The Male Ballet Dancer
The Male Ballet Dancer is an excellent DVD on male bravura technique. It opens with Joseph Michael Gatti in an impressive performance of variations from the Black Swan and Le Corsaire - then Finis Jhung analyses the steps and offers invaluable insight on how to improve technique for jumps and turns.
Here is a clip of Joseph Gatti in performance:
Born to Be Wild – The Leading Men of American Ballet Theatre
Born to Be Wild - The Leading Men of American Ballet Theatre explores the lives of Jose Manual Carreno, Angel Corella, Vladimir Malakhov, and Ethan Stiefel, four of American Ballet Theatre's top male ballet dancers.
It's a fairly short documentary - 54 minutes - and concentrates more on the men themselves than on their dancing. Still, there are some amazing shots of them exercising on a trampoline, of all things, and a short choreographed work for all four dancers to finish.
An ideal gift of inspiration for any would-be male ballet dancer.
Billy Elliott
Billy Elliot is such a famous film, that I hesitate to admit I wasn't impressed by it.
What really annoyed me was that we see Billy dreaming of being a ballet dancer and secretly attending ballet lessons - yet when we see him dancing along the streets of his home town, he's tap dancing! I could almost hear the producers - "What? You want him to pirouette down the street? No way! It would look too sissy! Let's get him doing something more manly!" How dare they?
And why on… Continue reading
Ballet for Boys with Richard Glasstone
Richard Glasstone was ballet master at the Royal Ballet School for seventeen years and taught many of Britain's best male dancers. So it's no surprise that this DVD on Ballet for Boys is so useful.
In reality, both male or female students would benefit greatly from his program, but it's nice to see boys taking center stage for a change! There are demonstrations by young beginners, late starters, and a professional dancer. 30 mins. (2007) DVD-Region 1.
Hip Hop Moves for Men
Nightclub Dance Series: Hip Hop Moves For The Club, For Men
Hip Hop DVD's can be really rubbish! Either they're Pussycat Doll moves for girls only, or they're stage dancers too busy showing off to teach you the moves properly.
This is a DVD for men who want moves they can use clubbing, not in performance, and it does that job very well. If you already have some idea of how to dance, this DVD is not for you - but if you feel like a dork on the dance… Continue reading
