kfw Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 And as someone else noted. 2nd Movement is not a tragedy. It's almost a declaration of joy and "other-worldly-ness. Having danced this movement (and 4th), I can tell you to be on stage during it is no tragedy. One feels exhultant The 2nd movement isn’t a tragedy, but of course the music is grand, as cobweb says, and mysterious too. I want to feel as if the ballerina and her partner are enacting a private drama, not dancing for the audience. Of course we don’t all express the same feelings in the same ways, and we don’t always interpret facial expressions the same way, but to my mind a smile that seemed exultant might be an appropriate response to that music, though not a common one. A cheerful smile would not. Link to comment
vipa Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Just a follow up to some of the observations re: "Symphony in C". One of the posters did mention that Balanchine would alter steps to allow for different dancers abilities, etc. As ABT's version was taught, set and coached by Merrill Ashley and Stacy Caddell, my guess is they had the option to add or subtract as they saw fit.. for this company. Not every company has to dance this ballet exactly like NYCB. Wrist flicks and shoulder heaves are individual "tics" , perhaps of training. Remember that NYCB dancers are almost all SAB trained, unlike ABT where training can come from varied sources. Sometimes certain moves are not appropriate. As for the "six o'clock, forehead to knee arabesque", this too can be an "invention" (if you will ) of current and past dancers. LeClercq never put her forehead to her knee. We see it; we think it's the "norm". But it doesn't necessarily have to be. And as someone else noted. 2nd Movement is not a tragedy. It's almost a declaration of joy and "other-worldly-ness. Having danced this movement (and 4th), I can tell you to be on stage during it is no tragedy. One feels exhultant As for the knee grazing penchee I've seen a pretty early film of Allegra Kent and she does it so I'm assuming this became part of the choreography quickly. Either way I missed it. I just wanted to comment on the head grazing. I'm almost positive that in Suzanne Farrell's book "Holding on to Air" she said that in a rehearsal for Sym C, Mr. B told her to fill out the music in the penche, and she put her head on her knee and asked if that was what he meant. Something like that - I don't where my copy of the book is so someone might want to verify. Link to comment
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