You are absolutly right about the grace, strength and control ballet folks have to develop. And after a good performance the guys cannot spike their partners and do a touchdown dance, they are required to just continue moving with grace.

…the role it gives tends to revolve around traditional ideas of beauty, grace, and supposed fragility masking strength.

That hits the nail on the head. Grace and fragility masking strength are what makes older women so impressive and (IMHO) so much more interesting than younger women in the flower of youth.

the exquisite artifice of ballet, musicbox in the war zone!

thanks, neoneo

(returns to the arduous rewriting of Hamlet with George Bush as the Prince, Barbara as Gertrude, and Condi as Ophelia….)

One, is that it was beautifully written. Two, is that it was written about beauty. Several years ago my oldest daughter, then in her early twenties, asked me to go with her to a ballet in which a friend of hers was to dance. I agreed because I love my daughter and enjoy spending time with her, but I expected the ballet to be a real snooze fest.

How wrong I was. I enjoyed it in two ways: one part the graceful beauty of the dance itself, which was satisfying on an emotional - almost spiritual - level, and also to the feminine sexuality of the dancers themselves; their tiny costumes, the movements, their poses, everything. Those girls were hot!

Afterwards, my daughter asked what I thought and I gave her my honest reaction, both parts. She thought it was hysterically funny and laughed at me about it for the rest of the day. For the next week, she told everyone we met how she’d taken me to the ballet and I thought the dancers were hot. It never failed to get a laugh. It’s true though. I practically fell in love with them watching them dance. It was a very powerful experience. Of course, being in a small auditorium and sitting near the front, those women were dancing right in front of me, so that probably increased the experience and the feeling of intimacy and being drawn deeply in. But there was something very primal about it, something I responded to on many levels. I’d go again. I really enjoyed it.

I do want to post a link to Jamie and David however, because it describes their relationship in more detail

By the way Neo, there’s a broken br tag in your link to my Ice Figure skating post. It causes it to go to my main page rather than it.

The one thing that is sure to attract men of all ages. Really really beautiful and graceful women, ; )

I love it when a plan comes together, to paraphrase the A-Team.

Beauty can be both serene and lovely, or magnificently destructive and shocking.

The light and the dark, both sides of the same face of existence.

Maybe I’m getting too metaphysical. I was always philosophical at heart.

I often despise and feel contempt for the Islamic Jihad. Their inability to accept the help of what would have been their other half, their partners, creates weaknesses that is not shown on their faces. It is shown on their souls. It is so easy to shatter the souls of those that lack the true essence of strength.

That’s not an unusual process for me; I’ve got notes for about 100 unwritten-as-yet posts, mostly on topics known as “evergreens,” meaning they’re not tied into a current event and can be used on days when I don’t feel like writing about the news.

I often have to get out what I’m thinking when the muse strikes, because often later I can think of nothing to write. (bad rhyming couplet?) Even using a few minutes for revision might change the flow. Which is why having a more or less error free first draft was such an important skill to try to acquire; it makes things a lot easier.

I sure didn’t.

It was different from ballet. The guys were much bigger than their partners. That added some basic eroticism to the dance without a single hip sashay being thrown in.

IMO, they could have taken it on the road.

Wasn’t there a great movie about two women’s lives who had been rival young dancers, one who got married and had a young daughter beginning to dance, the other remaining a diva (once with 17? curtain calls) — perhaps The Turning Point?

It’s too bad the homosexual men are so dominant / pervasive in ballet. “Sleeping with Madonna” had some notes on this, too. I think the reality show dance competition will be good for getting more men interested in being better dancers.

I had a small—actually, an infinitesimal—role in that movie, you know. Read this:

http://neoneocon.com/2005/06/08/heres-to-you-anna-maria-louisa/

Combined with the one thing that is sure to repel men of all ages. Really really beautiful and graceful men. In tights.

Spandex + lumps = disturbing.

i agree…

Your point of view is beautifully expressed and insightful. I’d be interested to know more about your life and experience as a dancer/teacher. I did find the link to your small part in “The Turning Point” and understand that you are now a therapist–about which you also write lucidly. I’m interested because after retiring from ballet I went back to school for a degree in psychology.

I’m not a big follower of blogs, but I shall have to explore yours thoroughly as I get rewarded at every turn. Keep up the good work.