.jpg.db2f011cd2acc4c38a8e3720ecf637da.jpg)
All Activity
This stream auto-updates
- Past hour
-
Are there any great Classicists today?
volcanohunter replied to CharlieH's topic in Aesthetic Issues
Sometimes this turns into a vicious circle. I once talked with a Swan Queen after a performance in which the lakeside scenes had been painfully slow and asked about it, because it was atypical for her. It turns out that she, too, had asked the conductor why he had been conducting so slowly. "I was following you," he answered, to which she replied, "But I was following you!" And so the music kept getting slower and slower... - Today
-
I was there Sunday and it was a packed house. I concur with Buddy-Shevchenko was absolutely beautiful! She has this presence and commanded that stage like no other. I was enthralled. ABT has a special artist here. Devon was gorgeous. Joo Won shows promise. I hope he gets promoted in the near future. Another standout was Skylar Brandt as the 1st Shade. She made that variation look like a walk in the park . The audience roared after she finished. What an exciting afternoon! ABT needs to tour more in LA. It was evident with the 3 sold out shows they are loved out here.
-
Dreamer, I had exactly the same thought regarding Shevchenko and Alexandrova. Shevchenko looked and danced like a prima ballerina. She was dazzling.
-
Watching Christine Shevchenko made me think of a young Maria Alexandrova. Shevchenko has similar quality of drawing all the attention to her character and displaying a commanding stage presence. She is becoming an artist whom I would travel a distance to watch.
-
I will try! The world Ballet Festival is a 3 week long feast of stars but what's best is seeing someone special in a full length piece.
-
I'm so glad you got to see this in the theater -- I was impressed with several parts of the work, especially for the ensemble. There are so many different versions of this ballet, and it's so fun to compare and contrast.
-
I love those ticket sorter racks -- I remember them from the local Sherman and Clay ticket office here in Seattle when I was small.
-
I’ve been thinking about Christine Shevchenko’s remarkable performance a lot and have yet not been able to put it into words. What I can say is that when I think of her I think of outstanding ‘expressionists’ such as the Bolshoi’s Olga Smirnova. One challenge with such ability is to keep it in context. In this instance I feel that Devon Teuscher did a very fine job in carrying her weight in light of the exceptional talent of her fellow artist. I can maybe get into this more at another time. Devon Teuscher gave an extremely fine performance. I will say once again that I think that Christine Shevchenko is absolutely brilliant and should have a remarkable future. I hope that they both have much success.
-
Thanks to Fathom Events/Pathé Live having Encore presentations this July, I finally got to see the Bolshoi perform the Ratmansky Romeo and Juliet on the "big screen" as opposed to my computer screen -- and it was well worth it. One really does see more, and however inadequate compared to a live performance, a big screen broadcast still carries more of the excitement of a live performance than the same on a computer screen (or even on a television-screen ). Krysanova and Lantratov led very vivid and compelling performance from the whole company. I'd enjoy a chance to see this live -- at least in a comparable performance.
-
I'm always glad to hear about Ould Braham: she was one of the dancers I loved when I last saw POB live at home in the late '00's, while she was still going up the ranks.
-
Very nice video. Yes, it is a shame that we aren't able to see nearly as much at-the-performance video here in the West.
-
Masha dancing the "Lolita" portion of Possokhov's Swimmer with Sebastien Kloborg - music by Tom Waits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTwPr5FpF8Q
-
NYCB has had a tendency to be in a race to the bottom in terms of customer happiness. I used to love to go to the NYCB Box Office with my list, and to stare at the neatly cubby-holed color coded tickets by date, etc. When I was unexpectedly in NYC for the opening gala a few years ago, the person was so unfriendly, I thought for a moment that I was at the Met.
-
SFB has posted a page titled "The Dancers Are Back" to the SFB website (with info about what the dancers did on their time off): https://www.sfballet.org/explore/articles/The-Dancers-Are-Back
- Yesterday
-
Somova and Hallberg definitely make for a most handsome all blonde couple. Their performance might not be a technically fierce one a la Polunin/Osipova-(Somova was never there and Hallberg won't probably come back to it)- but they are definitely ver beautiful to watch, physically wise, with those gorgeous lines. Definitely worth it.
-
Interesting. I have not yet seen the Gomes film, but several years ago I saw the rough cut from the filmmakers, which they put on-line for just a few days for donors to the project. That's where he gave the quote on this being his last performance, but it's possible that was cut from the final film. Presumably, Vishneva talked him into one more season! PS: Still waiting for my own copy of the film, which was promised to donors over a certain level. I gather they postponed this perk until after they had exploited the potential for theater showings.
-
It's confirmed that Kelley Potter is leaving:
-
Are there any great Classicists today?
cubanmiamiboy replied to CharlieH's topic in Aesthetic Issues
I usually hear that conductors adapt to the demands of dancers, although there are stories in which conductors have stood up against it. In an infamous one a Cuban ballerina was calling for an excruciatingly slow tempo in the white swan Adagio during rehearsal and the conductor stopped and, to the question of why he was going against her choice, he angrily screamed from the pit "because that's how Tchaikovsky composed it!!". There are segments that remain famously unchanged in ballet in certain companies. Kitri's variation with passes at the Bolshoi is one of them. I haven't seen one instance in which the tempo have slowed down by any ballerina there. It is famously fast, and I think Struchkova set the difficult bar for generations to come. @ 1:12 -
I saw Marcelo Gomes dancing La Bayadere with VIshneva in the 2014 Met season. Solor's variation in Act 2 of Makarova's version is watered down. Two of the three Solors I saw last week did a manege of only five (very labored, too) double assemble turns. The conductor had to slow the tempo to give them enough time to catch the breath between the jumps. I remember Shklyarov and Kim doing 8 or 9.
-
Obraztsova seems to be using her Instagram account in a new way, sharing her thoughts on being a dancer. In this post, she talks about her feet, their strengths and weaknesses, how she protects them, the pain she suffers and how she deals with it. Through the IG translation feature I think I'm reading that she and other Bolshoi dancers at times rub vodka on their feet to help the pain. I hope after Daughter of the Pharaoh she can take some time off and give those feet some rest. https://www.instagram.com/p/BlS7mCSBRmm/?taken-by=evgeniaobraztsova
-
Would love to read about that performance if/as you have the time.
-
Some might remember that Marcelo Gomes did Bayadere with Vishneva in 2012 in Japan and it was filmed for Anatomy of a Dancer. At that time, he said that was his last Bayadere, but he continued with Swan Lake and several other roles long after 2012. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/08/03/stage/world-ballet-festival-shows-how-japan-has-jetd-its-way-onto-the-world-stage/#.W0zcJ9VKjIU
-
Also, it’s substantial dancing in 4 of the 5 major scenes, including 2 major multi-movement PDDs.
-
Yeah, I think in his book, Hallberg said something to the effect that Solor is the same three jumps over and over again. I think it's mostly that Act II is really a marathon -- that pas de deux feels like it goes on forever (in a good way). If you look up someone like Vladimir Shklyarov or Leonid Sarafanov, you'll see the full-on Russian-style bravura; I particularly like Shklyarov, who is so stylish, never vulgar.
-
Wow! I would never have even guessed that. Granted that I pay far more attention to the female dancers than the men, I did not notice that this Solor was such a marathon or had a wealth of bravura steps. I'm going to youtube to do variation comparisons, because I get the feeling the difficulty may have been stepped down. Thanks for the insight!
