Lucia Lacarra

[Terry]

I've always liked Lucia Lacarra, ever since I first saw her with Marseille Ballet, but I've also read some mixed reviews. For some people she is THE star of SFB, and of course, she was nominated at the Nijinsky Awards in Monte-Carlo last year (along with Guillem, Lopatkina, Dupont, etc...) as "Best female dancer." She seems much more famous in Europe than in the States, but anyways, what do you REALLY think of this ballerina (who I think is world-class)?

[BalletNut]

This'll offend a lot of people, but I can't stand her. Whenever I see La Lacarra's name on the program, I pray to the powers that be for a cast change. ;) First of all, no matter what role she's performing, she dances everything the same way, and it's a style that only lends itself to very specific ballets, namely those by Petit and Balanchine's practice clothes ballets. Everything else is very painful for me to watch, especially Raymonda and Beauty, which I have railed against at some length already on a different thread.

Another peeve of mine is her arrogant stage persona and her indiscriminate use of "tricks," namely of hyperextending her legs to the point of extracting applause from the audience, and of balancing past the music, as she did in the Rose Adagio, and then grinning in the most disgustingly self-congratulatory way at the adoring ovation that followed.

Mainly, though, I am frustrated with the way she seems to have monopolized the attention of Helgi Tomasson, as evidenced by her being constantly on display for opening nights; by the way Tomasson has added Petit's and other choreographers' ballets [bohbot's Adagio For Strings, Petit's Proust and L'Arlesienne] to the repertoire specifically for her and her husband Cyril Pierre, but that don't look very good on the other dancers; and finally by the way so many of the other, more versatile dancers [Katita Waldo, Yuan Yuan Tan, Julie Diana, Kristin Long] seem to have fallen by the wayside in her presence.

[ 06-25-2001: Message edited by: BalletNut ]

[cargill]

I have only seen her briefly with the San Francisco Ballet when they were in New York; she danced the Cage, which I think is just a horrible little ballet, though well-made, and she was very good. I have also seen her in a couple of galas, and didn't much like her. She did the white swan pas de deux, granted out of context, but seemed just all extensions and mannerisms, which almost no emotional content. I remember thinking she didn't look at all classical, and can't imagine what her Aurora was like. Aurora needs so much weight and dignity in the last act.

[LMCtech]

I agree with all of what balletnut said. I also think she's too thin.

However...she has an amazing sense of line and there are times when my heart stops because of that. Then I go back to being annoyed. I like Tina LeBlanc much better...

[Terry]

Ballet nut -- Oh, I don't think your comments will offend other people at all; isn't this what "ballet alert" is supposed to be about? I will say though that I've always liked Lacarra better in Petit's pieces; her "Aurora" was not quite up there yet. I think she'll need more time to really develop herself into a real Aurora. Speaking of SFB dancers, who do you think is a pure "classical" dancer at SFB? I find a few of principal dancers in SFB better in contemporary roles (IMO, such a dancer would be Tan Yuan Yuan), so I'd like to know what people think.

Once again, thank you!!

[LMCtech]

I don't know if there are any dancers in SFB that I would call strictly clasiical, though I think Vanessa Zahorian tends to be better in classical roles than contemporary ones. But she is still young and will probably develop more of a feel for contemporary styles.

Most of the SFB principals and soloists are VERY versatile, which is good considering the repertory.