Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
Interested in my ballet fiction? Check out Off Balance and the award-winning Outside the Limelight, as well as my newest, A Dancer’s Guide to Africa. Just click on their titles! I hated Black Swan. Successful film that it was, I hated many things about it, mostly the way it depicted ballet dancers in a way real enough to … Read more
I discovered prima ballerina Ulyana Lopatkina two years ago through Ballerina, a 2006 documentary that is a must-see for any ballet student or enthusiast. It follows the careers of five extraordinary Mariinsky* ballerinas and the teaching institution that produced them, the prestigious Vaganova Academy, which auditions 3000 children annually for sixty places. The audition process … Read more