33 replies to this topic

[kfw]

bart, on Jan 25 2006, 08:54 AM, said:

Maybe this should be a topic on another thread:  in a classic like Swan Lake -- or any ballet, for that matter -- which matters most to you, the production/interpretation/etc/ or the dancing?

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We did have a related thread once, and I believe Alexandra put up a poll. I can't remember the exact wording, but the general question was about whether the biggest draw for us as individuals is the dancer or the particular dance. Perhaps someone else can remember where that thread is. I don't have time to search for it any longer at the moment.

[carbro]

Yes, there is the seed of a good, general discussion about what we see when we see particular dancers (familiar or not) in particular stagings (ditto).

I couldn't find the old thread, either, kfw.  We can discuss the Kennedy Center performances here, but I'll open a new thread for a broader discussion of the dancer-from-the-dance conundrum with no specific context.

Editing to add: A link to the new thread.

[Paquita]

NBoC audiences tend to divide themselves into two camps. There are those who find his ballets (or at least his reinterpretations of classics) generally unoriginal and dark. There are those who call him a genius and the best thing that ever happened to Canadian ballets. I wouldn't say that the "Kudelka-bashing" is a new phenomenon. It existed well before his retirement from the role of AD. However, perhaps those who dislike his work were less vocal when he was in the powerful position of AD.
Canadian critics also seem to have mixed opinions about Kudelka. His most recent full-length "An Italian Straw Hat" was not particularly well-received. His Swan Lake got raves from the National Post- but they also funded part of the production. The Globe and Mail was initially quite negative when SL premiered in 1999, partly because in the Kim Glasco Affair they sided with the ballerina. Some argue she was fired because she voiced concern over the budget of Kudelka's SL. The Globe's dance critic, Paula Citron, now works with the NBoC conducting ballet talks and writing program notes. Her reviews of Kudelka's ballets are sometimes over the top with praise. She wrote that Balanchine's choreography looked "elementary" next to Kudelka's compex steps  

[sparklesocks]

koshka, on Jan 25 2006, 09:09 AM, said:

All in all, I would probably have been happier to see them in a traditional Swan Lake, although (plot aside) I loved the extended male corps work in the first act, probably because it's so very rare to see so much good dancing by a male corps.

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Here here!