Dancer Bastien Hippocrate

I saw this dancer in a music video and thought he was very interesting:

[video: moody music plays as a man, who first appears to be drunk, is actually dancing in a dark allyway. The scene is lit by car headlights, as if the camera is in a car that is backing slowly away while the dancer follows.]

[video: a male dancer (Bastien Hippocrate) and female dancer (Claire Dessimoz) are connected by five-foot tethers, placed to look accidental, on various parts of their torsos and limbs. As they dance they manipulate the other person's position and catapult each other around. The style is writhing and messy. The first part is just the sound of the dancers shuffling and huffing, then abstract guitar music starts, which sounds loose, moody and agitated.]

Royal Ballet Rehearsal

I've become completely addicted to this series of filmed rehearsals of the Royal Ballet on YouTube. I could have sworn I previously posted a clip of the final caterpillar scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, also from the Royal Ballet, but I can't find it so I'll post it again. I found a rehearsal of this same scene and it was fascinating.

[video: a scene from the Royal Ballet's production of Alice in Wonderland, in which the Caterpillar convinces Alice to eat a magic mushroom. It's mischievous and Arabic-inspired with undulating hypnotic moves; at one point the Caterpillar goes off stage and comes back with all his "legs," i.e. eight more dancers in a train behind him inside a long caterpillar costume.]

I particularly enjoyed this clip of a rehearsal of a ballet called Elite Syncopations, which provides insight into a production that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed very much in its finished form.

[video: the Royal Ballet rehearse Elite Syncopations, in which a comic coquettish trio dance to ragtime piano music. It's one of those choreographic beasts where every little wrist flick has to be perfect.]

I can't watch this without remembering high school tap instructrix Stephanie Hamilton standing at the back of the auditorium during dance rehearsals screaming "JAZZ HAAAAAAANNNNNDS!" out of the darkness. It seems it's always the petite people who can bellow loudest.