The Art of the Dance

Oh Woman, come before us, before our eyes longing for beauty, and tired of the ugliness of civilisation, come in simple tunics, letting us see the line and harmony of the body beneath, and dance for us. Dance us the sweetness of life. Give us again the sweetness and the beauty of the true dance, give us again the joy of seeing the simple unconscious pure body of a woman. Like a great call it has come, and women must hear it and answer it. ~ Isadora Duncan, The Art of the Dance (NégyArt, Németh György Archive)

Alexei Ratmansky's 'Symphony #9

Sarah Van Patten and Luke Ingham in Ratmansky’s Symphony #9 from Shostakovich Trilogy, San Francisco Ballet, April 2015. - Vanessa Zahorian and James Sofranko gleefully led their sporty fellow villagers in folksy dances, while Sarah Van Patten and Luke Ingham’s adagio suggested the dread that underlay the smug Soviet façade; Hansuke Yamamoto wandered among them with pliant jumps and turns…
 

Dance

Rashaun Mitchell - Light Years (New York,  April 2015) -  - The dance had a pleasingly interplanetary feel, as if it were taking place outside of time and gravity’s pull. Within this unfamiliar landscape, the four dancers engaged in curious behavior, launching into loping runs and dives and slithering glides. They seemed half-animal, half-extraterrestrial, at times relating to each other, at others orbiting off into their own worlds…

 

Ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn

Ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn reads a letter from home between rehearsals at the Metropolitan Opera House. In 1933 Fonteyn joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School, the predecessor of today’s Royal Ballet School, training under the direction of Ninette de Valois. After starting with the Vic-Wells Ballet, she rose quickly through the ranks of the company. By 1939 Fonteyn had performed principal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty and was appointed Prima Ballerina…