Your Daily Dance Break: Battle of the Giselles - Not just for the ladies

Giselle is not just all about the ladies. Albrecht, Giselle's prince disguised as a peasant, is one of ballet's most prized roles for men. Barishnykov shows us how it's done, cause 'ya know, he's a DECENT dancer.

Enjoyed your week of Carmen? Loving the week of Giselle? Get ready for the battle royale of vixens vs. ingenues next week!

Your Daily Dance Break: Battle of the Giselles - Alina Cojacaru

Rounding out the Giselle pack is Alina Cojacaru in her Wili Pas De Deux with Johan Kobborg. Thoughts? Which Giselle is your favorite so far?

Enjoyed your week of Carmen? Loving the week of Giselle? Get ready for the battle royale of vixens vs. ingenues next week!

Your Daily Dance Break: Battle of the Giselles - Allesandra Ferri

For the next Giselle contender, we are moving to Act II where she's been transformed into an ethereal Wili (a jilted bride ghost that kills men in the forest at night, obviously). Allesandra Ferri makes one gorgeous ghost.

Enjoyed your week of Carmen? Loving the week of Giselle? Get ready for the battle royale of vixens vs. ingenues next week!

Hello! We've Moved!

Just a quick note to let you know that the Oregon Ballet Theatre blog has moved over to Wordpress.

You'll find the latest Daily Dance Breaks, behind the scenes rehearsal reports and saucy fun social media contests over here.

Thanks!

Your Daily Dance Break: Battle of the Giselles - Svetlana Zakharova

Next up is Svetlana Zakharova's interpretation of Giselle. Spoiler Alert: She goes crazy.

Enjoyed your week of Carmen? Loving the week of Giselle? Get ready for the battle royale of vixens vs. ingenues next week!

Team Carmen vs. Team Giselle: The Tragic Heroine Throwdown Begins!

The super-secret social media project we've been working on for weeks is finally ready for launch, and boy are we excited.  Without further ado, OBT presents . . .

THE TRAGIC HEROINE THROWDOWN!

It's going to be so epic.  Click this link to play!

Your Daily Dance Break: Carmen, Flamenco Style

Here's a quick, colorful, flamenco variation of Carmen to brighten up your Friday.

Enjoyed your week of Carmen? Next week, we'll cross over to the sweethearts and ingenues side for a week of Giselles we have loved...

Your Daily Dance Break: Carmen Shows Her Vixen Side

This almost NSFW (not safe for work) version features a very sexy Carmen reminding us all that "sweet and innocent" was never a Carmen strong suit.

Happy Birthday Martha Graham!

People the world over are celebrating the 117th birthday of legendary modern dance innovator Martha Graham thanks to a clever motion-capture Google logo.

Check it out below:



You can sneak a peak at the process that created the Google logo here:



Here's a video of Martha in the iconic dance film Appalachian Spring.



Got a great Martha memory or quote to share? Do tell.

Two Truths and a Lie

We've been doing a little research on Georges Bizet (composer of Carmen) and we have uncovered some absolutely too good to be true tidbits about him... exactly the sort of racy gossip you would expect of the man who composed the world's most successful opera featuring a decidedly amoral female protagonist.

Some of the tidbits are so unbelievable, in fact, that we'd like to test you to see if you can spot the fiction versus the facts.

Ready to play Two Truths and a Lie: the Classical Edition?


Here we go:

• Although Bizet's death certificate claimed his death was by  congestive heart failure, the real reason he died was because he was challenged to a icy swimming duel by the illegitimate son of French composer Charles Valentin-Alkan.
• When he was 23, Bizet got himself into a bit of a scrape when it was revealed the Bizet family maid was with child. The family tried to claim that the father was George's dad, Adolphe, but later it was discovered that it was really little Georgie who did the deed.
• The Opera Comique (where Carmen debuted) were horrified by what a "debauched" character Carmen was. The Opera's box seats were often used by prospective parents to interview their future daughters-in-law and it was thought that racy, fiery, definitely not ladylike Carmen would give these young women the wrong idea.

What do you think the real story is? Identify the lie correctly in the comments below and you'll be entered to win tickets to Petrouchka/Carmen!

Your Daily Dance Break: Carmen... with a cigar

Continuing our week of Carmens, we present you with:

Shiny skirts, big black balls and Carmen with a cigar... delicious.

Your Daily Dance Break: A Ballet Bullfight

Christopher Stowell will be choreographing an all new world-premiere ballet set to the music of Bizet's Carmen. Will it be set in Spain? He won't say. Will Carmen be a cigarette factory girl? He won't say. He will say that he and Nicolo Fonte (choreographing the world premiere Petrouchka that will share the same program with Carmen) will be creating ballets that are nothing like any Carmen or Petrouchka you've ever seen.

That sounded like a challenge to us. So all this week we'll be giving you the opportunity to sample some other ballet versions of Carmen so that you will be able to truly assess whether Christopher's vision is "unlike anything you've ever seen."

For starters, we'll show you the bullfight scene from russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya's Carmen.

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know what happens to Carmen at the end, don't watch the last two minutes...

Top SECRET: In Search of a Few Good Hams

We could use a few good hams willing to look a little silly and fun for a great cause. It's for a social media project we are doing this summer.

Got a few hours to spare tomorrow (Saturday)? Want to earn a pair of tickets to the ballet? Read on.

What: Super Top Secret Video Social Media Project
When: Saturday, May 7th, 2011
Time: 9 am to 11 am
Location: OBT Studios, 818 SE Morrison
Details: Wear office casual attire (no white or bright red, think something a dull that a cubicle dweller might wear), regular dress casual shoes. Come prepared to learn a super simple choreography. Your two hours of participation with us will earn you a pair of tickets to the show of your choice next season!

Finished project will be part of a YouTube/Facebook/blog social media project that will be posted this summer in July and August. Come make ballet magic with us!

Your Daily Dance Break: The First Lady Helps Kids Get Moving!

This just in from The Daily Swarm: Michelle Obama teams up with Beyonce to get school kids dancing... and gets caught dancing herself! What a tremendous program and what a brave First Lady!

Enter to Win Season Tickets!

Would you rather kill for love or die for love?

That's the question at the heart of our 2011/2012 season.

Bizet's Carmen puts a lover in harm's way just so another lover can prove his worth...

Stravinsky's Petrouchka risks it all for love and loses...

Giselle's heart bursts before she will take revenge on a lover who betrays her...

Fortunately for you, neither murder nor suicide is needed to score FREE season tickets to the ballet!

All you need to do is click here to sign up for our e-newsletter by creating or updating your online account with us.

(The link will take you to a Ticketmaster sign up page. Don't worry, all it does is put your email address and preferences into our system so we can keep you up to date on all the bloody backstage goodness.)

On June 30th we'll choose one lucky e-news subscriber to win a pair of season tickets. Ready? Set? WIN.