FancyDancy @vaganovadancer - Tumblr Blog

Backstage with Maria Kochetkova at London Coliseum. Photo by Daniil Simkin

The Royal Ballet’s Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood rehearse Raven Girl

everyone looks at a picture of a dancer doing a crazy grande allegro or battement or pas de duex lift and is like whoa but I think it’s a dancer thing to look at the most random picture of a dancer doing a tendue or standing in fifth and sigh deeply and just get the most intense ballet feels no one else does that “they’re just knees man” “NO THEY ARE ART”

le-petite-souris

That is the cutest thing ever. I have always dreamed of being in love with a pas de duex partner, and doing silly shit like this. Le sigh.

boysinballet

dancersaretheathletesofgod

Photo by Karolina Kuras

prosthetic-dance

Happy Birthday to this beautiful dancer and my favorite ballerina, Evgenia Obraztsova. Words cannot express how happy I am for Genia and how fortunate I am to have seen her live and met her backstage, and I truly believe she still has many great things ahead of her.

aurelie-dupont

The curtain opened with the spotlight on a little girl from the school, lying in a white tutu, at the back of the deep stage. She then proudly walked down the steep rake to the front of the stage, followed by all the other girls from the school, similarly attired and turning to line the sides of the stage. Next it was the turn of the female corps dancers from the company, interspersed with soloists and etoiles, the latter often running to the front to greet the mounting applause. x

The ritual is a homage to ballet itself, but for the Paris Opera Ballet it also represents a cycle of life. All the principals and soloists have passed through the ballet school. Many of the “petits rats,” as the school’s students are known affectionately, will end up in the corps de ballet. And when they stand onstage together after the grand défilé, the connection is clear: the excellence of the ballet company is rooted in the excellence of its school. x