Paul Parish Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 wit is a wonderful quality in a dancer -- Monica Mason had it in everything.... it makes them accessible. THis shold be a tpoic of its own -- the corps dancer whom everybody loved. I can think of 4 or 5 right off the bat in San Francisco -- startng with Kim Davy, who isn't here any more but in Symphony in C, in hte last movement, there's this tiny moment where 2 girls run forward from hte back and make a huge circle and run back to the back, before then next big section begins -- Kim was hte girl stage left, and wshe made this one of the HIGHLIGHTSA of the entire ballet -- it's kind of like a drumroll -- it announces that something even MORE wonderful than everythign so far is ABOUT TO HAPPEN, and she made it like a cascade of pearls....... And there was Askia Swift, also gone -- to Ailey? -- wonderfully musical,always, in everything. He wsa especially thrilling in Val Caniparoli's LAmbarena, the plastique in the jumps was amazing, and hte part of hte body that initiated the movement -- it's a character ballet, with lots of Senegalese movement fused with ballet -- was always extremely clear -- his ribs were so expressive..... And Chidozie Nzerem, who's also african american - -still with SFB, anda wonderfully answerable dancer-- when he was young, he was rather rigidly classical -- he was oneo f Larissa Sklyanskaya's greatest students, and his clarity and power were so noble and so Russian -- I saw him do the barrel turns from Corsaire at the student show, it was like the young Nureyev -- He's a wonderful character dancer -- as a guest at the Nutcracker party he steals he show, the character has been so thought through -- and of course, as the black face at the party, he does stand out..... but he does nothing to gravb focus, he just is responsible for what you see. I LOVE that. As hte tuba in Robbins fanfare.... he understands the vaudeville side of the role; he's a scream. And in d'Amboise's role in Western Symphony, again he understands the relation of the creature he;'s presenting to antecedents in American popular theater and he uses all the tradition -- he's got some black shtick, he's got some cowboy shtick, he's got his Russian tricks, he's got his sweet danseur noble deference (as he ducks under her leg, well, that's what a cavalier would do, the lady's the man, its SO SWEET).... and with Leslie Young (who's CHinsese American) , they really look like hte old wild west, where such racial mixing on an absolutely equal basis was a real possibility, maybe the first place in the world...... NOt to mention Sara Sessions, the TALL GIRL in everything who was never out of hte corps and in everything, a wonderful dancer in modern stuff (Lar Lubovitch' has his corps BE the storm in Othello -- kind of an awful ballet as a whole, but with so MANY redeeming features, and she was fantastic), perfect in Agon, perfect as the Wili center left in hte back row, very fine in "Company B" -- and now the poster girl for ballet.co (here's he link to her interview.... http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_99/ma...ra_sessions.htm) And that's just a start..... Link to comment
Brioche Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Glebb- I believe Allegra Kent was the inspiration for the Gorey drawings. Anyone? B Link to comment
glebb Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 That makes a lot of sense, Brioche. I was just guessing. Peters still looks a lot like the leotard and tights drawings to me. Link to comment
carbro Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 At risk of veering far off topic, let me run this by you. I have found that in ballets where I have had a favorite dancer occupy a role for a number of years, my eye becomes trained to her (usually her) blocking. After she has moved on (up or out), I have a hard time not watching her usually less worthy successor. I still "follow" Judith Fugate's corps/demi successors in Serenade and Who Cares! :rolleyes: Link to comment
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