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Kennedy Center Jan 2015- Rite of Spring and others


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Well that's fine, you're entitled to your own opinions. I have heard that she has improved very recently; it's just a shame it's happened so late in her career, but there are dancers who are better than her I think and well, can you really call a ballerina a prima if she hasn't danced Aurora

I read an interview with Lopatkina where she specifically said she did not think herself suitable for Aurora in SB because she's too tall. She has chosen not to dance the role for that reason.

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There was a cable TV documentary maybe 15 years ago called "Fighting over Fokine" where his granddaughter Isabelle Fokine staged The Swan and Polovtsian Dances and maybe also Scheherazade for the (then) Kirov from Fokine's notes and other materials in his archive. There was a "bible" for The Swan which included Fokines's wife in photographs of each pose. She asserted that all current versions, including Lopatkina's were "improvisations" that had little to do with the original. She also maintained that Markova's version was not the original, although I don't recall whether she said anything about Pavlova's, though she did say that Diaghalev changed Fokine's ballets during his lifetime, to which he objected.

I recall that there was a lot of opposition from the Kirov dancers to changing steps that they considered traditional and eventually she taught Yulia Makhalina the original version, which was contrasted with Lopatkina's. I found this video of Makhalina in the Swan from 2013. It doesn't state which version it is, but it sure isn't the Lopatkina version!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIWBw89UfXMArfr7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=yulia+makhalina+dying+swan&vid=2e745afa08bade5154d297e4120a21c9&l=2%3A53&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608006505860501025%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcX_JkJUWg6Y&tit=The+Dying+Swan+-+Yulia+Makhalina&c=0&sigr=11bjhstt3&sigt=110nbo6jo&sigi=11rrv0vcv&age=1377313955&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&tt=b

nysusan, I saw that same program. Wow, it was a showdown between most of the Mariinsky (who were very hostile) and Isabelle Fokine. I thought Isabelle made it clear she simply wouldn't let the Fokine works be performed if she didn't approve of how they were being danced. And there is a huge difference between Makhalina's Swan and Lopatkina's. Maybe Isabelle gave up the fight (also you can't be everywhere to monitor everything). I prefer Makhalina's version to Lopatkina's

About Lopatkina, I think she is a life altering ballerina but she doesn't do everything well. Balanchine, for example. She dances the Diamonds PDD from Jewels as if it were Swan Lake. Blech, no. But generally, I think she chooses her roles carefully, ones that suit her. You don't really see her doing contemporary work, as Kondaurova does. But that's fine. No dancer is good at everything, and everyone has things they excel at. I will only say the Odette she did at BAM was SO wonderful, IMO. Much better than the already excellent SL she did in London in August. And I love how she makes every role so unique. I'm just sorry that unless I go to StP I may never see her dance live again:(

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can you really call a ballerina a prima if she hasn't danced Aurora?

My vote is, of course you can. It's the quality of dancing that determines a prima ballerina, and although the dancer must assuredly embrace a wide range of roles, I don't think there's a checklist where you have to tick off every one. I don't believe that Alessandra Ferri danced either DonQ or Swan Lake (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but in my view she is certainly a prima ballerina.

Ulyana Lopatkina's dancing as Odette at BAM was so extraordinary in every dimension, the house hushed in communal awe, that if she isn't considered a prima ballerina, who dancing today would be? Veronika Part, I believe, and certainly a few others, but to omit Lopatkina because she doesn't dance Aurora seems to me a non-issue.

This is slightly off-topic, but what about Suzanne Farrell, Maria Kowroski, and other great dancers at NYCB? Are they denied the title of prima because their repertoire doesn't include the Petipa classics?

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There was a cable TV documentary maybe 15 years ago called "Fighting over Fokine" where his granddaughter Isabelle Fokine staged The Swan and Polovtsian Dances and maybe also Scheherazade for the (then) Kirov from Fokine's notes and other materials in his archive. There was a "bible" for The Swan which included Fokines's wife in photographs of each pose. She asserted that all current versions, including Lopatkina's were "improvisations" that had little to do with the original. She also maintained that Markova's version was not the original, although I don't recall whether she said anything about Pavlova's, though she did say that Diaghalev changed Fokine's ballets during his lifetime, to which he objected.

I recall that there was a lot of opposition from the Kirov dancers to changing steps that they considered traditional and eventually she taught Yulia Makhalina the original version, which was contrasted with Lopatkina's. I found this video of Makhalina in the Swan from 2013. It doesn't state which version it is, but it sure isn't the Lopatkina version!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIWBw89UfXMArfr7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=yulia+makhalina+dying+swan&vid=2e745afa08bade5154d297e4120a21c9&l=2%3A53&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608006505860501025%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcX_JkJUWg6Y&tit=The+Dying+Swan+-+Yulia+Makhalina&c=0&sigr=11bjhstt3&sigt=110nbo6jo&sigi=11rrv0vcv&age=1377313955&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&tt=b

nysusan, I saw that same program. Wow, it was a showdown between most of the Mariinsky (who were very hostile) and Isabelle Fokine. I thought Isabelle made it clear she simply wouldn't let the Fokine works be performed if she didn't approve of how they were being danced. And there is a huge difference between Makhalina's Swan and Lopatkina's. Maybe Isabelle gave up the fight (also you can't be everywhere to monitor everything). I prefer Makhalina's version to Lopatkina's

About Lopatkina, I think she is a life altering ballerina but she doesn't do everything well. Balanchine, for example. She dances the Diamonds PDD from Jewels as if it were Swan Lake. Blech, no. But generally, I think she chooses her roles carefully, ones that suit her. You don't really see her doing contemporary work, as Kondaurova does. But that's fine. No dancer is good at everything, and everyone has things they excel at. I will only say the Odette she did at BAM was SO wonderful, IMO. Much better than the already excellent SL she did in London in August. And I love how she makes every role so unique. I'm just sorry that unless I go to StP I may never see her dance live again:(

GO! :-) You should go to St Petersburg - to see Lopatkina dance there is to see her where she truly belongs. And regarding contemporary ballets, I suppose it depends on what exactly we call a contemporary ballet, but she was wonderful in Hans Van Manen's Trois Gnossienes (with Andrei Ermakov) and also Five Tangos and Variations for Two Couples. She has also danced Forsythe's In the Middle Somewhat Elevated. Other choreographers might be considered more neo-classical than modern or contemporary and I am never sure where to draw the line, but she has certainly danced in many ballets choreographed ... more recently! :-)

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It looks like the Mariinsky Ballet may be in talks with the Kennedy Center for a longer run next season:

http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20150128/1017453908.html

This is fine but written in such a 'party line' style it's risible. So the great hit of the recent KC run was SACRE....really? So what will we get for two weeks next season? Let me guess: an evening of Forsythe ballets, another mixed bill to includes LES NOCES, and yet another bucket splash of CInDERELLA scaffolding? Would it be too much to ask for full RAYMONDA and a mixed bill of two great Vikharev reconstructions not yet seen in the US: FLORA'S AWAKENING and CARNAVAL?

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My hope is that if they do a longer run they are more likely to bring two different programs instead of just one, so they could bring a classical ballet and a contemporary one at the same time sort of how they alternated Swan Lake with Cinderella and the mixed Chopin bill in NY recently.

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