47 replies to this topic

[Buddy]

angelica, on 18 May 2013 - 08:49 AM, said:

For me, the gold standard for Odette/Odile is Nina Ananiashvili (you can see her on the DVD that was made when she was 29 years old, dancing with the State Ballet of Perm) -- these days it's Veronika Part.

Yes to Veronika Part ! Based on consistency in five or six performances, perhaps the greatest Odette (and Odile) that I've ever seen.

From a different angle for a moment.

'I never thought I'd see the day' when I'd be watching someone performing Odette and someone else performing Carmen Suite with equal awe. I've been going back and forth between Olga Smirnova's magnificent Odette and a very segmented video clip, often disappearing behind the person sitting in front, of Oxana Skorik dancing Carmen.

Two Absolutely Marvelous Artists !

Added:

Oxana Skorik performing with Ilya Kuznetsov (the best characterization that I've seen him do)  -- this is surely the most sensitive and poetic performance of Carmen Suite that I've ever seen.

[Buddy]

I guess of all the wonderful beauty that I see in the Odette duet there is one quality that I love very much. This would be the Dreamlike Flow that surrounds and weaves through  the more animated and depthful expression (an expression that I find totally remarkable for her young age). There is so much more, such as beautifully sculpted and timed imagery, that I still can barely start to define it. Maybe it's better at times just to let it happen and take in the pure pleasure and absolute brilliance of it all.

[Buddy]

This so reflects one of the things that I like very much about Olga Smirnova that I would like to post it again. It's a highly lovely and general definition of "Epaulment" from Clement Crisp.

"In ballet, épaulement denotes the dancer's ability to turn, bend and shape the placing of the trunk, shoulders, arms, neck and head to produce the subtlest contrasts and oppositions. In Italian art it is contrapposto, and this is what gives life, veracity and power to a drawn or sculpted position. In classical ballet it turns the academic pose into the beautiful, the fascinating."

http://www.ft.com/in...l#axzz2K8RzOIHP

(In fact this quote is taken from his article highly praising Olga Smirnova, but it's generalized significance I hope makes it acceptable for being posted here.)


[first sentence slightly reworded]