Yeah right. It's like this chat:
Russian Ladies thread
User1: Russian ladies are so sloppy, so boring and Japanese ladies are much better!
User2: What? Could you explain please your opinion?
User1: Because I think so! And I think that many people think like I am!
User3: Nope.
User1: Yes! You can't see it!
puremagic: Nope. Japanese ladies programs indeed all lookalike and very boring. Maybe for you not, but who cares.
and then came up
andromache: OH NO!!! IT'S JAPANESE LADIES BASHING! Shame on you!
What a pity...
At least the other posters were bringing up some specific criticisms of specific skaters. "Japanese ladies all look the same and very boring" is a blanket insult.
And samkrut cited Marin Honda as an example, which is productive and worth discussing (though maybe not in a Russian ladies thread) and I do happen to agree with what samkrut said about Marin - she could use more interesting/creative programs to really highlight how special her skating is.
Just saying what you said, as if it's an objective fact, is just being inflammatory. (Though lilahozi was being slightly rude as well).
Uhm, I'm thinking it's about time for another 'what does the balletic tradition in Russia look like' and 'what is the symbolic code of gestures from Russian dance and theatre traditions' discussion. [AlexD please do .....]
Or even a more general 'what is ballet' discussion. Pretty dancing or skating with good extension, elegance or grace is not the definition of 'balletic'.... [mrrice please weigh in...] Ballet can be very challenging aesthetically and not 'pretty'....
I can't comment at all on how the ballet tradition has been received and adapted in Japan, but atsumiri and lilahozi please do not try to redefine ballet to a narrow range of expression that is very remote from the richness of the Russian and Eastern European schools and tradition.....
You brought this up the last time the topic of "being balletic" arose, but I never saw any specific examples regarding how the Russian ladies are being balletic as you define it.
Many of us have experience with at least viewing ballet, including great admiration for the Bolshoi ballet, which is by the far the most famous example of Russian ballet, and that influences ballet all over the entire world. Extension and attention to every little movement, from toes to fingertips, is central to ballet, whether it is aesthetically pleasing or not, it is aesthetically interesting.
Other balletic traditions exist in Russia, but classical is the most famous and it is inextricably linked with Russia
specifically, because of the fame of the Bolshoi. There's nothing wrong with associating "balletic" with the Bolshoi and with Russia, since it's so famous.
Sure, we aren't all ballet scholars, but that doesn't make our associations with ballet and the Bolshoi and Russia completely stupid or ignorant. I'm a literary scholar, but I completely understand why people might see Robert Frost or Walt Whitman as completely representative of American poetry and might not know about the important influence of lesser-known American poets. Rather than informing them that they don't know what they're talking about, it might be helpful to point out specific poetic techniques from these lesser-known authors and show how they have influenced more recent works.
Examples would help immensely with what you're trying to communicate.
Anna :luv17: Polina 
) but somehow found myself in a "bash the Japanese ladies" thread instead....maybe the hyperlinking is broken....
