Arabian Dance - Balanchine's Nutcracker

Wendy Whelan in the Arabian Dance. Balanchine's the Nutcracker, 1993

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• ballet
• balanchine
• nutcracker
• whelan

[lauraalouiseem24]

It's beautiful! I finally found an arabian dance that fits the music! Dancer is incredible. She is dancing on the counts and has a non-western feel.

[SimTripps]

@lauraalouiseem24 Oh good - finally someone who sees the beauty of the Balanchine interpretation as I do lol! ;)

[Maggie2515]

The choreography is too fast. Doesn't go with the music at all.

[SimTripps]

@Maggie2515 It's all about preference.. I think Balanchine's version of this is beautiful and goes quite well with Piotr Ilyich's music.  I've been dancing Vaganova for 25 years, and have an academic background in piano so my opinion, in my opinion, has some validity....

[MrDec202]

Badlt choreographed, the languid sensuality of the music is totally lost and the dancers movements are choppy. Balanchine is not respecting the music and It shows. A great choreographer would have respected the tempo and worked within the framework of it.

[SimTripps]

@MrDec202 I don't agree however everyone's entitled to their opinion... ;)

[warriorsofthemoon]

Actually beautiful

[Blacklilly22]

@SimTripps I love this dance and the music. But i'm confused. Isn't there supposed to be a peacock dancing????

[NinjaTree6]

@MrDec202 i on the other hand, agree entirely with you! balanchine was talented, no doubt, but i always found he distorted beautiful music with abrupt and perhaps awkward choreography. arabian is meant to be an adagio, long and fluid (with long extensions and pors de bras) i can't help but get a little annoyed when i see such brisk movements with such a gummy legato piece of music.

i've been dancing ballet around 15 years, and played the violin for 10 years. i have a bit of a background in both!

[longboatfla]

From someone with no background in dance, the choreography is beautiful. Loved everything about this Balanchine version.

[ZhinspirationMoi]

I met her!!!

[ainavirin]

I love Balanchine's works, and this choreography is good. I think it does respect the tempo, if you listen to the music carefully. However, I had to read previous comments to understand the movements. I couldn't find the «arabian» aspect of them at first. Now that I do understand, this version is quite interesting.

[pinkprincesslexshue]

Arabian dance is beautiful like smooth and graceful

[alwil454]

@skinnylyni This is interesting! I have started studying Egyptian Folkloric dance and many of the women's folkloric steps were inspired by the horses the Egyptian men would train for hours to march and prance to traditional rhythms. I have read that they would try to get their husbands attention by mimicking the way a horse would move. I wonder if Balanchine knew this as well. This dance has taken on new meaning for me. Thank you for the post!