18 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Who do you like the most...?


I'm all for Misha...and then Sarabita.  

[vipa]

From this group I'd pick Radetsky (sp?) as the best.  Misha always looked a little stiff in some Balanchine pieces such as Tsch pas and Theme.  Sarabita, IMO, approached it like Corsaire - or pick your flashy pas.  

Live performances my favorites were Peter Martins, Helgi Tommason & Damien Woetzel.   No performer in that selection matched them.

[Leigh Witchel]

The male variation in Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux is one of the few Balanchine pieces I can think of where it's become acceptable to self-choreograph - on this tape you see that the most with Edur, Sarabia and particularly Solymosi. Baryshnikov and Radetsky are doing closest to a canonical version - both were assumedly done in more than one take, though Baryshnikov's doesn't look as cleaned up as Radetsky's performance.

[Nanarina]

Balanchine Tchaikovsky Pas de deux.

I like Zoltan Solymossi  (Trained in Hungary)  I was impressed with this peformance from the day he danced it with Darcey Bussell at the Tchaikovsky Gala at the ROH.  He may not be the most technical dancer, but is flambyant
and moves with the music, rather than just dancing to it. I  believe he was a bit of a handful, very temperemental needed to be told to smile.  His style  catches my eye especially in the mid stage circle of turns.

[Helene]

I particularly liked the way Thomas Edur changed directions seemingly without effort and how he linked the sub-phrases into one long phrase, using the end of the sub-phrase as momentum into the next.

[ksk04]

Leigh Witchel, on 19 June 2011 - 08:53 PM, said:

Baryshnikov and Radetsky are doing closest to a canonical version - both were assumedly done in more than one take, though Baryshnikov's doesn't look as cleaned up as Radetsky's performance.

This is true and what I was thinking of when watching--even so Radetsky's variation is beautifully done and so clean.  He compares well to most of the more famous principals...and yet he remains a fairly underused soloist.

[bart]

Favorites::
1) Baryshnikov,  
2)  Radetsky

Least favorite:
1) Zelensky.  I have liked this dancer a lot.  But here it seems to be all galumph! galumph!

[Amy Reusch]

Interesting to see any variation danced by 7 different dancers...  What surprises me is not so much the beautiful tricks delivered here with remarkable ease but rather the drop after Baryshnikov in quality during the transition steps... Attitude renverse is a beautiful movement in itself and seems to get short shrift artistically from many of them.  I liked Zelensky's musical finish, but his hair seemed to have a life of it's own which for some reason distracted me.

[4mrdncr]

Thanks for posting this, really good to observe/contrast/compare. My choice is easy...
1)Baryshnikov (also because I LOVE the camera tracking (or more correctly "trucking") right with those sautes, and the beautiful changes in ecarte he does)
2)Radetsky (He's so clean and tight, with no excessive/extraneous steps in between, and in the final series of double tours etc., beautifully articulated straigt-leg degage/ronde de jambe en l'air(Sorry, for mushy terms, brain is forgetful/older now.) The one and only time I got to speak to Sascha R.a few yrs ago, I told him it was one of the best versions I had seen in a very long while.  He's paid his dues a long time at ABT (even with forays elsewhere), hope he gets a good break soon.

I thought Edur was interesting and clean, but didn't especially like (my usual complaint with this variation) all the changes in choreography.

PS. I have LOTS of footage of Angel in this, from almost every angle (including a grid shot version just for fun)from 2009, and in a rehearsal by a Japanese crew from much earlier, but I also think there is a YT version shot by ? in Spain with I think Xiomara from 4-5 years ago, if anyone is interested in finding/viewing it.

[Paul Parish]

Radetsky does a beautiful renverse to arabesque in the chasse-coupe ballonne coupe assemble double tour passage-- most people just do a little ballonne  in second, his arabesque is risky and beautiful, the 3rd one is very VERY beautiful (though as Leigh points out, god knows how many times he had to do it to get it that clean -- the light has obviously changed by the time that third rep was filmed).

THANKS, Christian, for posting this. It's wonderful to compare the guys -- and the choreography. I have to say, I REALLY like your Sarabito, the just for that FABULOUS right leg but for the way the choreography SHOWS that leg -- in the sissonnes, in the pirouette with the slow extension, in the ballonne before the double tours -- he has wonderful phrasing as well as the formidable Cuban charisma AND the technical austerity without which such flamboyance is just embarrassing.

Edur has wonderful sweep.

Misha looks great but a little greyed down, not sure why. I love the way he uses his upper body in the sissonnes

And Zelensky looks great to me.

I wish Radetsky had finished on the music.

[atm711]

My vote goes to the absent Peter Martins

[MakarovaFan]

atm711, on 22 June 2011 - 03:59 AM, said:

My vote goes to the absent Peter Martins

I second atm711's vote wholeheartedly! I've despised Martins almost since he took over as sole Artistic Director of NYCB in 1990.  Watching him dismantle the work of genius Balanchine created has been a show of horrors.

[Pamela Moberg]

   Something gone wrong here - my vote goes to Sarabita.

[duffster]

Sarabita- reminds me a bit of Bujones, in his attack and clean execution. Sasha did a beautiful job too. I would love to see what Dima Gudanov(Bolshoi)would do with this variation.

[atm711]

MakarovaFan, on 23 June 2011 - 01:09 PM, said:

atm711, on 22 June 2011 - 03:59 AM, said:

My vote goes to the absent Peter Martins

I second atm711's vote wholeheartedly! I've despised Martins almost since he took over as sole Artistic Director of NYCB in 1990.  Watching him dismantle the work of genius Balanchine created has been a show of horrors.

Ah, yes---one has to separate the dancer from the administrator---it is not always easy.