38 replies to this topic

[Joseph]

What do you think?

I am not talking about a twenty/thirty minute condensed version for children. I was thinking about an evening length, adult and children appropraite version. What does everyone think? I would base it more off of the original story (not tooo gross.) But, I would have a big emphasis on the evil queen.

Music ideas, etc. are much appreciated!!!

I already know about Bruce Wells' version for BBII and PNB; but I want to do either a three or two act ballet for it.

Maybe I am nuts ???  

[Hans]

I think it would work.  Would you have children play the dwarves?

[rg]

as you may or may not recall, petipa's final and disastrous production was THE MAGIC MIRROR based on SNOW WHITE, which doesn't mean the idea is undoable, just that russian ballet's old man of the art didn't bring off his try.
true there seems to have been a good deal of intrigue working against marius p. at this time in his legendary career.
there are isoloated photos of the production around in books and of the settings, by korovin, which apparently petipa believed sabotaged his intentions.
gorsky subsequently did his own re-vision in moscow but it seems to have had only a short shelf life.
paul taylor's SNOW WHITE is a riff on the disney and is rather amusing, for a one-act modern-dance take.

[Joseph]

Hey rg! Yes, I read an article about this ballet "Magic Mirror" in a magazine a couple of years ago or so; I may have to have a score commissioned... I have also heard of Paul Taylor's version - mine would really try to be a semi-classical production (in pointe shoes etc.)

Hey Hans!- I think I would probably use the shortest guys in my company and maybe even some girls for the dwarfes? hmmmmmm

(of course this is all just a fantasy for me; i do not actually have a company, but hope to someday!)

[rg]

kirov productions of prokofiev's CINDERELLA have traditionally used children for the 12 dwarves that come out of the clock to strike the hour of midnight.
paul taylor calls his contingent of dwarves 'some dwarves' b/c he didn't have 7 likely candidates when he made his cynical version focussing on snow white's vanity, etc.

[Hans]

Snow White's vanity?  What twisted version did Paul Taylor's parents tell him growing up?

Joseph I think that sounds like a good idea--you can do much more interesting things choreographically with short men than you can with children, and you could have Snow White played by a tall dancer, so that plus the added height of pointe shoes could give the illusion that the "dwarves" are even shorter than they really are.

[carbro]

I didn't get that vanity was a major point of the Taylor work.  Snow White was, for a heroine, somewhat passive, as I recall.  Now the Poison Apple, on the other hand, was pretty central.

There were five dwarves (including, in the original cast, the majestically built David Parsons), and they all spent the whole ballet dancing in squatting position.  Ouch!

Of course, casting is easy if you have Cathy McCann on hand, who really did resemble Disney's conception of Snow White.

[rg]

perhaps i'm confusing snow white's vanity w/ the prince's smugness?
someone keeps looking at him or herself in a hand mirror i seem to recall.
i do think however that whatever else she's like, snow white fails to look back with much gratitude on the dwarves after she's spirited away by her prince, leaving the poor fellows bereft. or maybe i'm misremembering things.
i need to consult the DANCE IN AMERICA tape i suppose.

[Estelle]

I'd have to check it, but I think Lifar choreographed a version of "Snow white".

[Joseph]

Yeah, Hans - I think that is a good point to have her be taller so that the dwarfs look shorter. Hmmm... Who would make a good Snow White?

Estelle- It would be great to see any information you know of, on Lifar's version (if there is one)

[brivagook]

Several years ago, the Alabama Ballet did a full length version of this ballet.  I was in attendance, although my memories of it are foggy.  It think it had to have been sometime around 1993.  This was staged when Sonia Arova and Thor Sutowski were still directing the company.  I can't speak of the production's artistic success, as I was a child and was not watching with a critical eye.  However I do happen to remember that the dwarves were played by short company dancers!

Edited by brivagook, 08 August 2005 - 05:04 PM.

[Joseph]

Thanks Brivagook for that info!

[carbro]

Joseph, on Aug 8 2005, 07:56 PM, said:

Hmmm... Who would make a good Snow White?

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Veronika Part.  She has that dark hair, a magnificent face, she's tall, and oh, what a dancer!

http://abt.org/galle...sp?Image_ID=725

[Estelle]

Joseph, on Aug 9 2005, 01:56 AM, said:

Estelle- It would be great to see any information you know of, on Lifar's version (if there is one)

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Here's what I have found (in Jacques Baril's "Dictionnaire de danse", published in 1964):
Lifar's "Blanche-neige" was a three act ballet premiered in Nov 14, 1951 in Paris. The music was by M. Yvain, the sets by D. Bouchène, and the main dancers of the première were Liane Daydé, Nina Vyroubova, Serge Lifar, Max Bozzoni and Jean-Paul Andréani.

Koegler's book also lists a Russian version choreographed by A. Andreiev and B. Fenster as "The princess and the seven knights", based on Pushkin's story, with music by Liadov, for the Maly Theatre, Leningrad, in 1949.

[Mashinka]

In the Baron at the Ballet series of books that were published in the '50's you can find fabulous pictures of the Paris Opera Ballet including a set of photos of Lifar's "Blanche-neige".