Individual Ballets: Blue Danube


Figure 1.--We note a Vienna presentation for News Years 2009 which also featured blue costumes. In this case children, both boys and girls danced the parts. A reader reports on New Years eve 2008, "I watched the New Years Day Concert from Vienna yesterday. There was a children's ballet. The dance was the visual part of a strause Waltz. There were three girls and 3 boys. All about 12.

We were not familiar with a ballet titled "Blue Danube". Of course it would be based on the famous Strauss "Blue Danube Waltz". The noted Australian dance empresario Gertrud Bodenwieser choreographed and produced a ballet in the 1930s and 40s. One source describes costumes with "blue velvet bodices and full, flowing organdie skirts and sleeves" to evoke the famous river. The Bodenwieser dancers were women. We note a Vienna presentation for News Years 2009 which also featured blue costumes. In this case children, both boys and girls danced the parts. The boys had gold tops and blue shorts and danced with cross strapped ballet slippers. A reader reports on New Years eve 2008, "I watched the New Years Day Concert from Vienna yesterday. There was a children's ballet. The dance was the visual part of a strause Waltz. There were three girls and 3 boys. All about 12. The physique of the boys showed them to be very athletic. They enjoyed the dance too. It was about fairies and sprites. The sprites (the boys) ran away when the fairies tried to kiss them! The boys and girls danced with youthful exuberance and it was a joy to watch the ballet. All the time the expression on the children's faces was joy, smiles and mischief. It was a fun piece created to the misuic of the Blue Danube. This river is supposed always to appear blue to those who are in love when they see this river. There might be truth in this as I have always found this river to be blue when I have walked along its banks. None-the-less I think you'll be able to see the fun these children had when they danced." We are not sure about the performance. I don't think there is aballet entiteled "Blue Danube" We have heard of the Blue Danube waltz, but not the Blue Danube Ballet. Perhaps some one just coeorgraphed a ballet piece to the Blue Danube Waltz and there is no actual full ballet. We do note, however, references to a "Blue Danube" ballet Choreographed by Gertrud Bodenwieser, an Australian ballet figure in the 1930s and 40s. Another reader writes, "I try to watch the Austrian New Years telebision broadcast each year. The peformance for 2009 was outstanding. The boys and girls performed beautifully."






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Created: 6:53 AM 1/7/2009
Last updated: 6:53 AM 1/7/2009