Thursday, February 25

East-West Story: The Parallel Lives of Two World-Class Dancers

Choti
Did I mention how much I love your dancing? I peek through the doors and watch you twirl and pirouette and spin and and and. Your face is a tight concentrated expression of controlled determination to do well. And I may be biased but you look ethereal compared to the other girls. You move lightly baby. That's a very interesting quality. I'm not sure you have seen this. 
There are people who walk through life as if they are bulldozers and wrecking balls. Like your baba. It's not so for you. You slip through life. You walk deliberately and delicately. Like you dance. Very much so. Slight. Coltish. Aware of what's happening. In your little world. And I feel like grabbing you and squishing you and hiding you in my arms and never letting you go. 
I've been to these dance shows. Dancing is fun. We don't have to know or learn how to dance. It's built in. Love it. Can't wait to see your next dance baby. 
Love you
Baba

East-West Story: The Parallel Lives of Two World-Class Dancers - SPIEGEL ONLINE
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-story-of-ballet-dancers-sergei-polunin-and-joy-womack-a-1059837.html
(via Instapaper)

Joy Womack is from California, Sergei Polunin from a poor city in Ukraine. One went East to pursue a career in ballet, the other West. For both, talent has proven to be a double-edged sword.
When she appears, the other dancers strike a quiet pose. She takes off, jumps and does a split mid-air in a swirl of white tulle. Her movements seem effortless, as if she requires no momentum at all — not even a chance to catch her breath. She imperiously raises an arm, liberating the others from their paralysis. They fall into line behind her and follow her steps, for she is Myrtha, their leader, the Queen of the Ghost Girls in the ballet "Giselle."
En pointe, with her head held high, the queen receives a round of applause. Then she glides away.
Backstage, she lets herself fall on a yoga mat, panting and sweating. After a short pause, she's back to being Joy Womack, a 21-year-old from Santa Monica, California. In her company, the Kremlin Ballet Theater, she is one of the select few who dances solo. She is the first American to perform here, behind the walls of the Kremlin.

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