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"Lost" Balanchine Ballets


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Miller's name is given on the card. i have no reason to doubt this, as i'm not much familiar w/ miller or fifield; when i sent this scan around sometime back none of my english acquaintances suggested it wasn't miller. still, as we all know, such captions can be wrong.

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Miller's pose in hte postcard photo is rather singular-- whether or not she WAS stocky, with her front leg turned-in like that, and with the knee bent, yet, she sure does look awkward. Can this be the image Balanchine wanted? Maybe.... the pose is kinda like the "Who Cares?"/Agon pose, with the front leg turned in, knee raised, like a prancing horse or a Broadway chorine -- except that the "standing leg" is on pointe (which is a big exception).

How do the rest of you read this pose?

Actually, Apollo does some pirouettes landing in a turned in lunge on the balls of his feet that look rather like this -- Miller's tutu looks odd with this pose, makes it look like there's something wrong with her left hip.

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How do the rest of you read this pose?
I'd like to add another question to this: what impession about the dancer and/or ballet were they trying to convey when they selected this photo (presumeably rejecting others)? As Paul says, the pose is "rather singular" and might, to some, appear rather strange.
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i don't know if i can actually characterize it and others may be more able than I am to be specific, but although not "textbook" it doesn't appear odd to me. without knowing the choreography she's representing it would be hard to know if this is a particular pose in a solo, for instance. i like the picture though.

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my guess is that Miller's pose catches her somehow amid a traveling mode - that is, this pose would be seen only momentarily in the ballet's choreography, if indeed it's from any of the ballet itself. perhaps she esp. liked this pose or felt esp. comfortable in this 'moment.' or perhaps her photographer wanted some version of a fourth position to have both legs on pointe.

i know during the big fonteyn conference in london alastair macaulay was in some touch w/ miller. i don't now if he still is. i'll ask to see if he can get through to her to see if she recalls anything about this photo.

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turns out i misremembered the particular dancers macaulay was in touch with during the fonteyn conference. he has no knowledge of p. miller - i think he must have recalled to me at the time of the conf. that p.may mentioned something about miller and i confused may's comment about miller for actual contact with her.

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my guess is that Miller's pose catches her somehow amid a traveling mode - that is, this pose would be seen only momentarily in the ballet's choreography, if indeed it's from any of the ballet itself. perhaps she esp. liked this pose or felt esp. comfortable in this 'moment.' or perhaps her photographer wanted some version of a fourth position to have both legs on pointe.
This was my guess -- or rather guesses. Either it was a transitory moment made into an off-balance pose for the camera's sake, or it was something a photographer, perhaps not well versed in ballet, devised for his subject.

You can see Miller's left hip working to keep her upright.

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