No wheels involved
I’ve posted clips of the Russian folk dance company known as the Moiseyev before. A signature move in a few of their dances is a quick scurry of the feet that gives the illusion of the dancer being on wheels or on a smooth conveyor belt. But it’s done without anything of the sort, just the human foot.
This is supposed to be snow in winter. You may not believe your eyes:
Stunning! That made my day.
Has anyone here read Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figes?
Natasha’s Dance looked very interesting so I purchased a copy. His other books look just as interesting. But I also looked up Orlando Figes in Wikipedia. Interesting fact: since he didn’t want to be a Brexit Briton, he took German citizenship. So he’s a Brexit exiter.
I marvel at the display of technique, but I must admit it makes me uncomfortable. It’s like an image out of a child’s nightmare (or maybe just this child, me) of things that look like people but are things.
And yet this is how women moved – or were expected – to move in those long dresses. Here’s an example: the Versailles glide: “In a properly executed Versailles Glide (which was only performed by women at the French court), the lady appears to be rolling. Her feet never seem to touch the floor and yet the illusion is created by never removing the feet from the floor. The wide cages called the Grand Panniers (or big baskets) worn under yards and yards of skirts constructed with heavily embellished brocades and silks, also helped to create and maintain that illusion — that the wearer is sailing across the floor.”
I liked the trees.
Eva Marie: Lovely detail! That I did not know.
The video strikes some distant chord with me. There was a film I saw when I was seven, “The Snow Queen,” which I found quite upsetting. It was an unvarnished HC Andersen fairy tale — much tougher than Disney fare.
Old fairy tales could be quite frightening. I now wonder if they weren’t psychological vaccinations to prepare children for the real world. And maybe today’s children have lost something by not being exposed to them.
Huxley: Excellent point!
I’m glad Neo and Eva explained. I would have thought roller blades were involved 🙂
in movies they mostly use dollies…
but thats just an easier way to get the same/very similar effect.
its the one they use in horror movies (and horror comedies like ghostbusters)
given how i think i can make a list of scenes from tons of movies that use it
just as post hitcocks cameraman, the idea of pulling the camera back (or forward) while matching its movement in a telephoto… causing the whole perspective of the background to change while the subject remains still
too funny no one thinks of how these things work during political conventions and all that – kind of like that guy that wrote the article on fakes.. you want the message of the fake, so people like me who like the mechanics of it are no fun, like magicians who tell the secrets of tricks
except a magician is an honest conman
and a politician is a dishonest one (when not truly serving)
Saw them – twice – at Carnegie Hall in New York more than fifty years ago. Costuming wasn’t quite so elaborate then, but the technique hasn’t changed.
Thank you Neo! Another wonderful group that I would have missed without your blog!
Artflgr. ” causing the whole perspective of the background to change while the subject remains still”
I wish I’d figured that out. Always wondered.
This was wonderful, altho it did induce a slight uneasiness. Too many horror movie characters come & go as if they float. In this case it was lovely.
Recently we were at a special opening of the Slovak National Theater, with symphony & opera & ballet selections. Really excellent, but none used this floating move.
In the ballet parts, the male dancers were wearing gray pants, like from a banker’s suit. Well fitted and comfy looking. I really liked that look. I think a huge reason I’ve long disliked ballet is an almost disgust at the tights worn by the male dancers. Cute, lovely, enticing on women. Totally wrong for any self-respecting modern man. Even Barishnikov I disliked when in ballet costume.
I hope more ballets and modern dance experiment with more normal / modern sexy clothes for the male dancers; tho I don’t hold my breath.
Komedy link – special player piano Figaro with another instrument at a good site not (yet?) on Neo’s blogroll.
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2019/09/sunday-morning-music_15.html
Neo or anyone else, can you describe how the step is actually performed? Is it a shuffle, slide, heel-toe, etc?
Absolutely fascinating; thank you Neo.
Thank you for sharing this!
Impressive, you may find this move interesting, too, it’s Morris Day and the Time, from Purple Rain… Pay attention at ca. 30s in, it’s an impressively smooth extended slide, I had to pause it/slow it to figure out how they were doing it lo, those many years ago when it was fresh and new…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkDwIkwCmUc
They’re twisting their feet back and forth rapidly, an inch or two at a time, causing the body to move to their right (the viewer’s left), even as they slowly and smoothly pull in the slide simultaneously… It is the only time I’ve ever seen anyone do it, and they clearly do it very very well.
Probably using a not dissimilar mechanism as the ballet artists are (but they do it for a much longer time, if so)
Of course, they may just be cheating and using hoverboards, these days…
😀
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/best-hoverboards/
Amazing! Such beautiful dancing and the staging and costuming are strong and evocative, too.
Cars have wheels and Ric Ocasek is dead.
RIP
Last night I did a mini-Cars retrospective and realized that in Ocasek’s song, “The Dangerous Type” the narrator is comparing his lover to the Mona Lisa based on the enigmatic smile:
She’s a lot like you
The dangerous type
Then the song rides those goofy/sublime guitar-and-synth lines straight to heaven.
Pingback:Igor Moiseyev Ballet. Winter Fantasy «Snowstorm» – Other People's Videos
Amazing and lovely, Neo. Thank you.
PS. Are you sure those women are on feet? :>)