Noisy Feet

[Guest Jhora]

I recently attended a performance of Swan Lake by the Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet. I found it an enjoyable performance but noticed that I could hear their shoes all the way up in my seats at the back of the balcony. I was wondering why they were so loud, because when I sit close during Colorado Ballet performances I cant hear a sound - what is this phenomena? Also My mother noted that they did a curtain call after each act why is this exactly? I think I may have posted this is the wrong place- so feel free to move it.

Always

Jhora

[Victoria Leigh]

Jhora, there can be several reasons for this. Sometimes the acoustics in a theatre are very different, depending on where you are sitting. However, there are other possibilities. Very hard shoes will do it. Some makes of shoes are just really noisy and others are not. It depends on how they are made. And then of course there is the factor of how well the dancers USE their feet and learn how to CONTROL that noise factor with strength and lift and articulation. So, who knows? Often hard to tell. I recently saw a Bolshoi performance where one of the principal dancers was very clunky with her walking and running, and most of the others were very, very quiet, so, what was her problem, shoes or lack of strength in her feet and articulation of the feet? Or, just really bad shoes? Not sure. :eek:

[Martha]

I've been wondering about "noisy feet, too: saw Xiomara Reyes dance Gulane in Sat.'s ABT Corsaire. Gorgeous dancing, but noisy shoes! My daughter attributed it to the shoes -- she tought they might be Grishkos. Next afternoon at the Sunday matinee at NYCB, the stage was filled with dances in Firebird and not a sound from the shoes.

[Alexandra]

Welcome, Martha!

Sometimes it depends where you sit, too. I heard complaints from everybody about the Kirov corps being noisy and I couldn't hear it because I was seated in orchestra front. One performance I was in orchestra rear, and I heard the clatter!

[dirac]

I think where you sit does make a big difference. Sometimes I even wonder if it's the ballet. At SFB, there are nights when it seems as if the corps has no feet to hear, and others when everyone clomps off stage like Clydesdales.

[Alexandra]

Sometimes it's also the choreographer. Choo-San Goh loved the sound of toe shoes and many of his ballets had small stretches without the music where you'd hear -- well, not quite patter and not quite clatter of little feet

[dancermom2]

The noise factor can also be because of the way the accoustics of the theaters are set up. At the State theater where NYCB is there is an on going issue with the resident Opera company because of accoustics. The State theater was designed specifically to dampen sound...the sound of pointe shoes on the stage at Mr. B's request. Now while that is fantastic for ballet it presents some problems for opera where they want to project sound. I just saw ABT at the Met and I did notice the sound of the shoes on the stage...it may be because the accoustics at the Met are tilted toward sound projection because of the Met Opera who is resident there too and has the upper hand so to speak at that house.;)

[Farrell Fan]

Maybe it was the acoustics, or perhaps where I was sitting, but at Suzanne Farrell Stages Balanchine in 1995 at the Kennedy Center Opera House, I found the rat-tat-tat of Susan Jaffe's feet in the Preghiera of Mozartiana extremely unnerving. Her performance was otherwise marvelous.

[dancermom2]

I saw ABT in Swan Lake last night...and while it was beautiful and gloriously danced I have to say the one distraction was the noisy feet. I have come to the conclusion that it has to be the accoustics of the Metropolitan Opera House. It can't be that the whole corp of swans, soloists and principals have either noisy pointe shoes or are forgetting how to dance quietly. When the swans danced it was overwhelmed by the clack of pointe shoes. When the cygnets danced the dance was punctuated by the percusive sounds of 8 feet landing. It must be that stage and how it is set up to project for opera!

[Mel Johnson]

I think you're onto something there. There used to be a story about the Old Met, and its liveliness all over the auditorium. The performance was "Lucia" and the sextet was on. Just before the end, there's a baritone/tenor 8-note mini-cadenza and a grand pause. In the grand pause, out of the back of the house somewhere, came, "...and two eggs...";)

[felursus]

The last time the Kirov visited NYC I was extremely distressed by the degree of shoe clatter the girls produced - particularly when they performed "Serenade" which involves a lot of running around by the corps. I have NEVER heard ABT make so much noise on the same stage (the Met). I did notice that most of the shoes were blackened on the bottom and tip. I know the company has financial problems, so I thought that perhaps the corps dancers (the soloists didn't make nearly as much noise) had to conserve shoes at all costs - possibly by hardening them with some substance. Any ideas????

[Mel Johnson]

That sounds like good ol' Cat's Paw Neoprene. It's an old trick to help deaden the shoe clatter, or prevent shredding from an abrasive stage surface. It does extend the useful life of the shoe, somewhat.

[felursus]

But would neoprene make the shoes noisier? It was all over the bottom of the shoes. I thought it was the result of using a hardening agent - eg. a glue.

[dancermom2]

I know what the black stuff was on the bottom of the shoes...it was dirt with a capital D. My daughter is one of the kids in La Bayadere and her shoes are literally black from the rehearsal floor and the stage. It is not some fancy noise deadening finish just plain old yucky dirt that makes you wonder if they ever clean the floor over there!

[atm711]

At a recent performance of "Bayadere" at the "Met" there was lots of clunking during the 'shades' scene. It wasn't any one performer, it was all 32 of them plus the ballerina (Daria Pavlenko, in this case). I thought it might be the flooring.

[ronny]

The construction of the floor has to be a big factor. If the floor is made of wood planks, they would resound just like a drum. And although the sound may be bothersome to the veiwers, I would think that it could be a blessing to the dancers to be on a floor that gives a little... since it would absorb some of the shock of steps on the toes and feet. IF a soft noisy floor helps to protect the dancers from injury to the feet I think that this noise would be an acceptable tradeoff.

[vagansmom]

While the floor may be part of the answer, I don't believe it's the whole story. Like Felursus, I also saw ABT's "Swan Lake" at the Met and the corps did NOT sound like cattle.