Tudor in Edinburgh

[Alexandra]

It's always interesting to read how a company or choreographer one knows well goes over out of town. I found the opinions in this review, well, a bit curious. Any comments from Tudor fans?

Another review of Ballet West's appearance at the Edinburgh Festival, this by Thom Dibdin in the Glasgow Evening News.

EVERY year, International Festival director Brian McMaster finds a choreographer to celebrate in his ballet programme. This year it is Antony Tudor’s turn.

Which is great news for those studying the history of English ballet in the 20th century. And, until the big finale, rather tedious for the rest of us.

It is not that the opening piece, The Leaves are Fading, is bad, or poorly danced even. It has some very expressive moments, a few great ideas and Ballet West USA bring a highly-athletic interpretation on to the stage.

It is just that the leaves must have been fading rather slowly in 1975 when Tudor wrote it at the end of his career. If you can have chintz ballet, then this is it.

[dirac]

Well -- he doesn't know much about ballet, and it doesn't sound as if he cares to.

On the other hand, the concept of "chintz ballet" holds much promise. Take it away, Mario Buatta!

[Leigh Witchel]

I looked for his other reviews available online. His main beat is theater, for both Edinburgh and Glasgow papers. The other ballet review I read had a similar slant. From an admittedly limited sampling, what he seems to be looking for in ballet is new, different and "forward-thinking". Which means he's going to dislike 90% of it. Fair enough, but it may not make him the best person for the editor to send.

[Alexandra]

But criticism is supposed to be a factor of JUDGEMENT not of taste. If a dance critic who was ignorant of theater found him/herself in the position of writing about an unfamiliar playwright, would he/she be able to get away with writing, "Gosh, that Shakespeare sure used fancy language. They must have had l-o-n-g attention spans back then!"

[pnbmom]

My daughter is a first year apprentice @ Ballet West. She called me this am on layover on her way home from Edinburgh. According to her the audiences also seemed to enjoy the final "can-can" piece the most, but were very appreciative of the program in general. (Nearly filled huge theatre, lots of applause, etc.) Very exciting experience for her first paid performance!

[Lynette H]

At Festival time, the Scottish papers have an enormous job on their hands trying to cover everything that's on with the resources they have. Looking through reviews of many items (not just dance) at the Festival, it's clear that many people are used in writing reviews who would perhaps not usually do so in the rest of the year. Ballet and dance suffer particularly, I think. Though quite possibily, devotees of other artforms might also have their gripes.

[Leigh Witchel]

We're getting several more reviews in; this one isn't as isolated in its opinions as it seemed at first.

So what's going on here? Is this a cultural divide (American critics are more partial to The Leaves are Fading) or are the performances themselves not showing the works at their best?

Have any Ballet Talkers gone to Edinburgh to see the performances?

[Alexandra]

Thanks for that, Lynette -- it makes sense. It's interesting, too, for a city to have more art than it has critics!!

Yes, it is interesting -- but the other critics I've read do seem to know who Tudor is They just don't like it.

I would love to hear some comments from those who've seen the performances.

[sandik]

I'm just riffing from memory right now, but it seems to me that Tudor works frequently get lukewarm reviews in Britain. Am I hallucinating, or does anyone else have this perception?

[Clare]

OK - I suppose I should delurk on this one and admit that I attended the Saturday evening performance of this (Aug 28th) with my husband, my 18 year old ballet student daughter and my parents-in-law.

Personally I have to say that I didn't like "The Leaves are Fading", I just found it too slow and sickly sweet. My daughter spent the interval trying to convince me that it is beautiful choreography and that I would have loved it if it had been better executed - in particular she complained about poor footwork and uncontrolled arms. My parents-in-law, who know very little about ballet, found it boring and complained that it was too long.

"Lilac Garden" I liked but the rest of the party didn't. Actually it was less easy to comment on the dancing because the floor length dresses meant that it was difficult to see even the dancers' feet most of the time let alone their legs. I think my parents-in-law might have enjoyed it more if they had know what was going on - the lighting in the theatre is very low and they couldn't read the programme notes.

Before "Offenbach in the Underworld" we read the notes out to the older members of the party so they had a better idea what was going on. I think we did all enjoy this item, especially my parents-in-law, but probably more as light entertainment than ballet.

So, personally, it left me very unconvinced about Tudor but I would probably go to see his ballets again if the Royal Ballet put them on to see if they could make them more convincing.

[Alexandra]

Thank you very much for delurking and for that review, Clare! I haven't seen Ballet West's productions, but Tudor is had to get right.