Spine Tingling Moments

[colwill]

Every time I watch a live ballet I experience a wide range of emotions.There are the moments of intense joy and exhilaration: watching Sylvia Guillam's extensions seemingly reaching for the sky with such consumate ease, enjoying a perfect execution of fouettes in Swan Lake or enjoying the fun and games in Don Quixote.

However it is the spine tingling moments when I go ice-cold and shivers run up and down my spine that live in the memory with great intensity. No matter how often I watch the moment in Bayadere when the veil is lifted from Nikita in Act 1 or the first entrance of Odette in Swan Lake the effect is always the same - intense spine tingling excitement.

I would be interested to hear of other spine tingling moments in ballet.

[Ed Waffle]

Spine tingling?

The first one that comes to mind (due, no doubt, to the exchange with Alexandra on score of "Giselle") is the return of the royal hunting party in Act I of this ballet. Having fallen in love with the title character my response is always "Oh, no--she is going to be hurt by this." While some dancers have been more perfect Giselles than others, every one that I can remember were true and thrilling in this specific moment.

And of course the easy one, the beginning of the Adagio in "Swan Lake."

[Steve Keeley]

Two moments that always get to me: the harp riff at the start of the "Rose Adagio," and the moment the curtain goes up on those 17 ballerinas in "Serenade."

~Steve

[Alexandra]

You all have my spine tingling now! I agree -- there are so many. Here are the first few that come to mind.

The moment in Giselle, right at the beginning of the mad scene, when you realize that, once again, she's not going to get out of this alive.

The moment at the end of Sonnambula when the Sleepwalker's toe touches the poet's body (when Kirkland did it, you could see the shiver run down her spine).

I share Steve's opening of Serenade; the curtain, and the first movements. The opening diagonal in Symphony in Three Movements always gets me, too, and the lifts in the finale of The Four Temperaments.

The Sylph's death scene (in La Sylphide)

Once upon a time, Black Swan and the Rose Adagio could be guaranteed to produce thrills, if not chills.

alexandra

[Giannina]

Spine tingling as opposed to thrills from the sheer beauty of the choreography; interesting thought. In "Swan Lake" when Odette turn from human to swan; always thrilling, but done by the right dancer it can be electrifying. In "Eugene Onegin" when the heroine finds the hero in the mirror: there's something about the actual idea being presented and the music at that moment that is disturbingly eerie to me. In

"Green Table" when Death finally faces the Profiteer; every time I see it I think, "Gotcha!" In "Fancy Free" when the sailor dances the duet with the girl: here is a guy on leave, maybe going overseas to whatever awaits him, and he has a lovely girl in his arms for this pleasant moment and she is attentive to him; such poignancy as they share an innocent intimacy.

Giannina

[This message has been edited by Giannina Mooney (edited 02-11-99).]

[Leigh Witchel]

Some of mine are also from Giselle (which has obviously endured because of its strange magic). One is when Hilarion grabs the hunting horn, and blows it, and from a distance, an answering call is heard. And we all know that the entire house of cards is going to fall, slowly, inexorably, and nothing can be done to stop it. The other moment which gives me shivers in Giselle is most of the Wili's dance in Act II, especially the slow, implacable travelling arabesques, and then Myrtha soaring out from behind them.

But since for me, EVERYTHING seems to return to Balanchine, I might as well mention the final moment in Serenade where the "Waltz Girl" is about to be lifted into the air. Watch the 1988 tape of Dance in America with Kistler doing the part. It will tear your heart out.

[Estelle]

One of the "spine-tingling" moments coming to my mind is the entrance of Hilarion in Mats Ek's version of "Giselle".

It was especially impressive when I saw it danced by Yvan Auzely, but even with other dancers, that was such a big

shock (Giselle and Albert are dancing a nice, tender duo, and suddenly that brutal guy comes in,

as a way to remind them of the outside, hostile world...)

And in the traditional version, the entrance of Giselle as a Wilis (turning and turning and turning).

And also some moments of the end of "Theme and variations", and the moment in Graham's "Cave of the heart"

when Medea begins to tremble and you understand she's

becoming totally crazy...

[pdance]

Now I've got the chills!! My favorite moment is when Gelsey Kirkland stands up to follow Drosselmyer at the very end of The Nutcracker (ABT) when the music is at a beautiful crescendo. It's breath taking!!!!

[Guest caity]

My spine tingling moment is pretty personal. My ballet studio puts on an anual performance of the nutcracker. We hired a dancer named Anna Liceica,from ABT, to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. After dress rehersal I sat in the audience to watch her and the cavalier reherse together,and even though they were just running through it I sat there in amazement and I started to cry! It was so beautiful and every move she made was so maticulous and expressive ,her lightness was just indescribable. Everything was so easy looking she was so light,flexible,and happy. Also when I saw the Cuban ballet I saw the best burres'(I dont know how to spell in french,sorry,but ya know what I mean:0) In the scene when the queen of the Wilis danced in Gissele. The dancers were all just rolling around on tiny wheels,thats what it looked like anyways. That was a very memorable performance because I saw Alecia Alanzo there.

[Lilly]

I remember a great moment from the late '70s or early '80s during one of those PBS galas that they used to have. Gelsey Kirkland danced Dying Swan, and I can still remember those beautiful arms during her entrance, and the flutters at the end of the death scene. I probably saw it through naive eyes - I was only in my early teens then - but it was really thrilling!

Lilly

[cargill]

Caity, I was so interested to read that you had Anna Liceica in to do Sugar Plum. I have seen her in the corps at ABT and really liked her. I saw her to Moyna (or Zulma, I forget), one of Myrta's sidekicks, and thought she was wonderful, such a lovely expressive face, and soft dancing. Lucky you to be able to see her as Sugar Plum.

[Marc Haegeman]

The entrances of the ballerinas are usually spine tingling moments for me (and for the ballerinas as well): the unveiling of Nikiya has already been mentioned (truly magical). I would add the entrances of Giselle and Kitri in "Don Quixote": the first very gently, the second fiery, yet both in their own way thrilling moments, immediately creating the atmosphere.

Two of the grandest entrances in classical ballet, perfectly prepared by the music, can be seen in "The Sleeping Beauty" and in "Raymonda".

Some other thrilling favorites are:

- the final moment of the Rose adagio, especially the four hair raising promenades en attitude, when I can't help wondering if Aurora is going to make until the very end;

- the moment in "The Nutcracker" (by Vainonen or Grigorovich) right after the battle with the mice, when Masha first sets eyes on her ugly nutcracker now turned into a handsome prince;

- the closing scene in Lavrovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" when Romeo lifts the supposedly dead Juliet high above his head, slowly walking up the stairs and when Prokofiev's music thunders right through your whole body;

and I could add so many more...

[Guest caity]

cargill, she is a very expressive and light dancer, thank you for your response.

[dirac]

I fell under the ballet spell for real when I first saw the entrance of the corps at the beginning of the "Kingdom of the Shades" scene in La Bayadere. I'd seen ballet before, but this was the first time it really made me catch my breath. (It's also a good litmus test for newcomers to ballet. If your companion says, "I don't get this" or "This is boring" or words to that effect, chances are your friend will never be a ballet person.)

[Leigh Witchel]

Actually, one of the most delightfully irreverent comments I ever heard about ballet was from a very nice man and a ballet lover watching a school's production of the entree for the adagio in La Bayadere. As they all tromped out dutifully one by one, he leaned over to me and whispered, "It's like clowns coming out of a Volkswagon."

Needless to say, I now find it hard to watch the Kingdom of the Shades scene without at least a wry smile.

[Natalia]

Comments to a couple of the postings on this thread:

Marc - Super list! I'll add to these the entrance to the main pas de deux in Balanchine's Agon, which begins with the leading girl & boy dancing a furious diagonal of chaine turns, from upstage-left to center-stage. It really "heats up" the stage, making the subsequent calm all the more dramatic.

Lilly - re. Gelsey's Dying Swan on an early-1980s Gala of the Stars: The beauty of this performance is even more incredible after Gelsey revealed, in one of her two books, that she was "high" on some sort of drug during that performance. This was the one where Rostropovich played the cello, on-stage, as Gelsey danced. It's so sad to think of what REALLY was going on in her head & body at that moment. - Jeannie

[This message has been edited by Jeannie (edited March 25, 1999).]

[scherzo]

The end of the Mad Scene in Giselle: Giselle circles the stage, like she recognises no one. The timpani roll begins and the cellos play a tense, uneasy figure. She is finally caught by Hilarion. The music crescendos, and at the massive climax Hilarion points 'There!' right down the diagonal of the stage towards Berthe, and Giselle just TEARS down the line of villagers into her arms.

Ooh, getting a bit choked up just thinking about it. I always find her actual death a bit anti-climactic after that.

[carbro]

Thanks for unearthing this little archeological tidbit, scherzo.

She wasn't even known outside of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, when Natalia place the post just prior to yours, but I'll add Any time Ashley Bouder takes the stage.

[4mrdncr]

Numerous, and so hard to delineate when they are all good in my mind, but here goes...

GISELLE:

1)Yes, when the hunting horn sounds and is returned for ALBRECHT's reaction: resigned, sad, shocked, because he's truly in love, or frustrated, or upset he's been discovered as a cold-hearted cad? That determines in many ways how Giselle responds to the shock.

2) When she grabs the sword, and the music reflects the tension of her family, village, and suddenly attentive (and concerned?) lover(s).

3) Act 2 Baryshnikov & Gelsey in L.A.--(she wrote about the performance in her book, and yes, she was high--I know because I was backstage afterwards and remember.)--But ever after, that is the performance I compare all others to--esp. the pique arabesque lifts in the Grand Pas: timed completely different than every version I've seen since. The 'angel lifts' too for timing--I saw them done perfect last summer, and not so good in the matinee immediately before. Such a difference.

4) When Giselle reaches for Albrecht as she is pulled back towards the grave at the end, the last slow farewell, and Albrecht's last moment--the tension is always, "How will he play it?"

TCHAIKOVSKY:

NUTCRACKER's final pdd music. (Not the variations or coda); so much emotion & poignancy in contrast to all the fluff that went before.

SLEEPING BEAUTY: The Rose Adagio, opening and of course the 4 promenade arabesques. The overture. Putting everyone to sleep.

SWAN LAKE:

Act2:

Odette's entrance and port de bras.

The moment when Siegfried reaches Odette, and gently lifts her (hands) at the start of the pdd Adagio.

The croise fouette fondu arabesques shortly therafter. And all the times she is in croise arabesque in his arms--someone once had a very good point about that pdd: throughout most of it, Odette is facing AWAY from Siegfried; her back to him, which makes those close moments that much more important since she has to communicate trust and awakening love without a face to face.

The cygnets of course! How synchronous? How will they do the pas de chats? Two-footed, Cecchetti?

Act3: When the swan appears in the window, and no one notices (or only Rothbart/Odile et.al. do and try to prevent Siegfried et.al. from seeing her.)

Act4: The moment Siegfried bursts on scene and goes to each huddled circle of swans looking for Odette. (Sadly cut from ABT's current version), the final discovery, and her stricken questioning of his actions.

R&J (mostly Macmillan, but some Cranko)

The moment they meet at the ball, perfectly punctuated by Prokofiev.

Macmillan's Balcony pdd from beginning to end. The Bedroom pdd ditto. The moment Juliet sits at the end of the bed while the music roils around her. Romeo's final moments after taking the poison. Juliet's final moments pulling herself across the bier to reach one last time for Romeo before succumbing at THE best final note in all of ballet scores.

Cranko's--the moment Juliet's funeral cortege enters and lowers her into the tomb.

CONTEMPORARY WORKS...

When the curtain opens on that velvety starfield in Round of Angels, Mahler's Adagietto begins, and I can forget.

The opening phalanx of Clear, and the synergy between choreography and dancer so apparent when it's danced by its creator(s). Every time I think, what a gift.

Theme & Variations--always the questions a) Who is deemed strong (technically brilliant) enough to do it? (b) How perfect will they be? And their supporting corps too?

In the middle, somewhat elevated... sheer invention, sheer tension.

The opening (cadenza?) of the Beethoven Emperor Concerto, and Ballet (BC/Vancouver's?) couple's entrance and strip down. (I wish someone could tell me what company performs it--all I remember is that they were from BC, Canada.)

[bart]

It's great to see a fine topic revived. Here are colwill's guidelines for identifying "spine tingling moments":

[jote] [ ... ] when I go ice-cold and shivers run up and down my spine that live in the memory with great intensity.

What moments have this effect on you?

I agree with everything mentioned so far, especially the opening tableau in Seranade, since it casts its spell without the benefit of a story line.

I've also been thinking about simple dark-toned gestures. For example: the opening of Lilac Garden, when the Man She Must Marry stands behind Caroline and runs his palm down her bare arm -- a gesture of ownership and domination that is subtle, brief, and ... unsavoury. There's a moment which has a similar effect on me in Sonnambula. The Poet, having failed in his effort to get the Sleepwalker to respond to him, appears to have the sudden impulse to take advantage of her vulnerability by playing with her and reducing her (he thinks) to a kind of puppet.

There are also shivers of delight. I always experience this at two points in Apollo: the instant when the muses clap their hands and make a kind of pillow with their palms, and Apollo rests his head there; and the final sunburst tableau. Along with the shivers comes a brief: "Thank you, [fill in the blank], for creating art and artists like this."

[volcanohunter]

The opening (cadenza?) of the Beethoven Emperor Concerto, and Ballet (BC/Vancouver's?) couple's entrance and strip down. (I wish someone could tell me what company performs it--all I remember is that they were from BC, Canada.)

I think you're referring to Mark Godden's Conversation Piece, which was commissioned by Ballet British Columbia about 10 years ago.

[carbro]

There's a moment which has a similar effect on me in Sonnambula. The Poet, having failed in his effort to get the Sleepwalker to respond to him, appears to have the sudden impulse to take advantage of her vulnerability by playing with her and reducing her (he thinks) to a kind of puppet.

Oh, for me it's when he cannot capture her, her step out of the arms which tried to encircle her as he bent back. She can not be captured, and he is on his knees. Unfortunately, I have seen this moment fail more often than succeed, but when it works, it's shattering.

[4mrdncr]

I think you're referring to Mark Godden's Conversation Piece, which was commissioned by Ballet British Columbia about 10 years ago.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for answering my query. It has been bothering me for almost as long. I saw it performed in Vermont in c.1999-2000. There was a good lecture-discussion with the company afterwards about it, and it's similarities to "Lilac Garden". I especially enjoyed the corps' choreography as a sort of "Greek Chorus" upstage 'commenting' on the principals' actions downstage.