38 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

atm711, on Jun 11 2010, 02:13 PM, said:

Toumanova was certainly a real beauty.[...]  She was my first Giselle...

The above quote from atm711 made me curious about finding out if some of you would remember who was your first Giselle-(live I mean...)-for which in my case it is an unforgettable image. (Miss Lourdes Novoa   , ex CNB's dancer and former wife of Jose Manuel Carreno).

So..  Who was your first live Giselle...?  

[papeetepatrick]

Martine Van Hammel with ABT, she was great.

[vipa]

cubanmiamiboy, on Jun 11 2010, 08:56 PM, said:

atm711, on Jun 11 2010, 02:13 PM, said:

Toumanova was certainly a real beauty.[...]  She was my first Giselle...

The above quote from atm711 made me curious about finding out if some of you would remember who was your first Giselle-(live I mean...)-for which in my case it is an unforgettable image. (Miss Lourdes Novoa   , ex CNB's dancer and former wife of Jose Manuel Carreno).

So..  Who was your first live Giselle...?  

Carla Fracci -- she was divine.  It was at ABT many years ago with Eric Bruhn. The experience goes along with Fonteyn/Nureyev in Romeo & Juliet.  I was a teen and cried at both.  

BTW I don't go to see story ballets anymore, with the exception of Sleeping Beauty (because there is so much dancing).  Wow way off topic - sorry.

[canbelto]

Diana Vishneva with Vladimir Malakhov. Still maybe one of the most memorable nights of ballet in my life.

[Leigh Witchel]

I may have forgotten someone, but I think it was in fact Judith Fugate - in Gabriella Darvash's production for her NYC school.  I was in it, harvesting grapes in Act I and I'd watch Act II with Judy - and just as much a student, Moira Dorsey, as Myrtha.  To this day no one can came close to how I recall her jump.

[DanceActress]

Nina Ananiashvili with the Bolshoi- divine.

[bart]

Ballet Theatre, Lupe Serrano, during a visit home from school.  

My experience of the full-evening classics up to that time had been limited to a few early Ballet Theater Swan Lakes, so I didn't know what to expect.  I just knew that Giselle was a classic.  I remember a smallish stage (a regular theater, not the old Met) and a rather creaky and (to me) old-fashioned Act I.  But I was bowled over by the unexpected beauty. mystery, and pathos of Act II.

[Jack Reed]

Without rummaging through old programs -- not sure I have it anyway -- I think mine was Carla Fracci with Ivan Nagy, and ABT.  "Lighter than air", ethereal, couldn't believe it, "but you're seeing it", I told myself...  (It would be decades before I would encounter the term, cognitive disconnect.)  I'm sure there were bits that went past me, it was early in my experience, but I can still see some of it, and I still don't quite believe it, but I've learned over the years to believe in it, things like that.

[carbro]

I don't remember the ballerina, but whoever she was, she was a Bolshoi dancer with her home company on tour at the Met, 1975.  I'm tempted to say N. Bessmertnova, but it was a Wednesday Mat., so probably not, but then again, was she yet the prima at that point?

Leigh Witchel, on Jun 11 2010, 11:13 PM, said:

I may have forgotten someone, but I think it was in fact Judith Fugate - in Gabriella Darvash's production for her NYC school.  I was in it, harvesting grapes in Act I ...

That was you???   Seriously, I was there (out front), and remember thinking that, given the opportunities to develop the role, Judy might have become a fine Giselle.

[Helene]

Natalia Makarova with ABT, 1971.  Her partner is still dear to my heart, Ivan Nagy.

[ivypink]

For me, it was Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. And it was my first time seeing live ballet, ever. It was wonderful.

[Mme. Hermine]

I'm pretty sure it was Makarova, c 1980, with Alexander Godunov in Chicago.  Prior to that, as ABT would come usually for 2 weeks out of the year then, if I could only afford a single ticket, I would go to see "Swan Lake" as my reasoning was that I could see lots of dancers for the value of the ticket, and I didn't want to buy multiple cheap tickets but rather one really good one, so I had seen Makarova before, but I'm pretty sure I also wanted to see Godunov.

[canbelto]

Actually I've been so lucky with my Giselles. I've seen Diana Vishneva, Nina Ananiashvilli, and Natalia Osipova. What a great trio of Giselles.

[glebb]

Violette Verdy - The Miami (regional) Ballet circa 1969.
I remember loving her farm girl disposition in ACT I and I swore at the time and for years that Edward Villella jeted over the heads of the Wilis to exit in Act II.

[MakarovaFan]

Ferri with Bocca circa 1993 -- it was a sublime experience.