Also - sometimes you see a dancer with perhaps one or maybe two distinguishing features. Darcey Bussell's smile. Diana Vishneva's large eyes and beautiful face. Viviana Durante's dramatic cheekbones and eyes. Margot Fonteyn's utterly cool and polished expression and radiant face. <BR>There are many more dancers with lovely faces and these are the ones I remember because despite of the highkicks and tricks and leaping about and spinning around, they look like real beautiful people, on a stage to be beautiful, move beautifuly and make beauty - this is art.<BR>Becky <BR>

Yes, in dance, as in life in general, good looks never hurt.

Thanks for all your comments everyone. As for me I am drawn to dancers that move me in some way. It could be any kind of emotion: sad, happy, afraid, confident, etc.... One quality that great dancers have is that they share what they are feeling to the audience. They never leave the audience out. If you can move the audience in some way, then you did your part as the performer.

Tough question.......<BR>Certainly not his/her technique. I 'd rather see a leg up to a good 90 degree or even less, as long as it has *quality*. I must admit that I haven't seen a lot of dancers, but I enjoy watching the ones who give me the impression that they enjoy what they are doing. The ones who feel every little movement, every little step and they make everything seem important.

There are only a few dancers that have moved me....Sir Anthony Dowell is the master as far as i am concerned he can dance anything that is given to him , the feelings he brought to any part was moving beyond belief....his Drosselmeyer was magical ...anyone see it??<BR>As for the ladies well Antoinette Sibley was graceful , Leslie Collier was so graceful did you see those tiny , tiny steps she did when she danced the entrance of the sugar plum fairy ..i wish i could do that!!<P>

I am drawn to dancers who have gone through complications in life and still dance.Also ones who inspire me to succeed for that reason my favorite dancer is Misty Copeland.She went through being fought over in court and still danced and she is black and started ballet late just like me,and she's already starting to get good parts.She encourages me to try to suceed

To me, technique, technique, personality, musicality, and SOUL!

I agree with Anne. Presence and seeing that the dancer is really enjoying what they are doing makes me want to see more. It is sort of an optimistic attitude that I am attracted to. Of course, if their technique is not good then it tends to detract from their performance.

I would say that, like most people here, I like dancers who put fire into their part, who feel it. Even if they're just dancing as accompaniment (sp?) to an orchestra or choir, if they convey what the piece or song is about, that is the best.
However, no matter how good a "feeler" they are, I do not like it if they attempt steps that they cannot do. It detracts from the performance, and starts me thinking about things like whether it was just a random mistake or was the dancer really not good enough, how I can do half the number of turns perfectly while I practice probably less than half of the time that the performer does, etc.