Here’s Marianela Nunez of the Royal Ballet dancing Odette in Swan Lake. Observe how she begins the solo with that relevé à la seconde which most ballerinas fail to balance and control. Notice how slowly she does the plié and slides her foot off the floor. A perfect example of working the plié correctly!  I love her exquisite musicality and how her poses on pointe seem to last forever and reach out into space. She takes my breath away!

Finis talks about the scary days in his performing career: dancing in Flower Drum Song on Broadway and then in The Nutcracker with The San Francisco Ballet when he lost his double air turns, bounced all over the stage, and worse, could not figure out what was wrong and how to fix them.

1960 – The Ribbon Dance with Michael Smuin – disastrous double air turns

1960 Flower Drum on Broadway – Dream Ballet with Jaime Rogers

1960 Flower Drum on Broadway – this was the easy part

1960 Flower Drum on Broadway – Ready to go upstairs and fall all over the stage

1960 Flower Drum on Broadway with Fumi in the Pink Number

1960 FLOWER DRUM on Broadway with George Li

R & H telegram

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

Mid-way through Ashton’s A Month in the Country, Natalia Petrovna (Lynn Seymour) and Beliaev (Anthony Dowell) dance passionately as they admit their forbidden love to the hauntingly beautiful music of Chopin. She is married, he is the tutor to her children. Her daughter, who loves Beliaev, happens upon them and calamity ensues. I saw them do this at the Met and can never forget their performances in this beautifully choreographed work by Frederick Ashton. Plus, Dowell would always flash his gorgeous smile when taking bows in front of the curtain. Ah, the glory days of ballet at the Met!

Seymour & Dowell in Month

Seymour in Month

Finis talks about the teachers who were most instrumental  in his career, beginning with Willam F. Christensen (Mr. C) at the University of Utah in 1955, followed by Madame Valentina Pereyaslavec, Robert Joffrey, Vera Volkova, Rosella Hightower, and David Howard at The Harkness Ballet in 1969.

1958 Franz in Mr. C’s Coppelia

1958 in class with Mr. C at the U of U

1958 Snow Pas by Mr. C

1959 Mr C Teaching

1959 Mr. C and his grads

1959 Mr. C

1960 Mme. Perey

1960 Mme. Perey’s book

1962 The Joffrey Ballet performs A FILLE MAL GARDEE in India

1964 Leon Fokine, Vera Volkova, George Skibine with The Harkness Ballet

1964 Vera Volkova coaches

1964 Vera Volkova

1968 David Howard and Harkness Company in Monte Carlo

1968 David teaches Harkness Ballet dancers at the Alcazar

1968 David teaches The Harkness Ballet in Monte Carlo

1968 David teaches the Harkness women

1968 Rosella coaches DTH

1968 Rosella in La Sylphide

1968 Rosella poses

1968 Rosella teaches the Harkness women

1969 David Howard & Ann Mercedes

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

Tiler Peck is one of my favorites. She dances with exquisite delicacy and is technically perfect. I just saw her perform as Louise in the NY Philharmonic version of “Carousel” and she was pure magic. I saw her Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and thought she was exceptionally lovely.

Tiler & Joaqui in Stars & Stripes

Tiler as The Sleeping Beauty

Tiler in Carillons

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

I love the Cirque du Soleil because they find extraordinarily talented performers who are always made up and dressed (or undressed) in the most interesting ways. I was hypnotized the first time I saw this couple. And what amazes me is that they don’t have bulky muscles.

1955: Finis leaves Hawaii for the first time and goes to the mainland to find out whether or not he can become a ballet dancer. Why & how Finis went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City

1954 At the Dorothy Hellis Moots Studio in Honolulu

1954 Dancing with Carole Ota at The Dorothy Hellis Moots Dance Studio in Honolulu

1955 Finis & Friends at airport

1955 My first photo shoot with shrunken woolen tights

1955, Leaving for Utah

1956 My first Nutcracker Spanish

1956 My first starring role as the Prince in the King & I at the U of U

1956 U of U Romeo & Juliet dancer

1957 My second Nutcracker Spanish

1957 studio shot

1958  U of U jump

1958 my 3rd Nutcracker Spanish

1958 Performing the Snow pas de deux at the U of Utah

1958 studio shot

1959 U of U in Mr. C’s class

1959, graduating U of U with Mom

Today I reminisce about my Mother.

1. 1936, Bryson, Mom, Grafton, Finis

2. 1947, My Mom, Caroline Jhung

3. 1952, Finis & Mom at Manana Housing (we were very poor, living in an Army Housing “out in the country”)

4. 1958. My Mom working in Classified Advertising at The Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Next we talk about getting to The University of Utah

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

Here’s Gelsey Kirkland dancing Giselle’s variation in Act 1. I saw her do this with Misha!

Here are photos of my parents, Walter & Caroline Jhung, and me with older brothers Grafton & Bryson.

1. Walter & Caroline, just married and  on the boat to Honolulu, 1932

2. Walter & Caroline are greeted at the dock by his parents, Woon Sur and Shin Sil Lee Jhung, 1932

3. Family portrait, Honolulu, 1938

4. The “haole” mother with her three Oriental boys, 1940

Next week we’ll present Part Four: My Mother