Dance

"Being a former dancer, classical dancer, it informed me as a human being just in terms of the grace I guess. Ballet is a very graceful form of art. You also become very aware of your body and your mind and your body is working in conjunction. That kind of helps you in acting as well. It's not only using your mind, it's like making your mind communicate this character into your body so that you can bring it to life and physicalize it."

"The popularity of adult ballet is, in my mind, a back to basics thing in a time when different dance styles are abundant. To master different styles has one precondition: to master the basics. There is no better way to achieve this than studying ballet."

"You can imagine me as a kid growing up in redneck Texas with ballet shoes, tucking the violin under my arm. I had to fight my way up."

"By disparaging ballet he succeeded very well in convincing the boys that ballet was not for Americans, that it was European in origin and in continuing character."

"Slashing its way to the finish line, 'Black Swan' is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror."

"Just as you have to learn your ABC’s in order to read and write, dancers have to learn the basic exercises and positions of ballet in order to perform choreography on the stage. They practice these exercises every day in order to keep their bodies limber and in top performing shape."

"All ballet exercises begin and end with one of the five basic positions of the feet]. There are also complementary arm positions. The positions are executed with the legs and feet turned out from the hip socket. They allow for greater flexibility, range of movement and also for a beautiful and long line of the body."

"Ballet dancers are an elite group of athletes. They train for many years before becoming professional dancers and once they join a company their training does not end. Dancers’ bodies need to be extremely strong and flexible to execute the demanding technique of ballet so they must practice and rehearse every day to keep their bodies in top physical condition. For every minute of dancing you see on the stage, there has been one hour of rehearsal."

"Male dancers typically do not wear pointe shoes. They wear ballet slippers or special ballet boots that are flexible enough for them to move in."

"To highlight and accentuate their eyes, cheeks, noses and other features, all dancers, male and female, wear makeup when they are onstage."

"In the early 1800s, with the development of the pointe shoe and the many stories about fairies and nymphs, the Romantic tutu became popular. This skirt came below the dancers’ knees, and gave them a dreamy, ethereal look, while allowing them to move more freely."

"Choreographers and costume designers in the 21st century now choose costumes which best suit the purpose of their ballet. This means that depending on the ballet, you may see a Romantic tutu, a Classical tutu or no tutu at all."

"But he had never seen Myrna in practice...never that close up. He had been impressed and a little frightened by the contrast between seeing ballet on stange, where everyone seemed to either glide or mince effortlessly on the tips of their pointes. and seeing it from less than five feet away, with harsh daylight pouring in the floor-to-ceiling windows and no music- only the choreographer rythmically clapping his hands and yelling harsh criticisms. No praise, only criticisms. Their faces ran with sweat. Their leotards were wet with sweat. The room, as large and airy as it way, stank of sweat. Sleek muscles trembled and fluttered on the nervous edge of exhaustion. Corded tendons stood out like insulated cables. Throbbing veins popped out on foreheads and necks. Except for the choreographer's clapping and angry, hectoring shouts, the only sounds were the thrup-thud of ballet dancers on pointe moving across the floor and harsh, agonized panting for breath. Jack had suddenly realized that these dancers were not just earning a living, they were killing themselves. Most of all he remembered their expressions- all that exhausted concentration, all that pain... but transcending the pain, or at least creeping around its edges, he had seen joy. Joy was unmistakably what that look was, and it scared Jack because it had seemed inexplicable."

"The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer."

"Degas was obsessed by the art of classical ballet, because to him it said something about the human condition. He was not a balletomane looking for an alternative world to escape into. Dance offered him a display in which he could find, after much searching, certain human secrets."

"I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses."

"Some people think that movements, such as the movements in ballet, are a higher cultural expression, whereas some are just dirt. I think it is elitist to think that a trained movement is more acceptable than untrained and possibly unrehearsed movements."

"Giselle is considered one of the great Romantic ballets, Giselle was first performed in Paris in 1841."

"The Sleeping Beauty was the first successful ballet composed by Tchaikovsky. However, it was no more popular than his first ballet, Swan Lake. The production was heavily criticized for being too lavish. Within three years, however, the ballet gained enough popularity to be performed at least 50 times."

"The Nutcracker is more than 100 years old and was first presented at the Mayinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia."

"Neoclassical ballet is a ballet style that uses traditional ballet vocabulary but is less rigid than the classical ballet."

"Classical ballet is the most formal of the ballet styles; it adheres to traditional ballet technique."

"Contemporary ballet is a form of dance influenced by both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and use of pointe work from classical ballet, although it permits a greater range of movement that may not adhere to the strict body lines set forth by schools of ballet technique."

"God comes to us in theater in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity."

"Ballet dance works (ballets) are choreographed, and also include mime, acting, and are set to music (usually orchestral but occasionally vocal). Later developments include expressionist ballet, and elements of Modern dance."

"Tchaikovsky’s first ballet, Swan Lake is considered by many to be one of the greatest classical ballets of all time. Its romance and beauty has allowed the classic ballet to mesmerize audiences for more than 100 years."

"Anytime you look at anything that's considered artistic, there's a commercial world around it: the ballet, opera, any kind of music. It can't exist without it."

"I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do."

"And it is always Easter Sunday at the New York City Ballet. It is always coming back to life. Not even coming back to life - it lives in the constant present."

"So many people report to be contemporary dancers, and they're not. They are sort of jazz dancers that feel like they're throwing a bit of classical in there. I mean, a true contemporary dancer has got ballet as their base and classical ballet, and that is their base. And then they choose to extemporize on that and go into a contemporary world."

"I feel his arm Lightly Over me. He takes one of my outstretched hands. Draws it beneath my stomach. "One more time..." This is not sex, Not friendship. Something Strange Special In the stillness of his breath, The water like way he moves. He is making a dance We are making a dance."

"He was also the first to impart training of Koodyattam to non-members of the Chakyar community. The celebrated authority on world theater, Christopher Byrski (author of ‘Concept of Indian Theater’ was his pupil."

"Mani Madhava Chakyar with his unfailing urge for complicated, difficult and minute details has enriched the art during the decades of his unparalleled performing life without permitting even an iota of compromise regarding the essentials of traditional style."

"The wonders his eyes do are a rare a treat. Seeing, indeed, is believing. It is only when one sees him perform that one realizes how powerful the eyes are to express, to suggest and to communicate emotions and even to convey whole packages of ideas."

"Chakkai koothu must have made its way from Tamil Nadu to Kerala...it might have then melded with the local tradition and the amalgam is what we now know as Koodiyattam...suggesting the fusing of two traditional art forms."

"While some of the Koodiyattam techniques have come down to us in the written form through ‘Krama Deepika' and ‘Attaprakaram', a lot of it has also been transmitted orally. Much of the oral tradition could have been lost."

"Koodiyattam now finds a place in more contemporary settings. [Margi Madhu, for example], did a Koodiyattam rendering of Othello in Theatre Works' play ‘Desdemona', which had Indonesian dancers, a Burmese puppeteer and Korean drummers."

"In 1987 he was awarded the Tusli Samman award for “creativity, noble traditions, prolonged training and practice leading to heights of achievement in the area considered.”"

"Eyes play a very central role in the abhinaya in Koodiyattam. The eye training is very laborious and so is the process of putting on the eye make-up before the performance. We also use chundapoo , the ovary of a special flower, to put into the eye before the performance in order to make them bloodshot and strong."

"A debut is seen more like an initiation into the practice rather than a full-fledged performance, after several years of perfecting the art, once the first ‘purappad’ (an invocatory ritual performance) is learned well. Then slowly the student begins to learn part by part and grows as a member of the ensemble."

"Traditions/practices have to evolve constantly and simultaneously grow deeper roots. The growth of the tradition has to go both ways simultaneously."

"Koodiyattam is an ‘apoorva vidya’ – a rare and special stream of knowledge... [We have] a different training system in Koodiyattam as compared to other Indian classical dances."

"A 2000 year old art form and still going strong- That is Koodiyattom … Literally meaning, ‘Dancing Together,’ and officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, ‘Koodiyattam,’ or ‘Kutiyattam,’ is a form of Sanskrit theatre, traditionally performed in the state of Kerala."

"For a Sanskrit student to observe a Koodiyattam performance of one of the great Sanskrit plays is a profound, even life-changing experience."

"...Koodiyattam, Kerala's traditional Sanskrit theatre, has been proclaimed part of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO."

"I made a film on Koodiyattam-the oldest living theatre in the world for UNESCO. It was basically an effort to document the theatre art form. A three-hour long film resulted though I had shot almost ten hours of it. But then they wanted a smaller version of 10 to 15 minutes duration. It was not impossible, but was not fair to the art, I thought. Instead, I suggested they watch any 15 minutes from the film. That would be more in keeping with this theatre art that takes a few weeks to enact an Act."

"It is the most ancient form of classical performing arts, Koodyatam consists of staging of selected acts or ankas from Sanskrit dramas in a characteristic manner with a highly evolved and stylized art technique."

"Kudiyattam plays, always based on classical Sanskrit texts, many of them composed in Kerala, invariably include a long nirvahanam or “retrospective” in which a character reveals, mostly by the silent language of hand- and eye-gestures, abhinaya, the long process that has brought him or her to the present moment in the play."

"Koodyattam means several actors depicting different characters in the play as against mono-acting. It also means the presentation of a play availing of the full complement of all the four forms of abhinayas prescribed in the Natyashastra."

"Koodyattam is usually performed in Koothambalams in temple premises, either during festivals or as a special offering. The performers are from a sparse community of Chakyars."