Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Ballerinas on Break

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I love these old Life magazines photos of the ballerinas on break at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet in NYC. I was horrible at ballet as a child, but kept wanting to sign up for classes simply because I loved tutus. (I eventually gave it up because I was always tripping over my own feet. I decided to try Disco instead. The results were equally horrendous. ) Now I love the ballet for, yes, the tutus, but for so many other things as well....

9 comments:

Jojo said...

haha, this makes me laugh, I too was awful at ballet, despite my mother's best efforts! And the pictures are beautiful, I love them. Oh to be that graceful, huh? I have just started following your blog, and i think it's fabulous!

The Clever Pup said...

I was awful at ballet too. My dance teachers were an English mother/daughter duo and the daughter was at least 65 - I kid you not.

I was very proud of my blue tutu and the spangly head dress I had to wear at the recital

English Muse said...

oh you got to wear blue!! mine was pink. my mom saved it for years, flattened into a box. I wonder where it is now..sigh...

LauraCassidy said...

Love these pics. I never did ballet as a kid but I did a course of adult ballet classes last year. I felt ever so graceful after them!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for these lovely pictures. So precious.

Anonymous said...

I just love how healthy and strong these ballet dancers look, not the modern anorexic stereotype.

Anonymous said...

I'm the same - but I quit because I had a teacher called mrs smiles who was mean! Irony!

Liz Hinds said...

They look much more solidly built than I imagine ballerinas today to be.

poet said...

Same here - I still love the esthetics of old-fashioned (i.e. non-anorectic and tutu-adorned) ballet even though I was so bad at it that my teachers tried to get rid of me with all the required meanness. It didn't make me graceful, though - it took a tango class to make me lose my ugly-duckling-waddle (and start floating like a swan? :)