I am a sixty seven year old man that saw the first night of mc Millams romeo and juliet with Fonteyn and Nureyev on my dying day I am sure i will remember it as the most amazing thing that I ever have seen.
Я с вами согласна, Eric, за свою прожитую жизнь, ничего подобного в балете не встречала. Не наглядеться на них, не насмотреться... словами этого не передать. Это высоко- художественное выражение любви и счастья через возвышенное искусство танца. Преклоняю колени..
В этом спектакле, балете и Фонтейн и Нуриев, великолепны не только, как танцоры, но здесь ещё и высший пилотаж актёрского мастерства, столько гармонии и чувств, что понимаешь их недосигаемую высоту не только в балете, но и в театральном исскустве. А МАРГО здесь исполняет уже за сорок лет, а движения молоды. СПАСИБО ЗА УДОВОЛЬСТВИЕ ЛИЦЕЗРЕТЬ ДВУХ ВЕЛИКИХ ИСПОЛНИТЕЛЕЙ❗
There are only two reasons why someone could dislike this. Number one: just to cause an annoyance. Number two: they don't understand. The technique and choreography in this piece is way beyond its time.
Это невозможно описать. это надо пережить в жизни.Ничего подобного в балете я не видела и не увижу больше никогда.На сцене любовь и радость жизни. На разрыв сердца! Их бог этим одарил. Аллилуйя любви! Аллилуйя!
Fonteyn was made a legend by a global public who adored her. So, to her critics, she must got 'something right'!! When I watch this I see a young girl in love for the first time: confused, overwhelmed and ecstatic with emotion. I forget she's in her forties because of her pure artistry. Fonteyn and Nureyev are simply breathtaking. I don't care about feet or technique - it's perfect & makes me cry. Lynn S & Christopher G were robbed, but I feel blessed that 'this' was the pairing filmed.
This is the most committed performance of Romeo and Juliet. The emotions are palbable, raw, and strangely innocent. I almost feel like a voyeur, seeing something only meant to be shared in private. Moments like these affirm the real value and need for artistic expression in our society. The strive for perfection is never a waste.
my ballet master was in the royal ballet and he can never stop talking about how purely mesmerizing margot fonteyn was. i now see that my teacher is completely correct! and nureyev is amazing too!
This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. They've captured the ethereal essence of love. I thank the universe for Nureyev, Fonteyn and film. Perfection in (e)motion.
I saw Swan Lake then R & J on 2 consecutive nights. First I wondered if they'd added choreography to give him more, then finally noticing her wondered if they'd made it easier because steps seemed missing. and then I realized - no, she just made it look that easy. At age 52, completely Juliet at 16, pure naked soul, beyond technique. The tears began to roll - and continued all that night & through the next. I will never forget & I was never the same. She was unbelievable.
I remember walking to the movie theater with my girlfriend after school to see this. We cried our eyes out then, and it still gets to me. Nureyev is compelling in motion and Fonteyn even when she's standing still. Little did I know I'd get to play that marvelous score with the Cleveland Ballet.
They were the best we ever saw... and the best we ever saw from them were the pieces that were made... especially for them. As someone who he himself has danced this great sport, those like Rudi & Margot are to be kept close at heart. Admired, loved... even emulated. This dance was put on this earth specifically for them. Others have done it, but there's just something about the ones it was first made for... FOR RUDI AND MARGOT --Love & Dance, Dane Youssef
I did not get to see them perform this famous work together but I did see them dance together and I stood outside the door to the theater and saw them in person for a moment after a series of performances in Atlanta. They were tiny. I weighed about 120 pounds and was 5’3” and I was a giant near them. She was about 50 when I saw her dance.
@lusa525 totally agree! when fonteyn dances you cannot take your eyes off her. the passion behind this piece is beautiful it not about how high one can lift their legs or how strong or flexiable they are, it is the dancer inside that matters
Fonteyn was jailed with her husband a wealthy Panamanian for working with Castro to overthrow the government of Panama. Tons of info on the Internet. First performance in Romeo & Juliette by these 2 was 1966 at the Royal Ballet. I bought the VHS tape in 1975 and later the DVD. No one else compares to Fonteyn and Nuryev.in this beautiful work choreographed by McMillan. Simply sublime. God rest their souls.
Your words make me weep with pure joy. To have minds reach through space and time to share a miracle created long ago, yet they will be forever suspended in such sweet perfection. 😊
Absolutely Fabulous! Brings back memories when I danced...... I saw this Ballet production in 1966 ! Magical when they danced together. My Idols...... both of them.......
I attended this ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1996. It was my first ballet. Unforgettable performance by two people who were born to dance together.
This is perfectly beautiful and makes a point. Technical brilliance has changed over the years and even this choreography was probably intended for a ballerina with greater flexibility especially in terms of extensions. But, Fonteyn is a true prima, not because of the perfect technique which was her legend, but because her soul is in every movement. Together she and Nureyev knock this one out of the park. He was way ahead of his time also.💖
I read the bigraphy of Nureyev and Fonteyn many years ago in a book of art from my mother, the book describes their duo like no other in the history of classical dance, then I dont saw what was talking about, but now I see this demostration of thrue art, this is really amazing. Both are the best of dance.
The deep passionate love they shared, in their own lives .Comes through so vibrantly, no one can be imune to the intensity of their unsurpassable performance . Quite simply exquisite . I adore them for their being; We have the honeur to witness magic
I didn't know this, that's so sad, he died tragically several years later. I was blessed to see them time and time again at the Met in NYC around l969. The dancers to me were magic.Antoinette Sibley, Monica Mason, Merle Parks, names are just not coming to me now. My mom, sis and I would wait at the stage door for them with many other fans. I had pics of them there. Magical time for me, as I've always been a great ballet fan. You Tube is wonderful, to see your favorite ballets and dances is amazing!
Nureyev dances in another dimension, purely amazing. Fonteyn has the presence of a prima ballerina. Mc Millan stays always tuned to the rendition of the emotionnal states .
i saw another vid of this version with cojocaru and aosta and thought it was an entirely different version than this one. but each pairing and genration is so beautiful in it's own way... indescribable. i have this on dvd and love watching dame fonteyn and nureyev. just beautiful.....
I remember sleeping in my friend's mini in Floral Street for 2 nights in the freezing cold to queue for tickets to see Margot and Rudi In Romeo and Juliet.I paid £2.10.00 Shillings for my ticket in the Stalls Circle.I booked to see them In Giselle and Swan Lake as well.
touches my soul every time i see it...again and again there are many ballerinas with better technique but how she create a role ..this is true artistry and make her beeing a legend ..
I must be missing something here. What is wrong with Fonteyn's technique? Everything she does is so clean and precise no over the top extra personal additions to the choreography. Fonteyn is classical ballet and there are millions who agree.She is the full package, dance r and actress. Feel like I am on a mission here!!
@xanyxxx look at fonteyn's legs and arms, you will notice muscle if you look carefully. besides, pointe is nothing like foot binding. pointe is practised slowly with the ballerina knowing the consequences and foot binding is forced on suddenly. also, with care, feet can be taken care of very well. if you've never done pointe before don't judge!!!
gorgeous video and wonderful music... i shivered for the whole video throught... brilliant... thanks for posting! i'm going to the RAH to see it tonight! Looking forward to it! =D
sorry but classical dance is not only to be having a good technique...in our days all the famous dancer show us nothing else than technique so that we think this is ballet. its the base true but to be an artist had nothing to do with high legs and technique..'(and like high legs and good technique very well but she touches heart and soul after 50 jears in old films.. how phantastic they must be live on stage ....
anyone who is a fan of Nureyev or Fonteyn, is a dancer, has been a dancer, or has ever been even remotely interested in dance should read the book Dancer by Colum McCann. I was a pre-professional dancer for five years, a time which I remember fondly while at the same time being glad that I quit when I did, and nothing else has captured the world of dance, and the human condition in general, as exquisitely as that book did. please, please read it
Same with Makarova. That ballerina couldn’t turn to save her life, Balanchine was beyond her and much of her dancing had a messy or fidgety quality about it, like she was always having to make adjustments for little slip-ups. Yet her feet en pointe shone like baguette diamonds, her persona burned up the stage like a supernova and people who saw her, never ever forgot her. On the other hand a ballerina of Svetlana Zakharova’s technical brilliance and physical facility leaves me decidedly unmoved.
Shame on the person who deleted my comment of yesterday. I just compared this version with Nureyev's own choreography of this scene for the Paris Ballet. The Parisian scene was marvelous and full of exuberance and joy. However, this scene is far more intense because it includes the fear and awe of first love. All lovers experience a partial death of childhood or self sufficiency. But Romeo and Juliet's capacity to truly love their enemy will result in their deaths, just as it did for Jesus Christ who they mirror on a romantic level. Juliet must come down from her spiritual balcony into the physical and violent world of Verona to meet Romeo. 19th Century Ballet has an otherworldly idealism or perfection at its heart, a straining literally to fly, to rise above the earth. Here, Prokofiev's music brings that idealism down into the explosive world of the 20th Century, Divine Love, as in Dante and as in Christ's incarnation, descends into the finite, mortal world. Fonteyn captures so well Juliet's change from childish playfulness to adult passion. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet just one year after the great plague which closed the theaters in London and killed 11,000 people, including his only son Hamnet who was only 11. So Shakespeare writes this great play as a grieving parent to an audience who are overwhelmed with grief on a scale few of us can imagine. In the play, the friar carrying Friar Laurence's message to Romeo to explain the mock death of Juliet is quarantined when he stops to help someone with plague. Shakespeare creates a story of a love which tries to drown the violence and hatred of the world which murders these innocent children, Shakespeare wants to lift these lovers into the immortal world of tragedy and poetry. Perhaps Shakespeare even suspected that the plague had been deliberately sent as germ warfare by the Spanish who had lost the Battle of the Spanish Armada only a few years earlier. These lovers must love so completely, so truly that their love can conquer hate. We see in Fonteyn and Nureyev such absolute love, he an exiled Russian, she an older woman married to a man crippled for much of his life after an accident. Dance speaks so eloquently things which cannot be spoken in words. In dance the body becomes the music and enters a world beyond verbal language. These two dancers give us a love which rises above humanity's need to hurt, to find some excuse to injure others, to live from one violent strut of superiority to another. These lovers live in the humility which is the basis of all love, Romantic and Spiritual. We need each other to be complete, we are not fully human or divine until we put down our defenses and find our home in others. Surely Romeo and Juliet, Fonteyn and Nureyev found that home in each other. And perhaps Shakespeare, longing for his lost son, found Hamnet in writing plays to immortalize his son, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and his sonnets where Shakespeare claims he will make the Beloved live in lines of poetry. Shakespeare, the poet, will conquer Hamnet's death. And indeed he does each time we watch Shakespeare's plays or the ballet which his lovers inspired: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Sonnet 18 But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; That while Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet. Romeo and Juliet, Act V Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night; For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back. Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night; Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. Romeo and Juliet Act III
+Vara Sue Tamminga : This is a beautiful and thoughtful commentary/essay on love, both worldly and heavenly. Eros and Agape. I will add this to my meditations on life and its meaning. Thank you.
Beautiful, but for the end part, Nureyev is very well known go have been predominantly gay. These were two supreme artists who were able convey things through art which were not restricted to their personal experience. We are so lucky this is preserved on film and free to view.
@xanyxxx they aren't starved, if they would, they would have no energy to work it off onstage. females usually don't have muscles because 1, they're trained in a special way ; who'd want to see muscly females? Besides, looks don't mean everything. Just because they look skinny does not mean the don't have muscle, and muscle weighs alot more than fat; and 2, they work off all the food they eat dancing. in classical and neo-classical ballet females all have the most dancing, so its just natural
@plumbago Yes, her husband caused a lot of her financial worries, with things such as drug trafficking etc. And in the end she had to keep working into her 60's, to pay for his medical bills - injuries that he indirectly brought upon himself. She would have been far better off without him.
@hellokittyjfh woow Fonteyn is awful? You obviously don't know anything about dance. The ARTISTRY (which is what she was known for, not tech.) of Fonteyn, was what made her such a legend in the dance world. If you can't watch this video and be touched by the sheer artistry of her presence and movements, then you have obviously not been educated enough to know that artists like these come few and far in between. Like Pavlova before her, its the ARTISTRY that makes the artist not tech.
I am a sixty seven year old man that saw the first night of mc Millams romeo and juliet with Fonteyn and Nureyev on my dying day I am sure i will remember it as the most amazing thing that I ever have seen.
Я с вами согласна, Eric, за свою прожитую жизнь, ничего подобного в балете не встречала. Не наглядеться на них, не насмотреться...
словами этого не передать.
Это высоко- художественное
выражение любви и счастья через возвышенное искусство танца.
Преклоняю колени..
I am never tired to see them dancing together. And i will be seeing them for the rest of my life.@@ТатьянаАлексеева-в4т
It is timeless performance! It is a gift they gave us, remember our own undying love!
the BEST in history
В этом спектакле, балете и Фонтейн и Нуриев, великолепны не только, как танцоры, но здесь ещё и высший пилотаж актёрского мастерства, столько гармонии и чувств, что понимаешь их недосигаемую высоту не только в балете, но и в театральном исскустве. А МАРГО здесь исполняет уже за сорок лет, а движения молоды. СПАСИБО ЗА УДОВОЛЬСТВИЕ ЛИЦЕЗРЕТЬ ДВУХ ВЕЛИКИХ ИСПОЛНИТЕЛЕЙ❗
There are only two reasons why someone could dislike this. Number one: just to cause an annoyance. Number two: they don't understand. The technique and choreography in this piece is way beyond its time.
Это невозможно описать. это надо пережить в жизни.Ничего подобного в балете я не видела и не увижу больше никогда.На сцене любовь и радость жизни. На разрыв сердца! Их бог этим одарил. Аллилуйя любви!
Аллилуйя!
Fonteyn was made a legend by a global public who adored her. So, to her critics, she must got 'something right'!! When I watch this I see a young girl in love for the first time: confused, overwhelmed and ecstatic with emotion. I forget she's in her forties because of her pure artistry. Fonteyn and Nureyev are simply breathtaking. I don't care about feet or technique - it's perfect & makes me cry. Lynn S & Christopher G were robbed, but I feel blessed that 'this' was the pairing filmed.
This is the most committed performance of Romeo and Juliet. The emotions are palbable, raw, and strangely innocent. I almost feel like a voyeur, seeing something only meant to be shared in private. Moments like these affirm the real value and need for artistic expression in our society. The strive for perfection is never a waste.
Fantastica !
my ballet master was in the royal ballet and he can never stop talking about how purely mesmerizing margot fonteyn was. i now see that my teacher is completely correct!
and nureyev is amazing too!
Wonderful. Love, passion, suffering without words, Just movements, gestures which express everything. Heavenly.
cant stop crying..
This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. They've captured the ethereal essence of love. I thank the universe for Nureyev, Fonteyn and film. Perfection in (e)motion.
I saw Swan Lake then R & J on 2 consecutive nights. First I wondered if they'd added choreography to give him more, then finally noticing her wondered if they'd made it easier because steps seemed missing. and then I realized - no, she just made it look that easy. At age 52, completely Juliet at 16, pure naked soul, beyond technique. The tears began to roll - and continued all that night & through the next. I will never forget & I was never the same. She was unbelievable.
I remember walking to the movie theater with my girlfriend after school to see this. We cried our eyes out then, and it still gets to me. Nureyev is compelling in motion and Fonteyn even when she's standing still. Little did I know I'd get to play that marvelous score with the Cleveland Ballet.
They were the best we ever saw... and the best we ever saw from them were the pieces that were made... especially for them.
As someone who he himself has danced this great sport, those like Rudi & Margot are to be kept close at heart. Admired, loved... even emulated.
This dance was put on this earth specifically for them. Others have done it, but there's just something about the ones it was first made for...
FOR RUDI AND MARGOT
--Love & Dance, Dane Youssef
I did not get to see them perform this famous work together but I did see them dance together and I stood outside the door to the theater and saw them in person for a moment after a series of performances in Atlanta. They were tiny. I weighed about 120 pounds and was 5’3” and I was a giant near them.
She was about 50 when I saw her dance.
just the best! Probably the best we have ever seen.
ahh just fonteyn raising her arm at the beginning makes my heart melt
Such a classic... i don't know how anybody could dislike this video (??)
There is no Juliet like Fontey so beautiful can break hearts....in this 100 years.
@lusa525 totally agree! when fonteyn dances you cannot take your eyes off her. the passion behind this piece is beautiful it not about how high one can lift their legs or how strong or flexiable they are, it is the dancer inside that matters
Super really superb Fonteyn and nureyev......jzpatelut...
Fonteyn is over and above exquisite in this performance!
Breathtaking
soooooo Beautiful! Thank you for the video.
Pure joy
Какие чудесные у Марго Фонтейн руки !!! Какую "полетность" и трогательность они придают ее образам !
If I were to time travel, I'll definitely attend this performance back in 1966.
Me too).
chemistry is an amazing thing :-)
they are the best ballet couple ever. I love them together, esp in their later more modern pieces.
Fonteyn was jailed with her husband a wealthy Panamanian for working with Castro to overthrow the government of Panama. Tons of info on the Internet. First performance in Romeo & Juliette by these 2 was 1966 at the Royal Ballet. I bought the VHS tape in 1975 and later the DVD. No one else compares to Fonteyn and Nuryev.in this beautiful work choreographed by McMillan. Simply sublime. God rest their souls.
No. Not working with Castro. He was a right winger.
Wow! He soars! and together they dance with such abandonment! Beautiful!!! They really are a wonderful match, same caliber.
the music in this is really fantastic. It really helps to add more feeling to the scene
It's shocking how modern they were for their time. They would be beautiful even today.
Definitely a classic- brings back memories.
Your words make me weep with pure joy. To have minds reach through space and time to share a miracle created long ago, yet they will be forever suspended in such sweet perfection. 😊
Absolutely Fabulous! Brings back memories when I danced...... I saw this Ballet production in 1966 ! Magical when they danced together. My Idols...... both of them.......
Beautiful and mesmerizing. The emotion is superbly conveyed.
it makes me sad whenever listening to this
wonderful music
I attended this ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1996. It was my first ballet. Unforgettable performance by two people who were born to dance together.
В 1996 году Нуреев покоился на кладбище три года к тому времени
Вы ошиблись с датой, Марго Фонтейн умерла в 1991 году, а Рудольф Нуреев в 1993.
This is perfectly beautiful and makes a point. Technical brilliance has changed over the years and even this choreography was probably intended for a ballerina with greater flexibility especially in terms of extensions. But, Fonteyn is a true prima, not because of the perfect technique which was her legend, but because her soul is in every movement. Together she and Nureyev knock this one out of the park. He was way ahead of his time also.💖
PERFECCIÓN PURA. BELLEZA PURA.
what a pair there will never be a replacement
I read the bigraphy of Nureyev and Fonteyn many years ago in a book of art from my mother, the book describes their duo like no other in the history of classical dance, then I dont saw what was talking about, but now I see this demostration of thrue art, this is really amazing. Both are the best of dance.
More than dancing going on here...
How I wish they could have danced this together when she was younger!
I saw them dance this in Los Angeles and have never forgotten it!
The deep passionate love they shared, in their own lives .Comes through so vibrantly, no one can be imune to the intensity of their unsurpassable performance . Quite simply exquisite . I adore them for their being; We have the honeur to witness magic
+LOWE sonia When she died Nureyev said, "She was all I had."
I didn't know this, that's so sad, he died tragically several years later. I was blessed to see them time and time again at the Met in NYC around l969. The dancers to me were magic.Antoinette Sibley, Monica Mason, Merle Parks, names are just not coming to me now. My mom, sis and I would wait at the stage door for them with many other fans. I had pics of them there. Magical time for me, as I've always been a great ballet fan. You Tube is wonderful, to see your favorite ballets and dances is amazing!
Annette Thermos
How right you are! But you forgot LYNN SEYMOUR!
Jan 😊
@@plumbago”She is all I have. Just her” is the quote. He said it in a documentary when Fonteyn was very much alive. It’s here on UA-cam.
No wonder they called Nurayev the best male dancer the 20th century❣️
Nureyev dances in another dimension, purely amazing. Fonteyn has the presence of a prima ballerina. Mc Millan stays always tuned to the rendition of the emotionnal states .
i saw another vid of this version with cojocaru and aosta and thought it was an entirely different version than this one. but each pairing and genration is so beautiful in it's own way... indescribable. i have this on dvd and love watching dame fonteyn and nureyev. just beautiful.....
Непревзойденный,Бог танца Рудольф Нуреев!Сегодня день рождения.
So beautiful thank you.
A masterpiece, danced by two brilliant artists.
FAntastic
The classic dance is very beautiful, I love it !
Wonderful ty
One of ballets greatest moments still!
I remember sleeping in my friend's mini in Floral Street for 2 nights in the freezing cold to queue for tickets to see Margot and Rudi In Romeo and Juliet.I paid £2.10.00 Shillings for my ticket in the Stalls Circle.I booked to see them In Giselle and Swan Lake as well.
This can cure any desease.
Linda obraprima viva em movimento com suavidade e romantismo!
touches my soul every time i see it...again and again there are many ballerinas with better technique but how she create a role ..this is true artistry and make her beeing a legend ..
No there arent. More arhletic and pliable yes, but ballet tecgnique includes musicality.
@@casteretpollux Yes, and the art of inhabiting a character, to perfection.
Danced beautifully and with a moving honesty. To whatch, enjoy and learn.
Joana Amoroso .
At 8.00 to 8.10. Breathtaking and soul touching emotion. Wow. This grumpy guy is thinking of lost loves right now.
Even better than the original movie with. Hussey and Whiting.(and I adored that movie)..... LOVE Rudy and Margot
De otro planeta
I must be missing something here. What is wrong with Fonteyn's technique? Everything she does is so clean and precise no over the top extra personal additions to the choreography. Fonteyn is classical ballet and there are millions who agree.She is the full package, dance r and actress. Feel like I am on a mission here!!
Rudolph Nureyev..still unequaled!
April 2017
MARAVILLOSA PAREJA
Nureyev is to dance what Heifetz is to the violin: he just makes everyone else look bad
We star Romeo and Juliet at the San Francisco Ballet this month.
Исключительно впечатляет!!
Can you say amazing? the most fabulous couple dancing the most famous of scenes....breathtaking really! And to think she was his elder of 20 years!
The best dance of all
Gorgeous
Maravilhosos! Não me canso de ver os dis dançando juntos.
The most romantic kissing
hermoso simplemente..
la perfection
It's long time ago - since for some years Nurejew had been leeding the Viennese Opera Ballet
Greetings from Vienna
1966 I saw this in a cinema in Manchester when I was at University!
@xanyxxx look at fonteyn's legs and arms, you will notice muscle if you look carefully. besides, pointe is nothing like foot binding. pointe is practised slowly with the ballerina knowing the consequences and foot binding is forced on suddenly. also, with care, feet can be taken care of very well. if you've never done pointe before don't judge!!!
Forget dancing on ice ... this is the real deal!
gorgeous video and wonderful music... i shivered for the whole video throught... brilliant... thanks for posting! i'm going to the RAH to see it tonight! Looking forward to it! =D
Yes really faskinating and superb indeed...jzpatelut...
When a child asks "What is Ballet?", simply show them this clip, and they will know..
At 8.02, she turns, looks, and the pursuer is transfixed. Astonishing.
sorry but classical dance is not only to be having a good technique...in our days all the famous dancer show us nothing else than technique so that we think this is ballet. its the base true but to be an artist had nothing to do with high legs and technique..'(and like high legs and good technique very well but
she touches heart and soul after 50 jears in old films.. how phantastic they must be live on stage ....
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
anyone who is a fan of Nureyev or Fonteyn, is a dancer, has been a dancer, or has ever been even remotely interested in dance should read the book Dancer by Colum McCann. I was a pre-professional dancer for five years, a time which I remember fondly while at the same time being glad that I quit when I did, and nothing else has captured the world of dance, and the human condition in general, as exquisitely as that book did. please, please read it
Dancer was absolute rubbish.
After watching this I can't believe I even momentarily thought that Natalie Portman did all the dancing in 'Black Swan'
Ok, that was a little mean of me. I just prefer watching this. You can actually believe it's love!!
Same with Makarova. That ballerina couldn’t turn to save her life, Balanchine was beyond her and much of her dancing had a messy or fidgety quality about it, like she was always having to make adjustments for little slip-ups. Yet her feet en pointe shone like baguette diamonds, her persona burned up the stage like a supernova and people who saw her, never ever forgot her. On the other hand a ballerina of Svetlana Zakharova’s technical brilliance and physical facility leaves me decidedly unmoved.
Shame on the person who deleted my comment of yesterday. I just compared this version with Nureyev's own choreography of this scene for the Paris Ballet. The Parisian scene was marvelous and full of exuberance and joy. However, this scene is far more intense because it includes the fear and awe of first love. All lovers experience a partial death of childhood or self sufficiency. But Romeo and Juliet's capacity to truly love their enemy will result in their deaths, just as it did for Jesus Christ who they mirror on a romantic level. Juliet must come down from her spiritual balcony into the physical and violent world of Verona to meet Romeo. 19th Century Ballet has an otherworldly idealism or perfection at its heart, a straining literally to fly, to rise above the earth. Here, Prokofiev's music brings that idealism down into the explosive world of the 20th Century, Divine Love, as in Dante and as in Christ's incarnation, descends into the finite, mortal world. Fonteyn captures so well Juliet's change from childish playfulness to adult passion. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet just one year after the great plague which closed the theaters in London and killed 11,000 people, including his only son Hamnet who was only 11. So Shakespeare writes this great play as a grieving parent to an audience who are overwhelmed with grief on a scale few of us can imagine. In the play, the friar carrying Friar Laurence's message to Romeo to explain the mock death of Juliet is quarantined when he stops to help someone with plague. Shakespeare creates a story of a love which tries to drown the violence and hatred of the world which murders these innocent children, Shakespeare wants to lift these lovers into the immortal world of tragedy and poetry. Perhaps Shakespeare even suspected that the plague had been deliberately sent as germ warfare by the Spanish who had lost the Battle of the Spanish Armada only a few years earlier. These lovers must love so completely, so truly that their love can conquer hate. We see in Fonteyn and Nureyev such absolute love, he an exiled Russian, she an older woman married to a man crippled for much of his life after an accident. Dance speaks so eloquently things which cannot be spoken in words. In dance the body becomes the music and enters a world beyond verbal language. These two dancers give us a love which rises above humanity's need to hurt, to find some excuse to injure others, to live from one violent strut of superiority to another. These lovers live in the humility which is the basis of all love, Romantic and Spiritual. We need each other to be complete, we are not fully human or divine until we put down our defenses and find our home in others. Surely Romeo and Juliet, Fonteyn and Nureyev found that home in each other. And perhaps Shakespeare, longing for his lost son, found Hamnet in writing plays to immortalize his son, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and his sonnets where Shakespeare claims he will make the Beloved live in lines of poetry. Shakespeare, the poet, will conquer Hamnet's death. And indeed he does each time we watch Shakespeare's plays or the ballet which his lovers inspired:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18
But I can give thee more:
For I will raise her statue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet, Act V
Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back.
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night;
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Romeo and Juliet Act III
+Vara Sue Tamminga : This is a beautiful and thoughtful commentary/essay on love, both worldly and heavenly. Eros and Agape. I will add this to my meditations on life and its meaning. Thank you.
+ Vara Sue Tamminga Thank you for this beautiful comment.
lovely
Beautiful, but for the end part, Nureyev is very well known go have been predominantly gay. These were two supreme artists who were able convey things through art which were not restricted to their personal experience. We are so lucky this is preserved on film and free to view.
performance i did not miss
That kind of love
@xanyxxx they aren't starved, if they would, they would have no energy to work it off onstage. females usually don't have muscles because 1, they're trained in a special way ; who'd want to see muscly females? Besides, looks don't mean everything. Just because they look skinny does not mean the don't have muscle, and muscle weighs alot more than fat; and 2, they work off all the food they eat dancing. in classical and neo-classical ballet females all have the most dancing, so its just natural
@plumbago Yes, her husband caused a lot of her financial worries, with things such as drug trafficking etc. And in the end she had to keep working into her 60's, to pay for his medical bills - injuries that he indirectly brought upon himself. She would have been far better off without him.
what brought me here was the Movie "10"
and
what Bo Derek said :
@hellokittyjfh
woow Fonteyn is awful? You obviously don't know anything about dance. The ARTISTRY (which is what she was known for, not tech.) of Fonteyn, was what made her such a legend in the dance world. If you can't watch this video and be touched by the sheer artistry of her presence and movements, then you have obviously not been educated enough to know that artists like these come few and far in between. Like Pavlova before her, its the ARTISTRY that makes the artist not tech.
Should've liked this ages ago...
漫画でみて気になって見にきたけど、良すぎて。
Yes i agree with you thanks...jzpatelut..