4 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

Marc Haegeman has a review in this week's DanceView Times about three casts of "Sleeping Beauty" -- Myriam Ould-Braham and Christophe Duquenne, Agnes Letestu with Jean-Guillaume Bart, and Svetlana Zakharova wth Jose Martinez.

State of the Company

There are some gorgeous photos (by Icare) accompanying the review.  One of them raised a question for me.  One of the stylistic changes Nureyev introduced to male dancing was pointing the extended foot in the grand pas de deux.  Prior to him (this is from looking at photos, and also discussing this with dancers of the period) the extended foot was planted on the ground. Christophe Duquenne, in the grand pas de deux,  is not pointing the foot.  Is this a general change, has anyone noticed?  (Another change that I remember is having the Prince partner from a very tight fifth position when he supports Aurora in promenade, or in arabesque.  Is that still done?)  I don't mean to suggest that if it's not the world has ended, but am just curious

[cygneblanc]

Well, Alexandra, when I'm watching the picture of Christophe Duquenne, I'm under the impression that

1) the foot is badly pointed

or

2) the picture was taken while he was pointing his foot .


But I can't respond to your question, it's not easy to see everything from a bad seating in Bastille    I will try to have a look at the video (featured Aurelie Dupont and Manuel Legris) in order to see what M. Legris did at tha point   .

[Marc Haegeman]

cygneblanc, on Jan 4 2005, 04:46 PM, said:

Well, Alexandra, when I'm watching the picture of Christophe Duquenne, I'm under the impression that

1) the foot is badly pointed

or

2) the picture was taken while he was pointing his foot .


But I can't respond to your question, it's not easy to see everything from a bad seating in Bastille    I will try to have a look at the video (featured Aurelie Dupont and Manuel Legris) in order to see what M. Legris did at tha point  .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They usually plant the foot first and then point as to finish the movement. The foot is pointed in the final position.

And yes, ideally, the fifth positions in the promenades are still there.

[Alexandra]

Quote

They usually plant the foot first and then point as to finish the movement. The foot is pointed in the final position.

Yes, that's what Nureyev did.

Quote

And yes, ideally, the fifth positions in the promenades are still there.

Thanks!

Apparently when Nureyev came to the West, or when he started doing this (I don't remember whether he came with it or changed sometime in the 1960s) it was a matter of some discussion.  It wasn't considered "masculine" by the standards of the day, and so whether to follow his lead or not was an issue.

[Mel Johnson]

And I must differ on whether the foot is pointed or not.  The way I see it, Duquenne's foot is being partially obscured by Ould-Braham's wrist and hand, and the goodness or badness of the point cannot be ascertained positively from this picture.  But it is pointed, for good or for ill.