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Is anything vulgar (in dancing) today?


Mel Johnson

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Oh, yeah, speaking of ABT: Tricking up one's choreography where it does not belong!

All those guys in the 3rd Mvt. of Symphony in C tossing in double sautes de basque. The first night, Corella did them (and the ensuing vortex seemed to totally discommode poor Ashley Tuttle), then De Luz had to prove he could do them, and Cornejo, and Steifel, who REALLY should've known better.

Even the women had to get into the act, with spunky Xiomara Reyes tossing in doubles (well 1 1/2s) to "match" De Luz's. I didn't know whether to admire her gumption or deplore her taste. Of course, I often feel that way when looking at ABT in general.

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Mme. Hermine:

You are of course right about Boston Ballet's Midsummer Night's Dream choreographer. Stanton Welch's Madame Butterfly will be later in the season. I mixed up the leading "Wel"s.

It's impossible to hum a tune over Bulletin Board, but what I call Carabosse's music is the tune we first hear in the overture. It's played again at Carabosse's appearance in the intro and little bits of it show up again in the 1st and 2nd acts, either when she actually appears or when we're supposed to feel her influence.

As to the cuts, maybe it's the fact that I go to Sunday matinees and the company wants to finish early. But there's just no question that in both Midsummer Night's Dream and Sleeping Beauty, the overtures were more than merely cut - they were hacked to death. Practices like this (IMHO) put in question of the musical integrity of the company.

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Originally posted by Mashinka:

Leigh, if its vulgar you like, just wait till you see Anastasia Volochkova, she takes vulgarity to heights you never knew existed !!!!!!!!! eek.gif


I totally agree with Mashinka.

Last September I was at "Le Gala des Etoiles" in Montreal, and Anastasia Volochkova opened the evening with a solo called "Adiemus" with music by Karl Jenkins and choreography (?) by Renato Zanella (does anyone know this choreographer?)

When I came back home I wrote a critic for a friend who could not attend and I remember telling her that this could have probably passed as a 5$ dance (refering to the club dancers who dance at the client's table for 5$ or 10$ depending on... whatever!)

I could not understand how she was allowed to present this on stage. Vulgar and completely tasteless.

Dragonfly

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4ts:

yes you are right, and yet i always considered the music's echoing when carabosse enters to be a perversion of the original use of the music to introduce the ballet, since when it is first used it is so glorious and when it is echoed it is so sinister. anyone care to comment?

as for the company's musical integrity, i'll say only that it must be a hard thing to fight for in any case!

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Throwing flowers on stage in the middle of a performance is nothing new - it's been going on since the 19th c. However, what really took the cake was during a run of the opera "Lucia di Lammermore" with Joan Sutherland at Covent Garden way back in the 70s, there were fans who insisted on throwing streamers onto the stage when Sutherland took a bow after her character dies. Unfortunately for the fans, there is yet another scene in the opera before the end, and the streamers risked the life of everyone in the theater, as some would land in the footlights, and the heat could cause the paper streamers to ignite - this without the problems that the other singers had trying to wade through ankle-deep piles of the streamers!

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I must say, the first time I saw the Kirov perform, I wasn't expecting them to stop and bow after each piece of dancing they did! It seemed to disrupt the whole flow of the balley- and also broke the spell of the other world on stage, when they stepped out and bowed! The more I've seen them, the more used to it I've got, but I am quite content with the usual curtain calls at the end of a performance!! tongue.gif

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re Carabosse's theme ( a long time back in he history of htis thread)

4ts:

yes you are right, and yet i always considered the music's echoing when carabosse enters to be a perversion of the original use of the music to introduce the ballet, since when it is first used it is so glorious and when it is echoed it is so sinister. anyone care to comment?

Carabosse came to the WEDDING, or at least is present at the apotheos, in the original version, George Jackson told me just the other night.

WHich I think is WONDERFUL, that she can be brought back into the family......

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