De Mulieribus Claris By Giovanni Boccacio.

chelsea g. summers, a certain hunger / ginger snaps (2000) / joan macleod, the shape of a girl / L’AQUART - jade medusa, 2020 / john collier - lilith, 1887 / florence + the machine, “howl” / battle royale (2000) / brenna twohy, “swallowtail” / caravaggio - judith beheading holofernes, 16th c. / herbert james draper - ulysses and the sirens, 1909 / william etty - the sirens and ulysses, 1837 / alicia ostriker, “in the 25th year of marriage, it goes on” / gone girl (2014)

a monster in the shape of a girl

Behind the scenes A Room With a View (1985)

Hi! I'd like to see different ballet styles, productions and footage, and was wondering if you had links to some of them! Thank you so much.

French Ballet

Pierre Lacotte Reconstructions

La Sylphide 1972 | 2004

Paquita

Coppelia

Giselle

Rudolf Nureyev

Swan Lake

Sleeping Beauty 2005 |2013

Bayadere

Nutcracker 1989 | 2012

Raymonda

Don Quixote 2002 | 2012 (I, II)

Romeo and Juliet

Cinderella

Bournonville Ballet

La Sylphide: Danish Ballet 

Etudes 1969 (II) | 2005

Flower Festival in Genzano Danish Ballet | POB | Mariinksy | Royal Ballet

Napoli

The Kermesse in Bruges

A Folk Tale

The Bournonville School

Russian Ballet

Marius Petipa revivals (originally premiered/staged at the Paris Opera)

> originally by Jules Perrot

La Esmeralda Mariinksy 1982 - 2012

Giselle Bolshoi: 1956 - 1975 | ABT 1969 - 1977 | La Scala | Mariinsky | ENB

> originally by Arthur Saint-Léon

Coppelia Bolshoi (Burlaka/Ratmansky Reconstruction)

> originally by Joseph Mazilier

Le Corsaire Bolshoi (Burlaka/Ratmansky Reconstruction) | Mariinsky

Marius Petipa

La Bayadere  Mariinksy: 1964 - 1979 - 2014 | Bolshoi (Act III)

Don Quixote Bolshoi (I, II, III, IV) (2011) | Mariinsky | Mikhailovsky | ABT

Swan Lake: Bolshoi 1957 - 1983 - 2015 | Mariinsky 1986 - 2007 | Wiener Staatsoper

Sleeping Beauty Mariinsky 1969 | Bolshoi | ROH

The Nutcracker Mariinsky | Bolshoi

Raymonda Mariinsky | Bolshoi | La Scala (Vikharev Reconstruction)

La Fille du Pharaon (Lacotte Reconstruction)

Soviet Ballets

Romeo and Juliet Mariinsky (Lavrovsky) 1955 - 2013 | Bolshoi (Grigorovich) 1979 -  2013

Cinderella

Flames of Paris

Laurencia

Hamlet

Anyuta

Gayane (Armenia) Bolshoi 1980 | Mariinsky 2014

Shurale

Yuri Grigorovich

The Legend of Love

Spartacus 1970 |1977 | 2008

Ivan the Terrible 1975 | 1977 | 2015

The Stone Flower

English Ballet

Frederick Ashton

Sylvia

La Fille Mal Gardee

Swan Lake

Cinderella

The Dream ROH | ABT

La Valse

Kenneth MacMillan

Manon Danish Ballet | Royal Ballet

Romeo and Juliet

Mayerling

Anastasia

Balanchine - American Ballet

Symphony in C: NYCB | POB 

Jewels: NYCB (Emeralds Diamonds)  | Mariinsky

Stravinsky Violin Concerto

Serenade

Agon

Apollo 1960 |1968 | 1979

Theme and Variations: NYCB

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: NYCB | POB

Vienna Waltzes

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux NYCB | Royal Ballet

Ballets Russes

Les Sylphides: Bolshoi | ABT | Kirov | Royal Ballet

Scheherezade

L’Apres midi d’une faune

The Firebird: Mariinsky | Bonus

Le Spectre de la Rose: POB

Petroushka: 1976 | 1992 | 2011

Rite of Spring: Joffrey Ballet | Mariinsky

El Sombrero de Tres Picos

Le Train Bleu

Parade

Les Noces: Royal Ballet | Mariinsky

The Prodigal Son

Documentaries

The Romantic Era

Giselle: A Documentary

Diaghilev

Classical Ballet

Agrippina Vaganova: The Great and Terrible

Ballerina: A Documentary in Four Parts

Tout prés des étoiles

The King Who Invented Dance

The Art of Baroque Dance

The Rite of Spring

The Children of Theatre Street

American Masters: Balanchine

Ballet Heroes

Les Enfants de la Danse

Historic Footage

The Art of Russian Ballet (Dudinskaya/Maximova)

Kirov Ballet Gala 1981

First Moscow International Ballet Competition, 1969

Galina Mezentseva

Irina Kolpakova

Ekaterina Maximova/Vladimir Vasiliev

Bolshoi Ballet, 1967

Maya Plisetskaya Dances, 1964

Yvette Chauviré

Anna Pavlova I | II | III | IV | V

Tamara Karsavina I | II | III | IV

– list of historical films –

– 1500s–1600s –

1. the other boleyn girl (2008)

2. elizabeth (1998)

3. elizabeth: the golden age (2007)

4. anonymous (2011)

5. shakespeare in love (1998)

6. the libertine (2004)

7. the three musketeers (1948)

8. lady jane (1985)

9. stage beauty (2004)

– 1700s –

1. the duchess (2008)

2. marie antoinette (2005)

3. pride and prejudice (tv, 1995)

4. sense and sensibility (1995)

5. becoming jane (2006)

6. the madness of king george (1994)

7. perfume: story of a murderer (2006)

8. a little chaos (2014)

9. girl with a pearl earring (2003)

10. belle (2013)

– 1800s –

1. young victoria (2009)

2. mrs brown (1997)

3. victoria and abdul (2017)

4. jane eyre (2011)

5. mr. turner (2014)

6. wilde (1997)

7. dorian gray (2009)

8. the woman in black (2012)

9. anna karenina (1948)

10. the importance of being earnest (2002)

11. bright star (2009)

12. viceroys house (2017)

13. miss potter (2006)

14. creation (2009)

15. the invisible woman (2012)

16. from hell (2011)

17. the limehouse golem (2016)

18. hysteria (2010)

19. effie gray (2014)

20. great expectations (2012)

21. far from the madding crowd (2015)

– 1900s –

1. maurice (1987)

2. brideshead revisited (tv, 1981)

4. suffragette (2015)

5. the englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain (1995)

6. enid (tv, 2009)

7. sunset song (2015)

8. finding neverland (2004)

9. war horse (2011)

10. a dangerous method (2011)

11. another country (1984)

12. jimmy’s hall (2014)

13. the edge of love (2008)

14. their finest (2017)

15. gosford park (2001)

16. glorious 39 (2009)

17. easy virtue (2008)

18. dunkirk (2017)

19. the danish girl (2015)

20. atonement (2007)

21. queen & country (2014)

22. private peaceful (2012)

23. the book thief (2013)

24. testament of youth (2014)

25. boy in striped pyjamas (2008)

26. the others (2001)

27. anthropoid (2016)

28. zoo keepers wife (2017)

29. the royal night out (2015)

30. a united kingdom (2016)

31. another mother’s son (2017)

32. the woman in gold (2015)

33. the king’s speech (2010)

34. the monuments men (2014)

35. the wind that shakes the barley (2006)

36. the man who knew infinity (2015)

37. suite française (2014)

38. the theory of everything (2014)

39. the imitation game (2014)

40. the railway man (2013)

41. the magdalene sisters (2002)

carmela corleone + pears vs diamonds (1917 vs 1958)

Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka is a 1961 fairy tale fantasy Soviet film directed by Alexander Rou. It is based on Nikolai Gogol’s collection of short stories of the same name (specifically based on the short story The Night Before Christmas). In a small Ukrainian village, a young blacksmith, Vakula, is in love with the village beauty, Oksana. Oksana is a capricious girl who states that she will only marry Vakula if he brings her the slippers that Empress Catherine the Great wears. At the same the Devil aims to get back at Vakula for painting an embarassing picture of him. The Devil steals the moon, in the hopes of creating chaos and visiting Vakula’s witch mother. Vakula, however, tricks the Devil into taking him to Saint-Petersburg. [watch]

                                          Mysteries of Life (Tea)

1. Tea by George Dunlop Leslie

2. The Serving Girl, Emil Brack

3. “Tea Time” (Henry Salem Hubbell, 1909) 

4. Eva Gonzales (1849-1883) - “Le Thé”

5. Charles Bittinger Afternoon Tea (1912)

6. At The Fireplace “ Delphin Enjolras“

7. Henry Salem Hubbell (1870 – 1949) “Ladies Having Tea”

8. Portrait of a Woman in a Turkish Costume by Jean Baptiste Van Loo

9. Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta- “Portrait of a Lady”

10. James Francis Day (American, 1863-1942) - Afternoon tea

Classic Novels Turned Movies You Need To Watch

A Hello you guys! Here’s a list of Classic Novels Turned Movies I’ve read and watched and I thought of sharing them with you. If you have any suggestions you can always drop a message on my dm’s. Here goes;

Anna Karenina (2012) // Leo Tolstoy

Atonement (2007) // Ian McEwan

Emma (1996) // Jane Austen

Frankenstein (1931) // Mary Shelley

Great Expectations (2012) // Charles Dickens

Jane Eyre (2011) // Charlote Brontë

Les Miserables (2012) // Victor Hugo

Little Women (1994) // Louisa M. Alcott

Lolita (1997) // Vladimir Nabokov

Lord Of The Flies (1990) // William Golding

Macbeth (2015) // William Shakespeare

Madame Bovary (2014) // Gustave Flaubert

Of Mice And Men (1992) // John Steinbeck

Persuasion (2007) // Jane Austen

Pride And Prejudice (2005) // Jane Austen

Romeo And Juliet (2013) // William Shakespeare

Tess Of The D’Urbervilles (1979) // Thomas Hardy

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1993) // Mark Twain

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) // Alexandre Dumas

The Grapes Of Wrath (1940) // John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby (2013) // F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Phantom Of The Opera (2004) // Gaston Leroux

The Picture of Dorian Gray (2017) // Oscar Wilde

The Scarlet Letter (1995) // Nathaniel Hawthorne

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) // Harper Lee

Vanity Fair (2004) // William Makepeace Thackery

Wuthering Heights (2009) // Emily Brontë

Listen, I might be playing the devils advocate, but I don't think Dany's fate in the GoT finale was due to D&D being sexist.I think it was just because D&D can't write for crap.

It’s not about intent.

Allow me to begin by saying that I completely understand the knee-jerk reaction that people have to the term ‘sexism’. It’s very polarizing, and when men read the term, they immediately go on the offensive. That’s not what I want at all. I don’t use the term to alienate or exclude men, I use it because it’s the dictionary definition of what I’m trying to convey:

sex·ism (noun): "prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.“

That said, allow me to play devil’s advocate here and say that I do not believe the writers intended to have an underlying sexist message. They are more oblivious than they are malicious. It is born of sheer ignorance (lack of knowledge or information) and the privilege to ignore it because, as males, it doesn’t affect them.

Let’s put aside the dozens of articles that came out after the finale calling out the sexism. You guys know me, I like to pull receipts, cite my sources, and throw in some visuals to help aid my point.

For most of the 70+ hours of Game of Thrones, Daenerys actually does not fall victim to these sexist tropes. Honestly, that is what subverted my expectations for seven seasons. That Dany always teetered on the edge of these tired, overused tropes about women, yet she remained steadfast in her ruthless yet good nature, her moral compass was always aligned even if it didn’t match the viewers, and she was a gods-damned hero, straight through to episode four of season eight.

But the demoralizing reality is that Daenerys was hit with trope after trope in the last three episodes. In the final hours of the show, the writers pulled a bait-and-switch, giving us a ‘shocking’ heel-tern whose only foreshadowing was a very bad retcon job full of double standards. And so many fans, such as yourself, justify it. Not because the show foreshadowed it, but because these tropes are so, so ingrained in our brains from decades of media feeding us these narratives that we now expect them.

In the end, Daenerys succumbs to numerous sexist tropes:

‘God Save Us From the Queen’ trope

“The Good Kingdom: A lovely, wealthy country ruled by a benevolent king, a wise prince, and a fair princess loved by the populace. But what’s that? There’s a queen? Oh, brother, we’re in trouble.”

Disposable Woman trope

“This character has a familial or romantic relationship with a protagonist, which allows creators to derive heart-wrenching sorrow from her death.”

Evil Infertile Woman trope

“Women are often divided into “breeders” and “the barren,” with the latter coming off as cool and distant at best, and malicious and desperate at worst.“

The Double-Standard Trope

“A double standard occurs when members of two or more groups are treated differently regarding the same thing. Gender is one of the most common causes of double standards.”

Hysterical Woman trope

“This trope characterizes women as less rational, disciplined, and emotionally stable than men, and thus more prone to mood swings, irrational overreactions, and mental illness.”

Woman Scorned trope

“What’s the only type of woman more dangerous than a Mama Bear? A woman who’s been dumped or otherwise done wrong by her significant other. Especially if she’s been hiding some sanity problems.”

Women Are Delicate trope

“Even if women have toughness, competence, strength or stability, it’s less than what their male peers are capable of.”

The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask trope

“They don’t want a young woman, or they don’t want any woman, or they just don’t want this particular woman on the throne.”

Tropes in and of themselves are not bad, but very outdated tropes that are associated with the emotional or mental ‘fragility’ of women are. Why? Because they reinforce deep-seated and subconscious stereotypes of women that audiences hold.

“It’s just a show/book! Who cares!”

People have been turning to art (including literature) for years for meaning, for philosophical guidance. Most people in my own country turn to one book to both find and justify their morality (the bible).

“Literature offers not just a window into the culture of diverse regions, but also the society, the politics; it’s the only place where we can keep track of ideas.”―Reza Aslan

It’s not just a show. The art and media we consume helps shape who we are, for better or worse. When men refuse to consider the consequence of their sexist narratives simply because it doesn’t affect their own lives, it inadvertently causes harm for others who don’t share their privilege.

And it’s not just Daenerys. She’s just the figurehead.

There was a great article from BBC about how much women actually speak on Game of Thrones:

I can already hear the counter-argument brewing…

“So what? There are more male characters!”

Yeah. There are. And that’s a problem, too.

Of the top-grossing 1,200 films from 2007 to 2018, 28% of films were led or co-led by women. Meanwhile, around 49.6 percent of the world’s population is female.

By featuring so few women and by giving women who are featured 20% of the airtime to speak their minds, the writers are unintentionally devaluing the speech and opinions of women. This inspires the audience to devalue women in a subconscious way.

Whether or not it intended to, Game of Thrones and its shocking ‘heel-turn’ has very troubling sexist and political implications (amongst other things).

Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m blowing this way out of proportion.

Tell me it’s just a show or a book and every single fan knows how to separate fiction from reality (they don’t, go look at Maisie William’s Instagram comments following her season eight sex scene for proof of that). Meanwhile, here in actual reality, we see things like this:

@thescarletgarden1990 informs me that over in Italy, political figures are using Game of Thrones advertising in their campaigns, too:

Translation: “Invaded by masses of Others? Not Today. Immediate naval block, let’s defend our borders.”

What makes it worse is that, at least Donald Trump, identifies with House Stark. Or, those who rule the northerners. The people who showed their blatant racism toward the only two black named characters. And the writers never bothered to critique the problematic behavior, instead, rewarding their people with independence and driving those pesky evil foreigners ’back where they belong’.

I’ve barely had time to scroll my dash and I’ve already seen a troubling amount of harassment towards Dany fans via anon asks (including myself, though I just block the IP and delete but I wish I’d saved them for proof).

Why? Because the ending justifies their personal narrative, this bad writing confirms their worldview. Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, the same thing is happening in reverse in response to the takedown of a figure like Daenerys Targaryen:

“Khaleesi’s heel turn is particularly troubling for fans who might have felt a true sense of connection to her character following her epic story arc, which has seen Dany escape some awful circumstances to literally walk through fire, free the slaves, bring Dragons to the north and help rally the troops to defeat the Night King. She has basically been Abraham Lincoln, Hercules and Winston Churchill combined into one person riding a dragon.” (x)

The point here is that the show is doing its audience of 19,300,000 viewers a great disservice by succumbing to very outdated tropes and double standards, and sending troubling messages as a result. For instance, a woman can do countless heroic or selfless things, but you should never trust her! She needs to be tempered. Women cannot wield power responsibly. There are endless messages you can take away from this ending and the dialogue that led us to the show’s conclusion (my personal favorite being ‘Cocks are important’).

And the fans who want to say 'you’re overreacting’ to everyone who speaks up against it are only aiding in this ongoing legacy of 85% male writers who get to tell our stories, poorly, and reap all the rewards.

Sure, all of this could be solely the result of ‘just bad writing’…

Nevertheless, it is what it is.

What are your favourite pieces of classical music?

 I don’t have the slightest musical education so my apologies for the possible abuse of the term “classical” but lately I’ve grown a special affection for the following pieces:

Bach-Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother- (the way it starts as a grave farewell and then becomes light reminds me of Catullus 65) Cello Suite No.1 and Concertos for Oboe

Corelli- La Follia (or Vivaldi’s version, if I’m feeling extra extra)

Monteverdi- Zefiro Torna, Lamento della Ninfa and many of his madrigals

Jean Baptiste Lully- Armide

Franz Schubert- Serenade, Fantasy in F Minor

Frédéric Chopin- Nocturne, Funeral March, La Polonaise (reminds me of dziady!)

 Felix Mendelssohn- Midsummer Night’s Dream

 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky- Rococo Variation, Pas de deux from the Nutcracker

I’m in love with the Impressionists: Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin was the first work to make me interested in classical music, and I also love Jeux d’eau, Daphnis et Chloe, Introduction and Allegro, String Quartet- Assez Vif

Claude Debussy: Suite Bergamasque

Erik Satie:  Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes (for cloudy Sunday mornings)