Darcey Bussell on how to dance The Sleeping Beauty's Lilac Fairy (The Royal Ballet)

[@RoyalBalletAndOpera]

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[@glynnwright1699]

We saw Claire tonight as the Lilac Fairy. She was superb, held the story, music and dance together perfectly, She looked the part, graceful and elegant beyond the other dancers. She even managed to get a grizzly old cynic like me involved in the story.

[@bee-ep9qz]

I love how the story is conveyed through miming and dancing. That's so incredible because everyone interprets it quite viscerally as oppose to when you're reading it and the writer has phrased it with all sorts of figurative language to manipulate you into a type of reaction. Love and appreciate both art forms, they communicate so differently but both leave the audience awed and delighted.

[@daffo595]

I love miming, its like a secret ballet language

[@NicholasWingComposer]

A trifecta of Lilac Fairies.

[@cinnamonslice1990]

The language of the ballet!! Beautiful!!!

[@mackiceicukice]

It sounds all so much like teaching a piano piece. When you are young you are worried about technique , but it is all about phrasing and telling a story.

[@violeta5102]

she is a lovely ballerina!! love her 💜💜

[@joyousval]

Three beautiful talented woman :)

[@herrbrucvald6376]

In the 19th C. many ballets had very long stretches of purely mime; today some people want to cut this down, which is very misguided. For me some of the most magical moments in Swan Lake and Giselle are the mime scenes. The original scenario to Giselle has more mime than we get today.

[@herrbrucvald6376]

In the 19th century -- I have read -- there was much mime, more than we get now, as productions today often cut or truncate mime---a profound mistake. There was also then a whole tradition of mimetic theatre, which has vanished. I find some of the mime the most moving thing in the ballet, such as when we love operatic recitative as much as an aria.

[@Jamtarts2025]

Claire is such a Wonderfull performer.

[@juanmarinesparcia734]

The Royal Ballet no admite comparaciones. ..no hay nada mejor

[@Noraicycrystal]

Oh my god..... I use to read The Magic ballerina series by darcey bussell then I saw this video and it wrote there darcey bussell then I was like: wait... that name.. is it rly the same person.... so I googled it then now I am... so.. so... shocked that I never knew or realize.....

[@p.m.a]

Nora Icy Crystal That was book series that I read and instantly loved as a child.🤗

[@ivansanders8459]

I agree with all advice given. Darcey is so right that projecting the puffs in ballet is so very important.

[@saiyorihime]

This was lovely!

[@Galastel]

Am I right that Russian ballet has significantly less miming than the British and American schools, or is it just my impression?

[@mairefrances]

Apparently it was phased out as bourgeois during the Soviet era, but the dancers (eg, Tamara Karsavina from the Imperial Ballet - Mariinsky) who had already left taught it to dancers who formed the Royal Ballet in the first half of the 20th C.

[@amygrowcott]

Not at all; you are absolutely right. Mime was phased out from ballet during the Soviet era, so all the important mime scenes from Petipa's ballets were omitted and roles that are supposed to have lots of mime and roles that are supposed to be character roles, e.g. the Lilac Fairy and Von Rothbart became purely dance roles, as seen in the Mariinsky and Bolshoi productions of "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake". The problem of the omission of mime is that the narrative/storytelling has been stripped from the ballets and they have become indulged in cold technique and symbolism.

[@avesraggiana]

+DarkDancer06 I generally agree with you on this point, cold technique and symbolism taking the place of mime. I’ll just parse your words out a little more. Ideally, what the Maryinksy/Kirov way of dancing the mime-less nineteenth century classics could show us is that great emotion and great drama can be transmitted through dancing alone. Certainly Natalia Makarova and Alla Ospienko, the greatest Kirov Odettes of their generation, showed us that the most riveting Odette-Odiles could be delivered with very minimal mime, and it was George Balanchine himself who once remarked, “How much story [do] you need?” I do wish however, that in coming to The West, Makarova had decided to tackle the mime from the lakeside scene in Act Two because I’m convinced she would have been wonderful in it. The problem, and the danger, with the Maryinksy-Kirov approach of pure dance as emotion is that in lesser hands, almost nothing in the way of narrative power is transmitted. I remember watching a dispiriting Kirov performance of Sleeping Beauty where the infant Aurora was passed around from hand to hand like a baton in a track and field relay race, like there was no sense or appreciation of human weight and preciousness. Of course, the lakeside scene with that first encounter between Siegfried and Odette will have neophyte ballet audience members scrabbling for their programmes, wondering what the Hell is going on. That’s where, as you aptly put it, cold technique and an ersatz-esoteric symbolism take hold, leaving audiences mystified and probably bored. I’ve always believed that generally, more dramatic explicitness in ballet only helps in the telling of the story.

[@brisagarcia1874]

I love her, Gillian Muprhy and now Claire Calvert are my favorite dancers !

[@tiffandval6104]

I love it!

[@JoseGonzalez-bu6zj]

I love ballet, I had to retired do to a bad knee injury but know teach the younger generation of dancers, I am only 26 years old.

[@annachristie1159]

impecable

[@mauriceupton1474]

Darcey is an excellent ambassador for ballet, for a person that's never taken any notice, I've suddenly developed an interest.

[@MegaMesozoic]

Off topic but look up Monica Mason as Myrtha in 'Giselle' - one of the greatest ever!

[@gillrobertson2646]

Jane Aston Monica mason as Martha in Gisela

[@gemamolina7593]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHjamYyrfNaWbas

[@forbiddensnacc2012]

Amazing💕💕💕

[@정은-v5c]

i love you ballerina♥

[@Capchip619]

I love this! Does the company ever come to the United States?

[@RoyalBalletAndOpera]

Hi Liz. Thanks for your comment. The Royal Ballet tours internationally every summer and regularly tours the USA. Follow our social media channels for future announcements. In the meantime, there are regular international cinema broadcasts of Royal Ballet productions - you can find forthcoming broadcasts and participating cinemas near you here www.roh.org.uk/cinemas

[@classicalaid1]

@@RoyalBalletAndOpera I have seen the Royal Ballet at The Metropolitan Opera House in New York and they were unforgettable. A cut above!!!!

[@deh.dezaeza]

Oh, isso é tão mágico! 😁

[@javieracastro5926]

♥

[@gilliantaylor7070]

hi

[@mermaidlover362]

Gillian Taylor - heyyy

[@iseetheWAYVision]

I didnt know sleeping beauty had fairies... not that ive seen it

[@Cali_Girl1]

❤