World Ballet Day
Spent half of the day tweeting World Ballet Day in Chinese. Tai was asking me whether I would go and I was happy to go along. Surrounded by beautiful young girls who were former ballerinas I had lots of fun. They took turn to tweet in English, then I translated into Chinese. We got a "thank you" in Chinese from Boston Ballet. The Canadian Ballet even mentioned our tweeting event. Girls were so excited. Tai kept praising me, and I finally said to her without her I could not be motivated to do anything~~.
More fun was to chat on the side bar. Tai and I were chatting about translation. The Ballet teams were practicing Cinderella, whose shoes were called Crystal Shoes in mainland instead of Glass Shoes in Taiwan. By the way, the show kills one pair of such shoes per performance. When we talked about translating PI Rixiu's riddle poem, it took Tai a few seconds to realize who was HUANG Chao. Her reaction was hilarious:"Oh, you mean that gang head?" I laughed so hard:"He was a hero in mainland." We were both chuckling so hard at that point.
Along the way I learned a few new tricks regarding ballet. I asked Jane what she thought about Julien and Romeo. She really liked it. Then I asked whether that show was a ballet or a modern dance. Her eyes brightened up:"It's so interesting that I got the same question from so many Americans. By European standard, it's ballet, but by American standard, it's not ballet because most of the dances did not involve tip-toes. By technical definition, it's a modern ballet."
Tai asked Jane why there were so many Asians in ballet but hardly any African Americans. Jane said Asians' body figures fit better for Ballet while African Americans body figures are not suitable. Then there is a social aspect. Black kids who went to learn ballet found no peers from their own ethnic group, therefore they tend to drop out earlier. I asked Jane what sort of body figures were considered ideal for ballet. She responded: slender, long and thin legs, short torso, long arms, long neck, and light. I then asked what was the right height for ballerina. Jane said between 5.2 and 5.9 feet. Tai then asked when was the make or break age for ballerina. Jane said usually it was about 15 years old when body height pointed out the trend for ultimate height and a person's potential in the field. I asked why ballet dancers seemed to have an ability to lift another person effortlessly, and sometimes even a woman would lift/carry a man like what's been shown in Julien and Romeo. She said those tiny ballerinas were a lot stronger than people thought. Because they practice certain rarely used muscles they tend to be very strong in hidden capacity.
When Jane went off, Meg came. The question came out about pairing. Meg said theatre usually had to pair a ballerina with a male performer who has compatible height and weight. I asked whether the pairing criteria also involves compatibility of personality. She said:" as a ballerina, once you enter the studio you leave your personality at the door. That's why inside the studio the relationship among all those in the group is so harmonious. You have to do. There is no other way. If everyone treats everyone else like what those ballet dancers do in the studio, the world would be a much happier place."
Then during the lunch break, Tai and I ran into another Taiwanese woman. Three of us chatted about the difference between Taiwan and mainland. Overall,it was really an interesting day.
2016.10.5
More fun was to chat on the side bar. Tai and I were chatting about translation. The Ballet teams were practicing Cinderella, whose shoes were called Crystal Shoes in mainland instead of Glass Shoes in Taiwan. By the way, the show kills one pair of such shoes per performance. When we talked about translating PI Rixiu's riddle poem, it took Tai a few seconds to realize who was HUANG Chao. Her reaction was hilarious:"Oh, you mean that gang head?" I laughed so hard:"He was a hero in mainland." We were both chuckling so hard at that point.
Along the way I learned a few new tricks regarding ballet. I asked Jane what she thought about Julien and Romeo. She really liked it. Then I asked whether that show was a ballet or a modern dance. Her eyes brightened up:"It's so interesting that I got the same question from so many Americans. By European standard, it's ballet, but by American standard, it's not ballet because most of the dances did not involve tip-toes. By technical definition, it's a modern ballet."
Tai asked Jane why there were so many Asians in ballet but hardly any African Americans. Jane said Asians' body figures fit better for Ballet while African Americans body figures are not suitable. Then there is a social aspect. Black kids who went to learn ballet found no peers from their own ethnic group, therefore they tend to drop out earlier. I asked Jane what sort of body figures were considered ideal for ballet. She responded: slender, long and thin legs, short torso, long arms, long neck, and light. I then asked what was the right height for ballerina. Jane said between 5.2 and 5.9 feet. Tai then asked when was the make or break age for ballerina. Jane said usually it was about 15 years old when body height pointed out the trend for ultimate height and a person's potential in the field. I asked why ballet dancers seemed to have an ability to lift another person effortlessly, and sometimes even a woman would lift/carry a man like what's been shown in Julien and Romeo. She said those tiny ballerinas were a lot stronger than people thought. Because they practice certain rarely used muscles they tend to be very strong in hidden capacity.
When Jane went off, Meg came. The question came out about pairing. Meg said theatre usually had to pair a ballerina with a male performer who has compatible height and weight. I asked whether the pairing criteria also involves compatibility of personality. She said:" as a ballerina, once you enter the studio you leave your personality at the door. That's why inside the studio the relationship among all those in the group is so harmonious. You have to do. There is no other way. If everyone treats everyone else like what those ballet dancers do in the studio, the world would be a much happier place."
Then during the lunch break, Tai and I ran into another Taiwanese woman. Three of us chatted about the difference between Taiwan and mainland. Overall,it was really an interesting day.
2016.10.5
Comments
Post a Comment