Ballet

 

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, which originated in sixteenth and seventeenth century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form.  The early ballet dancers were not as highly skilled as they are now. It has since become a highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. It is primarily performed with the accompaniment of classical music. It has been influential as a form of dance globally and is taught in ballet schools around the world, which use their own cultures and societies to inform the art. Ballet dance works (ballets) are choreographed, and also include mime, acting, and are set to music (usually orchestral but occasionally vocal). It is best known in the form of Late Romantic Ballet Blanc, which preoccupies itself with the female dancer to the exclusion of almost all else, focusing on pointe work, flowing, precise acrobatic movements, and often presenting the dancers in the conventional short white French tutu. Later developments include expressionist ballet, Neoclassical ballet, and elements of Modern dance. The etymology of the word “ballet” is related to the art form’s history. The word ballet comes from the French and was borrowed into English around the 17th century. The French word in turn has its origins in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo (dance). Ballet ultimately traces back to Latin ballare, meaning to dance.

 

Anna Pavlovna  (12 February 1881 –23 January 1931) was a Russian ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the most famous and popular classical ballet dancers in history and was most noted as a Principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognised for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and with her own company, would become the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.

 

Pavlova was born two months premature on  31 January, 1881 in Ligovo, a suburb (now neighborhood) of Saint Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire. Her mother was an impoverished laundress named Lyubov Pavlova. The identity of her father has been open to debate: she later claimed her father (who was of possible Jewish origin)^[1] had died when she was two years old. The newspaper The Saint Petersburg Gazette published an article in 1913 claiming that her father was a banker named Poliakov, and that her mother’s second husband, Matvey Pavlov, had adopted her at the age of three, by which she acquired her last name

Pavlova’s passion for the art of ballet was sparked when her mother took her to a performance of Marius Petipa’s original production of The Sleeping Beauty at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. The lavish spectacle made a profound impression on the young Pavlova, and at the age of eight her mother took her to audition for the renowned Imperial Ballet School. She was rejected due to her age and for what was considered to be a “sickly” physique, but she was finally accepted at the age of ten in 1891. She made her first appearance in a ballet as a cupid in Petipa’s Un conte de fées (A Fairy Tale), which the ballet master staged especially for the students of the school.

 

Pavlova’s years at the Imperial Ballet School were difficult. Ballet technique did not come easily to the young Pavlova. Her extremely arched feet, thin ankles, and long limbs clashed with the small, compact body which was at that time in favor for the ballerina. Her fellow students taunted her with such nicknames as The broom and La petite sauvage. Undeterred, Pavlova trained relentlessly to improve her technique.

 

During her final year at the Imperial Ballet School, she performed many soloist roles with the principal company, performing small roles in many of the grand ballets of the era. She graduated in 1899 at age 18, being allowed to enter the Imperial Ballet a rank ahead of corps de ballet as a coryphée. She made her debut with the Imperial Ballet performing a variation in Pavel Gerdt’s Les Dryades prétendues (The False Dryads), set to music taken from Cesare Pugni’s score for Jules Perrot’s romantic ballet Éoline, ou La Dryade. Her performance garnered praise from the critics, particularly the great critic and historian Nikolai Bezobrazov, who praised the young dancer for her ” … natural ballon, lingering arabesques, and frail femininity.”.

At the height of Petipa’s strict academicism, the public was at first somewhat reserved in their reaction to Pavlova’s unique style—an unusual combination of an extraordinary dance gift that paid little heed to academic rules: she frequently performed with bent knees, poor turnout, misplaced port de bras and incorrectly placed tours. Such a style in many ways harkened back to the time of the romantic ballet and the great ballerinas of old.

Her feet were extremely rigid, so she strengthened her pointe shoe by adding a piece of hard wood on the soles for support and curving the box of the shoe. At the time, many considered this “cheating”, for a ballerina of the era was taught that she, not her shoes, must hold her weight en pointe. In Pavlova’s case this was extremely difficult, as the shape of her feet required her to balance her weight on her little toes. Her solution became, over time, the precursor of the modern pointe shoe, as pointe work became less painful and easier for curved feet. According to Margot Fonteyn’s biography, Pavlova did not like the way her invention looked in photographs, so she would remove it or have the photographs altered so that it appeared she was using a normal pointe shoe.

While touring in The Hague, Netherlands, Pavlova was told that she had pleurisy and needed an operation. She was also told that she would never be able to dance again if she had this operation so she refused to have the operation saying “If I can’t dance then I’d rather be dead.” Three weeks later she died of pleurisy, three weeks short of her 50th birthday. She was holding her costume from “The Dying Swan” when she spoke her last words; “Play the last measure very softly.” The end for Pavlova came in the Hotel Des Indes in The Hague, which shows a plaque on the wall.

In accordance with old ballet tradition, on the day she was to have next performed, the show went on as scheduled, with a single spotlight circling an empty stage where she would have been. Memorial services were held in the Russian Orthodox Church in London. Anna Pavlova was cremated, and her ashes placed in a columbarium at Golders Green Crematorium, where her urn was subsequently adorned with her ballet shoes. In 2001 there was an attempt to move her remains to the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow in accordance with her requests. After considerable controversy, the request was turned down.

sun and sand at sanford

 

Sanford is a small beach in midland with all the ingredients of a good beach – clean sand, clean water, gentle slope and restrooms. around half a mile of lake frontage is lined with soft sand and if you have had enough sun you could move to a  picnic table beneath a shade tree and cook up some lunch on the barbecue.

There are  playgrounds, boat launches , sprinkler playground… The  Sanford Lake is great for fishing, skiing or pleasure boating.  there is a  $5 charge at the entrance. thoug tere are no life gaurds , there were a few security gaurds around.

The park has two big picnic pavilions available to rent that are perfect for large gatherings. Each pavilion has nearby parking, a horseshoe pit, a volleyball court and electricity.

 

 

 

5760 N Sanford Beach Dr
Sanford, MI 48657-9349

link: – http://www.co.midland.mi.us/departments/extra.php?id=21&pid=591

H.B

Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. – Robert Browning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmh-0-L1vQ

a little mother’s day humour !

“A male gynecologist is like an auto mechanic who never owned a car.” -Carrie Snow

“Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with your girlfriends.” -Laurie Kuslansky

“A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. A woman must do what he can’t.” -Rhonda Handsome

“Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.” -Charlotte Whitton

“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.” -Jennifer Unlimited

“If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.” -Sue Grafton

“When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country.” -Elayne Boosler

“Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.” -Maryon Pearson

“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man- if you want anything done, ask a woman.” -Margaret Thatcher

“I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.” -Gloria Steinem

Mother’s day

John Erskine-
“Woman in the home has not yet lost her dignity, in spite of Mother’s Day, with its offensive implication that our love needs an annual nudging, like our enthusiasm for the battle of Bunker Hill.”

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins. This holiday is relatively modern, being created at the start of the 20th century, and should not be confused with the early pagan and Christian One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods.

In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases “second Sunday in May” and “Mother’s Day. Nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration. Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mother’s Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time.She criticized the practice of purchasing greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. She was arrested in 1948 for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother’s Day, and she finally said that she “wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control …”.

Mother’s Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially-successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States. For example, according to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts—like spa treatments—and another $68 million on greeting cards. Mother’s Day will generate about 7.8% of the U.S. jewelry industry’s annual revenue in 2008, with custom gifts like mother’s rings.

In Nepal, Mata Tirtha Aunshi falls in the month of Baishak dark fortnight (April). This festival falls in the time of dark moon’s time which is why this called “Mata Tirtha Aunshi” derived from words: “Mata” meaning mother; “Tirtha” meaning pilgrimage. This festival is observed in the commemoration and respect of the mother which is celebrated by worshipping and gifting living mother or remembering mothers who have become immortal and are resting in peace. There is a very interesting legend regarding this pilgrimage. In ancient times Lord Krishna’s mother Devaki walked out her house to sight-see. She visited many places and delayed a lot to return back at her house. Lord Krishna became very unhappy because of his mother’s disappearance. So he went out in search of his mother to many places without success. Finally, when he reached “Mata Tirtha Kunda”, he happened to see his mother taking bath there in the spouts of that pond. Lord Krishna was very happy to find her there and narrated all of his tragedies in the absence of his mother. Mother Devaki said to lord Krishna that “oh! Son Krishna let then, this place be the pious rendezvous of children to meet their departed mothers”. So legends believe that since then this place had become a noted holy pilgrimage to see back a devotees’ deceased mother. Also legend believes that a devotee saw his mother’s image inside the pond and he happened to die falling there down. So still there is a small pond fenced by the iron rods in the place even on this present day as well. After the worship the pilgrimage enjoy there singing and dancing throughout the day in the festive mood. There is not evidence of happening of this legend as these are coming from elders based on ancient readings.

happy mother’s day !

“Greatness is never a given. It must be earned.”

 

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been.So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered.Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics.Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.They are serious and they are many.They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.But know this, America -they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation:the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given.It must be earned.Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life.They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today.We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth.Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began.Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year.Our capacity remains undiminished.But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed.Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.All this we can do.And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans.Their memories are short.For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward.Where the answer is no, programs will end.And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill.Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born:know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy.Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations.We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains.They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new.The instruments with which we meet them may be new.But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old.These things are true.They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.What is demanded then is a return to these truths.What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river.The capital was abandoned.The enemy was advancing.The snow was stained with blood.At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).”

America.In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words.With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

- Barack Obama

Jan 20th, 2009.

“how agonised we are over how people die, how untroubled we are by how they live ” P. Sainath

jise sab hai patta…woh hai meri ma.

 

I was just watching, Ndtv they had a program in which people voted for one song out of the all the songs ( if you chooose to call them so) released in 2008…the best song of 2008 ! through out the program I was dreading they would come out with something like ’singh is king’ or ‘laundry ka bill’ as the winner… or maybe yet again a diwaana aur a jaaneman number

But surprisingly, the song which is chosen ’song of the year’ is the maa song from taare zameen par ! a simple and heartrending song, not a dance number. A boy away from home, missing his mom and hoping that she would know how he is feeling. My trust in bollywood music was been restored when i remembered that we also had a song like this one last year.

there a simplicity of emotions, melodious music and warmth in lyrics…the song is simple, original and heartfelt. Of all the songs that have paid tribute to mothers, this would be ranked among one of the best. this is one song which will bring a tear to your eyes and make you call your mom rightaway !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlIOLtQ_D1s

Strange things happen…the most unexpected things. something you could swear upon would never change - changes….something you hope, wish and pray for to change – never does.  I am talking about relationships – something we mostly take for granted – at least I did. taking for granted does not mean I was not considerate , not cautious but I was very secure that some things that some people/some bonds do not will not change…but they do and that happens someone within you dies. you have something to mourn about all your life, and it is so deep and tragic just like death.  infact it is more painful than death of a loved one as hope ( though false) never dies. false hopes of ressurection is alive making it hurt even more when that does not happen.

Maybe people, relationships dont really change. inside we feel the same but we fail to reach out. reach out while there is time. fail to reach out while the relationship is gasping for its last few breaths. I wonder am I the one who is not reaching out? only if I had magical powers or a magic wand , all i would wish for is to see inside each others hearts …hoping it would reassure me that I am still thought about and loved.  I should be carful what I wish for…atleast I have hope now. maybe if we could really see inside people’s heart that might mean sudden death for our relationships with them and a cruel strangulation for our hearts.

*******nightcap *******

No, I am not writing this for anyone else…nor this is not a self exhaulting ego trip … but reminders of little incidents which shape or may shape the way i am/ will be, my life the way it will be …certain lessons which i may / maynot along the way…some things I unlearn for good or bad….also, sweet nothings which might brighten my days when i am blue. 

AND last but not the least when I am old , i can look at this and say…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……my spellings and grammar suck !! )