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Question #6: Entrechats or Brises?


Alexandra

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I find the entrechats more haunting, the brisees more desperate. I've seen both done as tricks, which broke hte mood completely -- but I've seen both done poetically, and in each case they belonged to a large and subtle interpretation of the role.

Let me praise San Francisco Ballet's Tiit Helimets in this role -- and at the moment in question. He's entrancing in this passage --his feet are almost as beautiful as Hallberg's, and his lyrical way of performing the sixes makes something astoundingly prayerful out of the series of them, like a mantra, or the Rosary, where the repetitions bring the intention to hypnotic focus -- it's paradoxical,since it staysthe same but fluctuates (like hte Willis trembling bourrees) --you're seeing eternal sous-sus, as if through tears.

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The only reason I can imagine for the entrechats is if Albrecht's brises are so poor he's dropped the step from his vocabulary devil.gif. The passage is not about Albrecht's gorgeous arches or the precise articulation of his batterie.

Here see a contest of wills here between Myrtha and Albrecht. I can almost feel the tension between them, pull-release, pull-release, like a rubber band.

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Let me praise San Francisco Ballet's Tiit Helimets in this role -- and at the moment in question. He's entrancing in this passage --his feet are almost as beautiful as Hallberg's, and his lyrical way of performing the sixes makes something astoundingly prayerful out of the series of them, like a mantra, or the Rosary, where the repetitions bring the intention to hypnotic focus -- it's paradoxical,since it staysthe same but fluctuates (like hte Willis trembling bourrees) --you're seeing eternal sous-sus, as if through tears.

Thank's for reminding me about Tiit Helimet's wonderful Albrecht. I was very lucky to see him perform this role with Birmingham Royal Ballet. In the same series of performances Chi Cao also performed the role so beautifully that I was reduced to tears in every performance I saw. Chi also did entechats. His feet were breath-takingly beautiful but at the same time he was able to portray anguish and despair.

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