ORZAK

The only performance I have ever walked out on was Netherlands Danz Theater. It was very expensive too because we had wonderful tickets and hotel room for the night just for this performance. We had travelled over a 100 miles to see the company. But, the music was miked and was so loud that my husband and I left - as did quite a number of other people in the audience. Sad to say. Basheva [ 05-14-2001: Message edited by: ORZAK ]

I can give you some further information. Jillana retired to San Diego - and that is where I knew her. I was in class with her many, many times - both as a classmate and when she would occasionally teach class. She danced with San Diego Ballet under the artistic direction of Keith Martin and Sonia Arova. She danced Juliet in Romeo and Juliet with Sonia Arova's husband Thor Sutowski. I can tell you from personal experience she is not only a very lovely dancer, a great teacher, but also a very kind and caring person. I got to talk to her quite a bit one evening when she was at my home, as well as in ballet class. Basheva

I think the boom was a combination of several things: Hurok and the age of stars, the news worthiness of the defecting Russian dancers (made big headlines and were seen as exotic by the general public), the NEA and the Ford Foundation Scholarships. And, I do think there is a cyclical quality to booms and busts. As George Burns said when his fame began to climb when he was so very much up in years "I'm so old, I'm new". Basheva

I, too, have seen Plisetskaya dance Dying Swan several times. She was indeed gorgeous. However, I also have a tape of Pavlova dancing it, and the feeling she imparts is quite different. Her swan suffers a quieter death, in my opinion. Basheva

I believe I do understand what the conversation is about, Leigh - I just happen to have another view. Basheva

Who am I to argue with the one and only Croce? And yet I will.... Having been in class with Alicia Alonso, having watched her take a private class given by her daugher Laura, and having watched her rehearse and then perform Giselle twice at very close range, there is nothing NOTHING faked about anything that prima ballerina does, in adagio, allegro or anywhere else for that matter. In my opinion. Basheva

In my opinin - being a lyrical ballerina would not obviate the assets necessary to Theme and Variations - but enhance it. The adage section is not brought to fruition by a technician. Every great dancer passes through phases of re-creation. Again, in my opinion.

In my opinion Gelsey Kirkland was a true lyrical ballerina - a very rare creature. Basheva

I remember when I first heard that Nureyev was going to be Artistic Director of POB, - I thought finally the company has met its match. The temperaments are evenly matched. He is as strong as that entire company. And, it proved so. Basheva

I should have added that I had the pleasure of seeing Patrick Bisssel dance Swan Lake with Cynthia Gregory - what a wonderful performance that was. Had things been different he was the partner she should have had. Basheva [This message has been edited by ORZAK (edited February 23, 2001).]

I surely miss Gelsey Kirkland, Rudolph Nureyev. But most of all Prima Ballerina Assoluta Margot Fonteyn. Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of her death. That death does not endure - because as she dances in my mind - which she does - she does not die. That is the gift of the artist. I had the great good fortune to be in a class once with Patrick Bissel - and to watch him teach a master class. I purposely didn't take the master class because I wanted to just sit there and watch him. He arrived to teach the class directly from the beach (this is San Diego after all) wearing a pair of short shorts, and sandals - carrying his ballet slippers. At one point in the class the men said that the music was too fast for them to fully fulfill the amplitude of the steps in the combination he had set. On went the ballet slippers and without even thinking - he spun off into a series of jumps and turns with dazzling speed and aplomb. There was no more whining from the men in class. LOL He managed to "fill" that large studio with his presence that day. Basheva

Frederick Franklin was a great actor/dancer. I was present once when he was rehearsing Dr. Coppelius - and then I saw him perform it. I have never seen a better. How about Gerd Larsen who I believe was the original nurse in MacMillan's Romeo & Juliet. I thought she was superb in that role.

Valery Panov was known more for his characterizations. I was in class with him and watched him rehearse - and a very interesting experience it was too. I have a tape of him and his wife Galina Panov at Wolf Trap Farm Park in which he does both technical "fireworks" and characterization. Basheva ------------------ Approach life as the dancer approaches the barre - with grace and purpose.

In Gretchen Ward Warren's book, "Classical Ballet Technique" on page 5 are some wonderful descriptions, definitions and diagrams of "placement". An experienced dancer's body has learned it, and when it is achieved it feels almost weightless, and the body is thus ready for movement. Basheva

I had the pleasure once of watching Patrick Bissel teach a master class - first to a mixed gender group of dancers and then to a men's class. What presence and power he had. He was by no means a small man, well over 6 foot, but could he ever move!!! He arrived for the men's class straight from the beach (this is San Diego) and he was clad only in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. He carried his ballet slippers in his hands. At one point during the class when the men were saying that the music was much too fast for the combination which Patrick had set, he put on his slippers. And then as the class stepped back and the music started, he flew through the combination, inserted beats everywhere, and then without pause, reversed it entirely. He ended with a huge, glorious, multiple pirouette and finished impeccably. He wasn't even warmed up. There were no more mumblings about the music being too fast. Everyone was in awe - total awe. This man in t-shirt, shorts and barelegs in ballet slippers. I also saw him perform La Sylphide with Gelsey Kirkland - and what a glory that was. And a Swan Lake with Cynthia Gregory. Had things been different he would have been the perfect partner for her, in my opinion. He certainly was that night. Basheva

There was the tragedy of Patrick Bissel and then the legions of tragedies due to AIDS. Only one of my partners is still alive......Basheva

Well, age lends bravery, sometimes - LOL - or foolery - so here goes: According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English - "style" means "a manner of doing something". Let the music begin.........Basheva ------------------ Approach life as the dancer approaches the barre - with grace and purpose.

That movie opened in San Diego about a week ago and I saw it. Mel - after having taught in a performing arts high school - you are absolutely right about the language - I learned - and then unlearned a lot! LOL Basheva

In answer to the question - how is Swan Lake relevant to today's society - Sometimes we try to help, but we get fooled, (we didn't research the problem well enough) and we end up hurting, instead. An example is the many, many times we have tried to redo Mother Nature - we tried to help the environment - animals - etc. - and would up hurting instead. Simplistic? perhaps - but surely a moral.

Alexandra, I agree completely!! It seems to me that the underlying goal of the ballet is "beauty". Whether it is portraying angst, temptation, love, hate, etc. -it is presenting the body at its most beautiful in movement. Other dance forms are, of course, often beautiful - but that is usually not their principle aim. Even in moments of great emotional impact - the toes are pointed, the body is aligned, the movement flows - even frenetically - it flows. That, in my opinion, sets the ballet apart. It is also that "apartness" that allows the ballet to deal with the "ideal" and even the "fanciful" - wilis, sylphs, swans ( as Alexandra said above). In the mad scene in Giselle there is not a moment when the ballerina is not beautiful to see. Comedy in the ballet is often portrayed by destroying that beauty. Toes are turned in -arms flop; that is part of the comedic aspect in ballet, in my opinion. [This message has been edited by ORZAK (edited October 07, 2000).] [This message has been edited by ORZAK (edited October 07, 2000).]

San Diego once had a pretty terrific ballet season for the great companies. It featured about 6-8 companies from around the world - all ballet. They also had a modern dance season. Some brilliant person in their scheduling office decided to combine the two seasons - both modern and ballet. So - the next year - both bombed. The cultural divide between modern and ballet - was more like a canyon - never to be crossed. The ballet people were not about to buy tickets to modern dance - nor vice versa. The cultural divide that fascinates me is the one that labels people as "cultured". When people learn that I enjoy classical music, opera and ballet - they label me cultured. I am not sure what that means - except I am quite sure it isn't me. It's just stuff I enjoy. Doesn't mean that I never listen to music from musicals or even some classical rock. Doesn't mean that I don't enjoy folk dance - which I do, very much. In August I went to a Johnny Mathis concert - and just loved it. He is a favorite of mine. o.k. I just looked it up in the dictionary - cultured means "refined taste". Well, what is that? Liking ballet rather than hip-hop is just a matter of personal preference, no more and no less. [This message has been edited by ORZAK (edited October 07, 2000).]

Part of what constitutes lewdness, sexuality and sensuality, it seems to me, is a child of the time in which it is born. Nijinsky in Le Apre Midi d'un Faun (Afternoon of a Faun) was considered terribly lewd to the Paris of 1911. When the Joffrey did it a few years ago - and it was televised no one blinked - or swooned. I also think that almost everything we do, view and enjoy has a deal of sexuality implicit in it. There is always a certain tension between the genders. The difference is in the explicitness of it. The bedroom scene in Romeo & Juliet is certainly an example of implied sexuality. I, for one, do not go to the ballet (or most anywhere else for that matter) for explicit sexuality. As for the matter of the assumption that any male associated with the ballet, either as a dancer or as a member of the audience, is as most assumptions often are, trite and ill informed. We are never going to banish those assumptions from the face of the earth, I am afraid. A man who is not homosexual and either dances or enjoys the ballet - does not need to defend himself or his tastes in any way. If I happened to enjoy smoking cigars ringside at a boxing match, I wouldn't bother defending it. Ironically, up until the advent of the pointe shoe, dance including ballet, was the purview of the male. Women were excluded from the ballet early in its history. Certainly in folk dance, men are predominant - women mostly filling secondary roles. Basheva