dancers i have fallen in love with via youtube but never seen live (volume 5)

~ yuhui choe ~

(royal ballet, london)

my first memory of yuhui is from a DVD of royal ballet’s romeo and juliet. yuhui was one of six ladies  in the dance of the girls with the lilies, but she was the one I couldn’t take my eyes off of. my second memory of her was also on DVD, i believe, swan lake this time – where she was one of the girls in the act 1 pas de trois. once again she completely got my attention with her natural warmth and sparkle. since then i’ve watched all her youtube videos and can’t help but to completely adore her. she’s so cute and sweet and simply glows. combine that with splendid technique and port de bras and what’s not to love?

and now, some video! first up- yuhui is simply wonderful here in macmillan’s concerto with the ever captivating steven mcrae, who i’m also in love with but since i saw him dance live once he doesn’t qualify for the “never seen live” series. (this is a fantastic ballet and i am rather hoping ABT* will bring it back because how incredible would sarah lane and herman cornejo be in this?!) but i’m getting off track- here’s yuhui! ♥

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and here is yuhui featured in the royal ballet’s “a day in the life of a dancer”. don’t you just love her?!

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in case you can only spare 1 minute, just watch her perfectly lovely bluebird variation…

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or this elegant shade variation from la bayadere…

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and here is a charming little twitter Q&A with yuhui

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*macmillan’s “concerto” premiered at the royal ballet in 1966 and the american ballet theatre had their premiere in 1967. interestingly, (to me anyway) in the ABT premiere yuhui’s role was danced by eleanor d’antuono. last year eleanor joined our ballet staff at NBDT and is presently one of my daughter’s instructors : )