9 replies to this topic

[rg]

scan of a publicity photo to promote the US tour of the Leningrad Kirov Ballet in 1961 under the auspices of Sol Hurok, when the initial promotion of the troupe as Leningrad Maryinsky Ballet was decidedly changed to Leningrad Kirov Ballet in the end.
I don't recall seeing a photo of the company's Odile 'look' from this era before.
the crown is rather striking.
if mem. serves, Zubkovskaya danced Odile but not Odette in these performances of SWAN LAKE, when the latter was danced by Olga Moiseyeva?

Attached Files

•  IZoKB61bk.JPG   74.77K   61 downloads
•  IZoKB61WM.jpg   179.74K   81 downloads

[cubanmiamiboy]

Those are the tutus I really love..! Very high on the waist and super short and crispy...

[ViolinConcerto]

Christian, I agree about the tutu, but I know people that get very huffy about the length -- shows too much thigh!

RG, did they perform at the previous Madison Sq. Garden during that tour?  Or was that another Company?  I have a brief memory of seeing  Swan Lake done there by a Russian Company when I was a teenager.  But it may have been excerpts, or just Act II.  I don't remember any sets.  (I don't seem to remember much at all these days!!)

[rg]

i didn't see the Kirov until '70.
apparently, acc'd to NPYL records, see below, SWAN LAKE was given at the Met.
but perhaps the tour returned to NYC's Mad. Square Garden subsquently? (or was that the Bolshoi Ballet in '59?)
in any case the Dance Observer's rev. refers to SWAN LAKE and an English rev. of the tour that preceded the US one, refers to Zubkovskaya but not Moiseyeva, so perhaps i'm misremembering reports of he tour's offerings, etc.
my copy of Terry's I WAS THERE isn't handy, but a ref. to his rev. of the NYC appearances in NYPL means it may be among his collected writings.


Bernstein, Harry, 1948-
Leningrad Kirov Ballet. Metropolitan Opera House, September 11, 1961.
Dance observer. New York. Nov 1961, p 137-138
Notes : Review.
Subjects : Swan lake (Choreographic work : Sergeev, K after Ivanov and Petipa, M)
: Giselle (Choreographic work : Sergeev, K after Coralli and Perrot)
: Sleeping beauty (Choreographic work : Sergeev, K after Petipa, M)

[sandik]

No luck with Terry's anthology -- it does have his review of the 1961 Kirov performances at the Met (where he mentions Natalia Makarova as one of Soloviev's "attractive partners" {the other was Alla Sizova}).  But nothing about a Russian company at Madison Square Garden -- the only references he had to the Garden was a performance of the Ice Capades in 1963, and a mention in an essay on Ruth St Denis.

This doesn't mean it wasn't there, or that he didn't review it -- it just means it's not in the anthology.

[Jane Simpson]

Arthur Todd wrote in Dance & Dancers (11/61):

"The Metropolitan Opera House was sold out for the Leningrad Kirov's three-week season so Sol Hurok quite wisely moved the company over to the mammoth Madison Square garden, where prices ranged from $2 to $8 a seat, for an additional ten-day engagement that alternated between performances of a scenery-less Swan Lake and [two] Highlight Programmes."

He mentions some of the casting but not Odette/Odile.

[rg]

thanks, Jane, i knew the Mad. Sq. Gnd. was a hurried Hurok addition to some Soviet ballet tour, and i assume this was it, or at least one such.
the Zubkovskaya photo above is evidently one from Russia - the boards on which she's posed look like those of Maryinsky Th.
for all i know this is a miscaptioned photo, as so many Soviet Odiles of the era wore a 'horned owl' panache of black feathers and not a coronet but maybe Zubkovskaya wore this as Odile after all.
Soviet ballet watchers could likely say something(s) more authoritatively.

[rg]

final? postscript: a former Leningrader confirmed in conversation with me that Zubkovskaya danced both Odette and Odile in her day and that the separation of the roles was rarely done in the Kirov, where Vaganova's production of SWAN LAKE originally separated the roles (Ulanova and Jordan were the initial ballerina duo in that production) in the 30s.
the same individual confirmed that not all Odile's wore the 'horned owl' panache/headpiece and the it's not unlikely that Zubkovskaya was costumed as shown in this Hurok press foto for Odile and that it's possible for touring purposes that Odette and Odile were danced by separate leading dancers.
whether or not on the US tour SWAN LAKE was given a] in its entirety and b] with one or two ballerinas dancing Odette and Odile remains subject for further fact-finding.

[Jane Simpson]

One thing at least: I just found a photo of Zubkovskaya dancing Odile onstage in the London season in 1961 and she is wearing the headdress in your photograph.

[rg]

looks as if Zubkovskaya was set to dance both Odette and Odile on this tour.
see attached scan of newsphoto slated for a Boston newspaper from the Hurok organization for the first US tour by the troupe.

Attached Files

•  IZodeBoston61bk.JPG   66.75K   15 downloads
•  IZodeKB61wm.jpg   135.01K   20 downloads