Reading the Ballerina's Body: Susan Bordo Sheds Light on Anastasia Volochkova and Heidi Guenther

In September of 2003, Bolshoi Ballet dancer and media star Anastasia Volochkova, 27, was fired from her job. The main reason given was that at 5′7″ and 110 lbs., she was too tall and too heavy for her partners to lift. Yekaterina Norikova, spokeswoman for the Bolshoi, said: “The problem is that male dancers complained of her height and weight and refused to dance with her” (quoted in Isachenkov 2003). Yevgeny Ivanchenko, her former partner, publicly declared her too heavy to lift, saying that he risked injury in working with her. The Russian newspaperVremya Novosteiused the headline “Not even bears could hold [her]” (Kishkovsky, 2003, A1).In her interviews with the press, she said that she is in excellent shape and follows a strict diet. “I don't eat ice cream now,” said Ms. Volochkova, who once told a Russian interviewer that she adores it. “I eat spinach leaves and vegetables.” She also declared that “Height and weight are not the test of a great ballerina” (2003, A1).

Download Full-text

Theodore Kosloff & Cecil B. DeMille

Experiment ◽

10.1163/2211730x-12341262 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 146-195

Author(s):

Debra Levine

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Personal Relationship ◽

Ballet Dancer ◽

Ballets Russes ◽

Bolshoi Ballet

The essay explores a rare and unknown 40-year professional and personal relationship between Russian ballet dancer Theodore Kosloff (1882-1956) and Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959) told through the prism of the making of DeMille’s Madam Satan (mgm 1930). It tracks Kosloff’s colorful career as a dance entrepreneur, from his Bolshoi Ballet beginnings, to his appearance in the premiere Paris season of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, to his eventual relocation to Los Angeles where, starting in 1916, he was an acclaimed character actor in nearly 30 silent movies, primarily directed by DeMille. At the outset of the Depression, with the advent of sound in cinema, DeMille relied upon Kosloff as an artistic advisor to bring to fruition Madam Satan his first and only movie musical. The essay analyzes the high-art roots of Kosloff’s bizarre and exceptional ballet mécanique, Madam Satan’s central dance number staged in a moored zeppelin.

Download Full-text

ASHA Convention 2013

ASHA Leader ◽

10.1044/leader.an11.18072013.46 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 46-48

Keyword(s):

Ice Cream ◽

Annual Convention ◽

The City ◽

Rich History

This year's Annual Convention features some sweet new twists like ice cream and free wi-fi. But it also draws on a rich history as it returns to Chicago, the city where the association's seeds were planted way back in 1930. Read on through our special convention section for a full flavor of can't-miss events, helpful tips, and speakers who remind why you do what you do.

Download Full-text

Food-Evoked Changes in Humans

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000003 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 25-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Peter Walla ◽

Maria Richter ◽

Stella Färber ◽

Ulrich Leodolter ◽

Herbert Bauer

Keyword(s):

Food Intake ◽

Startle Response ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Soft Drink ◽

Ice Cream ◽

Response Amplitude ◽

Response Modulation ◽

Motivational States ◽

Localization Analysis ◽

Study Participants

Two experiments investigate effects related to food intake in humans. In Experiment 1, we measured startle response modulation while study participants ate ice cream, yoghurt, and chocolate. Statistical analysis revealed that ice cream intake resulted in the most robust startle inhibition compared to no food. Contrasting females and males, we found significant differences related to the conditions yoghurt and chocolate. In females, chocolate elicited the lowest response amplitude followed by yoghurt and ice cream. In males, chocolate produced the highest startle response amplitude even higher than eating nothing, whereas ice cream produced the lowest. Assuming that high response amplitudes reflect aversive motivation while low response amplitudes reflect appetitive motivational states, it is interpreted that eating ice cream is associated with the most appetitive state given the alternatives of chocolate and yoghurt across gender. However, in females alone eating chocolate, and in males alone eating ice cream, led to the most appetitive state. Experiment 2 was conducted to describe food intake-related brain activity by means of source localization analysis applied to electroencephalography data (EEG). Ice cream, yoghurt, a soft drink, and water were compared. Brain activity in rostral portions of the superior frontal gyrus was found in all conditions. No localization differences between conditions occurred. While EEG was found to be insensitive, startle response modulation seems to be a reliable method to objectively quantify motivational states related to the intake of different foods.

Download Full-text