17 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

MOD BEANIE ON:  On the MCB thread, Cristian raises something that deserves a thread of its own.  So I created just that.  Great clip, great question.  Thanks, Cristian. MOD BEANIE OFF

Tonight I went to see "that ballet called Myrtha" .  Out of the whole thing, I witnessed its leading lady arriving onstage under a veil as if she was literally floating .   Is everybody here familiar with that kind of unique, magnificent, liquid bourrees a la Fonteyn arriving at the ball in her "Cinderella" video...? Oh well...in my 25 years of ballet viewing I DON'T RECALL having seen them until tonight...BRAVAAAAAAAA LA BALLERINA!!

[bart]

I adore this performance..  I wonder how it's done.  Lighting may be part of it.  The dancer who bourrees in just before Fonteyn also seems to have a rippling fluidity to her movement.  Look especially at the thighs.

P.S.  Fonteyn is helped by the stunning musical change just as she begins her descent.

PP.S.  I confess I'm a Fonteyn worshipper.  I even love the way she ascends the staircase to enter the palace at the the start of the clip.  We see only her back, draped in a shimmering cloak.  All the magic of Cinderella's anticipation is there, in that..  How does Fonteyn make something as ordinary as climbing a staircase ...  so significant?

[cubanmiamiboy]

bart, on 18 February 2012 - 05:57 AM, said:

I adore this performance..  I wonder how it's done.  Lighting may be part of it.  The dancer who bourrees in just before Fonteyn also seems to have a rippling fluidity to her movement.  Look especially at the thighs.

P.S.  Fonteyn is helped by the stunning musical change just as she begins her descent.

PP.S.  I confess I'm a Fonteyn worshipper.  I even love the way she ascends the staircase at the the start of the clip.  We see only her back, draped in a shimmering cloak.  All the magic of Cinderella's anticipation is there.  How does Fonteyn make something as ordinary as climbing a staircase ...  so significant?

Because she was not a ballet dancer.  She was a ballerina.

[Birdsall]

Cristian, thanks for posting this for us to see. That is so beautiful! But now you've ruined all future bourees for me!

[leibling]

Wow. At first I thought it was trick photography!

[Paul Parish]

Fonteyn excelled at making the moments memorable that other dances just threw away as if insignificant--

In ROmeo and Juliet, she runs down the stairs for the balcony scene with incredible lightness and grace, and at the end of it she reascends those stairs like a feather on an updraft....

it's musicality, mostly -- the music declares that this is a magical entrance and she makes it so -- that and theatre-savoir; she really knew what her dances were ABOUT.

[diane]

Gorgeous. Thank you.

Paul, I think you have good points  - Fonteyn knew what her dances were ABOUT and she was concentrated on that.

(along with all the other things she did well... )

-d-

[bart]

In this fuzzy video, it is difficult to make out just how the feet are moving as she comes forward.  The legs ripple but the feet seem to glide across the floor.  It's quite astonishing, really.  Are these the tiniest  bourrees on record?  Or is the camera and/or film altering reality, as liebling suggests?

[cubanmiamiboy]

I think they are very real....

[carbro]

Not to take anything away from Fonteyn, because these are exquisite.  But, she does benefit from the fact that she has a lot of time to cover a very short distance.  This allows her to take the tiniest bourees.  Of course, we've all seen dancers bouree en place who were busier than this, but Fonteyn's bourees would have looked very different if she were Myrtha crossing the Met's vast stage.

[cubanmiamiboy]

carbro, on 19 February 2012 - 10:25 PM, said:

Not to take anything away from Fonteyn, because these are exquisite. But, she does benefit from the fact that she has a lot of time to cover a very short distance. This allows her to take the tiniest bourees. Of course, we've all seen dancers bouree en place who were busier than this, but Fonteyn's bourees would have looked very different if she were Myrtha crossing the Met's vast stage.

I'm glad that you mentioned Myrtha's entrance, carbro, because that was exactly the trigger of my OP..! Miss Delgado DID perform those bourrees...as little and liquid. When she was going behind the props, I seriously thought they had perhaps placed her in a movil device for her to look as if floating. When she appeared onstage and crossed it, I realized that it was just her artistry speaking right there and then... Re: Fonteyn. I still hold firm in my believe that those mid-century dancers had a different approach to technique, as if they would enphazise more in speed and strenght-(both qualities present in those great bourrees)-rather than pose and perfect placement. I think the classic example is in how did they use to do super fast pirouettes in cou de pied, instead of the elevated beautiful leg in passe which becomes sort of slower to turn

[esperanto]

I too recall this wonderful bouree by Fonteyn.   I;ve never seen it duplicated.  Although Lupe Serrano as Myrthe also seemed to float across the "huge Met stage".   Perhaps tthis is also how the dancers in Patrtisans in Moiseyev seem to be on wheels, until their cloaks are discarded and it's revealed that they're on toes, men as well.

[MakarovaFan]

Simply glorious!  Fonteyn's bouree has always been magical for me.

The only ballerina that comes close to the extraordinary quality of Fonteyn's bouree, in my opinion, is Natalia Bessmertnova.  Watch her in "Raymonda".  Even in the twilight of her career, she has a whispering, feathery bouree which is exquisite.  I don't know if she possesses a floating quality, but her bouree is delicate, velvety and I never tire of watching it.

[cubanmiamiboy]

MakarovaFan, on 24 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

Simply glorious!  Fonteyn's bouree has always been magical for me.

The only ballerina that comes close to the extraordinary quality of Fonteyn's bouree, in my opinion, is Natalia Bessmertnova.  Watch her in "Raymonda".  Even in the twilight of her career, she has a whispering, feathery bouree which is exquisite.  I don't know if she possesses a floating quality, but her bouree is delicate, velvety and I never tire of watching it.

Oh, I love her in Raymonda.  Bessmertnova seemed to move with such lightness and delicacy without looking twiggy as some other modern ballerinas.  One can see this quality at its best in her Giselle.  Definitely Mme. Bessmertnova.

[MakarovaFan]

cubanmiamiboy, on 24 February 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

MakarovaFan, on 24 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

Simply glorious!  Fonteyn's bouree has always been magical for me.

The only ballerina that comes close to the extraordinary quality of Fonteyn's bouree, in my opinion, is Natalia Bessmertnova.  Watch her in "Raymonda".  Even in the twilight of her career, she has a whispering, feathery bouree which is exquisite.  I don't know if she possesses a floating quality, but her bouree is delicate, velvety and I never tire of watching it.

Oh, I love her in Raymonda.  Bessmertnova seemed to move with such lightness and delicacy without looking twiggy as some other modern ballerinas.  One can see this quality at its best in her Giselle.  Definitely Mme. Bessmertnova.

Cristian, we are kindred spirits when it comes to Mme. Bessmertnova's Raymonda.  She is quietly stunning and a model Princess Ballerina in that performance. Along with her lightness and delicacy, her footwork and especailly her port de bras are gorgeous. I also love that she brings regality and vulnerability to the role unlike so many other dancers who portray her as haughty and aloof.