Favourite Ballet Variations! - Top 5 variations. Swan lake? Le Corsaire?

Hello Everyone!
Today I am going through some of my favourite ballet variations. This was really hard actually and I am sure there's so many more I wish I could have chosen but I can only choose 5!
I would love to know the variations you love too - comment below and let me know!
Enjoy! Like and subscribe!
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[@anibrown5374]

Lapatkona's feet seem not to quite touch the ground, a pin-drop type of silence with extensions in continuous flow even during pauses; Svetlana's Corsair fuses the expressiveness of classical and freedom of contemporary. Emotions carry rather than choreograph the movements. Definitely my favourite this time.

[@user-sj4ef8cm2g]

I think the russiann school.is the best because the lyrical beaury of the dance and the string tecnique but it requires complete dedication

[@isabelaandzico]

I completely agree with you: for me, it’s about the music 🎼 I’m a professional ballerina trained in Moscow so I can totally relate to variations/ballets which are really only performed in Russia/Eastern Europe. I got to do Nikiya’s Death for a gala. I appreciate your including Diamonds because it’s truly Balanchine’s homage to Imperial Ballet (I see Swan Lake and also Raymonda and know how difficult it can be to switch to his style- I was coached by Gelsey Kirkland). I love your including Pharaohs Daughter (so simple and yet so beautiful). There are a few variations/Demi soloist roles I’d add for the music and the joy I get: Myrtha, and the whole pas de trois from Paquita for example! Ulyana is Odette/Odile (I usually prefer the other Odile variation but when she does it I can’t stop watching). Qh I’m adding the whole Flower Festival and Satanella for the choreography and music!🇧🇷🇵🇹🩰

[@balletwithisabella]

Ugh yeh sooo many! Picking 5 is not fair 😅 I have so many I love including all you just listed ❤

[@Julie-hq8rs]

Love your choices Isabella I love Sleeping Beauty Rose Adagio

[@thabilegabuza6376]

All my favorites as well

[@kayla5738]

I ADORE the Giselle Act l variation performed by Natalia Osipova ❤

[@vantilate]

When the first variation you mention is Nikiya's death, I know I'm going to love this video. It has everything - gorgeous music, beautiful choreography, great artistry! edit: and then the second one is Diamonds, I mean, yes. Speaking of music, I really love the music from one of the variations in Raymonda's Act 2 Clemence variation. It's so lush and I'm a sucker for the key changes in the third phrase. There is an excerpt of Lopatkina doing this when she was quite young, where she's already demonstrating beautiful use of her arms.

[@ira346]

i love and adore the white coda of the swan lake ballet. i do not know much about the choreo here, but the music is impressive , so i become speechless!

[@user-yn7rw6mi7h]

I also love a lot of these variations, and thanks for showing them. I have watched a lot of Uliana Lopatkinas performances on KZbin, and wish that I had the opportunity to see her in person, especially in Swan Lake, as I think her beautiful port de bras takes the interpretation of the swan to another level. I also love the Nikiya variation from La Bayadere. Unfortunately, I had to turn the sound on my computer up to maximum, and still could not hear the music until the more joyous section when she recieves the basket of flowers, which rather spoilt it for me. I will try watching again on the TV, and see if that helps. Thanks again.

[@balletwithisabella]

Aww well you can definitely watch on its own and also headphones helps ❤

[@livethedarkdream]

Big fan of the Gulnare variation in the garden scene of Le Corsaire (particularly the version performed at the Bolshoi). Not a super difficult variation but so much room for playfulness and style to shine through. Nina Kaptsova and Anna Tikhomirova are my favorite interpretations at the moment. Highly recommend giving them a watch!

[@balletwithisabella]

Oh yes!! 😍

[@user-sj4ef8cm2g]

The russian school is the best lyrical beauty of tge dance perfect tecnique the character but it requires pure dedication

[@thatjaneaustenballetgirl]

I really love the Nikiya Variation and the Medora one too! And it was very interesting to hear your opinions. I didn't even know the Jewels variation before 😬! I'd love you to make this a series and show us more about the variations you like!!!! Greetings from Germany 🩰💐

[@balletwithisabella]

For sure!! ❤

[@mirtalefkof302]

Thank you for sharing these videos! I loved Le Corsaire, energy, music interpretation Bravo to all

[@catherinerousseau565]

Great video. It is so funny that all my favourite variations are also yours. My favourite variation ever is the Pharaon's Daughter one you showed. The music is so great! Another of my favourite variation is the diamond variation from the pas de quatre in sleeping beauty!

[@balletwithisabella]

Great minds! ❤

[@markbeck8384]

Love your feelings for these moments.. I feel much the same as a man; but have a few of my own bits where I'm proud to be me, and feel I have a character. I want the male characters to matter.

[@brendastevens9077]

As a kid I was purple crazy!! I love lavender, but I do love all blue now. I Love a Month in the Country. Sugar Plum, it was my first live professional ballet I ever saw. That's when I knew I had to learn too.😊⭐

[@simplyericaamaro]

Nikiya's variation is one of my favourite variations too, but my reference for that one is Isabel Guérin from Opéra de Paris. I have never seen anyone dance it quite like her. ❤

[@mariannedippenaar8488]

I like yr comments isabella. I learn a lor

[@Ihmekummatossu]

I think my favourite variation is William Tell variation (Royal Danish Ballet version). And I also love the Prelude from Les Sylphides/Chopiniana, as it was the first variation I ever learned.

[@balletwithisabella]

Beautiful variations!!

[@dajtoad1]

Lovely variations. It's so interesting to watch these, because I see lots of short videos of dancers from an American school who are incredibly technically accomplished re jumps, spins, leg extensions etc. But their arms seem to lack any kind of artistry at all. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them (although unless you can think of a nice way of doing it, I don't know if it's a video you can actually do, looking at dancers just to criticise them).

[@hannabergmann8831]

I also like these variations very much. And the female variation of the Tschaikowsky pas de deux, danced by Marianela Nunez. I also like the male variation of Swan lake, Act 1 and the Tarantella Variation of Swan lake, choreographed by Frederik Ashton ( a duet), not to forget the 3rd Odalisque variation from le Corsaire.

[@tpiety]

I prefer Gillian Murphy or Marielena Nunez’s Black Swan

[@user-jv2lo7vh4i]

Thank you for the video. It's a bit of a pity though that the only 20th-century choreographer that made it into your list is Balanchine. Fyodor Lopukhov, Kassian Goleizovsky, Vassily Vainonen, Leonid Yakobson and naturally, Yury Grigorovich - all of them created brilliant and very diverse pieces, both powerfully technical and evocative. P.S. I'm talking about Russian choreographers because they're the ones I'm most familiar with, but come to think of it, seeing something by Forsythe, Robbins or Neumeier would be great too.

[@balletwithisabella]

I only could pick 5 haha. I’ll do a series and so I’m sure all of those choreographers will come up. It’s very hard to choose ❤

[@user-jv2lo7vh4i]

@@balletwithisabella Difficult indeed - classical dance offers so many treasures 🥰

[@em8559]

The music of the Nikiya's death variation is just unsurpasably beautiful! I totally agree that it is about the music first and foremost - music came before dance, it inspires and carries the dancer's artistic interpretation and it often is music that first ignites the desire to dance in many people, be it in general or to a particular piece! A variation I personally love is the cigarette variation from the Suite en blanc - just a beautiful example of how there can be expressiveness through movement without the help of an underlying story! Plus it made me discover and learn the original piece for solo violin - it is called Fantaisie Ballet by Eduard Lalo, definitely recommend checking it out!

[@gonefishing167]

Just wonderful, thank you Isabella. I’d have to do a lot of thinking about favourite variations. 🩰🩰🩰🙏🙏👵🇦🇺

[@divab63]

To truly appreciate Diamonds, I think you need to watch a NYCB dancer. The Russian dancers don’t quite master the true Balanchine style. Love Lopatkina in Odile.

[@balletwithisabella]

Yes I think they just dance it differently. Even if it’s not exactly how Balanchine intended I think they still embody Mariinsky through and through in their own way with that ballet

[@dianapedott6223]

Hello dear Isabela! I love this video so so much, this is absolutely inspiring. I was wondering, any chance of you to do a "top 5" or "top 10" pas de deux video? I would love to see your perspective on that! ♥ much love

[@balletwithisabella]

Thank you so much! Yes, this is a great idea!

[@ritawing1064]

Lilac Fairy for me: also the only bit of that overrated score that really hits the spot. Give me Minkus any day!

[@tpiety]

Wow! I really can’t stand Minkus.

[@ritawing1064]

@@tpiety I know, few people find him so enjoyable, but I have what I suppose are rather downmarket musical tastes - I worked in opera all my professional life and would rather sing Massenet than Wagner any day! 🙄

[@user-sj4ef8cm2g]

The russian school is the best for all reasons😊

[@user-ht5rw9oi3m]

Вариацию Медоры танцует здесь Мария Хорева( Мариинский театр)

[@johannabennett3268]

Aurora’s 3rd adagio

[@balletwithisabella]

Beautiful variation!

[@tpiety]

So strange how different my choices would be - ESPECIALLY the Odile. I think she is far too bony. It is distracting for me. Also, those ballets, Le Corsaire and La Bayadere are a couple of my least favorites, partly because I find the music jarringly inappropriate for something that is supposed to be middle eastern or eastern but sounds like it could come from a German biergarten. All those “oompas” I love Tiler Peck in Allergo Brillante

[@balletwithisabella]

Well I’m not judging on her appearance at all. I love her artistry and nuances ❤

[@tpiety]

@@balletwithisabella Well, appearance is a big part of ballet. It is a visual art. But I find that angularity of the arms is distracting. I think it might be a difference between Russian aesthetic and maybe an English or American aesthetic. Not really sure. I didn’t mean to criticize her appearance.

[@balletwithisabella]

@@tpietyof course and you have every right to have your opinion and prefer other dancers. Yes looatkina is very thin here but as she’s my height I understand how the workload impacts a tall body, I also was very thin when working at that level. But again this video is about the variations more so than the ballerina doing them though I do love her in this role. She was phenomenal when she was younger also.

[@neatodude3339]

"I don't know why they're focusing on the man" -me when I watch anything

[@sedekiman824]

I am sorry, but I find Zakharova far too thin and angular. Technically, excellent but a very cold dancer.

[@kaykomckayface1097]

I'd prefer to see more facial acting in dramatic scenes like Nikiya's death... I know in ballet the body language says it all, but if I can see Nikiya's face and there is nothing going on there... It means the ballerina is not even convinced in her own role why should I believe it? I do believe most of wonderful ballerinas who moved me as Nikiya were not faking the sad face, it just came through because they simply became the role... Sorry, rambled a bunch because of my trama of watching an very young principal of Bolshoi dancing Nikiya's death scene LIVE with a face literally like 😑 the whole time... Which made me wonder if she is angry or maybe she didn't get paid enough for that show 😂. Anyway... Love the video and thank you Isabella as always ❤❤

[@kaykomckayface1097]

PS my favorite variation atm is paquita's entrance scene. Only seen Russian dancers do it. It was so musical, sassy and joyful. ❤

[@weather9538]

I prefer the subtle acting. Sometimes ballerinas do too much with their face and it looks so fake… I think Svetlana did a wonderful job as Nikiya. Although I prefer her as Odette/Odile.

[@user-ht5rw9oi3m]

Прекрасной Никией была наша Габриэла Комлева. Никто ее не превзошёл! К счастью, есть запись. Ещё Никию потрясающе танцевала Галина Мезенцева, я счастлива, что много раз видела этих великих балерин у нас, на сцене Мариинского , но увы, нет ни одной записи Галины Мезенцевой в "Баядерке".😢

[@norah327]

​@@weather9538Yes,my thoughts exactly!