UKC

Came in this evening after an excellent five hours casting for brownies on a local burn and flicked on the TV. By chance it was tuned to BBC2 and I immediately recognised the music as Mahler's wonderful Das Lied von der Erde ...... it turned out to be Darcy Bussell's final performance at the Royal Opera House. Much to my surprise I sat utterly bewitched by the music and the dance.

It must have been tempting as a final performance to showboat with some bundle load of scenes from the classic ballets ...... so hats off to Darcy for choosing something much more elegant and meaningful. I know nothing about dance (as any dance partners who have suffered stamped toes will confirm) but was genuinely moved by it!

It did cross my mind though, that if you equipped Darcy and the corps de ballet with a pair of rock boots they would probably burn off 90+% of us at a crag!

In reply to grumpytramp:
i watched it to, it was very beautiful, agree hats off to here for choosing something a little unconventional. I did a little bit of ballet a few years ago. It's so much harder than it looks! They woudl be awesome climbers, huge amounts of flexibility, great power to weight ratio, great muscular control, stupidly strong and dynamic when needed.

In reply to grumpytramp: I sat watching her dance on tv tonight and it was totally mesmerising, she is so graceful and beautiful into the bargain, I would love to have seen her dancing in real life.

In reply to grumpytramp:

A friend did ballet practice to get stronger for climbing when young.

In reply to sutty: Yep, I've known a few do it as well, to improve their climbing.

They swore it vastly improved balance, strength....infact, every aspect of their climbing.

In reply to wcdave:

Many years ago one of the teams in the FA cup were given some exercises by a ballet teacher, some of them are incorporated in some teams training now.

In reply to grumpytramp:

After only seeing the last 30 minutes, I was in tears by the end!

I was also thinking of my half-sister at RBS, at the other end of the ballerina's career path, making it feel very moving to watch this farewell dance.

In reply to tattoo2005:

I went to a Royal Ballet performance of Twlya Tharp's 'Mr Worldly Wise' 11 years ago, Darcey Bussell was the principal was injured that day so we got her understudy, Benazir Hussein, who seemed (to my untrained eye) perfect.
More smugly, I singled out the minor role of "Carrot" (a dancer in a big carrot costume, playing a carrot) as having a particular grace and presence. It was a young Sarah Wildor. Maybe I should become a ballet talent-spotter

In reply to Hannah m:

Double whammy for me ...... I absolutely love the sixth movement of Das Lied von der Erde (probably most of what you saw), which seems so fitting as its titled Der Abschied (The Farewell), is itself such a beautiful and poignant song. The choreography seemed so appropriate, particularly to the final fade to silence at the end!

Co-incidently I thought about a pal from middle school who won a scholarship to the RBS (long long before Billy Elliot .... but a pupil at a typical comprehsive and first class rugby player). Lost touch long before he hit the stage professionally but am told that he was in the corps de ballet in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake!

In reply to grumpytramp:
It was lovely (don't as a rule do dance, so don't have the vocab to describe it technically, but it was very moving)

In reply to Blue Straggler: Why on earth would anyone be dressed up as a carrot for a ballet performance? Doesnt seem very graceful, hmmmmm. Darcey Bussell is amazing though, does she have any dvds out there, you must know?

In reply to tattoo2005:

Trust me it was amazingly graceful and skilful. Slinky without being inappropriately sexual - hard to pull off when you're a carrot! Even the aubergine dancer made it look elegant, that's some skill indeed. I don't know what Bussell DVDs there are but I bet there are some. Sadly I don't think anyone filmed Mr Wordly Wise which I thought was a stupendous modern ballet. The male principal was Tetsuya Kumakawa who was VERY highly regarded, and whose departure from the Royal Ballet was deemed a little controversial (ditto Wildor's some years later). Small pictures here including the carrot.
http://www.redferns.com/propxt/main/search_string~artid:21477::/ltext~MR%20...

In reply to grumpytramp: it was stunning.

In reply to grumpytramp: It was beautiful. I've only ever seen half a dozen ballets in real life and I have never seen Darcy dance, wish I had now.

I know a couple of girls at our kung fu club who do ballet, they are very difficult to fight as their legs can whip out at any height, lovely to watch, painful to be on the receiving end!

In reply to grumpytramp:
>equipped Darcy and the corps de ballet with a pair of rock boots they would probably burn off 90+% of us at a crag!

They might do - apart from being unlikely to want to risk the potential injuries.
Gymnasts used to hanging from their hands might do better.

In reply to Hannah m:
There have been one or two outstanding female climbers who came from ballet backgrounds.Can't for the life of me remember which ones though .
Can anybody remember ?

In reply to grumpytramp:

Yeah, but what's she ever done on Grit?


HD.

In reply to Postmanpat: Rachel Farmer was a ballet dancer i think.

In reply to Postmanpat:

Julie Ann Clyma

In reply to Andrew Murray:

I was thinking of Rachel Farmer too, and the book 'Face Dancing'.

Ballet can be a superb background from which to move into climbing, of course.

In reply to Blue Straggler: Jeez, you werent kidding either! I'll have to have a look online to see if there are any Darcey dvds.