New York Favorites

New York loves its dancers! Especially around the Lincoln Center (66th st W). That NYCB ballerina is beautiful but where's the turn-out?

New York loves Japanese noodles! At the teeny restaurant Totto (52nd st W between 8th & 9th), I had a delicious vegetarian noodle soup.

New York loves art! The Frick collection is not just one of my favorite museums in the world. It's also one of my favorite places - the art is displayed in Mr Frick's home, so luxurious yet cozy.

New York loves being a little crazy! A wood horse and hippo went for a ride around the city last week...

A Saturday In Paris

Down the rue Michel-Ange...

... and then left on the rue Molitor...

... past the intersection with the rue Boileau...

... to take the Métro at Chardon-Lagache.

Waiting for the Métro...

... to take me to meet a friend at La Motte-Picquet, where the Métro flies above the street.

And then, off to the Théâtre du Châtelet, where Diaghilev produced his first Parisian shows of the Ballets Russes...

... to see the amazing Novosibirsk Ballet dance Balanchine!

Ballet De L'Opéra

Last night, I was delighted to go to the Opéra Bastille to see the institution's ballet company performing Jiri Kylian's extraordinary Kaguyahime, inspired by an ancient Japanese legend. My favorite ballerina, Marie-Agnès Gillot, was regal as ever (but pictured above is the equally exquisite, emotional Agnès Letestu). An ensemble of traditional Japanese musicians played live, as Eastern tradition merged with Western modernism in its most graceful and poignant expression. It was a triumph.

Speaking of art and sublime women, did you know that the Louvre's Venus de Milo has a blog?

2010 - With Art

To illustrate what I wish us all for 2010, I thought I'd use images from exhibitions I've enjoyed these past 2 weeks in Paris. At the Pinacothèque, where masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age have been loaned by my dear Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), we can wish for many books, both enlightening and amusing... and for music, played by that graceful mandolin... Let's also wish for pooches and pets of all kinds, curled up on our beds...

The musée Antoine Bourdelle celebrates Isadora Duncan - wishing us plenty of dancing.

Finally the Fauvists & Expressionists show at the Marmottan Monet museum speaks of a year filled with colors.

Baryshnikov!

This is definitely a Baryshnikov weekend. The bliss!

Something of a miracle happened and I landed a ticket to attend an unforgettable, and most sold-out event, at Santa Monica's tiny Broad Stage - Three Solos And A Duet, with supreme dancer Baryshnikov as the star.
It was my first time ever seeing this legendary performer, and though he is now 61, I wasn't disappointed. The clarity, the grace and the strength of his every movement were just dazzling. He is famously short, yet on stage he appeared as tall as can be, and when the choreography froze him in a basic classical ballet step, such as an attitude or merely standing in cinquième, it was the most intense perfection.
A witty piece by Alexei Ratmansky, set to Glinka's most famous waltz, introduced the themes of the evening's works: intimacy, love and how we relate to our own image. The two duos by my dear Mats Ek were true to the choreographer's haunting language; Ana Laguna incarnated the experience of unmediated, raw emotions, reminding me of Ek's Giselle, a masterpiece. With Baryshnikov, she took us through the vagaries of a relationship or a dance stage partnership - its communication failures, its playfulness, physicality, loneliness (Watch passages from the duo here).
As for Benjamin Millepied's Years Later (which he discusses in this must-see video), it confronts footage of a young Baryshnikov, the dancer himself and his shadow; with amusement or frustration, Baryshnikov watches and reacts to his spectacular younger self, to saxophone solos by Phil Glass. Rarely is a piece so brutally honest and personal, yet elegant, infused with the abstract order of ballet; and while intimately focused on Baryshnikov, it is also, more universally, a tribute to dance.

As it was a gala performance, the show was followed by a lavish party where Los Angeles's upper crust nibbled on exquisite treats...

Then, on Saturday morning, a Baryshnikov with a weary but kind smile signed copies of his first publication as a photographer, Merce My Way. This colorful volume pays tribute to the works of Merce Cunningham, a great master of modern dance.
Of course, I got my copy autographed - my heart pounding, my eyes wide open.

Also see this interview from the Los Angeles Times, as well as their own review of the show.

Dance Books

After the intensive reading I did during my trip, I took delight in leafing through a couple of text-light dance books that featured mostly photographs...
In Royal Ballet: 161 Images (above), former principal dancer Johan Personn snapped black and white pics of fellow dancers, in rehearsal, in class or in the wings of theaters. With tender admiration, he captures the intensity, the concentration and the grueling work that ballet demands.

John Fraser's Private View: Inside Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theatre features beautiful pics of a young Mikhail Baryshnikov, often with the members, both dancers and non dancers, of the company he directed - including his dog Tim, who seemed to have his own personal spot in every studio at ABT...
Like Personn, I'm guessing Baryshnikov has a taste for photography, as he is publishing a book of his own pictures celebrating the great Merce Cunningham - who died this summer, much to the dance community's chagrin. On the occasion of the book launch, the dancer America has taken to calling Misha will be signing copies in Santa Monica in a couple of weeks... I'm wondering whether or not I should go...

Le Centre de Danse du Marais

Even though I only spent a couple of days in Paris, I managed to take two dance classes at the Centre de Danse du Marais, where my dear teacher, Frédéric Lazzarelli, works. It's always a delight to step into this ancient building, and the largest dance studio, with its hardwood floors and spectacular wood ceiling (top picture), as well as huge mirrors and a piano.
I like being at the window during the barre, for the occasional, welcome breeze, and for glimpses at the building's beautiful facades, looking onto a cobble-stoned courtyard.

Russian Style Book

My abuela doesn't need special occasions to spoil me, and she just gave me a book I had been longing for, Russian Style - abuela knows that ever since I rode the Trans-Siberian as a child, everything Russian has been a genuine passion for me.
Fashion editor Evelina Khromtchenko has selected superb pictures offering a panorama of Russian icons that artists, designers and dreamers such as me find endlessly inspiring.

The volume is also packed with information and little known facts.
Did you know, for instance that the word bistro, meaning a French café/restaurant, comes from the Russian "faster!", which Cossacks soldiers would yell out to French waiter after they defeated Napoleon?
And did you know that Coco Chanel's no. 5 was created by Ernest Beaux, no other than the Russian imperial perfumer?
And that the bra was invented by Russian-born Ida Kaganovich, the founder of Maidenform?
Dance of course is present in the book, especially with a spectacular pic of my dear Maya Plissetskaya, quoted as saying one should "dance music, not dance to music."

Now I dream of an Orenburg shawl, kazaki boots, and bright sitetz (printed cotton fabric) shirts.

Erik Bruhn And Bournonville

Erik Bruhn was one of the most important and beautiful dancers in history. His long lines and extraordinary technique made him Nureyev's only role model - he was also the great love of his life. A Dane, Bruhn honored, in this slender volume, his country's most influential choreographers ever, Auguste Bournonville, whose technique and ballets (such as La Sylphide) completely shaped the Danish national ballet company. It features wonderful pictures, but also valuable technical advice - the chapters on pirouettes is especially enlightening. Though it is out of print, this precious book can be found online.

Love dance? Watch the New York Times's recent video tribute to the tutu, and their Baryshnikov slideshow + article. Also check out dancer Daniil Simkin's blog.

1920's Russia Book

Another one of my birthday presents this year, aside from the Tortilla Girl dress, is a superb book called Moscow and St-Petersburg 1900-1920. It covers the arts and culture in those cities during the Russian "Silver Age", when artists such as Kandinsky or Chagall created great paintings, while the likes of divine Anna Pavlova (bottom pic) and Michel Fokine turned Russian ballet into a eternal legend. In some works, you can see elements that would later inspire Yves Saint-Laurent, Paul Poiret, generations of designers and creators. As the Russian empire was about to crumble, the arts bloomed. The book also includes extraordinary pics of historical figures like the last tsar, Nicholas II, Rasputin, and others, as well as heart-wrenching shots from World War 1.

Peter Martins Photographs

I recently read Far From Denmark, the moving autobiography of Peter Martins, the Danish dancer who joined the New York City Ballet and eventually took over the company after Balanchine died. Usually, I prefer male dancers with compact bodies rather than super slender types - say, Rudolf Nureyev or the Opéra de Paris's Wilfred Romoli rather than the Royal Ballet's Anthony Dowell. Peter Martins was very much the latter type, so he was never among my favorites. Yet I found the pictures in his book just breathtaking - the lines of his attitude are clean, svelte, yet powerful. He was also a wonderful partner for the divine, divine Suzanne Farrell.

Buddha In Blue, Yoga, And Books

The day after a grueling ballet class with Joan Bayley, a Brit who used to dance for Balanchine, I decided to take yoga instead of my usual Sunday pointe class. I'm not much of a yoga fan (I miss the music that makes ballet such a joy), but I'm always willing to try a new class.
I discovered the Santa Monica Yoga studio, a cozy and colorful place with hardwood floors, where I met the above Buddha. They offer a great deal - a one-month unlimited classes package for new students for only $50, which I bought, so you may hear more about yoga on this blog in the coming weeks.
Less than a block away on Ocean Park Blvd, I found an amazing little store, Kultura, that carries used books and vintage dresses - it's like this place was made for me! I'll post more extensively about it soon.

Speaking of books, what have I been reading? I enjoyed the great Hermione Lee's essays on writing biographies, Virgina Woolf's Nose.
And right now, I'm reading D. J. Taylor's Bright Young People, an exploration the 1920's London where the gilded youth partied to the sound of jazz. The beautiful cover of the books is a photograph by Cecil Beaton, a Bright Young Thing in his own right and a forever genius.