42 replies to this topic

[bart]

It's fascinating to compare these videos, and I thank those who have to linked them.  

Even the first 30 seconds of the women's part you can see striking differences.  After her opening string of jetes, etc., to stage left, the ballerina switches direction and does a cross-over turn, then briefly jumpting and landing in fondu arabesque , at which point the torso and head tilted.  This occurs twice.  That particular tilt of the torso, and especially of the head, head is something I associate only with Bournonville.  

Bojesun has the Bournonville tilt.   Cojocaru makes a good try, but doesn't quite get it. Sizova doesn't try.

[Alexandra]

bart, you're right   It's the smallest thing in the world, those little tilts, but it's there from childhood in Danes and a dead giveaway in anyone else.

[Hans]

JerryS, on Jul 27 2009, 05:10 PM, said:

Hans said:

3:49 - Fouetté sauté en dedans
4:05 - Pirouette en dedans
5:43 - Double tour en l'air

Thank you, gentlemen.

Any way to describe the particular position of the legs (I imagine several varieties are possible for
each?):

3:49 - Fouetté sauté en dedans: how to say his working leg is fully extended and pretty high from the hip?
4:05 - Pirouette en dedans: how to describe this particular flexion in his working knee, or alternately, the particular position of the working leg?
5:43 - Double tour en l'air: how to describe that the legs are straight, parallel and vertical (are all the tours executed this way? I doubt, but I don't know.)?

Thanks.

In each of these, he is essentially doing the standard form of the step, so I don't really see a need to specify, except perhaps to say that the fouetté sauté en dedans is croisé.  He does the pirouette in retiré position, which is standard, and the tour en l'air in 5th position, also standard.  One would generally only specify if there were a deviation from these--for example if the fouetté were at 45º instead of 90º, or if the pirouette were to be done in cou-de-pied instead of retiré position.

[Paul Parish]

and the HANDS -- the line of that arabesque has not only that tilt of the head but a very particular position for the fingers, curling slightly up, like wing tips of a bird landing

[JerryS]

Thank you, Hans.

[JerryS]

bart, on Jul 27 2009, 06:41 PM, said:

It's fascinating to compare these videos, and I thank those who have to linked them.  

Even the first 30 seconds of the women's part you can see striking differences.  After her opening string of jetes, etc., to stage left, the ballerina switches direction and does a cross-over turn, then briefly jumpting and landing in fondu arabesque , at which point the torso and head tilted.  This occurs twice.  That particular tilt of the torso, and especially of the head, head is something I associate only with Bournonville.  

Bojesun has the Bournonville tilt.   Cojocaru makes a good try, but doesn't quite get it. Sizova doesn't try.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same torso and head tilt, but watch Soloviev at about 1:15-1:29:

The great Yuri Soloviev and Alla Sizova (wonder about the year?)


Now, that's a tilt! Call it a bell tolling!

Kobborg, a Dane, is doing much less. Nureyev, just a bit less.

Also, how about Soloviev at 1:16-1:19! (Double ronde de jambe saute, I believe. Peaking at 1:18). Now, that's what I would call high! Nureyev is even higher with the working leg and higher than the hip, I think!

[Hans]

I believe the tilt they are referring to occurs at 1:51 and 1:53 of the Bojesen/Blangstrup video.  Perhaps my favourite moments of that video are from there through 1:58, when she opens her arms and beams out radiantly at the audience.

Sizova and Soloviev are two of my favourite artists, but it seems to me that Mariinsky and Bolshoi dancers frequently have trouble with Bournonville's style, particularly how soft and understated it is.  Taken on its own terms, though, I think the Sizova/Soloviev performance is beautiful, even with the choreographic alterations.

Edited to add:  there is a similar step in this video of Evdokimova at 1:10, 1:14, and 1:18.

[JerryS]

There's a special slowness in Tallchief's interpretation which is especially enchanting. I think she asked the orchestra to tempo it down a bit. She really takes her time to enjoy it all. She was towards the end of her career (she retired just three years later, in 1965, I've just learned).

[JerryS]

BTW, asking the costume specialists here,  I'm curious  about what Kobborg's wearing in period language:
cravat/neckerchief/bandanna, shirt, knee-long breeches, belt/cammerbund (doubt that?), white hoses/socks (tights today?)
were/are these the right words?

[ami1436]

Just want to thank everyone for this thread -- I love the Danes, and thought I'd watched most of what there was on Youtube, and here is a whole new treasure chest!  I will have to save this for after work!!

[JerryS]

Hi:

Cojocaru and Kobborg in FF


How does one call the high lateral cross-over stepping which Kobborg does at 7:21-7:22?

Thanks

[Hans]

That is a pas de chat.

[JerryS]

Hans said:

That is a pas de chat.

Thank you, Hans, I was indeed looking for a video with this step:-)