kirov
Nadia/Nadezhda Gracheva	1988-?	1969	Bolshoi
Lezhnina Larissa	1990-1994-?	1969	Kirov, DNB
Shapchits Irina	1993 Coppelia DVD	N/A	Kirov
Lopatkina Uliana	1991-2017 Now	1973	Kirov
Vishneva Diana	1995-2005-Now	1976	Kirov, ABT
Kaptsova Nina	1996?-?	1978	Bolshoi
Lunkina Svetlana	1997-2013-Now	1979	Bolshoi, CNB
Zakharova Svetlana	1997-Now	1979	Kirov, Bolshoi
Kondaurova Ekaterina	2000-Now	1982	Kirov
Somova Alina	2004-Now	1985	Kirov
Osipova Natalia	2006-Now	1986	Bolshoi, Royal
Russian Ballerina List from Book Source
Dancer Name	Dance/PrimaPeriod	Birth	Company
Vazem Ekaterina	1867-1884	1848	Bolshoi
Kshessinska Mathilda	1893-1904	1872	Kirov
Vaganova Agrippina	1897-1915	1879	Kirov
Geltser Ekaterina	1898-1927	1876	Kirov, Russ, Bolshoi
Pavlova Anna	1899-1912	1881	Kirov
Karsavina Tamara	1902-1931	1885	Kirov, Russ
Spessivtseva Olga	1913-1924-1932	1895	Kirov, Paris Opera
Somonova Marina	1919-1952	1908	Kirov, Bolshoi
Lukom Yelena	1920-1941	1891	Kirov
Volkova Vera	1925-1929	1904	Kirov
Kriger Victoriana	1925-1948	1893	Bolshoi
Anisomova Nina	1927-1958	1909	Kirov
Vecheslova Tatyana	1928-1953	1910	Kirov