2011 Year In Review

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I hope everyone had a happy new year! The last half of the year had been so deathly quiet that I almost considered not doing a review. What was I going to recap? And then I remembered that six months ago I was almost suffering from Natalie Portman overload. Twenty-eleven was really the Year of Natalie, with five new movie releases (six if you count Black Swan‘s wide/international release) and her massive winning streak during awards season. Here’s all you missed if you were living under a rock in 2011.

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Art Explained

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Back in November we posted a really great Black Swan poster. Now the artist has explained the inspiration for the piece and the tricks and tools he used in order…

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Trainer Talk

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Dance Magazine has an interview with Marina Stavitskaya, who was one of Natalie’s ballet trainers for Black Swan. In the interview there are a couple Black Swan questions, and Marina, in response, has some more details and very kind words for Natalie.

Natalie Portman thanked you in her Academy Award acceptance speech. How did you end up working with her?

Benjamin Millepied called me and said “Marina, I would like you to work with Natalie and show her precise Vaganova style.” When I met her, I could see she had studied ballet before. In class, she was like a mathematician, very serious and determined to take each correction—working on her feet, legs, back, and arms. She achieved a lot. She did fouettés and piqué turns on pointe. Her arms were slightly different than I wanted, so we worked on them, bringing a little Russian touch. I enjoyed working with her and felt we had a good connection.

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Biography

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Tonight's Biography episode for Natalie, as mentioned earlier today, is definitely a brand new show and it's up to date with the Oscar win, Ben and Aleph. Thierry found this…

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Tidbits

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A couple interesting mini news items for you guys to nibble on today. - I'm not sure if we covered this at the start of the year, but the OTHER…

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Fanart

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A very talented graphic artist (some great stuff over on his tumblr has created a very strange and striking Black Swan piece. Click the thumb below to reveal the full…

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