Bach Prelude

[innopac]

i can easily see the confusion:

the choregrapher(s) of PRELUDE are vasil'ov (often spelt 'vasiliev' as below) and kasatkina - a russian couple of choreographers.

the dancer opposite plisetskaya in the PRELUDE on tape is, as silvy notes, n.fadeyechev; vladimir vasil'ov (or vasiliev) is the choreographer and not the same vladimir vasiliev who is well known as a bolshoi ballet dance star.

perhaps some of the site's readers who are conversant w/ russian and the cyrillic spelling of these two names could elucidate the two, which are so very similar. if their names were spelled out in full the confusion would be lessened: the famed dancer is Vladimir Victorovich Vasiliev; the choreographer is Vladimir Yudivich Vasiliev.

the n.y.public lib. for the perf. arts lists PRELUDE as follows:

Bach Prelude number 8 / choreography: Vladimir Vasiliev, Natalia Kasatkina ; music, J. S. Bach ; danced by Plisetskaya and Fadeyechev

[rg]

somehow the query to go w/ my older post seems to have disappeared but i now see how my word program can work w/ cyrillic letters, thus the spelling out of the two dancers' family names below:

if clarification was sought, the choreographer (who often worked Kassatkina) would be written as follows in cyrillic:

Vladimir Yudivich Василёв - note the "L" is not followed by the soft sign indication that follows the "L" in name of the famous dancer below and the "E" in this individual's name has two dots over it, which make the letter's sound 'yo' rather the 'ye,' which is the sound of a cyrillic 'e' w/o the dot marks. in the case of pronunciation, the accent is on the dotted 'e' (that is the 'yo') which is always accented when it's found in a Russian work.

the more famous Bolshoi Ballet dancer would be written as follows:

Vladimir Victorovich Васильев - note use of the soft sign, the lack of dots over the 'e' and the fact that the pronunciation accent falls on the second vowel, the backwards looking N, not the 'e'.

i hope this makes some sense, a skilled reader, etc. of Russian i am NOT.

[carbro]

somehow the query to go w/ my older post seems to have disappeared . . .

It's from a different thread, here. If you click the little, pink arrow in any quote box, it will take you to the original post. This is especially handy when the reply is to a post not directly preceding, as in this thread.

innopac, I'm not sure I understand your intention in opening this thread? Did rg give the answer you wanted? Or had you wanted to append a question?

[innopac]

innopac, I'm not sure I understand your intention in opening this thread? Did rg give the answer you wanted? Or had you wanted to append a question?

Woops! I had wanted to ask about the religious nature of the Prelude given the political context of the time. Had there been repercussions for the choreographers? But I ran out of time and didn't realize I had saved the post. Was also going to wait and find the date of the original choreography before I posted. Sorry about that.

[rg]

more Soviet-savvy members may have more concrete answers.

my HUNCH is that the 'sacred' nature of the music was by this time only general and that the dance itself was seen as lyrical and/or serious, lofty, something like the GLuck ETUDE to the Dance of Blessed Spirits, and not necessarily specifically Christian/religious, etc.

but i haven't watched PRELUDE in a while now.

the NYPL dance cat. entry seems not to know the date of the work itself, merely giving the date of the first US perf. in its 'authority term' listing.

as follows:

Bach prelude no. 8 : Chor: Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilëv; mus: Johann Sebastian Bach. First New York perf: Metropolitan Opera House, June 1, 1968; Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet

[leonid17]

innopac, I'm not sure I understand your intention in opening this thread? Did rg give the answer you wanted? Or had you wanted to append a question?

Woops! I had wanted to ask about the religious nature of the Prelude given the political context of the time. Had there been repercussions for the choreographers? But I ran out of time and didn't realize I had saved the post. Was also going to wait and find the date of the original choreography before I posted. Sorry about that.

People like Vasiliov and Kasatkina had grown up in an era of religious thaw, following Stalin’s desperate cynical turn towards the Orthodox Church to unite the Russian people in faith and the sense of one country, when Germany invaded Russia in 1941.

The Vasiliov/Kasatkina “Prelude” was apparently first performed in 1967 during the Kruschev era when religious persecution of all kinds was a reality and they have continued to have a successful creative life if not an international one.

Many Russians were looking for a spiritual identity in their imposed atheistic world and the arts were often been a place of expression for that yearning.

I think rg is correct when he says, “my HUNCH is that the 'sacred' nature of the music was by this time only general and that the dance itself was seen as lyrical and/or serious, lofty, something like the GLuck ETUDE to the Dance of Blessed Spirits, and not necessarily specifically Christian/religious, etc."

I personally have found that music and dance can often bring an elevation of the spirit somewhat parallel to the religious experience that is to say beyond ones everyday experience.

Martha Graham variously said,” The body is a sacred garment.” , “The body says what words cannot.” , and “We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God. “

PS

In 1999, a performance of the Vasiliov/Kasatkina, “The Creation of the World” was scheduled for the Ballet Internationale of Indianapolis but I cannot find if this took place.

[rg]

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD by Ballet Internationale did indeed take place.

it's the only time i saw the work in full, on stage.

here's a link to a report from Clive Barnes for Dance Magazine, which puts the revival in 2004:

http://dancemagazine.com/issues/June-2004/...aleIndianapolis

[leonid17]

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD by Ballet Internationale did indeed take place.

it's the only time i saw the work in full, on stage.

here's a link to a report from Clive Barnes for Dance Magazine, which puts the revival in 2004:

http://dancemagazine.com/issues/June-2004/...aleIndianapolis

Many Thanks