DEPARTURES
• I kept teaching and after that I went abroad. I was a ballet director in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Maribor, Arieca, I was away for about 16-18 years. For 55 years I wake up with Battement Tendu and I go to sleep with Battement Tendu. I’m sick of it!
• It’s painful to come back home. Because you realize that foreigners appreciate you more than your own people. When I was abroad, they were all asking for my return. And when you’re back….fuck off ! We have this inclination of putting trashing everyone right away. He has to be like us!
• The friends who know you, who have a certain image about you, cannot accept the fact that you’ve changed and that you’re different, you’re now the one who’s doing and saying. No ! You’ re still the one they were hanging out drinking beer with. The one I was drinking beer with for ten hours, couldn’t possibly be the Director of the Academy.
THE BLACK SWAN
• I had to have some variation…The Black Swan you know… But what’s with the Black Swan ? An accident. I had no qualities. What does it mean to not have qualities ? This first critetion is physical. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you! My elbows are down, my shoulders are high, I have flat feet, no extension, I am en dedant, a bit of a Robo.
QUALITIES & FLAWS
• You have an inner image inside of you, you can see how that body should be and the first things you see are structure, proportion, if everything corresponds… after that, you start giving it movement, making it alive. You’re the sculptor. This body has the skeleton and the flesh. You start moving it about. Mistakes will appear that you’ll have to correct.
You must have normal proportion, the shape of the legs must be straight, your joints must be mobile, a flexible foot, your feet must walk, the tendons should be long, the limbs long, you have to have extension and on top of it all inborn movement coordination and soul.
• The ex- world champion in ’79 who had become, in 2009, a strip dancer in a night club in Baia Mare. What’s behind the myth ? In the first fragments published on times.online, Andre Agassi talks about how his father forced him to play tennis. And how he hated tennis… he had that spitting-ball machine in his face, his dad behind the machine, he would hit balls for hours until he started taking pills. Going back to the night club girl. The Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. The girls would go on training camps and starve. They were looking for bread crusts at night in the garbage cans as they were dying slowly. They were surveyed in the showers, lest they would drink water. One of them went to steal cherries from a yard at night, and she fell and broke her arm. She could not tell the trainers what she’d done, she bore the pain until the contest began, then she went to the crossbeam and she simulated a fall. At one point, they had all fled and went home and the blue-eyed comrades went after them and told their parents : If you want your child to stay home, here you have the bill for the housing in Deva, for the training camps, for tournaments abroad ! And they were sent back. Moscow 1980. She couldn’t wait to get back home. She would count the days and she would dream about how she and her brother would go to the Sasar Valley and eat chicken fried on glass bottle.
• Te doare cand vii acasa. Pentru ca vezi ca strainii te pretuiesc mai mult decat ai tai. Cand eram afara toti urlau dupa mine. Si cand vii inapoi… Du-te dracu! Avem talentul de-ai baga in mocirla imediat pe toti! Tre’ sa fii ca noi! • Am tot predat, dupa care am plecat in strainatate. Am fost director de balet la Ljubljana, la Zagreb, la Maribor, Arieca, am fost plecat vreo 16-18 ani. De 55 de ani ma scol cu Battement Tendu si ma culc cu Battement Tendu. Nu mai pot! • Prietenii care te stiu, care si-au format o imagine despre tine, nu pot sa accepte faptul ca tu te-ai schimbat si esti altfel, ala care faci si spui. Nu! Esti in continuare ala cu care ieseam impreuna la bere. Ala cu care stateam eu la bere 10 ore, nu are cum sa fie Presedintele Academiei!
NO 17. LEBADA NEAGRA
• Trebuia sa fac variatii… Lebada Neagra stii… Da’ ce e Lebada Neagra? Un accident. Nu aveam calitati. Ce inseamna asta sa nu ai calitati? Primul criteriu e fizic. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you! Eu am coatele lasate, umerii ridicati, am platfus, n-am extensie, sunt en dedant, sunt un pic cam Robo.
• Tu ai in tine imaginea launtrica, tu vezi cum trebuie sa fie acel corp si prima data ii vezi structura, proportia, daca toate corespund… si dupa aceea incepi sa dai miscare, sa-I dai viata. Esti sculptorul. Corpul asta are scheletul si carnea. Incepi sa-l misti. Apar greselile pe care trebuie sa le corectezi.Trebuie sa ai proportie normala, forma picioarelor sa fie dreapta, sa ai articulatiile mobile, laba piciorului flexibila, picioarele sa mearga, tendoanele sa fie lungi, membrele lungi, sa ai detenta si peste astea coordonare nativa a miscarii si suflet.
NO 19. FATA DIN BIRT
• Fosta campioana mondiala din ‘79 care ajunsese in 2000 dansatoare de noapte intr-un birt din Baia Mare. Ce e in spatele mitului? In primele fragmentele publicate pe times.online, Andre Agassi povesteste cum il obliga taica-sau sa faca tennis. Si cum ura el tenisul… se trezea cu masina aia de scuipat mingi in fata, cu taica-sau in spatele masinii, statea ore intregi sa intoarca la mingi pana a ajuns sa se dopeze. Revenind la fata din birt… Jocurile Olimpice de la Moscova 1980. Fetele mergeau in cantonament si faceau foamea. Fugeau noaptea la gunoi ca sa caute coji, ca mureau incet. Le supravegheau la dus, sa nu care cumva sa bea apa. Una s-a dus noaptea sa fure cirese dintr-o curte, a cazut si si-a rupt mana. Nu putea sa le spuna antrenorilor ce- a facut, a suportat pana a inceput competitia, a intrat la barna si a simulat o cadere. La un moment dat fugisera toate acasa si au venit tovarasii cu ochi albastri si le-au zis parintilor: Daca vreti sa ramana copilul acasa, aici sunt: cazarea la Deva, cantonamentele, turneele in strainatate si asta-i nota de plata! Au fost trimise inapoi. Moscova 1980. Abia astepta sa ajunga acasa. Numara zilele si visa cum o sa mearga ea cu frate-sau pe valea Sasarului si or sa manance pui fript pe sticla.
