POSTURE, again

[Katharine Kanter]

Thinking of Tobi Tobias, and her superb posture, allow me to draw to the attention of the dance world, currently in a SLUMP in every sense of the term, the SUPERB posture of two more-than-middle-aged women:

Joan Plowright, then aged about 55

"Daphne Laureola"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkBofnZfppQ

the opera singer Mariella Devia, then aged about 70, on stage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIPEn60bFBc

The activation of the postural muscles of these two women is simply unbelievable, and has nothing whatsoever to do with how we hold ourselves today, head slumped over the I-phone, spine curved into a C with inner organs compressed. The spine of these two women is virtually at maximal LENGTH and WIDTH, at all times.

And both of these exceptionally competent individuals have a voice one could listen to all day.

Through voice, posture and graceful movement, they create the ILLUSION of beauty although they are both short, very plain and with an overly-large head.

The contrast with Xander Parish's appalling slumped posture in the recent interview on Russian television to which someone has just posted a link, could not be sharper. NO, I am not criticising M. Parish who seems to be a perfectly amiable fellow. But his posture is typical of what we now get on stage, the instant the actual dancing bits stop. And sometimes DURING the actual dancing bits.

Again, one of the major errors in our selection policy for the ballet academies: first we hone in on PRETTY, then we mightconsider all the rest. Whereas, it's the rest that counts.

[Alexis29]

On compare donc la posture qui était celle de Tobi Tobias et celle de Xander Parish ?

Excellent, vous avez vraiment une imagination débordante !

[Katharine Kanter]

In the interview with Xander and Maria Khoreva, watch the former's posture. He's slumping.

(And he's extremely tall and lax, which makes things far more difficult.)

Unfortunately, and this is proven, bad posture in everyday life carries over into the studio and onto the stage, where it becomes one's default posture.

In other words, the instant one stops actually dancing, the body snaps back into its default mode - the slump. Which is hard-wired.

Worse still, the risk is real that the slump persist even when one is dancing, so that, for example, to take a jump one virtually has to heave oneself out of a slump. Although there's little or no time to do so.

Posture off-stage and in the studio is far more important than generally believed.

Which is one of the reasons the author of these lines does not favour classical dancers engaging in too much contemporary - it ruins their default posture.

Furthermore - and this is where YES one can compare Joan Plowright, Mariella Devia or even the late regretted Tobi Tobias, to a professional dancer - there is scant difference between the degree of tonus, i.e. alertness, in the postural muscles of a well-trained stage actor, or opera singer, and that of a classical dancer. The only real difference has to do with the turnout's impact on the spine, necessarily somewhat "longer" in a dancer than in those related professions.

One last thought: Upright posture sends a message of combative optimism in a Gloomy Age. Need one say more?

[Katharine Kanter]

No, everyone, No,

Protests are coming in that I've "unfairly attacked" Mr. X. Parish.

NO.

Simply used his latest interview as an example of the issue teachers face every morning. People walking into class slumped.

(Not to speak of people checking their I-phone during class, or listening to OTHER music on their headphones ... the updated version of "Shoot the Piano-Player")

NO.

Mr. Parish is a larger-than-life personality, who simply by remaining perfectly lucid and doing what he does every day, is making a substantial contribution to good relations with Russia.

And, his dancing has most certainly improved over the past couple of years, which is, to coin a phrase, a tall order when taken from that height.

So, No, I am not suggesting that we "bite the hand that feeds us".