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What's That Doing in the Ballet?


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Today in the the Alastair MacCauley @ NY Times thread, canbelto objects what she and others see as MacCauley's "contempt" for La Bayadere.

I love Swan Lake, but I've never cared for the Cygnets. At best their dance strikes me as a technical feat, impressive in its uniformity, but with little poetry. It doesn't help to characterize the swans as women for me either. At worst, as in "Backstage at the Kirov" (I just know someone's going to say that's the best version ever recorded), it strikes me as ungainly. I recognize that this is heresy :off topic: , and I'm wondering if there are any other heretics out there. Confession is good for the soul. Are there moments in any classic ballets, or in ballets you otherwise love, that puzzle you and leave you cold? (And can anyone help me appreciate the cygnets?)

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Check on Cygnets, kfw. But I think it's necessary to insert something of contrast between the pas and the Waltz. Balanchine chucked Cygnets, but he achieved the change of texture by substituting the standard, lyrical denoument of the pas (supported fouettes into swoon-arabesque) with the fast, syncopated ending.

This is a wonderful topic. I await the replies of others.

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Le Corsaire pas de deux-a-trois. Necessities of having a young guy to share 'lifting duties' with the main man aside....This is the most absurd segment of an already-absurd scenario! If Medora is so in love with Conrad & is about to sleep with him (next scene), then why on earth is she showing romantic interest for this half-naked hunk of a slave?

Esmeralda at the Maly Theater, St. P - there's a scene set in Esmeralda's little home where she tries several times to go to bed, only to be interrupted by a new man who wants her attentions. I've always wondered why she never locked the door or pushed a piece of furniture against the door. The Maly version is especially frustrating because 95% of it is very lighthearted in nature, making the very sad end of Esmeralda's death at the gallows a very "huh????" sort of moment. Lots of jolity all night long then KA-BOOM, the heroine dies & end-of-story. I would love to see Petipa's happy-ending version, where Esmeralda is rescued.

Swan Lake - I agree on the Cygnets. Even worse: I've always thought "What an idiot is this Siegfried!" to mistake the glamour-gal in black to the gentle Odette in white. I mean...DUH!!!!

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Are there moments in any classic ballets, or in ballets you otherwise love, that puzzle you and leave you cold?

The angels entrance on the Nutcracker II Act ...God, it just gets on my nerves... :off topic:

Mother Ginger. UGH! And in Sleeping Beauty, Puss 'n' Boots--I was secretly glad that ABT's version excised it, even though it didn't make balletic sense to do so. And if the mime stuff from the traditional Don Q disappeared I'd never complain; I still have Cervantes on my bookshelf. Finally, the sorcerer scene in Coppelia (Act II?) is just too long.

In airing my dislikes, though, I realize I am not staying true to a big part of the original post--what doesn't make sense and why. All the scenes I've mentioned don't rub against the spirit of their respective ballets quite the way kfw describes the Cygnets as doing. I'll keep working on it!

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I am with most of you on the cygnets, Mother Ginger, and the little Angels. (I do understand the need to provide dance opportunities for kids in the company school.)

Other than that, it's the small, jarring inconsistences that bother me most. For example:

1) The Jester interlude after Act III in Peter Martin's version of Swan Lake. It's brief, and it does have a function (to prepare for a scene change). But the tone and content belong more at the end of Nutcracker Act I.

2) As mentioned on another recent thread: the sweet little waltz for Rothbart inserted by Nureyev into the middle of the Black Swan pdd.

There are also things that fit into the "too much" or "too much of a good thing" categories. Natalia's post made me think of two things in Corsaire that bother me a bit, even though I know it's heresy and have tried sincerely to repent:

Too Much: Ali's over-use of the hands on shoulder pose. Does the shoulder hurt? Does he have an itch?

Too Much of a Good Thing: Jardin Anime scene; lovely, but so l-o-o-o-n-g

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The moments in Balanchine's Duo Concertant where the two dancers stand next to the piano and listen. It always strikes me as forced and showy. I never saw the original performers Mazzo and Martins dance it so perhaps is was a more sincere moment then.

When Bathilda takes a nap in Giselle's cottage. Bathilda seems like such a high in the instep character to begin with I really don't think she'd consent to lay her precious head down on less than then the finest linens and in a mere hut no less! :lol:

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Too Much: Ali's over-use of the hands on shoulder pose. Does the shoulder hurt? Does he have an itch?

Too Much of a Good Thing: Jardin Anime scene; lovely, but so l-o-o-o-n-g

length of jardin anime doesn't bother me, i guess that's personal.

ali's hands on his shoulder, aren't they meant to denote submission?

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OK this is more of a music question, I guess. WHY do some of the variations in Beauty seem to end so abruptly? Tchai. is usually so good with long well-rounded endings (sometimes they seem almost excessive, like the end of Theme and Variations), but some of the jewel variations are just plain odd in the way they sound so truncated. Any ideas? I don't mind them, really, but they always give me a jolt.

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I love Swan Lake, but I've never cared for the Cygnets. At best their dance strikes me as a technical feat, impressive in its uniformity, but with little poetry. It doesn't help to characterize the swans as women for me either. At worst, as in "Backstage at the Kirov" (I just know someone's going to say that's the best version ever recorded), it strikes me as ungainly. I recognize that this is heresy :lol: , and I'm wondering if there are any other heretics out there. Confession is good for the soul. Are there moments in any classic ballets, or in ballets you otherwise love, that puzzle you and leave you cold? (And can anyone help me appreciate the cygnets?)

I agree about the Cygnets. I want to run out of live performances with the piece.

Check on Cygnets, kfw. But I think it's necessary to insert something of contrast between the pas and the Waltz.

Although I like Balanchine's Marzipan Shepherdesses (except for the costumes), I think the piece dies a little after two high-energy pieces in a row: Tea and Candy Canes. I always wished it would be between these two pieces, but that would put two kids sections (Candy Cane and Polichinelles) together. Likewise, I think the Handel variation in Union Jack looks tepid after the amazonian MacDonald of Sleat.

I also think that Wrens is at least 1/3 too long for anyone else but its originator, Suzanne Farrell. My interest has petered out on everyone else who performs the role.

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Confession is good for the soul. Are there moments in any classic ballets, or in ballets you otherwise love, that puzzle you and leave you cold? (And can anyone help me appreciate the cygnets?)

I think the Fairy of Joy, aka the canary fairy, in Sleeping Beauty looks like a seizure on pointe.

Its usually just UGLY in my opinion.

That said, I thought the the dancer I saw at ABT this season doing it (Fang maybe?) was really good. It ended up being one of the highlights for me--not because I'll ever truly like the variation, but because my expectations were so horribly low.

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Tchai. is usually so good with long well-rounded endings , but some of the jewel variations are just plain odd in the way they sound so truncated. Any ideas?

I've asked myself the same question sometimes. Maybe that's what Drigo thought too when substituing the female variation "Tempo di Valse" for T.'s "L'Espiegele" for the new S.L Act III PDD . Its ending is sooo abruptely truncated-sound-like! :lol:

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Swan Lake -I've always thought "What an idiot is this Siegfried!" to mistake the glamour-gal in black to the gentle Odette in white. I mean...DUH!!!!

Same here! Especially when she wears those "donkey ears" feathers in her hair that the Russian companies like using!

Other "duh" moments (for me):

Romeo & Juliet: Juliet sees Romeo in his creepy black mask and falls for him right away. She isn't even close enough to see his eyes! No wonder her cousin is suspicious. My sympathies are all with Tybalt on this one.

Giselle: Why does Albrecht leave his dukely clothes in the hut opposite Giselle's, no less? And leave his sword standing beside the window!! And the window unfastened!!!

Sheherezade: The big fat claok that gets put around the Golden Slave's shoulders by - what's her name actually? She's the sultan's first wife. Sheherezade is the faithful wife. Anyway, I still can't work out what it's for.

La Bayadere: I've never liked the dance with the scarf in the white scene. I find it distracting from the unity of the act, and it feels like a "trick" or a "stunt". At least, that's how I often see it performed.

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Swan Lake -I've always thought "What an idiot is this Siegfried!" to mistake the glamour-gal in black to the gentle Odette in white. I mean...DUH!!!!

Same here! Especially when she wears those "donkey ears" feathers in her hair that the Russian companies like using!

but rothbart is a wicked magician, must have been a snap to disguise his daughter in another person's face/body, and after all who wore white to an evening soiree in those days?

i like the feathers.... :lol:

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KFW, I have many complaints about Swan Lake and the cygnets are the least of it. I was fairly content for years to see just Act 2 and an occasional Black Swan PDD. Then the Europeans came with their 4-act versions and that seemed to be the only approved way of seeing Swan Lake. From the very beginning I had problems with ACT 1 (choose any Company!) and the national dances of Act 3. But because I gained the beautiful Act 4 I thought it was probably worth it. In the intervening years we all know what happened to Act 4---cut to shreds---and I still had to sit through Act 1 and those boring national dances. At this point, I would be happy to go back to my beginnings of just Act 2 and Black Swan PDD. And while I am on the subject--that 4-act Swan Lake was the beginning of the end of Ballet Theatre as I knew it. Slowly but surely they abandoned their phenomenal repertoire for evening long ballets...... :smilie_mondieu:

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Insufferably cute Nutcracker characters, the Seizure Fairy, and an urge to run out of the theater! :smilie_mondieu: Is it art in general you people don't like, or just ballet? But seriously, thanks for all the fascinating responses. I think I'll stop trying to like the Cygnets now.

perky, I understand why you don't like those bits of Duo Concertant, and I've seen a performance or two where I felt the same way, but in general I find the scenes touching. atm711, I don't really like the national dances either. Mother Ginger I do enjoy. That unicorn in ABT's current version, though . . . . mutter mutter.

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Robbins' In the Night.

Not that it doesn't belong, but . . . the sadomasochistic third pas de deux where the woman walks her hands down the man's leg in total supplication. It's even more misognynistic than all of The Cage. I hate it.

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Glad I'm not the only one who hates Balanchine's bed!

I also don't like the metal slide the Sugar Plum Fairy gets on during the pdd. It's supposed to be 'wow' but I've seen the ballerina not get on at the right place, wobble along the slide, and then it just looks awkward.

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