Who is your favorite ballet dancer?

[Hollywood Ballet]

1. Gary Masters- he studied under Tudor, danced with Jose Limon himself, and has been a great mentor to me.

2. Fred Mathews- Also a mentor, danced with Humphrey-Weidman and Limon, and at 55 could still outjump most 20-year-olds around.

 

If I have to pick a ballet person- Nijinsky. I taught myself the final solo from his Le Sacre du Printemps, years ago while still recovering from a Jones fracture, using a purloined video of the Joffrey reconstruction featuring Beatriz Rodriguez. That solo has 104 jumps, something like that, and the time signature of the music is fiendish. They say no one danced it like Nijinsky, though he gave it to his sister (who infuriated him by becoming pregnant and unavailable for the premiere).

 

Only a mad genius could have choreographed that. I'm so glad I got the chance to perform it.

[balletluverr92]

i have sooooo many but i would have to say my top three are: alexandra ansanelli from the royal ballet(formely from the new york city ballet), marienlana nunez from the royal ballet and julie diana from the pennsylvania ballet

[vagansmom]

Alina Cojocaru

Margot Fonteyn

Alexandra Ansanelli

 

All for their artistry.

[arus]

For me-is Mixail Barishnikov and Nina Ananiashvili

[Leggie]

This is such a difficult question... there are many dancers I love but to be quite honest, there isn't such a thing as the "perfect" dancer whom I love completely. There are 'these' and 'those' things I love about certain dancers but at the same time, I see their downsides. This might seem crazy to you! (:

 

I love Zakharova for her beauty and her artistry in Giselle, First Act. I love Lopatkina for being the only true Swan there has ever been, but unfortunately, I only liked her Second Act from Swan Lake. I love Iana Salenko (Staatsballett Berlin) for being such a sunshine-personality and so dashing on stage. I love Beatrice Knop for her wonderful depth of emotion as I could see her in "Serait-ce la mort?" (Staatsballett). I love Alexandra Ansanelli for her wonderful fairy arms in The Sleeping Beauty...

 

... Alina Cojocaru is wonderful, too, because she has such an honest smile. Oh, there are so many beautiful and great dancers! Unfortunately, many lack true artistry, so ... all in all, I'll have to say: Maya Plisetskaya.

[Rory]

Carlos Acosta, Daniil Simkin, and Tetsuya Kumakawa. Carlos brings such great presence and technique to the stage, and I think his pirouettes are some of the cleanest on earth. Daniil is young and promising, with long legs and clean lines. Tetsuya was truly electric in his days with Royal, and now is doing a great job directing and starring with K-Ballet in Japan.

[Guest useyourplie]

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[Josiex33]

Alessandra Ferri and Julie Kent. Both are beautiful, graceful, have awesome technique, and are super expressive. :]]

[abtIs4Me]

My favorite dancer is Svetlana Zakharova!

(sorry that my typing is weird- my keyboard is broken )

Svetlana is an amazing dancer! My favorite role she plays is Giselle!

She is magnificent!

 

Edited by moderator to fix typing issue.

[ouch pouch]

Altynai Asylmuratova

Natalia Makarova

Sylvie Guillem

[LilBalletDancer1993]

Sarah Lamb... Marianela Nunez, and... umm (so hard to pick!!)... Polina... ooh, and tamara rojo and alina cojocaru... Natalia Makarova... and (should probably stop, it's taking me ages running down a list in my head of all the lovely dancers and saying which are best!!)... Beryl Grey and Antoinette Sibley, they were both so exquisite!! Beryl Grey did odette/odile at age 15- that's only a year older than me!!! And I have ancient Royal Ballet programmes signed by both of them, which my grandfather (who used to work building and designing sets for ballet companies!!) gave to me!!

LBDxXx

[Clara 76]

You have a real treasure there, LilBalletDancer!! If they're not already, get them framed and have them protected.

[LilBalletDancer1993]

I have them framed don't worry!! But sometimes I can't help taking one out and looking through it gently... My grandmother has the best one though, she has the programme (signed) from when beryl grey first performed swan lake, at 15 (only a year older than me!!! )... I've got other old programmes as well that aren't signed, but are soooo lovely to look through

LBDxXx

[Clara 76]

Lovely!!! Thanks for sharing!

[pointe200]

LittleBalletDancer - you're so lucky!! My favourite dancer has to be Darcey Bussell! She's so inspiring, but I also think that Alina Cojocaru and Lauren Cuthbertson are fantastic aswell, and Delia Matthews (she won the Prix De Lausanne in 2007).