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| musical_maven |
Christine required to do Pointe????Recently I aquired The Complete Phantom of the Opera, in it Sarah Brightman said that she used he ballet skills in pointe. I am curious to find out if present Christine's are also required to do this.Any tidbits will help! <3 |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
They're not. They fake it. | ||||||
| Toasterphantom |
...I'm not sure if they can or cannot fake it. Its my experience in ballet that en pointe is not really something fakable. You're either on your toes or not. But if someone was spectacular for Christine and couldn't do en pointe, I'm sure they could work it to be half pointe, which is relatively easy to learn. | ||||||
| musicandthemirror |
All of the ballet girls are required to be en pointe, so I don't see why Christine would be an exception. | ||||||
| The Very Angry Woman |
Because Christine is not a heavy dancing role, and besides, she doesn't even come in until partway through Hannibal. The emphasis is much more on singing. |
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| musicandthemirror |
Regardless of how much she dances, she is still part of the corps and I would imagine they would go for uniformity. | ||||||
| Paula74 |
Not all of the actresses cast as Christine dance en pointe. Sandra Joseph, for example, did not...and she was the longest-running in the role on Broadway. Others...like Rebecca Pitcher...do.
It's not a problem as long as the actress has enough dance training to fake it and, generally, the audience doesn't really notice the difference because her time dancing is so brief. |
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| santtu |
No, en pointe is not a requirement.
Most of the Christines I've seen haven't danced en pointe. They don't even wear proper ballet shoes, the toe part is soft. It's great if the actress can do it, for Christine is supposed to be a good dancer (not as good as Meg, though) since she is in the ballet chorus, but if the actress can't do it, it's not the end of the world. |
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| Xxmcfly85xX |
I read an interview or something... somewhere..(goldfish memory!) that said that the current Australian Christine (Ana Marina) dances en pointe. Whether it was a requirement or not, I dunno. | ||||||
| operafantomet |
Re: Christine required to do Pointe????
You've already gotten many wonderful replies here, but I'll add this: When POTO opened in West End in 1986, Christine danced the whole dance routine along with the ballet girls, and Christine and Meg were sort of "the leads" of the slavegirls. Sarah Brightman (principal) and Maria Kesselman (understudy) were both skilled pointe dancers; I'm not sure about Claire Moore (alternate). But it didn't take long to realize that trained high sopranos with good acting abilities AND pointe training are a rare breed, so they made Christine wander around int he back of the stage, absent-minded, while the slavegirls dance their main theme (and Meg and a random ballet dancer is now the lead dancers). Christine enters the dance right before Madame Giry sais "concentrate, girl!". One exception is the Japanese productions, where Christine still does the whole dance routine, in lead with Meg, and still dance en pointe. Some Christines dance en pointe, some only use regular ballet slippers. It's such a brief dancing part anyway, so few will be able to tell the difference. Of Christines dancing en pointe I can think of: Sarah Brightman, Maria Kesselman, Dodie Pettit, Rachel Barrell, Rebecca Pitcher, the Japanese Christines, Ana Marina, Julie Hanson, Celia Graham, Jane Mark. Probably may more! http://musicals.net/forums/archive.php/to-pointe-or-not-to-pointe-that-is-the-question...__o_t__t_42399.html |
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| SuperKabob |
When I say the tour, Christine wasn't en pointe, and she danced in the front for only a little. She just went on demi when all of the other girls were on pointe...It didn't bother me at all.
I can't imagine it's that much of an issue... |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
Phans can turn anything into an issue. |
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| Paula74 |
That may be one of the great understatements of the past two decades. |
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| operafantomet |
Hahaha, y'a think? |
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| What Is This Feeling? |
Yeh, it says so in my Complete Phantom of the Opera Book. (Haha) |