Clement Crisp’ unveils an unapologetic foot fetish. He chronicles the history of feet in ballet, quite correctly remarking the change in taste in lines – from the quite solid Matilde Kshesinskaya to the quite ethereal Jane Seymour.
His opinion of the importance of line in ballet, I found somewhat exaggerated. I would suggest that passion and quickness offer more than straight lines. Often the dancers with perfect lines are the dullest ones. Always put forward, always admired just for their lines and/or their balon, often these perfect ones don’t make the effort to convince in their portrayal that the slightly flawed dancer does.
The slightly flawed dancer will do anything to keep his or her place on the stage of the world, to distract your eyes from that small deficiency. And they often succeed.
But Clement Crisp loses me altogether when we find him vigorously fondling the feet of a ninety year old Alice Markova:
Agnes de Mille, in her memoirs, Portrait Gallery, spoke of Markova’s feet and her ballet shoes lined with lambs wool: “Markova’s feet were flawless – white, supple, unmarked. Most dancers’ feet look like the ace of clubs, gnarled, jointed, skinned, bruised and blackened, with horny nails, and rubbings and scars.”
At the age of 90, Markova’s feet were still beautiful, still tiny (size two) and still strong. I held them in my hand and felt their undiminished muscular power.
Ballet has enough problems making its way in the world in this early twenty second century without fetishism in the home camp, Monsieur Crisp.
Ready at last! Our researches of European Social Ballroom Dances are now on a set of 5 CD-DVDs- data discs. We offer it/them to you for free (you can just pay for handling, stamps, packaging, etc.: $4 in the USA; $8 outside of the USA; even maybe completely free). Although copyrighted by the author, Mr. R. Cwieka, (me), he hereby gives you permission to make copies of the said discs and distribute them to your dance friends, the general public and to libraries. DO YOU WANT THE DISCS? (FIRST, I SHALL SEND THE INITIAL CD.) SHALL I SEND IT TO YOU? Here are the contents: POLONAISE: STORY OF A DANCE MAZUR-MAZURKA: THE BRILLANT GLORIOUS DANCE The title, MAZUR-MAZURKA: THE BRILLANT GLORIOUS DANCE, is a compendium or a catch-all title for the following works, which deal with aspects of the Mazur-Mazurka Dance: MAZUR: THE ELEGANT POLISH RUNNING-SLIDING DANCE POLISH MAZUR-MAZURKA DANCE MANUALS & SUPPLEMENTAL POLISH MAZUR-MAZURKA SOURCES
GERMAN MAZUR-MAZURKA DANCE MANUALS & SUPPLEMENTAL GERMAN MAZUR-MAZURKA SOURCES
SWEDISH MAZUR-MAZURKA DANCE MANUALS SUPPLEMENTAL ENGLISH MAZUR-MAZURKA SOURCES SUPPLEMENTAL FRENCH MAZUR-MAZURKA SOURCES SUPPLEMENTAL AUSTRIAN MAZUR-MAZURKA SOURCES
THE KRAKOWIAK DANCE WORKBOOK THE KUJAWIAK DANCE WORKBOOK THE OBEREK DANCE WORKBOOK THE GORALSKI DANCE WORKBOOK
*As of this writing, The Mazur-Mazurka Dance Figures Audio Instructions, do not exist in book form. They are a series of 4 DVD-discs, done as DATA-SOUND RECORDINGS, TALKING, VERBAL INSTRUCTION which are in ENGISH for each of the figure-sequences, that is, of the complete choreographies for almost 300 hundred Contemporary Social Ballroom and Stage choreographies. These are used in conjunction with the THE MAZUR-MAZURKA DANCE FIGURES WORKBOOK which illustrates all of the figure-sequences, that is, the figures are drawn.. This is about forty hours of verbal instructions—a real treat for dance lovers. (To obtain these, for free, contact the author at: R. Cwieka, 5 Manor Drive, 15M, Newark, N. J. 07016, USA.) Would anyone or group of dance-lovers like to make a video record of these complete choreographies? Or donate copies to your local library. Or place any of the works on your web-site. Feel free to do so.
Mr. Cwieka, this is the strangest comment I’ve ever had. You almost went in the spam basket but with your offer to provide the disks free or for just shipping to dance lovers the world over softened my heart.
Have you got a website?