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Acting and dancing


dirac

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eWolf.

Here's the link to more information: http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/dan/dan.html

The staff will ask you when you enter to fill out a form stating your purpose, but it's only for statistics. Anyone can look at most things in the collection, but some items will be viewable only with permission.

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Leigh Witchel - dae@panix.com

Personal Page and Dance Writing

Dance as Ever

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Re Lynn Seymour's Giselle. A very distinguished British critic, now alas dead, who had seen any number of dancers in that role (including Spessivtseva) remarked of Seymour's performance that she was the only Giselle who convinced him that she had been sleeping with Albrecht for some time! I should say he was both a fan and a friend of Seymour.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Marcia Haydee as an actress/dancer. I found her extraordinary in the Cranko ballets, and in ballets like Giselle,Swan Lake and even Raymonda, her dancing and acting were inseparably linked.

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Gelsey Kirkland was obsessed with the acting component of her roles, according to her autobiography.  She brought in acting coaches to help her, although some believe she carried it too far--witness Robert LaFosse's autobiography wherein he recounts a time when he and another male dancer were to enter as Kitri and had no other part in the ballet.  She didn't think they were relating properly to her (they were onstage for maybe a few seconds) and had them analyze their roles, relation to her, et cetera with her acting coach.  LaFosse and the other dancer thought it was ridiculous, so two other dancers were brought in to do the parts when Kirkland danced Kitri. 

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CygneDanois

I know this is from wayyy back, but I was looking through the forum and came upon this post. I'd be interested in reading Robert La Fosse's autobiography- I searched amazon and found nothing. Could someone tell me what it is called and where I could possibly find a copy? Thanks.

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Re Lynn Seymour's Giselle.  A very distinguished British critic, now alas dead, who had seen any number of dancers in that role (including Spessivtseva) remarked of Seymour's performance that she was the only Giselle who convinced him that she had been sleeping with Albrecht for some time! 

I had the same impression when I saw the tape of the Nureyev/Seymour Giselle. It would not have surprised me if the poor girl was pregnant---which could explain her fury at Bathilda.

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I used to have a copy of La Fosse's book handy, but it went away somewhere.

I'm trying to remember what he said about Kirkland -- I think he said she wouldn't help with lifts, and was a pain generally, although the performances were often worth it.

It's always nice to have an old thread revived, Giselle05. Thanks!

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Quick technical note regarding lifts:

If the woman does a big jump, it is helpful to her partner, but it makes her look heavy. If she just does a plié and makes her partner lift her, it's tougher for the man, but she ends up looking weightless.

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Hans or other dancers: what in your opinion is the most difficult lift for male dancers, assuming the woman is cooperating? That one-arm lift above the head looks dramatic, but am I right in suspecting it's not as hard as it looks?

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Well, this will vary from one person to another, but I find those slow cabrioles at the beginning of the pas de deux in Chopiniana/Les Sylphides quite difficult. One thing I will never forget seeing--when the Kirov brought Le Corsaire to the Kennedy Center, in Act II Anton Korsakov and Viktoria Terioskina performed the climactic "press lift" during the adagio of the "Slave" pas de trois. Korsakov lifted her above his head in arabesque, walked upstage with her, stepped onto demi-pointe in 5th, and raised his left leg into a 45-degree arabesque! :unsure:

I've never done the one-arm lift, so I don't know how difficult it is, although I suspect that getting the balance right could be tricky--and Kitri's costume had better not be made of something slippery!

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