Asian dancers dominating U.S. ballet competition

emotionless faces, repetitive movements practiced billions of times so to attain nearly perfection, being cut out of everything for one mistake so that others with nearly perfect abilities can proceed unchallanged.... anyone wonder why Japanese are good at this?

Hmm are there other thin people than asians in US?

The recent Van Cliburn international Piano competition's Top 4 finalists were all Asians. The top figure skaters were Kim Yona of S Korea and Asada of Japan. These competitions are judged almost subjectively by world class experts. Therefore, this news is something!

Asians always have good technique and a good "appearance" (they look the part) but I always find that they lack soul. They're good at pretending to look like they have emotion if necessary (like in some kinds of dance or music) but it never feels genuine.

Damien15, I don't think thin or not matters in a ballet competition. They're all going to be thin. My ballet teacher was notorious for "encouraging" teenage and adult women to drop below 100 pounds if they wanted to go pro. You'll find in ballet that this is not unusual.

Monkeyz, I know what you mean. Love ballet like crazy so I do feel the difference. choucreme I am not a ballerina and I am not jealous :)

It would be the same when europeans do the ancient Indian dances. The facial expressions are just way off.

This is why I love the mixed children. They help to pass on the specifics of the deep rooted cultural things.

Monkeyz: fully agreed re good technique and lack of soul

was this a classical or modern ballet competition?

The Finalists

http://www.usaibc.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/RoundIIIMass.pdf

marushka,

that's a rather soulless comment. sounds more like envy at the dancers' success than anything based on reality.

sourpuss- sounds like everything in this life can be explained by envy :)

Sounds like envy talking here. Like when your team loses, your team is still better somehow.

Noborito, the article is talking about "Asians" not only "Japanese" or are all Asians the same in your book? One reason why the Japanese are becoming successful dancers (not only ballet) is because they practice like crazy. I'm not saying it's a healthy thing, but they sure do put in a lot of effort.

Monkeyz said: I don't think thin or not matters in a ballet competition. They're all going to be thin. My ballet teacher was notorious for "encouraging" teenage and adult women to drop below 100 pounds if they wanted to go pro. You'll find in ballet that this is not unusual.

It sure as heck matters a great deal if the person is properly built to be that weight. A lot more Asians are. A tall, big boned person at 100 pounds is going to look horrible and not have the balance or the muscle mass to excel at ballet. Your coach was an idiot. Every adult female case is different.

My previous comment got "moderated" so I apologize if anyone was offended. First of all in response to MonkeyZ's comment that Asians have good technique but lack soul. I think this is an unfair and sweeping generalization. Is this based on your actual observation of Asian dancers? I have lived in China, the Philippines and now Japan. And even though these peoples are grouped together as Asians I have found their temperaments to be quite different. Just as the temperaments of Germans and Italians are very different. So I challenge you to tell me which Asian dancers you have actually watched dance and where you saw them.

Ballet is not a tribal dance, it is a very technique based dance form. That is why ballet dancers spend hours and hours repeating set exercises instead of whirling around the floor in a frenzy. I studied ballet for many years according to the Royal Academy of Ballet (RAD) method and so I can really appreciate the dedication and discipline it takes. I however did not have what it takes. I always did well in examinations but my technique was not as strong as it should have been because I was a lazy dancer. I reveled in the 'show' but not the practice.

With this background I truly applaud the success of these Asian dancers in a previously western dominated dance form.

I admit I am not an expert on the matter but am not surprised that Asian ballet dancers excel. I agree that their national temparements are quite different, but I recall that a lot of "Asian" countries, both East and West have a long history of dancing and it ys a large part of their respective cultures.

You seem a very refined and knowledgeable person. It's my pleasure to make your accquaintance.

This thread seems to be guilty of much racial profiling.. o_0 maybe there is some thing that not all here have considered? Ballet has ALWAYS sought to achieve image over substance.. there is no real 'soul' in ballet dance, as it is most often a dance that is pushed upon very young slender people who are still learning to express themselves - they are most often pushed into ballet by much older parents.. so it is THEIR dream.. THEIR soul.. being expressed in the form of the child being sent to perform a very structured, very strict form of visual poem. The very nature of ballet is strict control and death to the expression of the soul. The reasons that the Nihonjin women may well excel in ballet sadly do include the possible influence of Nihon society structure.. that they simply accept as a way of life, and physically Asian women GENERALLY are much smaller and more slender in their bodies.. even though they may be several years older than the Russian or American girls of similar size and shape - and THERE is the one racist comment that has not yet been written: The Asian women appear in the most-accepted shape and size for the abstract concept of false perfection that is ballet.. even though they are older and therefore more capable, more experienced than the majority of young rail-thin children who were made to suffer ballet by their parents. The final combination of right-shape and size, plus age and experience, (and sadly hai.. the structure of Nihon society in general) all combine to create very favorable circumstances for Asian women to excel in ballet.