7 replies to this topic

[ViolinConcerto]

Last season and this season, several posters have commented that Chase Finlay "stumbled" or was incorrect with some steps.  I don't know steps adequately, and don't have a real memory for sequences (as Alastair Crowley claims he has), so that I am not qualified to identify such problems.

Because I had mentioned Rasta Thomas' Apollo at the Symphony Space "Wall to Wall Balanchine" in 2004, I googled references to that performance and came up with this interesting paragraph by Susan Reiter (emphasis mine):

Quote

Following in Mr. B's footsteps, for 12 hours
'Wall to Wall George Balanchine' marks the centenary of the great choreographer.
March 23, 2004|Susan Reiter | Special to The Times
The final, three-hour segment was dominated by performances -- necessarily to taped music since Symphony Space, a converted movie theater, has no orchestra pit. Dance Theatre of Harlem gave the New York premiere of its "Apollo," staged by Eve Lawson and coached by D'Amboise, who restored details he knew from the 1950s that have fallen away over the years. Rasta Thomas, as the still-unformed young god, faultlessly stumbled on a step that he would later, as the more mature Apollo, execute nobly.

Is the "stumble" is in the choreography?

[rg]

i suspect Reiter's "stumbles" refer to the blatant moments of awkwardness in the "birth" scene appearance for Apollo, as well as to the hesitations in the choreography, early on in the ballet, in his first solo and in the wake of Terpsichore's "lead" in the pas deux, with which Balanchine indicates the the immaturity of the young Apollo and which then don't figure in his later moments in the ballet when he has "matured."
i assume the "stumbles" in question here were actual missteps in performing Apollo, that is, not choreographed ones.

[ViolinConcerto]

Aha!    Thanks so much.   Just remembered that a friend sent me this link, showing Jacques d'Amboise in the birth scene.

Enjoy!

[dirac]

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Last season and this season, several posters have commented that Chase Finlay "stumbled" or was incorrect with some steps. I don't know steps adequately, and don't have a real memory for sequences (as Alastair Crowley claims he has), so that I am not qualified to identify such problems.

Gee, I know Alastair Macaulay is not popular in some quarters on this board, but surely we don't want to conflate him with The Great Beast? (Just kidding, ViolinConcerto. )

[Amy Reusch]

Thanks for sharing!  The Apollo footage was incredible!

[Drew]

dirac, on 26 September 2011 - 05:29 PM, said:

Quote

Last season and this season, several posters have commented that Chase Finlay "stumbled" or was incorrect with some steps. I don't know steps adequately, and don't have a real memory for sequences (as Alastair Crowley claims he has), so that I am not qualified to identify such problems.

Gee, I know Alastair Macaulay is not popular in some quarters on this board, but surely we don't want to conflate him with The Great Beast? (Just kidding, ViolinConcerto. )

[Paul Parish]

Me, too -- thanks for the Jacques footage. ALL of it -- Apollo is really great, but the Swan Lake is wonderful too -- i love his attack, the power to focus an image and hold it exactly as long as he wants to, wonderful energy.  And his "philosophy of life" as my father would have called it (he had one to, people used to), it's great that he acts on it and shares it.  

When he taught Apollo to SFB, he said some interesting things about the process. First of all, he said, when he came, he wondered if there'd really be any of he men who could really do the role. Then he said, he got here and he realized ALL the men were capable of it. And with Gonzalo Garcia, who opened in the role, he got someone who looked so much like him, it was almost like seeing d'Amboise young, dancing it right before our eyes. Truly uncannny, fabulous performance.

[abatt]

Gonzalo Garcia has not been given the opportunity of performing Apollo at NYCB.