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This is off the subject of the tango, but I've been reading a book by Lydia Sokolova, who was one of the long time members of the Ballet Russe. It's got me engrossed and interested in ballet all over again, so I'd thought I'd share some of what I've been thinking about the last week.

I've always been interested in Diaghilev and Ballet Russe, so it's been a treat for me to read about what it was like to be a part of this groundbreaking dance company.

Hands down the most famous performance Ballet Russe ever gave was Rites of Spring in Paris in 1913. The ballet nearly caused a riot in the audience. That version was choreographed by Nijinsky, who left the company not long after.

Later, the piece was revived by Ballet Russe and choreographed by Massine. Lydia Sokolova, the author of the book I'm reading, had one of the key roles, as the Sacrificial Virgin.

In the book she describes the dance. First, about 20 minutes of standing stock still in an uncomfortable, exaggerated pose at the center of the stage. Then, 8 straight minutes of solo dancing...very complicated because the music is so chaotic and the dancing doesn't match the music, so she had to keep her own time throughout.

She was the only person who knew the Massine choreography for the part.

So, when she was really sick with the flu, she had to dance the part anyway, because no one else could. She prayed all day to somehow be able to dance it. She describes dancing that day as an experience unlike any other, where it felt like light was coming out of her head and the whole dance was effortless. Then at the end, she collapsed (as usual, part of the choreography and also a genuine exhaustion), only this time, as they brought her to her feet, she was literally being held up by the other dancers because she could not walk on her own.

What strikes me not only the experience she describes, but that in all her time as a ballerina at such a high level, it was the only time she ever had a transcendent experience in dance. I would think a highly trained ballerina, dancing so often, might have that happen every now and then.

I'm having a lot of fun researching about the Ballet Russe, Nijinsky (have his diaries on order from my library...I understand they are very interesting as he was, as I understand it, schizophrenic and institutionalized for much of his life).

I even found this clip of Pavlova performing the Dance of the Daying Swan, which is a little earlier than the period I'm reading about. The clip is from 1907. It's fun to see how different her style of dancing is than what we would like today. It's very theatrical and stilted, and certainly not as athletic as a modern ballerina would be; she's at times clunky. And yet, her timing is beautiful.

The world of dance is so beautiful. I love dance.

What I think about as a yogi is how disciplined dancers are, and I wonder what might happen to me as a yogi if I were to be as disciplined as a ballet dancer.