Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

How important are Odile's 32 fouettes?


bart

Recommended Posts

The "Midsummer" fouettes are not only perfectly timed and in character for that particular stretch of music, they also invoke Hippolyta whipping up a forest windstorm.

They do indeed work as choreography, but I did also want to make a little fuss about Isaac's execution of them, which I enjoyed very much. It looked as if she was listening to the music, not just counting.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I don't think much of Odile's fouettés as choreography. To me, the music sounds like it's straight out of the circus and the fouettés -- or at least the fact that there must be 32 of therm -- are within a hair's breadth of being a circus stunt themselves. But I do like what Gillian Murphy does with her fouettés in this video (which I believe was also in one of pherank's compilations). In the "A" section she's interleaved her singles and multiples in a way that emphasizes what's happening in the music -- the multiples are reserved for the "ta-di-yum-bum-bum" fiddly bits. When she gets to the "B" section, she switches to all singles so that her heel can hit floor in time with each strongly accented beat.

Link to comment

Look Mom, no hands!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=COAiNdWepkw

I'm trying to post this from my phone and don't know if the link will work. It's Maximova doing Kitri's fouettes, hands on hips for the whole ride and a wonderful grin on her face.

I've never come across any mention of her performing Odette/Odile. Did it ever happen?

According to Russian sources Yekaterina Maximova appeared in Swan Lake on at least two occasions first in Dance of the Little Swans (1958), secondly asOdette-Odile (1968).

Link to comment

I'm partial to the ones that smoothly sweep forward from the front to the side, maybe because I'm familiar with the RAD method. To my eye the ones that snap from the side have a jerky quality to them.

They also have a decidedly downward accent. If a dancer performs Cecchetti fouettés, she's back up on pointe by the time her leg reaches the side, so the turns have an upward accent that feels less plunky.

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...