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Mishaps


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At the winter performance of the ballet academy where I teach (history) Saturday night, there was an unusual mishap that raised several issues I thought worth discussing. (There's a full account of it in George Jackson's review on danceviewtimes: Aplomb )

The short version is that the kids were dancing to tape, and the amp blew -- no sound. It happened a few seconds in to the Grand Adagio of Vainonen's "Nutcracker," which gives Sugar Plum and her Cavalier four assistant cavaliers, and there are lots of lifts, and passing the ballerina back and forth among the cavaliers, as well as throws.

The dancers didn't stop for a second. Oleg Vinogradov (the head of the schsool) was sitting in the front row and called out softly, "Keep dancing," and counted -- also quite softly; I couldn't hear it on the other side of the studio, except for two bars towards the end.

Issue one, I guess, is what would you have done? Kept on, or stopped it? The audience, mostly parents, of course, though some local fans come, was completely sympathetic and the dancers got a standing ovation at the end of the adagio -- which did wonders for the solos that followed! But it was harrowing to watch.

Issue two, was how fascinating it was to watch the choreography without the music. I didn't enjoy it -- I want the music! -- but without the music, the ballet was pure Architecture. It was like watching artisans put a beautiful statue in place -- first this angle, then that. Does she look better from this side, or that? for the viewer, it was a completely different experience.

Issue three, the effect of the mishap -- because the dancers were successful, it energized them. Not that one wants something like this to happen (I've seen only two other comparable problems in my years of watching ballet) but it did bring to mind Fonteyn's comment that people who liked ballet were the kind that liked bullfights.

(Natalia, sorry you missed this one!)

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At the winter performance of the ballet academy where I teach (history) Saturday night, there was an unusual mishap that raised several issues I thought worth discussing. (There's a full account of it in George Jackson's review on danceviewtimes: Aplomb )

The short version is that the kids were dancing to tape, and the amp blew -- no sound. It happened a few seconds in to the Grand Adagio of Vainonen's "Nutcracker," which gives Sugar Plum and her Cavalier four assistant cavaliers, and there are lots of lifts, and passing the ballerina back and forth among the cavaliers, as well as throws.

Issue one, I guess, is what would you have done? Kept on, or stopped it? The audience, mostly parents, of course, though some local fans come, was completely sympathetic and the dancers got a standing ovation at the end of the adagio -- which did wonders for the solos that followed! But it was harrowing to watch.

As a performer (though not a ballet dancer) I've faced the same issue. I was doing a fan dance as part of the entertainment for a big clubscene birthday party. Large crowd. Big event.

The DJ decided to cue the next cd while I was on, and ejected, not the cd from the other cd player, but my cd, mid-act.

I paused for a second, and then kept on going. It was actually one of my favorite performances, the audience began to sing along and clapped to keep rhythm. It was pretty fantastic actually.

sorry if this is OT--I know it isn't ballet, but it was a similar (if much more small scale) situation

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Great topic, Alexandra!

I'm a beginner adult student. When several of us had problems with a combination at the barre a few weeks ago, our teacher demonstrated an error -- falling in a turn -- and how to handle it on stage, recovering with a great deal of aplomb, but within the music. He said: "If you make a mistake, you have to turn it into choreography." Same would apply to malfunctions with music and lights. Good for the students! They had a valuable lesson in stagecraft, and deserved their ovation. :FIREdevil:

As to watching ballet without music.

[ ... ] without the music, the ballet was pure Architecture. It was like watching artisans put a beautiful statue in place -- first this angle, then that. Does she look better from this side, or that? for the viewer, it was a completely different experience.

I love to watch videos in silence. I recently watched the sections from Agon that are included in one of the NYCB Balanchine Celebration videos. It is, as you say, Alexandra, a "completely different" experience. But wonderful if the choreography and dancers are up to it. And then -- when you look again with the sound turned on -- you see things even better. :FIREdevil:

I really looking forward to hearing what people have to say about these topics.

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Issue two, was how fascinating it was to watch the choreography without the music. I didn't enjoy it -- I want the music! -- but without the music, the ballet was pure Architecture. It was like watching artisans put a beautiful statue in place -- first this angle, then that. Does she look better from this side, or that? for the viewer, it was a completely different experience.

Shades of Jerome Robbins planning a ballet to Aaron Copland's "Dance Panels" waltzes and arriving at the first rehearsal without the music, remembering only the counts, and choreographing anyhow. I hope those students can all see "Moves" when NYCB dances it in D.C. next year.

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aurora - yes, I think it's exactly the same thing (despite differences of genre :FIREdevil: ) I'm intertested that your instinct, too, was "The show must go on," and glad it had a happy ending!

bart - I've had the same experience watching ballets on tape (try fast forwarding, if you haven't; it condenses time and sometimes I see the patterns more clearly). This grand pas isn't Cunningham, though, so the resonance was missing. There could be arguments of whether the choreography was lacking, and that the piece was overdependent on the music, or one could argue the choreography was quite strong because it survived without the music. (There are several combinations that Balanchine used in his ballets in the '30s and '40s, after Vainonen's work premiered, which I also found interesting!)

kfw - yes, they will go to see that NYCB program (and the Kirov's Bayadere) I have to say I was more excited by them seeing Serenade and Symphony in C, but in light of this performance, I'll be curious to see what they make of Moves.

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I think audiences like the show to go on, although it changes the experience. I once saw a regional company do Raymonda Variations to a tape. The music went off shortly after the start of one variation. The woman kept dancing and when the music came back on (close to the end of the variation) she was right on! The audience went crazy, but it was definitely more sport than art. That variation would have not drawn the same applause without the mishap.

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That's an interesting point, vipa. In this case, there would have been applause anyway (not only because it was a school performance with parents as an audience -- sometimes the applause is tepid -- but because it really was well done.) I didn't think of it as sport, but something very dry and clinical -- and the admiration was for the discipline.

The two other similar mishaps (not counting fallen dancers, or scenery, or things of that nature) were a similar tape problem with Paul Taylor Company in "Esplanade" when it was new and dangerous and exciting. Ruth Andrien came on at the beginning of the last movement, ready to throw herself onto the floor, when the music stopped. She kept going and the music found her in about two minutes -- I think the applause then was as much for the technician as the dancer, because, as you noted in your example, it was absolutely right. The moment was ruined, though, because it took the air out of the dance -- but everyone admired the dancers for continuing. The other was when a thunderstorm took out the electricity at Wolf Trap as the Royal Ballet, with a young cast, was in the middle of "Swan Lake" Act III. This did not go well. Marguerite Porter was just about to start coda (really) and a helpful stagehand beamed a huge spotlight in her face, I suppose to give her something to spot on as well as to light her. That threw her off, of course. Everyone stopped, and Derek Deane turned to the wings and mimed -- very clearly -- "What????" Curtain. The audience, of course, had problems of its own, since half of it was on the lawn and there was not only a lot of rain, but a lot of lightening....

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A few years ago, the taped music stopped just a few seconds after the start of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet's performance of "La Sonnambula" at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The dancers stopped dancing and the curtain came down. It seemed to take forever before the problem was fixed but eventually the performance was restarted, from the beginning. That seemed a much better option than dancing a ballet like Sonnambula in silence.

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This wonderful story of a mishap, or sabotage, comes from Dancing into the Unknown: My Life in the Ballets Russes by Tamara Tchinarova Finch. This is from a section about Preobrajenska, page 31.

She shone in
Coppélia
,
Raymonda
and
Paquita
, but the role of Lisa in
La Fille Mal Gardée
was monopolised by Kschessinska. After a decade, it was given to Preobrajenska, but her rival stopped at nothing to spoil her performances. Mysteriously, the door of the cage holding live chickens was unlocked, and during Preobrajenska’s solo variation they came out onto the stage and created a panic amongst the people in the wings. Preobrajenska did not bat an eyelid. She smiled charmingly, pretended the chickens were part of her solo and, dancing carefully amongst them, received one of the biggest ovations of her career.

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Wolf Trap is infamous for its summer thunderstorms. One year, the Joffrey was performing "Valentine" there, when a violent thundergust passed directly over the place. The dancers were Rebecca Wright and Christian Holder, and they were safe, relatively speaking, but the musician, Alvin Brehm and his mighty double bass were wired, literally, for sound. The Jacob Druckman score for this prize-fight ballet about the battle of the sexes requires the bassist not only to play his instrument, but to mutter incomprehensibly, and perform several percussive effects on himself and the big fiddle. I never saw that ballet ever performed any faster, as the lightning flashes and the following thunder grew ever closer together. There was even a moment when I could have sworn that the thunder was coming before the lightning! As the storm receded to the east, Becky and Christian took their bows, and Alvin (and his bass) took their bows, and I was heading through the pass door to the backstage, where I was greeted by the sight of Alvin ripping all the wires off him that he could reach, and some places I believed he hadn't been able to reach in years! The electricians were trying to calm him down, but he said, correctly, "If you can hear it, you can still be hit!" and continued his rapid de-electrification project. Someone said, "Never again could this happen!" Sure enough, next year during "Viva Vivaldi"....

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Here is another story of a disaster during a ballet performance from the book Dancing into the Unknown: My Life in the Ballets Russes by Tamara Tchinarova Finch. This happened when Tchinarova was touring Europe with Leon Woizikovsky and the second company for de Basil's Ballets Russes. (around 1938?). page 91.

Our booking was in Milan. To our dismay we found that the Quirino Theatre was an old, abandoned building awaiting demolition - dusty, dirty and damp, at the end of an arcade that may once have been fashionable, but was derelict now....
Les Sylphides
was seen through a cloud of dust. In
Le Spectre de la rose
, the Rose leapt on to the stage and disappeared. The floorboards gave under him. He was found, by a frantic stage manager, looking for a way out of the basement, worried that he could still here his music above, but unable to get back on again.

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I love these. More, please. Innopac, your Spectre story could be a wonderful ballet -- and a recurring nightmare for a dancer!!

I think old memoires are treasure troves. There were more interesting occurrences in former times. (Not ballet, but theater -- some of John Gielgud's tales of theater in England when he was very young are hysterical.)

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I believe it was Serge Grigoriev who recalled the opening night of "Firebird". Have you ever listened to the brooding, rumbling prologue music and wondered about the sudden break into a "clop, clop, clop" sort of motif? Clop indeed, as it was at this point that Fokine had wanted the Spirits of Day and Night to ride on with horses fully caparisoned. One of them, however was even fuller than the other, and left a...souvenir...stage right. Until all the monsters entered, there was no way to shovel the calling card from the stage, so Karsavina and Fokine did an awful lot of looking down when they got to that area of the stage. So did all the Princesses. The action was strangely shifted to the left, for some reason....

Then, during the finale music, when we hear the return of the prologue theme for the last time, the Firebird was supposed to be "flown" over the assembled wedding party and out. Well, Flying by Foy hadn't been invented yet, and Karsavina flew in, and suddenly, klank, klatter, groan...and she stopped. And there she swung, faking benevolent-looking port de bras until

THE

CURTAIN

FELL

Then a team of stagehands and artistic staff rushed to her rescue with a tall stepladder and a pair of bolt cutters.

Neither effect made it to the second night of "Firebird".

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I believe it was Serge Grigoriev who recalled the opening night of "Firebird". Have you ever listened to the brooding, rumbling prologue music and wondered about the sudden break into a "clop, clop, clop" sort of motif? Clop indeed, as it was at this point that Fokine had wanted the Spirits of Day and Night to ride on with horses fully caparisoned. One of them, however was even fuller than the other, and left a...souvenir...stage right. Until all the monsters entered, there was no way to shovel the calling card from the stage, so Karsavina and Fokine did an awful lot of looking down when they got to that area of the stage. So did all the Princesses. The action was strangely shifted to the left, for some reason....

Then, during the finale music, when we hear the return of the prologue theme for the last time, the Firebird was supposed to be "flown" over the assembled wedding party and out. Well, Flying by Foy hadn't been invented yet, and Karsavina flew in, and suddenly, klank, klatter, groan...and she stopped. And there she swung, faking benevolent-looking port de bras until

THE

CURTAIN

FELL

Then a team of stagehands and artistic staff rushed to her rescue with a tall stepladder and a pair of bolt cutters.

Neither effect made it to the second night of "Firebird".

I can't stop laughing!!

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Here is another Firebird story.

This anecdote is from Irina Baronova’s autobiography, (pg 241-2). This incident of sabotage happened on the opening night at the Met when she was on tour with Colonel de Basil’s company in about 1937. She writes: “On one occasion, someone played a nasty prank that was meant to ruin my performance in The Firebird.” Baranova then describes the Firebird’s entrance leading up to the long pas de deux with the Tsarevitch, who in this case was Paul Petroff. Luckily she has a real sense of humour.

"Well, on my second set of jumps across the stage, the right elastic shoulder strap holding up my bodice snapped. An audible ‘Oh’ from the audience!. No time to do anything about it. On the third set of jumps I start picking at the apples and, horror of horrors, my second shoulder strap snaps, to a louder ‘Oh, oh!’ from the audience. [she describes wanting to flee and then with a rush of adrenaline tries to hold her bodice up and keep dancing.]

Paul Petroff was magnificent! As he caught me, he placed his hands over my boobs instead of on my waist, whispering in his funny Russian accent, ‘My God, my God, I’ll hold it, I’ll hide you when I can!’ He did, bless him, lifting me by my bosom instead of by my waist and helping me all he could to keep me decent, all with his usual elegance and aplomb. The audience, of course, followed the proceedings with interest, and I was told that some were betting on whether my boobs would pop out. The end of the
pas de deux
was met by an ovation! The critics praised our performance. Whoever sliced halfway through the elastic of my shoulder straps badly misjudge the effect it would have. Instead of ruining my performance, it turned it into a great success and generated a great deal of publicity."

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To continue to dance without the music or not, this is a hard question for Artistic Director. First of all, the decision has to be done immediately, but in consideration you have to put too many things - is it short variation or long adagio, how many people should dance in the sink, does the taped music has tracks or it's one long piece, what is importance of this performance and, finally, what is the heck is going on, how fast they can fix the problem?! I had an expierence both ways of dealing with this situation as a dancer and as a director and can say that the public was always entusiastic, doesn't matter did you stop or not. If you keeping up on dancing, people amazed by sinhronized movements of artists, who became, IMO, kind of "trained elephants". And if you stopped and fixed the problem, artists got a lot of adrenalin to prove that they are better then any technical matters in the world.

Talking about costumes mishaps, I bet that some of Kirov Ballet girls specially asked to make their top of the costume so short, that in big lifts or low port de bras boobs are falling out to the great pleasure of male auditorium. :thumbsup:

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Our director (small regional company) tells us that if the music stops, you continue dancing, but if the lights go out, you stop and take a pose (and just stand there). In our Nutcracker, there are fairies who appear in the beginning of the battle scene (right before the Nutcracker & soldiers appear) and essentially "transform" the living room. Anyway, in our first performance this year (an outreach performance), a lightboard went out during that scene so aside from the spotlight focused on Clara (asleep, downstage center), there were no lights. The music continued playing and so we continued dancing - it wasn't too harrowing, except having to dance/run amongst the other dancers and make sure we didn't run smack into them.

Other lights came up as the Nutcracker appeared so the rest of the show was fine - though the audience missed the Christmas tree growing...

After the performance, our director told us that she was very pleased with how we handled the situation - and that they (her or the stage crew, though in this particular theater - she doesn't sit in the light booth during the performance) would have stopped the music if they felt it was dangerous without lights.

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"Well, on my second set of jumps across the stage, the right elastic shoulder strap holding up my bodice snapped. An audible ‘Oh’ from the audience!. No time to do anything about it. On the third set of jumps I start picking at the apples and, horror of horrors, my second shoulder strap snaps, to a louder ‘Oh, oh!’ from the audience. [she describes wanting to flee and then with a rush of adrenaline tries to hold her bodice up and keep dancing.]

Paul Petroff was magnificent! As he caught me, he placed his hands over my boobs instead of on my waist, whispering in his funny Russian accent, ‘My God, my God, I’ll hold it, I’ll hide you when I can!’ He did, bless him, lifting me by my bosom instead of by my waist and helping me all he could to keep me decent, all with his usual elegance and aplomb. The audience, of course, followed the proceedings with interest, and I was told that some were betting on whether my boobs would pop out. The end of the pas de deux was met by an ovation! The critics praised our performance. Whoever sliced halfway through the elastic of my shoulder straps badly misjudge the effect it would have. Instead of ruining my performance, it turned it into a great success and generated a great deal of publicity."

I remember reading that story in another book somewhere. Thank you for anecdotes innopac. Keep them coming. :clapping:

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