Storyville: John Curry: The Ice King TV - Waldemar Januszczak TV -Tim Marlow TV - Rita Rudner - Anton Chekhov - Rudolph Nureyev: Dance to Freedom TV - Panorama TV -
The life of a competitive figure skater is like a monk. When there’s ice you’re going to skate on it … There is no opportunity for friends and family. Storyville: John Curry: The Ice King, dude, BBC 2020
I wanted to be a dancer. I was allowed to ice skate. Because it was a sport they thought it was OK. ibid. John
John was the first one to really merge this deep expressiveness of dance with the athletic virtuosity of skating. ibid. woman
I was told not to be so graceful and I couldn’t understand why. ibid. John
John was the European champion going into the Olympics and that shifted everything. ibid. woman
He looks down at the girls from extravagant 3-D viewpoints that art had never chosen before. (Art & Ballet) Waldemar Januszczak, The Impressionists III: Painting and Revolution: Painting the People
Degas’ most intense examination of women – his most productive voyeurism – took place not in a bathtub or in Sparta but from a box in the theatre from where he loved to watch the ballet. ibid.
Edgar Degas is widely celebrated as a pioneering French Impressionist and the first great painter of beautiful ballerinas. Tim Marlow on Degas and the Ballet
The Royal Academy’s exhibition traces Degas’ creative obsession with ballet throughout his career. ibid.
Three Dancers (Blue Skirts, Red Bodices) c.1903: That kind of creative energy you’ve seen in the Russian pictures I think in some ways is seen in these late ballet pictures too. ibid.
The first great artist to be obsessed with the ballet. ibid.
I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine. Rita Rudner
I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses. Anton Chekhov
A single event made Rudolph Nureyev the most famous dancer in the world. On 16th June 1961 he defected in Paris. Rudolph Nureyev: Dance to Freedom, BBC 2015
As children they dread becoming professional ballet dancers. Training at two of the most prestigious ballet schools in the UK. Now speak out about what for years has been left unsaid. A world where eating disorders are common. Producing wonderful dancers but also leaving a legacy of emotional problems. Panorama: The Dark Side of Ballet Schools, BBC 2023
‘What it felt like was just being bullied on a daily basis.’ ibid. victim