The Everyday Dancer

Deborah Bull, former Principle Dancer of the Royal Ballet has written another book entitled, "The Everyday Dancer". It is an exploration of a dancer's day-to-day life and routine. I very much look forward to reading this book one day. Featured below is a clip of Deborah speaking about her new book. The clip features Royal Ballet dancer's Edward Watson and Christina Arestis.

Enjoy!

The Woman in Black & London Boulevard

Check out the latest trailers to these films that are due out soon!

The International Trailer has been released for Daniel Radcliffe's horror film, "The Woman in Black" due for release in the US on the 3rd February 2012 (no release date yet for Australia - hang tight buddies, I'm sure this one will come here).

The Official Trailer for Colin Farrell's foray into the world of a London gangster has also been released. "London Boulevard" also stars Kiera Knightly and Ray Winstone. It will be on limited release in the US next month. 

First Call, then prior to the Second Call

An impromptu visit last week at my old stomping grounds permitted me to rehearse as well as learn parts of what will become a group later on down the track. This group will be a very special one as it will include dancers that have come far and wide across Australia, to reunite for this event. All dancers are ex-students to this wonderful school and it will prove to be incredibly exciting. I was so thrilled to have that moment to learn something new and be part of the creation of something very special. Prior to Second Call and Seven Weeks to go!

Van Dieman's Land

Some stunning shots of home...

Cradle Mountain Nature Reserve

The St John the Baptist Church ~ Buckland

The 400 year old stain-glass window

Cradle Mountain

Salamanca  ~ Hobart

The Spiky Bridge

Born for the role

Michelle Williams never really struck me as anything extraordinary. When she started out in the hit teen series "Dawsons Creek" I never thought she would progress from that genre. As usual, my quick-to-judge attitude has had another serious wake up call.

Michelle is what you would term the classic under-dog. She appeared in a supporting role alongside Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain" - to which audiences began to take notice of her. She is talented, but she was never in your face about her abilities and for the most part, she appeared in obscure films and nothing that demanded anything "showy" of her. She always did her job and performed well. "Blue Valentine" demanded Michelle carry majority of the film with its melancholic atmosphere. I didn't really think she was anything extraordinary until I saw her performance in "Shutter Island"  opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing such a tortured character that had completely lost touch with reality and yet having to display two striking sides - for the most part she was an embodiment of dreams and memories/figments of Teddy Daniel's imagination. She had to juggle two juxtaposing sides of one character - the "ideal" which was Teddy's imagination and dream-like construction of what his wife used to be; and the "real" which was the living and breathing Dolores, the wife that did go mad and murder her children. She carried this off so well and I give her full credit of being nothing less than great.

I have just seen the trailer for "My Week with Marilyn" - which is a film about basically, a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe. Michelle plays the infamous screen goddess and I will have to say, after watching those fleeting 2 minutes - she was born for that role. She was born to play Marilyn Monroe. It's not just down to the look/physical appearance, but also her mannerisms and the way she spoke - Michelle, from what brief snippets I have seen so far, has again, attacked this character perfectly. I very much look forward for its release in Australia some time in the future. This film will hit the theatres in America early next month. Hopefully it will quickly make its way to the Southern Hemisphere. This looks to be quite a striking and remarkable film and by all accounts, Michelle looks set to impress with this latest performance.

The Sexy Ballerina~

I call her the Angelina Jolie of Ballet...not because of any comparisons between them personally, but because Diana Vishneva has the indescribable ability to inject sex-appeal into her dancing. Sexuality/Sex/Sexiness and ballet - you wouldn't traditionally pare the two words or even the concept together. I think ballet having that adopted concept of being ethereal, perfect, untouched - is almost virginal and you automatically forget every ballet dancer is human and has their own sexuality and sensuality. But there is something about Diana - she is so human. I think that's why I like her. I like dancers that are not airy-fairy, that have a sense of realism to them. For me - Diana represents everything animalistic yet human, yet pure at the same time. Can you be all those things at once? I think you can.

Vishneva is a Russian ballerina whom is star of the Mariisnky Ballet as well as the American Ballet Theatre. She is a regular on the touring circuit and appears in many Galas and is a Guest Artist in many renowned ballet companies. She is known for her hyper-extensiveness - insane flexibility, incredible flat turn out and amazing extensions. She has an amazing jump and an attack to her movements, but in addition - has such an incredibly facility for performance. She can act, she can dramatize but she can also be subtle and subdued. She becomes the character - so she becomes the Giselle's, the Aurora's, the Odette's and the Odile's. She can mould into anything and do anything. What I like most though is that she does not possess "nice feet". She has an arch that is "acceptable" for ballet but it is not perfect - it is beyond that. She uses her feet so well though that to the untrained eye (and even to the trained eye), you hardly notice. You spend the rest of the time enjoying everything else about her. 

Vishneva has a strong sense of work ethic and amazing focus. In the documentary "Ballerina" you get to see glimpses of her rehearsing and preparing for a role - it is quite something. She works very hard and is so dedicated to the cause that even the smallest of movements gets dissected - the eye-line, or even the way the eyes fall at a certain gesture. Everything gets examined and everything gets worked on. I like observing that kind of keen perfectionism from an artist (that's why I'm so in love with Sylvie Guillem - and always will be). There's something about Artists that check their egos out at the door and dedicate themselves entirely to their Art - sweat, blood, tears everything is displayed - it's not hidden and they let you experience that process with them, that is so appealing. I am drawn to that selflessness and that abandonment of ego - it's almost as though they adopt that mentality that to not work hard and to just use the natural facility - that "gift" is like the most obnoxious display of arrogance a dancer could implore on the world. It's that mentality that you must work hard to achieve a level of perfection seminal to godliness. It's very attractive. That's what makes Vishneva appealing because she has that quality about her and because on stage she is so incredibly sexy. I'm sorry, but she even makes Giselle sexy - I don't know how she does it? That's why I say she's the Angelina Jolie of Ballet. 

First Call

I very rarely write blog posts about myself and my experiences. Sometimes I'll have a splurt when I'm on holiday at my home town and do a string of posts and other times things might come up where I'll do a splash insight here and there, but for the most part I concentrate largely on the world of dance, film and the arts and about everything that's happening out there. To me, the outside world seems to be far more interesting than little 'ol me...

Today I thought I'd start what will (hopefully) be a series of insights into my preparation(s) for the stage. In 63 days time I will be jumping on the plane and heading south to my home town. There, I will be reuniting with friends, family and my second home - my ballet school, the studio and then the stage. It's something I have most of the year thinking about and looking forward to. I have planned to go home for a visit in December since mid-year, but have been somewhat quiet and ambiguous about logistics - only a handful of people know of specific dates. I like to keep things low-key. As it gets closer and closer though, I can't help but feel rather jubilant and excited. It's getting to that time where before you go on holiday or an adventure you feel that heightened sense of joy. I am excited. As a kid anything to do with airplanes made me excited - it's that feeling that you are going somewhere and you get to experience something new - it's the travel bug. It always seems to hit despite the fact that most of my travel recently has been interstate. It's still nice to go through the motions of packing your suitcase, going to the airport, checking in - even waiting (sometimes) for boarding can be fun. Yes, yes...I enjoy airports thoroughly. It's a great place to people-watch and you're never really quite bored in a place like that....unless of course, you get stuck or inconvenienced and then there are only so many red wines that you can have to numb the frustration!!!

I will have to make the most out of the next 63 days. Never one for going on stage unprepared, I need to make sure I know what I'm doing, make sure that any technical flaws can be hidden or masked (yes that's very naughty but I think you get to a certain age where you just learn to hide anything that's not flattering) and make sure my body is "presentable" (ie. aesthetically pleasing - so any wobbly bits need to either shrink or tighten in 63 days). 63 days.... 

Normally, I would have the luxury of being immersed in ballet 24/7, where I could dance an hour or two every night at the studio (or in the morning if I had the opportunity), go for that run, go to the gym, live and breathe preparation every day. Unfortunately...a full-time job and responsibilities as an "adult" (suddenly I cringe at the thought - surely I'm still a kid????) means that I cannot dedicate my entire being to preparing myself. If I don't get up at 5am and go for that run or do that morning class, the opportunity will have been lost for the day as in the afternoon it is not always guaranteed I will break away from work on time - something that infuriates me....how one can wake up and suddenly find themselves at the office after leaving that environment the evening before...is there any waking moment during the week when you are not there?? I waste an awful lot of time in my car too - traffic and travelling between A and B takes up such valuable time.  So even if I do get away on time, there's something weird that happens to me in the car on the way home from work - it's almost like I get a heavy dose of lethargy and lax and by the time I make it home I'm way to tired, cranky and lazy to go out and exercise. How irritating??

So it's a tough slog and it feels very sporadic - very broken - not routinely at all and its almost like you can't focus solely on dance, there's just so many other things that get in the way or act as distractions. So it'll be very interesting in 63 days time where I'll be at in terms of physical fitness and where I will be emotionally - sometimes emotionally and psychologically it becomes more demanding to centre that aspect of oneself than it is coming to terms with the amount of preparation that you have done for your body. I seem to get better and better at psyching myself out the older I get! I just hope I can be confident enough to get out there and do what I have to do... even if it is only 3 minutes or less! All that preparation for a fleeting moment in time, but that fleeting moment lasts a lifetime in memory and the experience of it will be to me, a drug-like intoxication. Just that one fix to keep me going for another year - and then I might want to do it again. Who am I kidding, the second it's all over I'll want to do it all over again!!! It's just too much fun J