Some photos

Dancers, dogs & ballet on Pinterest

“I am I because my little dog knows me.” (Gertrude Stein)

Lord Berners-Frederick Ashton: A Wedding Bouquet (1937)

The ballet is about a provincial wedding at the beginning of the XXth century. Julia, the main character is slightly demented. She has been "ruined" before by the groom and is now an embarrassment to him. After the wedding is over, she is left alone and unhappy, with only her dog, Pepe to comfort her. 

A Wedding Bouquet of Ashton at Royal Ballet

Iohna Loots as Pépé

A Wedding Bouquet was the idea of Lord Berners, who wanted Frederick Ashton to make a ballet pantomime out of one of Gertrude Stein's plays, and who both wrote the music and designed the "decor" and costumes. The original title was "They must be Wedded to Their Wife", but this was thought too long for advertising and was changed to A Wedding Bouquet. Lord Berners went to visit Gertrude Stein in Bilignin and she liked the idea and he found in her house a carpet which gave him the pattern for the stage set. 

The character of Julia's dog was inspired by the little dog of Gertrude Stein, Pépé.

Gertrude Stein, writer and poet, and her dog, Pépé

Dogs, pugs, dancers and ballet: some common things

1. Friendship. Dancer are living in special rhythm, working the evenings and week-ends, their schedule is busy: ballet class, rehearsals, peformances, auditions, tours, guestings. Ballet is very demanding both physically and mentally. Emotionally too. In many Opera houses all around the world dance companies are often "orphan childs", dancers are less respected than their should be. In these conditions having a dog means a lot of sacrifices and complications but many dancers find place still in their life for a pet. Me and István Simon, principal dancer of Hungarian National Ballet, we have 2 black pugs, Darth Vader and Dr. Watson.

Svetlana Zakharova and her poodle

2. Pack members. A dance company is like a big family, dancers spend their time together, they protect and support each other. Lonelyness doesn't exist.

Cesar Millan's pack

Ballerinas of Degas 

3. Sympathy for veils

Elena Vostrotina as Myrtha in David Dawson's Giselle

István Simon as Solor in La Bayadere

Watson is rehearsing Giselle

Vader as bride

Watson with the curtain

Vader and Watson

4. Dancers and dogs are hard to shot because they move too much. I think I need a better camera and more practice... I have thousands of pictures presenting unrecognisable black (pugs) and white (dancers) figures.

Vader and Watson

Vader in pullover (Lucky Dog)

If dancers and dogs are really focusing on something they don't move so much so I can make some clear photos i.e.:

Istvan Simon and Darth Vader in the ballet studio

Some other people are better in this field. Dogs in motion:

Running pug puppies

Dancers in motion:

Elena Vostrotina by Costin Radu

Istvan Simon by Ian Whalen

Together:

Sylvie Guillem with her dog, Zak

5. Bone problems. Health issues from the side of the dancers (being a physio I have great solutions in these cases) and surprisely erupting predator instincts from the side of the pugs (while feeding bones). Darth Vader, our older pug became a black pather when he got a bone to play with at the very first time. Coordianted steps, tight muscles, raised hackles. Slowly he became more altruist and now he shares his bone with our puppy, Dr. Watson.

Vader and his 1st bone

Dr. Watson and Vader's bone

Combination: Vader has a kind of ballet hip. He needed kinesiotape and physiotherapy. It was a bit more complicated than working with professional ballet dancers because he was a bit less cooperative on balance-boards...

Vader was able to stand on 2 feet again with the kinesiotape 

6. Spiral esthetic

Amanda Shepherd: Ballerina

How to make a ballet bun?

Pug tail in perfect double curve

Snail dreams about ballet

Dancing dog

William Forsythe demostrates

Pennsylvania Ballet Principal Dancer Lauren Fadeley in Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude by William Forsythe

7. Splits. Standard for a ballet dancer. And some dogs.

Svetlana Zakharova splits

French bulldog splits

7. They love to be on stage!

On stage

Giselle in Mikhailovsky Theater 

Birmingham Ballet's Mutt-cracker

Lua, dachshund of Marcelo Gomes

Video: Marcelo Gomes with Lua

Solaria, the rottweiler of Rudolf Nureyev

Nureyev and Solaria

Nureyev had obtained the dog in September 1992 from a pound for sick dogs. He named the dog “Solaria,” after Solor, the hero of La Bayadère. Nureyev could not name the dog Solor, his first choice, because the dog was a female.Jeanette Etheredge testified about Solaria as follows: Rudolf had called me; he told me that he had bought a dog. He had always wanted a dog. Now he had gotten this little Rottweiler. He was very excited on the phone telling me he had gotten a Rottweiler. I told him the dog better speak English by the time I get to Paris because I wasn’t going to speak French to that dog. When I got there, the dog didn’t speak French, didn’t speak Russian, didn’t speak English; it spoke nothing. After Nureyev’s death in 1993, Marika Besobrasova (Nureyev’s close friend) took possession of Solaria. Four years later, Solaria was alive and well, as she even accompanied Besobrasova to her deposition.

“When God had made the earth and sky, the flowers and the trees.

He then made all the animals and all the birds and bees.

And then His work was finished, and not one was quite the same
He said I’ll walk this earth of mine and give each one a name.

And so he traveled land and sea, and everywhere He went
a little creature following him, until its strength was spent.

When all were named upon the Earth, and in the sky and sea,
A little creature said, Dear Lord, there’s not one left for me.

The Father smiled and softly said, I’ve left you to the end,
I’ve turned my own name back to front

and called you “Dog” my friend.

”