Ballet videos on the web

[2 Left Feet]

Okay, this has my vote for the best place to check out ballet videos on the web. I could easily spend hours here. Go to:

 

YouTube

 

And type "ballet" in the search box. You'll get about 20,000 video clips from different ballets. Pretty cool.

[beck_hen]

Bump!

 

I've also been (time)sucked into this in the past few weeks. My favorite clips so far are the Sizova Corsaire/Dryad Queen variation and the Maximova Giselle and Kitri. Of course there are an even greater number of wonderful clips of contemporary dancers, as in the Cojocaru/Kobborg Cinderella, but I like finding rarities. There is even Anna Pavlova's Dying Swan.

 

The only thing I don't enjoy is reading some of the comments from young students. Most appreciative or negative comments seem to center on a dancer's physical facility. I understand their attitude and once shared it, but still find it demoralizing to focus so much on the body, as if a dancer were a beautiful lump of clay with no animating spark of personality or soul.