Saturday, August 4, 2012

Modern Ballet

A few days ago, I went to Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet with my family at a local community college.  My ballet teacher had tickets for some of her students to attend. We also invited my cousin Luba to come along. She also dances ballet and is already on point.  We had great seats right in the second row. We were so close that I hear every squeak of their shoes and could see every little mistake and even the dancer shaking while holding there leg up high in the air. When the curtain went up, my younger brother asked if the dancers were real. They looked so spectacular.

What was so interesting is that they danced to classical music by Bach, and Liszt. Usually modern ballet is danced to modern songs.  However, dancing a modern ballet to classical music actually looked and sounded really good. 

The difference between modern ballet (also known as contemporary) and classical ballet, is the way the body moves. Classical Ballet is very emotional and has dramatic movements that tells a fictional story, like my favorite The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.  Contemporary  is very free and expresses the emotion of the music. These contemporary dances were very graceful and dramatic.  Everything they did was in unison and musical. The men and women were extremely flexible, and the men were very muscular. They were able to lift up the women up with great ease and grace.  It was a wonderful performance and I would love to see another modern ballet.







Have you ever seen a modern ballet performance?
Which do you prefer, modern or classical ballet? 

13 comments:

  1. Dear Miriam,

    What a wonderful post. I have never been to a ballet performance many years ago, it was Wind in the Willow.

    I truly loved this production watching all the ballet performing.
    They looked so graceful and made the performance look so easy.

    Happy holidays Miriam.

    From a friend down under,
    AA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear AA,

      I have never seen the Wind in the Willow ballet but I have read the book. It is perfect for me as I love animals. I never knew they made a ballet out of this story. Maybe one day I will see the ballet. Does Australia have a good ballet performance company?

      Sincerely,
      ♥Miriam♥

      Delete
  2. Dear Miriam

    I really enjoyed reading this post and I especially liked how you described modern ballet so well. Personally, I am a fan of classical ballet and don't really enjoy modern ballet but the way you've described it makes me want to give it another try.

    My two favourite ballets are Nutcracker (like you) and Coppelia. Have you ever seen Coppelia? I've seen it twice; once with my mum when I was young and again a few years ago with friends. Both of these ballets have a magical fairytale quality to them that I really enjoy.

    I think a modern ballet to classical music would have been very special.

    Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

    Miss McLeod
    Room 24

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Miss. McLeod,

      Thank you for the wonderful comment. I have never seen the ballet Coppelia but I have heard of it. Maybe some day I will see that ballet too. I also prefer classical ballet over modern ballet.

      What grade do you teach?

      Sincerely,
      ♥Miriam♥

      Delete
    2. Dear Miriam

      I teach at an Intermediate school. In New Zealand we have Intermediate schools for 11 and 12 year olds, that is Year 7 and Year 8 (your Grades 6 and 7).

      Intermediates are schools almost everyone goes to for two years. The students that don't go to an Intermediate are part of a 'Full Primary' school that goes from New Entrants (your Kindergarten, I think) through to Year 8 (your Grade 7).

      What grades attend what schools in the USA?

      Best wishes
      Miss McLeod

      Delete
  3. Dear Miriam !!
    We*ve read your post with great interest
    You usualy give such explanation of what
    you describe that for us you are a teacher.
    We never saw modern ballet but we have
    a big wish to see it and it*s after reading
    your post.
    Thank you our dear our beauty our love

    Grands Mila and Isay.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ♕♔Miriam♕♔August 5, 2012 at 2:07 PM

    Dear Grandma Mila and Grandpa Isay,

    Thank you for the wonderful comment. I hope one day you will also get to see a modern ballet or a classical ballet. Keep reading my blog and leaving comments!

    Love,
    ♥Miriam♥

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Miriam,
    I like your post and your pictures,
    I seen modern and classical ballet many times, but I like better classical ballet. It's nice that you appreciate arts and at this age already seen ballet performed by different ballet companies.
    Love you,
    Grandma Tanya and Grandpa Eugene

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Grandma Tanya and Grandpa Eugene,

      Thank you for your comment. I also like classical ballet but it is nice that I got to see both. Modern Ballet is also beautiful.

      Sincerely,
      Miriam

      Delete
  6. Dear ♥Miriam♥,

    Every time I read you blog, your writing seems to have improved. You use such descriptive and interesting language. Anyone could be mistaken for thinking this is a blog written by an adult!

    You certainly have a good understanding of ballet. You were very fortunate to receive tickets to the ballet show. It sounds like it was a very enjoyable performance.

    I haven't seen too much ballet so I'm not really sure if I prefer classical or contemporary ballet. One time I saw a performance of Swan Lake, however, there was a twist - it was ballet on ice! The performers were all wearing ice skates and the regular theatre stage was turned into an ice rink.

    I hear you only have a few more weeks left of your summer holidays. Do you have anything exciting planned for the coming weeks?

    Best wishes,
    Mrs M☀rris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mrs. Morris,

      Thank you for the compliment. This summer I decided that I would step up my writing by incorporating new vocabulary words.

      My summer is almost over and we are going to the beach almost every day. It is over 100 degrees here and too hot to go anywhere else. I have one more week left of summer before school starts. It went by very fast.

      Sincerely,
      Miriam

      Delete
    2. Dear ♥Miriam♥,

      Thank you for replying to me. I think it is excellent that you set yourself a goal to incorporate new vocabulary into your posts. Setting goals is definitely the way to improve. Keep it up!

      You're lucky to have such lovely summer weather. It is cold and wet here as it is still winter of course. Next holidays, I am going to Byron Bay which is much further north in Australia. Hopefully we'll have some beach weather!

      Your blogging buddy,
      Mrs M☀rris

      Delete
    3. Dear Mrs. Morris,

      Thank you for replying back to me. I am sorry to hear that you have such bad weather in Australia. I hope that you have a good time in Byron Bay and go to the beach.

      Sincerely,
      Miriam

      Delete

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