29 replies to this topic

[MakarovaFan]

Who are your favorites?

[Cygnet]

When I was a little girl, the first live SB performance I saw was the de Valois 1977 Royal Ballet production.  Park & Wall were Aurora and Florimund.  The Bluebirds were Alfreda Thorogood and Michael Coleman.  They left a lasting impression on me.  They were great!  My other all time favorite Bluebirds are A. McKerrow & J. Renval, L. Semenyaka & Y. Vetrov, and Jennifer Penney & Wayne Eagling.  In addition to the Florines already mentioned, my other favorites are Pavlenko, Yevteyeva, Lezhnina, F. Chadwick, Makarova (Sizova/Soloviev film of SB), and M. Bilova.  I wish I could have seen Maximova & Vasiliev but they danced this ppd before I was even thought of .

[Brioche]

Florine's are Elizabeth Loscavio and Joanna Berman (SFB)

Still thinking about my fave Bluebirds.

B

[oberon]

Carrie Lee Riggins & Adam Hendrickson of NYCB.

I saw the very youthful Ethan Steifel & Yvonne Borree when NYCB's production was new, and before that at ABT I saw Karena Brock & Ted Kivitt, who were superb.

[carbro]

Two of my fave bluebirds are Johan Renvall and Herman Cornejo.  No Florine springs immediately to mind as quite so outstanding, but I've enjoyed Ashley Tuttle, Cheryl Yeager and Deirdre Carberry.

(Whatever became of Deirdre, btw?  Anyone?)

[Marga]

carbro, on Sep 11 2004, 01:04 PM, said:

(Whatever became of Deirdre, btw?  Anyone?)

I have bought a few ballet books from Deirdre Carberry's mother, who is an ebay seller. She told me Deirdre has been living in England for a few years and is not dancing at the present time.

My vote for Bluebird is Kevin Pugh and for Florine, Natasha Makarova.

[Mel Johnson]

My favorite Bluebirds were Rudolf Nureyev and Graham Usher

Favorite Florines were Georgina Parkinson, but not while dancing with Nureyev, and Makarova, also not dancing with Nureyev.

[aspirant]

A bluebird to remember (and hopefully to see again sometime soon!) is Olivia Goodrich/Lavery (not sure which she is going by.   She performed this role at the SAB workshop a few years back and was spectacular.

[Old Fashioned]

Ilya Kozadeyev and Leticia Oliveira.

[cargill]

The last time ABT did Sleeping Beauty, Ethan Stiefel did Bluebird, and he was just wonderful.  Inhuman and very magical, with wonderful sit-in-the-air cabrioles.  It was one of the greatest things I have ever seen.

[Lovebird]

Favorite Princess Florine- Antoinette Sibley on the RB video WOW! Also Deidre Chapman
Favorite Bluebirds- Errol Pickford

[mohnurka]

Tatiana Terekhova, Elena Pankova, Elena Evteeva

[sharongordon]

Mel Johnson, on Sep 11 2004, 09:37 PM, said:

My favorite Bluebirds were Rudolf Nureyev and Graham Usher

Favorite Florines were Georgina Parkinson, but not while dancing with Nureyev, and Makarova, also not dancing with Nureyev.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can you tell me what ever happened to Graham Usher?  I met him when I was a kid in the 1960's and just loved him.

[Mme. Hermine]

Unfortunately, Graham Usher died in 1975.

[Paul Parish]

Sibley, sibley Sibley

Lovebird you are so right....--she shimmers, her whole upper body is winged.

That video is mostly kinda awful, except for Sibley -- Fonteyn is uncharacteristically awkward as Aurora; the best things on it are Gerd Larson as he queen (she is fantastic), Park as one of hte precious-metal fairies, and this absolutely transcendant performance by Antoinette Sibley as Princess Florine. It's not just technique, of which she has plenty -- it's the beauty of her line, the softness of her breathing, the delicacy of her head positions, the remarkable flexibility of her torso -- she's rarely straight up and down -- though her legs are very true and her aplomb is fantastic, she does her double ronde de jambes in the coda with her torso at quite a tilt -- beautifully lifted out of the hips, but the tilt is almost Cunninghamesque -- very classical, truly beautiful, and at high speed. Her lines are unbelievable. And all of it is so dancey, musical in the extreme.