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Karsavina on "Chopiniana"


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Glad you enjoyed it Elena! flowers.gif

Cristian, thank you. This intro is on the ICA Classics DVD of BBC's Les Sylphides and Giselle (ICAD 5030). Sylphides stars Alicia Markova and Giselle stars Nadia Nerina. My husband gave me this DVD for Christmas and it's very good.

Wonderful! I hope they could release at one point the whole Giselle film with Markova and Dolin....

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Glad you enjoyed it Elena! flowers.gif

Cristian, thank you. This intro is on the ICA Classics DVD of BBC's Les Sylphides and Giselle (ICAD 5030). Sylphides stars Alicia Markova and Giselle stars Nadia Nerina. My husband gave me this DVD for Christmas and it's very good.

Wonderful! I hope they could release at one point the whole Giselle film with Markova and Dolin....

Me, too! I love anything with Markova.

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Me, too! I love anything with Markova.

I agree, I love seeing her performance footage, but I'm always interested in watching her coaching, or in interviews She has a great sense of poise that I think comes partially from her generation and partially from her training -- for the most part, women don't present themselves in that way now, and I'm fascinated by the difference.

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Me, too! I love anything with Markova.

I agree, I love seeing her performance footage, but I'm always interested in watching her coaching, or in interviews She has a great sense of poise that I think comes partially from her generation and partially from her training -- for the most part, women don't present themselves in that way now, and I'm fascinated by the difference.

The culture was so different back then. I absolutely loved her contribution and comments in the documentary Ballets Russes, which is one of my favorite documentaries, but that's another subject.

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The trouble with Giselle with Anton Dolin is that I remember seeing it with my parents when Dolin was already rather too old to be dancing. Everytime he "collapsed" because of the cruel treatment of the Willis, my mother would make some sarcastic remark about the poor old man needing a break to rest up. I'm sure he was great in his day, though, just carried on too long. Maybe I should try and find a film of him as a young dancer to dispel this terrible image I have of him thanks to my Mum!

The clip with Karsavina was lovely and that film of Les Sylphides with her ideal cast is beautiful - truly a dream cast. I seem to remember a visit by Karsavina to the Royal Ballet School when I was a student there. She gave a fascinating talk. I think it was her - I remember bubbly hair and lots of lipstick and a very foreign accent!

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The trouble with Giselle with Anton Dolin is that I remember seeing it with my parents when Dolin was already rather too old to be dancing. Everytime he "collapsed" because of the cruel treatment of the Willis, my mother would make some sarcastic remark about the poor old man needing a break to rest up. I'm sure he was great in his day, though, just carried on too long. Maybe I should try and find a film of him as a young dancer to dispel this terrible image I have of him thanks to my Mum!

I don't know what year you saw Dolin's Giselle, but I saw it in the late 1940's and he was well passed his prime. He did a Giselle with the handsome and lithe George Skibine as Hilarion (a BIG mistake) and there were titters in the audience during Act 1 when Giselle chose Albrecht over Hilarion.

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It's a wonderful piece of film. Karsavina's arms are simply beautiful (she was 68 at the time) and give an idea of her "rare romanticism", that Fokine said he was rarely able to evoke from other performers. How generous of her to imagine such a dream cast, given that she had created the original alongside Pavlova, Preobrajenskaya and Nijinsky back in 1908.

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