Enough Tobi Tobias Last call

Dentro de la sección As Time Goes By: The dichotomies of artistry and age.

Will we ever again see Sylvie Guillem on the Royal ballet stage? Fortunately, both Miyako Yoshida and Leanne Benjamin will still be with us next season. But Yoshida turned forty last October, and Benjamin is her senior. Miraculously, all three women continue to perform as if they were physically half their age. Needless to say, they are also offering us a great deal more emotional depth than any twenty-year-old ballerina could ever convey. These three exceptional artist are surrounded by an aura that manages to mesh peaks of physical perfection with profound truths. Each, in her own way, inhabits a shimmering golden penumbra where both ballerina and audience can't help but be aware of the fact that time is rushing by faster than either we or they would wish. What follows here is a trio of observations on the glories and pitfalls that face the mature dancer; along with reflections on some of the numerous facts and fantasies which surround that imponderable mythic moment when the time has finally arrived to hang up those pointe shoes. PALABRAS CLAVE: retirement.