info for pictures

http://www.tg-berlin.de/daphne_bp2004/index.html
photographer unknown.
year 2004.
country Germany.

http://www.pnb.org
photographer Angela Sterling.
year unknown.
country USA.

http://www.svetlana-zakharova.com/Photo18.html
year unknown.
country England.

http://www.lindapaul.com
year unknown.

http://www.artlevin.com
year unknown.
country USA.

Narrative 5

Ever since I was little, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Even at the tender age of 7, when I entered l'Ecole de Danse de l'Opera Paris, I knew. It was the only thing that sparked my interest even the slightest bit. I wanted to dance. I wanted to be an etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet. The most renouned ballet in all of France. Maybe the world. I wanted to let my heart and soul soar off the stage and into those of the people watching me. I want them to feel my pain, my love, my life. I want to dance, more than anything in the world.
When I entered the school, I had no idea as to what I was getting myself into. I was amazed by the sacrifices that I needed to make, even at 7 years old. I cried everyday for the first few weeks I was there. I was away from my parents, my family, my friends. Ballet every morning, every afternoon, every night. I cried and cried. Then I realized, I wanted this. I got myself into this, and I will stick to it. My realization of my love for ballet made me stop crying.
I wanted it so badly that I worked my hardest everyday. I was 7 and the top of my class. My class where everyone was at least 2 years older than me. They were mean to me, but I knew that I had to ignore them to reach my goal. In the blink of an eye, I was 10 and in the hightest level class. I was sure that I wasnt liked very much by the other girls, but it didn't bother me too much because I was doing what I love. My teachers admired me, and pretty soon I realized that I was getting all of the lead roles in our presentations. By the time I was only 14, I was taking company classes. I was astonished by the attention I recieved by the directors. They scrutinized everyone in class, but it seemed like whenever their eyes reached me, a warm smile won over their faces, and changed thier whole body language. Then they continued their study and tightened their faces. I began in the corps roles, but I was fine with that because I was still doing what I loved. During the company's opening season, I realized that when I looked at the assignment sheet for the roles of the dancers, that I was given the lead role in our opening performance of Giselle. I felt gifted, rewarded, and most of all, accomplished. Of course, the performance was the day after my 17th birthday. That night, when I opened Giselle, waw slike all of my best dreams compacted together, and formed into one reality. I could barely believe it was real. The day after my opening performance, I was given a chance. A chance to begin my life. A chance to begin my dream. I knew I had to take it. Which leaves me here. A contract in my shaking hands. My heart pounding. Sweat building up. A huge smile on my face. Without hesitation, I signed that piece of paper that would change my life. That piece of paper made me my dream. It made my dream come true. It made me an etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet. My life long dream from age 7, finally coming true 10 years later. Dreams really do come true. Now i get to look forward to the rest of my life, living that dream.

Narrative 4

Why can't they see it? Am I doing something wrong? I work my hardest everyday. Everyday I work so hard that its difficult to breath. I can barely stand. My feet bleed, my arms ache, even my eyes begin to close. But still, they never notice. Do I not look right? Is my leg too low? Its never me who gets the parts. Its never me who get s to stand in the front, and I'm the shortest. I should stand in the front! But its always the girl that stands next to me in the center, or the one who goes before me across the floor in grand allegro. Never me. I even jump higher than them in my entreche chats, and get my leg higher than them in my developes. I perform more. I even have better feet! But for some reason, none of that matters. I just want to know why I am not good enough for them. Why I am not recognized for the work I do. I put my mind, body, and soul into my ballet, but they still dont see that. I want to know why. I kill myself everyday. Day after day of killing myself, then waking up the next day to repeat my constant routine of killing myself. And for what? To be honest, I'm not quite sure yet. I just know that when I am dancing, it feels right. Even though I don't get the attention that I believe I deserve, I still feel okay when I'm dancing. It is only afterwards that I realize that I am not being seen. I guess one never knows why they do something they love. They just do. And I think that's the beauty of it all. So I work so hard that I want to fall apart right there on the cold, sticky marley floor to not get noticed at all. Doing what I love. Until one day, hopefully, someone will see how much I love doing what I do. How hard I work to achieve what I have. How hard I will work to catch someone, anyone's attention. After all, Love is supposed to be hard, isn't it? It is supposed to be hard, but in the end, if you love enough, everything works out. I hope the same works for ballet. And my dream.

excerpts

"'Why do you want to dance?'
'Why do you want to live?'
'Well I don't know exactly why, er, but I must.'
'That's my answer too.'"
-The Red Shoes

"'How would you define ballet, Lady Neston?'
'Well, one might call it the poetry of motion perhaps, or...'
'One might. But for me it is a great deal more. For me it is a religion.'"
-The Red Shoes

"Learning ballet is wonderful for children even if they never become dancers. I tis wonderful because it teaches discipline, grace, and manners."
-Ballet: An Eight-Year Course

"Ballet dancers are a self-chosen elite. To survive and surmount years of disciplinary perparation and seasons of even more arduous performance requires rigid determination and almost mindless self-abnegation. One other factor is difficult to predetermine: without a certain admixture of hysteria -- sometimes masking as self-obsession, sometimes even counterfeiting incipient madness -- performers,a t once acrobats, artists, and animals, make little public impression."
-Four Centuries of Ballet

more excerpts...

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone
A Dance of Sisters by Tracy Porter
A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson
The Ballet Companion by Eliza Gaynor Minden
I, Maya Plisteskaya by Maya Plisetskaya
Theatre Street-the Reminiscences of Tamara Karsavina by Tamara Karsavina
Nureyev by Rudolph Nureyev
Once a Dancer by Allegra Kent
Ballet Mystique: Behind the Glamour of the Ballet Russe by George Zoritch
Dance to the Piper by Agnes De Mille
Baryshnikov in Russia by Nina Alovert
Fonteyn and Nureyev by Alexander Bland
101 Stories of the Great Ballets by George Balanchine and Francis Mason
Ballerina-The Art of Women in Classical Ballet by Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp
The Red Shoes Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
The Company Directed by Robert Altman
Save the Last Dance Directed by Thomas Carter
Step Up Directed by Anne Fletcher
Center Stage Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Fame Directed by Alan Parker

more pictures...

"The Star" Edgar Degas, 1871-81, France
"Dance Lesson" Edgar Degas, 1872, France
"The Dancing Class" Edgar Degas, 1873-75, France
"The Star (Dancer on Stage)" Edgar Degas, 1878, France
"Dancers in Pink" Edgar Degas, 1880-85, France
"Blue Dancers" Edgar Degas, 1899, France
"Two Dancers in Blue" Edgar Degas, 1899, France
"Ballerina and Lady wiht a Fan" Edgar Degas, 1885, France
"E'cole de Danse" Edgar Degas, 1873, France
"Ballet Dance" Edgar Degas, 1877, France
"Four Dancers" Edgar Degas, 1899, France
"Ballet Dancers in the Wings" Edgar Degas, 1900, France
"La Classe de Danse" Edgar Degas, 1871, France
"Dancing Examination" Edgar Degas, 1874, France
"Dancers Practicing at the Barre" Edgar Degas, 1877, France
"The Rhearsal of the Ballet on Stage" Edgar Degas, 1874, France
"Dancers Backstage" Edgar Degas, France
"Dancer Posing at the Photographer Studio" Edgar Degas, 1875, France
"The Dance Lesson" Edgar Degas, 1879, France
"The Rehearsal 01" Edgar Degas, 1873-78, France
"Dance School" Edgar Degas, 1874, France
"Seated Dancer" Edgar Degas, 1879-80, France
"Marianela Nunez-The Lilac Fairy and Tamara Rojo-Princess Aurora (Vision)" John Ross, 2008, England
"Iohna Loots as White Cat and Ricardo Cervera as Puss-in-Boots" John Ross, 2008, England
"Alina Cojocaru in Diamonds" John Ross, 2007, England
"Odette-Sofiane Sylve, The Prince-Friedmann Vogel and Swans" John Ross, 2007, England
"Odette-Sofiane Sylve and Prince Sigfried-Friedmann Vogel" John Ross, 2007, England

Exisiting Critique

"Four Dancers"

This painting is brilliant in its composition, color, perspective. The four dancers are slowly backing out of the picture. Degas's positioning of figures, in the bottom left corner, creates a strong sense of movement in the painting. The background diminishes through perspective techniques. The unbalanced arrangement of subjects is balanced by the repetition of vibrant colors. The warm tomes in the women's costumes reappear in the background of the opposite corner. This image is typical in Degas's reoccurring theme: that "the stage is at all times artificially lit and our distance from it makes the colors become both loud and blurred, creating an impression of distance and glamorous dazzle." Degas doesn't give personality or expression to the faces of the dancers. To him, they are only and image prancing on the stage, they are their to entertain. He outlines the form and beauty of the dancers of the Paris Opera House. Because of that, the freedom of his brushwork is not tied down by detail, but he expresses only the glamour at the ballet.