I don't go to the Ballet or follow up its news all that often. But I was struck by a gorgeous image of this ballet dancer on the NYT first page today (Arts section). Blown up, the image is stunning. A mix of grace and power soaring beautifully in the air, yet holding the lute so delicately. Very befitting to Stravinsky's music. The dancer is a 20 yr old member of the NYC corps de ballet and is dancing the title role in Apollo. The accompanying article mentions upcoming performances of the "Two and Three part Inventions". Yep. The same as ours..It must be interesting to represent polyphonic voices by individual dancers..
Here is the image:

What a beautiful image. It's a shame that a male dancer's role is so often put into the background and he is merely support for the female. The strength and grace of these male dancers takes my breath away.

Take a look at this. There are so few dances in which the male dancer gets to show his skill. In this video the male and female dance as one:



There's an exquisite Pas de Deux from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that I'm trying to find...

I actually love Ballet, the sheer amount of discipline involved is absolutely inspiring.


(The music to this video may be a bit cheezy, but tell me this doesn't make you smile at least a little bit )