If There Is Much In The Window There Should Be More In The Room

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Alessandra Ferri and STING





When one envisions a ballerina, a lovely, ethereal creature comes to mind; one who skims across the floor with delicacy and grace......whose every movement is soft, feminine and fluid.

This image could almost seem like a fantasy, impossible to exist in the real world. As a matter of fact, it rarely does. While good ballet dancers are not numerous, great ones come our way so infrequently that they usually become legends.
This is certainly Alessandra Ferri's destiny.

For people not familiar with her dancing, they might wonder what distinguishes one principal dancer from another. Why is she so special? The answer is rather difficult to put into words since her magnificent qualities defy description.

Just to see her move, to extend her incredibly arched foot, to observe the musicality that ripples through her entire body as she makes an otherwise academic step look like poetry-------all of this lyricism, exquisite line and passionate expression is so evident that the observer cannot help but be taken in by the beauty of it all. She surely exemplifies what ballet is supposed to be.

Alessandra Ferri is a highly accomplished Italian ballerina and performs a beautiful ballet routine as Sting plays Bach’s Perlude on his guitar. The warm up scenes are very intimate too as he does yoga stretches and she gets her shoes ready—it’s soothing and has a nice ending as well.



Music video with Alessandra Ferri (principal dancer with American Ballet Theater) and Sting.
Work: Bach: Suite for Cello solo no 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

3 comments:

  1. How many times I have seen this video; I enjoyed it again. Two lovely artists delighting in music written so long ago. Pure art on what looks like a warehouse floor.

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    Replies
    1. I am glad you liked this.

      The choice of performing space/location
      might be a distinctive and
      integral part of the work
      and certainly a deliberate
      part of the design.
      The choice of area,
      especially when it is
      as unique as a warehouse floor,
      where Ferri dances across
      to the accompaniment of
      Sting's guitar Bach: Suite for Cello,
      reflects a view of dance
      as primarily an dramatic movement,
      and only secondarily
      the performing stage.

      There is no loss of identity:
      the differences among
      dance genre and music media
      would flow in sharp contrast
      with the costumes and scenery.
      As in other performing arts,
      the variation is acceptable
      as long as they
      are consistent with
      the dramatic theme.

      This is a neoclassical work
      which embody music in
      choreography and aims
      to shift in understanding
      of the art form from one
      primarily concerned with
      the rhythmic dance movements
      of ballerina Ferri
      to one recognizing the
      classical Bach Cello solo
      performed through guitar way
      by the musician,
      singer-songwriter, STING...

      Delete

  2. ".....reflects a view of dance
    as primarily an dramatic movement..." --

    *reflects a view of dance
    as primarily 'a' dramatic movement.*






    ReplyDelete