63 replies to this topic

[GeorgeB fan]

A few years ago at NYCB during a performance of Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Alexandra Ansanelli who was dancing the Kay Mazzo part was perform the final Capriccio section. In the final the prinicpal ballerinas are wearing tiny black skirts and as Ansanelli was dancing it was coming very apparent that her skirt was becoming undone. As she was spinning into a brief pose just become she was to run off stage her skirt was clearly about to fell off. If it wasn't for Jock Soto - partner par excellence - without missing a beat catching the skirt as they ran off the skirt would have been laying on the floor!

I also remember a performance of Serenade perform by The Bolshoi Ballet at Lincoln Center. Just after the first movement of the first section of the ballet is perform, the dancer performing the first solo started to dance across the stage. Just as she is about to do what I guess you would can call a swimming arabesque because of the movement of the arms, she fell face first on the stage - HARD! The sound was so loud I would have been surprise if people outside on street didn't hear it. But without missing a beat the soloist jump up and continue dancing. When she left the stage we in the audience gave her the most thunderous applause of approval I ever heard.

[dancemomCA]

Last year, the RWB brought their "Nutcracker" to Ottawa.  Local dancers were used for the mice, etc.  During the battle scene one little over-excited mice threw her rather large carrot very forcefully out towards centre stage, where it flew off the stage and bonked the first trombone player on the head.  Needless to say, the AD was told to rein in the energy of those darn mice.

[Gina Ness]

[ADMIN NOTE:  I apologize for the awkward merge, but I wanted to be sure that the new thread and the older one made one complete one.  Thanks to carbro for finding the original.  I've deleted the housekeeping posts.]


Ballet performances are live theatre, where sometimes anything can happen...Has anyone seen a memorable mistake either with the performing artists or production or music disasters?  Has anyone attended a performance that had to be suspended midway for any reason?   I've experienced and seen examples of all of the above!  Here's an example:  ABT 70's...Cynthia Gregory and Alexander Godunov in "Giselle"...1st Act , First Scene... Albrecht is playfully following Giselle, both doing "grande jetes".  Cynthia's extended back leg in the jump hits Alexander's extended front leg during the leaps.  They both end up sitting on the stage on their "derrieres" looking incredibly surprised!

Edited by hockeyfan228, 10 April 2005 - 08:31 PM.

[Mme. Hermine]

well i saw a performance of etudes in chicago where i seem to recall eleanor d'antuono falling on her back and ted kivitt falling on top of her..

[Marga]

Laura Hormigon and Oscar Torrado of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba guested with the Canadian Ballet Theatre for their production of Giselle last year.

The first night, at the start of the daisy picking scene, Albrecht went to pluck a daisy from the garden in front of Giselle's house and couldn't manage to extract just one from the bouquet "planted" there, and the whole bouquet came up with the flower he was trying to pick. With too little music to do otherwise, he held the bouquet out to Giselle with such aplomb as if to say "I give you all these flowers to show you the depth of my true love!"

The next night, the daisy picking went as it should. During the intermission I overheard an audience member speaking with her friend: "I wonder why he didn't give Giselle the whole bouquet of flowers tonight? Why did he change it? I liked that part, it was so nice!"

[Anne74]

One of the most priceless faux pas I've ever had the privilege of witnessing was in the final scene of Romeo and Juliet.  Poor, distraught Romeo could not for the life of him (awful pun) get his bottle of poison out of his vest pocket.  Groping around while holding a limp Juliet in his arms, the bottle was either stuck somehow in the pocket or missing entirely.  The conductor slowed the orchestra way down to give him extra wiggle room to somehow resolve the problem, but eventually the confused Romeo gave up and mimed swallowing the poison.   It looked like the classic "where did I put my keys?" scenario--- patting all over the vest looking for a bulge, digging in the pockets, looking around...

[carbro]

  

Quote

The conductor slowed the orchestra way down to give him extra wiggle room to somehow resolve the problem

Yet another reason why dancers prefer live music.

[atm711]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but during a live televised performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' with Makarova and McKenzie--McKenzie played the final death scene in his leg warmers...and it is there on tape for all to see.

[Mme. Hermine]

I saw a performance of the Stuttgart Ballet many years ago; they were touring Sleeping Beauty.  I just recall that the Blue Bird, whose first name was Stephen, had bright green leg warmers over his blue costume, which were there for the entire pas de deux and variation and mercifully gone for the coda.

[richard53dog]

atm711, on Apr 17 2005, 08:51 PM, said:

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but during a live televised performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' with Makarova and McKenzie--McKenzie played the final death scene in his leg warmers...and it is there on tape for all to see.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is so strange. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I wonder why he did this? Actually I think they were sweat pants (grey) and they were baggy.

Richard

[Mme. Hermine]

Yes indeed, poor fellow, they migrated south quite a bit before the end of the ballet.  His curtain calls were sans sweatpants, but by then, there went the video sales!       

[Anthony_NYC]

Although I'm hazy on the other details, Cynthia Gregory was definitely the Odette in a "Swan Lake" I saw I THINK in Santa Fe. Anyway, at the very end, just as Odette (as this production had it) was about to climb some rocks to throw herself into the water, a stage hand casually sauntered out from the wings. He got well out onto the stage before he glanced towards the auditorium, realized it wasn't a rehearsal, panicked, and ducked behind a prop. Much laughter.

And then there was a summer stock performance of "Oklahoma!" in which the ballerina's skirt simply fell off! Her partner picked it up, flung it into the wings, and they went on with the performance. There were the inevitable jokes later about changing lyrics: "Don't start collecting things/Give me my skirt and my glove."

Anybody else wish Robbins would have rechoreographed the end of "Other Dances"? I've seen that final lift muffed more often than I can remember.

[aurora]

richard53dog, on 17 April 2005 - 02:31 PM, said:

atm711, on Apr 17 2005, 08:51 PM, said:

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but during a live televised performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' with Makarova and McKenzie--McKenzie played the final death scene in his leg warmers...and it is there on tape for all to see.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is so strange. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I wonder why he did this? Actually I think they were sweat pants (grey) and they were baggy.

Richard

[bart]

Thank you, aurora, for reviving this thread.  Surely this is the longest faux pas in ballet history.  

A small faux-pas-within-a-faux-pas.  As the curtain rises for the first curtain call,  the announcer intones,  "Music by Prokofiev, choreography by "Sir Ernest (pause) Sir Kenneth MacMillan."