My Recommendations
- Madison
- May 4, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: May 7, 2019
My personal favorite: ballets, dancers, music from ballets, companies and why each are so great in my opinion
My Number One
First and foremost, The Sleeping beauty is the absolute best classical ballet. I have watch the Royal Ballet's version on youtube maybe four times until I finally got to see the San Francisco Ballet perform it in March 2019. what makes it great is 1) the music 2) the choreography 3)the costumes 4) the timeless story everyone is familiar with. Almost everyone has watch, heard of or knows the general plot of the Disney movie, and although the ballet is not quite telling that same story people can have already formed their own connection or fondness of the plot they know. Since this is a ballet about royalty, princess Aurora, faeries, and a peaceful renaissance village the costumes have the opportunity to be regal and beautiful. The fairy corps dancers have stunning tutus and the main solo faeries tutus are even more extravagant and breathtaking. Aurora's court all have very regal attire as character dancers while Aurora her self wears three stunning tutus throughout the ballet. The music is very fun, exciting and energetic in the beginning because Aurora is a young girl celebrating her birthday then takes on a more mysterious tone as the lilac fairy coerces a young man to save the village and Aurora, finally the music is romantic and grand during the third act for the wedding and finale. The jewel faeries pas de trois music from act III is constantly stuck in my head. The "Rose Adagio" is one of the most iconic pieces of ballet choreography and seeing it live made me scared and on the edge of my seat. The ballet has some of the most recognizable music and the most iconic pieces: Bluebird and Princess Florine, the rose adagio, Aurora's Act I variation and the lilac fairy ( as well as all the faeries') variations.
Top three's (or maybe five)
Top full ballets: The Sleeping Beauty, Serenade, Coppelia, Jewels
The Sleeping beauty I dedicated a brief paragraph above. Serenade is so beautiful to look at and because it's Balanchine it seems modern and yet deeply classical. The costumes are so simple yet very recognizable to the ballet. Coppelia is actually a really funny ballet because of the plot and I feel someone who things a classical romantic ballet will bore them would enjoy Coppelia instead. Jewels is completely without plot but not without meaning. Three acts all set to different composers and all with dance styles influenced by different techniques. Jewels is for any type of ballet fan because you get to see modern and jazz style ballet while still seeing the romantic tutus and the classical pas de deuxs.
Favorite Dancers: Maria Khoreva, Tiler Peck, Isabella Boylston, Olga Smirnova, Sasha de Sola.
Each of them I have found at different times and just watched videos of them performing in awe. They each show incredible control that just seems so unrealistic to me, or has posted a video of them doing a petite allegro I can't imagine doing that fast. Each are soloist or principle dancers at their ballet company. I love seeing which role they get cast in for their next ballet and I will continue to be surprised I'm sure.
Amazing Companies: The NYCB, the Royal Ballet, Mariinsky, Bolshoi, Paris Opera Ballet
This is just fact. These companies are included in every top ten list, but for me these are my favorites based on what I've seen from them.
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