Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Ballet Dancers Who Are Not Wimpy Looking

Yes, such a thing does exist. Last month I had the pleasure of seeing for the second time, the first being a few years ago, a dance group from Canada called “Troupe Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de MontrĂ©al”, or in the Queen’s language, “Grand Ballet of Montreal.”

GBM [I just made that up, catchy, no?] is a B-Level ballet group from Waco, Texas. Just kidding; they are from Montreal. They tend to specialize in modern ballet, which is much more structured than modern dance garbage, but will push envelopes beyond traditional ballet.

I am a big fan of GBM. Critics tend to give them mixed reviews, some good, and some bad, with the bad focusing on the lack of technical talent displayed by some of the dancers. Nonsense. GBM dancers are very athletic and inspiring to watch. First of all, the female dancers are not as small and not as skinny as a typical A-Level female ballet dancer. The GBM females look like very fit, college athletes. Fit looking females is a good thing--kind of like that hot, young babe who agreed to marry me years ago, who still looks great every day just by waking up, and never looks better than when she finishes a 15 mile run….now, where was I?

Oh Yes... The male dancers are more athletic than your typical ballet principal dude. In fact, I think I could have used some of them on my rugby teams from my younger days.

Frankly, I can’t tell whether they are exactly perfect in their technical application of ballet, but I can tell when the dancing is physically difficult, and no one does physical dancing better than GBM. If you do come across a negative review, check to see what the critic looks like. If the critic is some balding elitist, about 50 lbs overweight, who gets tired while doing the laundry, then I would not be surprised.

2 comments:

Lady Brainsample said...

I think the term you *might* be looking for is contemporary ballet. This 'modern dance garbage' you refer to is probably just the style 'modern' which is usally done barefoot with heavy use of the floor. Think Transcendentalism for ballet.
By the way, kudos on your creative titles. You certainly always get my attention with them.

PiningForTheFjords said...

The GBM rocks! They even make Stravinsky bearable. In addition to their amazing skill and physique, they are also dramatic. I would imagine that acting and dancing isn't all that easy, especially since you seldom see it done well. They make it look easy and natural.