Mariinsky's Raymonda To the KC in Feb 2016

[Birdsall]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YyfCYX23fPw

[Birdsall]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YyfCYX23fPw

[Birdsall]

Didn't mean to post twice but don't know how to delete using phone. I think the angle where we sit can make things look like hops.

[Birdsall]

In the video I posted Kolegova is doing entrechat quatre changing feet, calves, and knees but it is so fast so difficult to see so the video then slows it down.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Those are basically entrechat deux. And yes, without the slow motion they look like simple sautees. In thus video, Kolegova's would go to sample #1

[Natalia]

Was this the Saturday matinee? Looks like hops on pointe...maybe the term "entrechat deux" is just that. This is not the "full flickering" (scientific term) that we see with Novikova at La Scala...or any guy dancing Bluebird...or the flickering by the pas de quatre men in Raymonda...or by the 2nd Dream Variation gal...or by the Slavic Girl in A3...I saw full flickering from Sophia Ivanova-Skoblikova!

Thanks for posting, Bart. Much appreciated lesson. I like your "notes."

[Birdsall]

Those are basically entrechat deux. And yes, without the slow motion they look like simple sautees. In thus video, Kolegova's would go to sample #1

https://youtu.be/9VhxpHgPTy8

This video looks wrong. Maybe the British have a different numbering than the Russian school because entrechat deux and quatre look wrong but six looks correct in the video.

[Birdsall]

Here is a video showing entrechat quatre:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zajs4vuNI88

[MadameP]

Basically, in entrechat4, if the feet start in 5th with the right foot in front, then at the end of the step, they return to 5th with right foot in front.

[cubanmiamiboy]

In the slow mo. video of Kolegova, she barely crosses two-("deux")-times her foot on air, which is why it looks like simple sautees, landing in the same position. When they do changements-("cambio", "change")- is easy to recognize because the position of the foot at landing is the opposite as when they start the jump. I say Kolegova's are entrechat deux because she "crosses"-(just a few times maybe in the beginning of the diagonal)-her foot two times before landing. She obviously does not perform four-('quatre")-crosses before landing.

[Birdsall]

Entrechat deux is like a changement. Entrechat quatre is two crosses.

[cubanmiamiboy]

But in changement there is always a change in position. Not in entrechat deux. Entrechats are deceiving to the eye, due to the fast way they are performed. But is easy to see a simple changement on pointe. No crossing on air...only change of position. At the second Koundarova performance she neither crossed nor changed her position in the diagonal, which is why I think there were simple sautees-(which can be confused as tried entrechat deux...she might even tried to perform some before going for simple sautees). I still think Kolegova's are entreechat deux.

[Birdsall]

I believe entrechat deux would result in feet switched when landing similar to changements. Entrechat quatre result in same foot in front like when you started. Entrechat quatre:

1) jump

2) switch

3) switch back

4) land

[Natalia]

Entrechat deux looks like a sautee with a little forward-thrust motion to propel the dancer forward. Heck, even I could demonstrate that...with bare feet and not-too-pretty (ha!). When I think any sort of entrechat, I think of "full flickering" like we see from Bluebird, doggone it...not a little forward thrust. No wonder that Nureyev had his POB ballerinas perform flirty changements...more impressive, IMO. Of course, Novikova's full flickerings (entrechats 4 or whatever it is) are most impressive...'cause we can clearly see flickering. Flicker on, dear friends!

[Dreamer]

Here is a link to the discussion around entrechat jumps:

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2123

Obviously, even dancers can be confused on how to count entrechat.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Flicker on, dear friends!

Flicker on..dear Natasha, flicker on, with no other than Mr. Entrechat himself...Yuri Soloviev!!

@04:07. [media]

[\media]

[MadameP]

Here is a link to the discussion around entrechat jumps:

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2123

Obviously, even dancers can be confused on how to count entrechat.

Why doesn't this link work for me? It says, "Sorry, you don't have permission for that," and "You are not allowed to visit this community." ????

[cubanmiamiboy]

Why doesn't this link work for me? It says, "Sorry, you don't have permission for that," and "You are not allowed to visit this community." ????

BT for dancers has I think a separate registration.

[cinnamonswirl]

Yes, you need a separate account for BT for Dancers.

I'd say the terminology is pretty consistent among US-trained dancers:

Soubressaut - no beat, no change of front foot. Ends in fifth position. A ballet hop up and down. What people in this thread seem to be calling sautés, although to me a sauté starts and ends on one foot (the same foot).

Changement/entrechat deux - no beat, front foot changes. Ends in fifth.

Royale - one beat (in front), front foot changes, ends in fifth.

Entrechat trois - one beat in front, front foot changes, ends in coup de pied (on one foot). Can be done over or under.

Entrechat quatre - two beats (i.e. front foot goes back/front), so no change of front foot at the end. Ends in fifth.

Entrechat cinq - three beats (i.e. front foot goes back/front/back) so front foot changes, ends in coup de pied (on one foot). Can be done over or under.

Entrechat six - three beats (i.e. front foot goes back/front/back) so front foot changes. Ends in fifth.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I just watched this...and is just exquisite.

[Birdsall]

Pierina Legnani performed entrechats quatre, but the notation for Raymonda states that changements are notated for the second act variation and bear in mind, the ballet was notated when Petipa was rehearsing Olga Preobrazhenskaya in the title role - she was Legnani's successor in the role.

Now this is just a guess on my part, but maybe the reason why Preobrazhenskaya didn't perform entrechats was because she didn't like them. She had very strong views on technique and she didn't like some of the things that the Italians brought to the Russian stage. One big example is the 32 fouettes; Preobrazhenskaya greatly detested the 32 fouettes because she considered them to be a "vulgar trick" and therefore, never performed them. Whenever she danced Odette/Odile, she always performed a ménage of turns instead of the 32 fouettes.

So this is why the Mariinsky ballerinas perform different sequences in the second act variation.

Amy,

I have always wondered why the Mariinsky dancers choose changements or entrechats. I always wondered why it was okay to change things for that moment but not other moments, and you explained why! Thank you for saying this, because it has always been a mystery. I wondered if changements were correct or if entrechats were correct or if both are correct. It sounds like both are correct b/c one is notated, the other was done by Legnani, who originated the role. So one was done in practice. The other is actually notated. That explains why Mariinsky ballerinas are allowed to choose one or the other to do at that moment.

Thank you for this information!

[cubanmiamiboy]

Or...(like in the Shapran Giselle video), when they don't feel up to the challenge of certain technical feat...

[Drew]

Interesting to read about the notation etc....I prefer changements well done to awkwardly done entrechats that no-one can even agree really were entrechats or that collapse (more or less) into bunny hopping down the diagonal. And actually a clear change of foot looks very good coming down the diagonal.

(I fear that pretty soon younger members of the audience will agree that 32 single fouettes in Act III of Swan Lake is a 'simplification' of an accepted shift to the choreography -- like Giselle's hops on pointe -- added after the premier but become the established text; people already sometimes write apologetically about ballerinas who 'just' do singles. I'd take singles well done any day over poorly done doubles or even doubles alternating with singles in uneven fashion. I do prefer to see Giselle hop on pointe properly down the diagonal in her Act I solo and I like the entrechats in Raymonda when well articulated. But it hardly seems to me crucial to the essence of Raymonda that Legnani's version of this diagonal--as far as historians have determined--takes pride of place over a notated version from the early 20th century. Especially when the latter can look better.)

[cubanmiamiboy]

In one of Markova's books she relates how she was given the choice on how to perform the final diagonal in Giselle's PasSeul, after Pavlova vs. Spessivtseva-(both were notaded according to her). She went for the latter one, and from there Alonso took it in the early 40's. I believe is not performed anywhere else nowadays but in Cuba, as everyone else does the circle of pique turns.

Stagers can be very strict with this. Osipova has said that she would like to perform said diagonal in Russia, but she would not be allowed by her coach.

[Natalia]

As noted earlier, Nureyev clearly directed his POB ballerinas to go for changements in the final diagonal of Raymonda's A2 solo. That's what he staged in 1983, as we can see him demonstrate so deliciously to Pontois and other POB ballerinas in the documentary "Dancer's Dream: Raymonda." (I tried but couldn't find that isolated moment on Youtube or I'd post link...it's so cute to see Nureyev performing that diagonal in sneakers, complete with dainty port de bras!)