belong
When I was 16, and had already been living on my own for a year, I ended up transferring to an “alternative” highschool in Winnipeg which had an open curriculum and very liberal-minded teachers. At the time I was working evenings and weekends at Canadian Tire to pay the rent (no help from family) and living with my boyfriend Brian. One of the perks at this highschool was that we could sign up for theatre and ballet productions we wanted to see as the school was given comps to distribute. I always signed up for ballet tickets as I still had dreams back then of becoming a dancer (comtemporary, not ballet). Thus I got to see Baryshnikov shortly after he defected in Canada and did a short tour with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. I also got to see the premiere of a ballet by Norbert Vesak called What To Do Till The Messiah Comes, which included a pas de deux called Belong. I remember watching it and thinking I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life and was surprised at the end of it to find my face wet with tears.
Something reminded me of this ballet yesterday and so I looked it up and here it is performed by Evelyn Hart and David Peregrine of the RWB. They were not the couple I’d seen back in 1973, but they went on to make Belong their signature piece and in 1980 won the gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. You can see their performance above. I still think it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life.
(best if you full-screen it and turn up the volume)
Extraordinary! I am not an expert on artistic human movement yet I can see something wonderful is happening there.
Very beautiful indeed. I love ballet. You were very lucky to have such an opportunity for tickets when you were young, you know.
So beautiful!
That’s brilliant. Really moving.
That’s exquisite. I wish I could move like that, but I don’t have the discipline and never had!
astonishingly beautiful
Thanks for showing us that, az.
Such grace and strength.
I’m not a huge dance fan – I find myself more impressed by the physicality than any “beauty” even so, wow!
Maybe I’m mellowing having been to see Billy Elliott last week as a birthday treat.
I’ve watched it about five times since yesterday.
Yeah, I really was lucky to see so many fine ballets when I was so young, hmh.
Hmmm… feeling a bit nostalgic about my younger self.
Beautiful, and the closest thing to fully dressed sex I’ve ever seen.
Or closest thing to fully-dressed naked … those costumes leave nothing to the imagination, do they?
Guess what? This morning the Royal Winnipeg Ballet started following me on Twitter.
That was wonderful! Thanks for sharing! I haven’t seen any ballet in years, I’d forgotten how astonishingly beautiful it can be.
And … cool that the the RWB is following you. Does this mean you’ve arrived?
Dahlink! Muuuah! Muuaah!