olddude

Count me among the Friends of Hilarion. (And ignore that I did dance bits of the part in a rep class, at the age of 60, with - of course - Wilis mostly in their 20s and 30s!) But here's another scenario. We are here talking about Hilarion and Albrecht and forgetting that "dance is Woman". If Hilarion is a more or less good guy, his death serves to illustrate the blind power and the terror of the Wilis. Act 2 is at least as much about Myrtha as anyone else. And I've seen some really terrifying Myrthas - it's a great, great part. She's a female Rothbart! She's also a Lilith figure, the opposite of Giselle, independent, a man-hating temptress and a destroyer. The Wilis have some lovely dancing, but in the right hands they can (and should, in my humble opinion) be pretty scary - maenads, not grumpy party girls. The more powerful Myrtha and the Wilis are, the more impressive is the power of Giselle's love in saving Albrecht. For this to work, you also need some genuine sympathy for Albrecht. Somewhere else on this site, Nureyev's interpretation (I've never seen it) is described as centering on Albrecht's epiphany; after Giselle's death he realizes how much more she meant to him than he thought and is not just remorseful, he's genuinely transformed. It could work.

Yes, I saw that review in the Times - I was quite startled and disappointed. Oh well, no disputing taste I guess. I though it was a disservice to not even mention the historical context though. Hey - Swan Lake was a flop at it's premier, too! I'll certainly agree that there are things that could be improved. The naiads' fabric waves of water didn't work nearly as well when turning, for example. I liked the rose's costume design, pleather or not, referencing the knee breeches and skirted coats of the Sun King era. The cargo pants were, I assume, a way to connect with traditional representations of satyrs with hairy goat legs - the fauns didn't get the cargo pants treatment.

Well, I may be the outlier here but I loved The Seasons. Saw it tonight (Friday) for the second time. For me at least, it's the historical context and perspective that lends richness and depth. Of course, musically I love the Romantics best, and Glazunov fit in there just fine. But it's the Petipa connection (which to my eye permeates and inspires the dancing, the choreography, and the structure), along with many sneaky references to bits of dance history, that made it really come together. For me it was the high point of the evening. Petite Mort was certainly inventive, and flowed well - I enjoyed watching it and would be glad to see it again, but it didn't thrill me as much. Mopey is ... well, you either like it or not. I like it, but wouldn't know where to begin or what scale to use to judge it by. West Side Story Suite is cool but just doesn't resonate with me. The dancing was great, so was the acting, so was the choreography, and the music. It just doesn't ring my bells. Well, my two cents. Not a critic, just a longtime fan (and more recent student).

I think that was last night's performance (Thursday the 12th)? The article was not very clear. I'm going in time for 7:30 tonight, Friday the 13th, though, just in case... :^)

I just got back from Thursday opening night; will go again a week from Friday. Great show. The audience seemed pretty happy with The Seasons, but for myself, I was surprised so few stood for the ovation. (I did!) I think it has the potential to be a long-term audience favorite that PNB still dances 50 years from now. Really. I'm not saying it will radically remake dance and be seen as a major turning point, I'm saying audiences will always love it, and for good reason. Perhaps it will take people a while to realize what they've seen. Clearly 21st century dance but with homage and references to the entire history of dance - I'm sure Petipa would like it, and even the Sun King would recognize it as ballet. I love the innocence and exuberance, and the cleverness. And the individuality of each dancer - this is not a corps as regiment, this is a bunch of demi-soloists. Costumes help, but the choreography really reinforces that idea. Plus of course, any time you get to see Arianna Lallone and Carel Cruz dance a grande pas de deux, you are going to go home thrilled! It's like "OK, class, now the advanced students are going to show you how it's done..." Well, you can tell I really liked this piece. We'll see what the critics say, but I don't care, I'll pay to see this any time. I could go on, there was not a false note the whole evening, but I'm still too absorbed by The Seasons.

I don't think you'll be disappointed! I have a vivid memory of the stage full of dancers doing pique turns en pointe and moving very fast in all directions. Dizzying and electric. And later, the stage full of couples doing real pas de deux (pas de douze if it was six couples?) - not just the simpler stuff the corps usually gets while the soloist gets the good stuff. Yes there are principals too. Peter Boal told us that while he's seen pretty much every kind of tutu there is, the costume department still came up with a new one. Well, you can probably tell I'm excited.

Went to the studio rehearsal last night, and we saw the Seasons choreography. Wow! I loved it - fast, dense, elegant, really shows off the depth of skill throughout the corps. I always enjoy watching good partnering; this has plenty for everyone. Pretty clear everyone was having a great time with this choreography, too. I can't wait to see the sets and costumes, which I'm told are going to be pretty special.

I am coming to this (and other Bayadere) threads very late, but the music and the dancing have only recently come to fascinate me. There have been several analogies made between Giselle and Nikaya along class lines. What I have not yet seen is the notion that Nikaya, as a temple dancer, is holy to the gods, maybe even equal to the Rajah's caste in a parallel religious caste structure. She is clearly the principal temple dancer, after all. In which case, the gods' vengeance makes a kind of sense whether or not she broke a vow of chastity.

I didn't see this until now - thanks! Very cool to be able to see this in any form at all. There seem to be a few episodes missing, specifically 5, 10, and 14. Does anybody know a place where they can be seen?

Come on Helene! What's a little snow to a ballet lover like you . ... Darn right! We had tickets to the 1000th performance, on Christmas eve. Still too much snow to get the car actually into the street, much less drive anywhere - so we walked, it's only 3 or 4 miles. Of course it was uphill and into a fierce wind each way, and I had a bad cold as well! We had not seen the show for many years, and were totally delighted - I've learned a lot about ballet in the last decade or two, I guess. The only disappointment was, I had hoped for the annual "goofy" performance, traditionally on Christmas Eve, but apparently because it was the 1000th performance they did it straight. Oh well, guess I'll have to try again next year. Incidentally, the house was nearly full in spite of the weather.

It's been a long time since there was a post here. I looked this up because of a fond memory - in 1998 I saw Giselle, for the first and so far only time live, at the Halle aux Grains in Toulouse. (I was there for a work conference.) Unfortunately I was not familiar with this ballet at the time so it made less sense than I could wish - but it was very enjoyable and has since inspired me to watch several version on video. I have retained a fondness for the city and its arts, so I followed the links in the previous post and found a listing of this year's ballets. The best starting page was for all the theater events: http://www.theatre-du-capitole.org/sommair...son/accueil.htm Here is this year's season: * COPPELIA Léo Delibes The Coppelia is is by Glushak, after Martinez (1968). * BALANCHINE/DELCROIX Second program is Balanchine's Square Dance and parts of the Brahms Schoenberg Quartet, plus a new work by Delcroix of the Netherlands Dance Theater. * CASSE-NOISETTE Piotr Ilytch Tchaïkovski This Nutcracker is by Michel Rahn, based on Petipa/Ivanov. * 3x3 Balanchine/Van Manen/Tharp The last program is Rubies, Bits and Pieces, and Nine Sinatra Songs. All the above is based on my miserable high-school French so I apologize in advance for any errors and/or omissions. I think there are 35 dancers in the company. You have to hunt around the site to figure out which performance is where and on what date. As I recall from 10 years ago, the people at the central ticket office have not actually heard of classical music or dance and are no help. Perhaps if my French were more comprehensible ...

Boy, that would be a dream come true for me! I can't help remembering there was a close Kirov connection some years ago, placing PNB in a somewhat unique position. Fullington's work can't help but add to that. And the Kirov has done a restoration of Bayadere recently, including the last "destruction of the temple" act which nobody has seen (OK, I exaggerate, but not enough to matter) and which they seem reluctant to stage again. Heck, they even pulled together the music, an apparently enormous effort that should not be lost. I love a lot of things about that ballet, but it just never makes much sense - you would think the last act would help pull it together. Surely something could be done to bring these pieces together? It could be like the Wagner Ring of Seattle Opera, one of the few places anywhere to see the Real Deal, an international destination - maybe a summer festival sort of thing, every few years? Maybe alternating venues? OK, I know, there's a recession coming on and I'm dreaming even without Solor's opium pipe. I'll keep dreaming though - sometimes reality is over-rated. Almost forgot to mention - I've been watching a few Bayadere's recently, and Fullington's Entrance of the Shades, even in the studio without costumes or lighting, was to my eye just much more effective than the extravaganzas available on video. Like harpsichord music played on a Steinway, the modernized productions seem to lose as much as they gain.

Sandik, thanks for that thoughtful and perceptive review - it really helped me parse what I saw. I found A Garden much more engaging than the excerpt I had seen before; It was very balletic but (as you said) not especially showy - as if it were choreographed more for an audience of dancers than a general audience? For me it was the high point of an evening full of them. Both M-Pulse and Three Movements had a connected, continuous movement thing going on which I have always found very attractive - certainly I want to see them several more times to get a stable impressions! (Of course I love to see good partnering, and both of them had plenty!) The Millepied was clearly an audience favorite on Friday but I'm not certain whether I agree or not... On Flat Thing, Reproduced remains a puzzle to me. On the surface, as you said, the "gymnastic quality" and "aggressively non-balletic movement vocabulary" are off-putting for me, a classicist at heart. But I left feeling invigorated and satisfied - the emotional response over-riding the intellectual. A number of people left before this work was presented, and a few within my earshot wished they had. But overall the audience on Friday was wildly enthusiastic - and I think I'm in their number. Or will be when I've seen it a few more times. It was a wonderful program, very satisfying. In spite of the fact that I've been a subscriber for nearly 30 years, and never seen Bayadere live. Or Corsaire. Or Raymonda. Or Giselle. Or ... well, a great many of the classics which I've seen either on video or not at all. Even Coppelia seems to have fallen out of the repertoire?

I was lucky enough to see this in rehearsal last week. Yes, it is energetic(!), but it's also very good, at least to my eye. Hard to tell a lot from a studio rehearsal of course, but it connected with me more than the Morris portion that we also saw. I liked the continuity, the way it keeps moving, and the way the connection with the music is always there. Looking forward to the performance and curious to see what the critics have to say.

After seeing doug's lecture/demo at the PNB studios a few weeks ago, I started hunting up more information. One thing I found was the recently revised article on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bayad%C3%A8re which seems to answer a lot of the questions in this old thread. Of course, I have no idea how accurate this article may be - wikis, like the web in general, are very caveat emptor places. I can't find an author (don't know wikipedia very well); for all I know doug may have written and/or contributed to it!