Ari

A couple of posters have said that Tcherkassky rose quickly to the top. That's not how I remember it. On the contrary, I remember her being stuck at soloist level for several years while it was apparent to everyone but the ABT management that she was ready for ballerina roles. The problem was that this was a time that ABT employed as many guest stars as it possibly could, turning a blind eye towards the talent in their own ranks. I remember the excitement among balletomanes when she finally got her first Giselle; it was the end of the season and I think the company had run out of stars. At that performance, people were saying that the corps seemed energized, as if they saw any hopes for their own careers in the success of this homegrown ballerina. (Of course we don't know if they actually thought that; that was just our reading of the performance and we could well have been projecting our own feelings!) And about Makarova's troupe -- most of her corps dancers came from SAB.

Balanchine's Scherzo a la Russe is all-female. A slight piece, though.

Elena Voronzhova joined the Kirov (as it says in the film) and was in the corps for a number of years. I saw her dance in 1989 when the Kirov visited New York; she was in the Precious Jewels quartet in Sleeping Beauty. The next time the Kirov came to New York (1991 or 1992), she wasn't listed, but that doesn't necessarily mean she'd left the company -- they never take all their dancers on tour. I don't know what became of her subsequently.

There was also a film or video of the complete Serenade done in 1973 in Germany with NYCB, but this has never been released on video. It was aired in the US a long time ago, but the more recent taping, the one with Western Symphony that rg refers to above, was better -- if you can find someone who has a copy taped off the air.

So Fairchild isn't doing Carousel? I hope her punishing Saratoga schedule hasn't caught up with her.

Whoops, sorry, Rodney! Great news about the revival.

Rodney, the Sylvia that SFB is staging next year is not Ashton's. Mark Morris is doing the choreography. I believe that only parts of Ashton's version are still extant.

As I think we've established here, Don Q requires the resources of a large company. If the rumors about Farrell staging it are true, then I think it's likely that she's doing it for another company, not her own, although perhaps with the participation of her own small company.

I don't want to belabor this, and you are certainly entitled to your opinion, Rodney. But it seems to be based on familiarity with Midsummer alone. If you can steel yourself into watching Culkin, you will see that the first act of Balanchine's Nutcracker is one of the most enchanting narrative ballets ever made. In addition, there is Harlequinade, Coppelia, Don Quixote, and others. It is not true, as many people say, that Balanchine hated narrative ballets. He preferred not to be tied down to narrative, but when he wanted to he could create beautiful, human, witty, and charming narratives.

I don't understand this, Rodney. Balanchine's Midsummer opened in 1962, and Ashton's in 1964. Nutcracker, of course, was originally choreographed by Ivanov (1892).

Rodney, some of your ideas about Balanchine seem to be based on inaccurate information. It might be a good idea to read a biography of him, to get a better picture of the whole scope of his life. There are three biographies currently available -- Bernard Taper's, Richard Buckle's, and Moira Shearer's. Buckle's is the most detailed. Even if you're not enthused about the subject, they offer a fascinating glimpse of ballet worlds gone by.

Balanchine's remark to Ashton occurred in a very different context than the one you imagine, Rodney. Tanaquil Le Clerq, who was married to Balanchine at the time, wrote in The Ballet Cookbook that they were at dinner one night and as they left the kitchen after doing the dishes, Balanchine said [paraphrased, I don't have the book in front of me], "You know, you taught me one very important thing: always wash the dishes after you eat."

Another black dancer in the NYCB corps was Myrna Kamara. She danced for a few years and then left for Miami City Ballet, where she danced solo roles. I'm not sure that the paucity of black females in NYCB is the result of prejudice -- as Farrell Fan said, there have been many black males in the company from the start, and Arthur Mitchell was one of the first black principals in a major American company. Balanchine gave Debra Austin many solo roles, some of which (especially Divertimento #15) I found her unsuited for. Long and Kamara didn't stand out for me; it's not that I thought they were bad, just that they didn't seem any worthier of bigger roles than the other corps girls. I liked Ash, but didn't see enough of her to judge whether she had soloist potential.

Ed, Karen Brown has been AD of the Oakland Ballet since 2000.

Thanks, Jay, for your help. I'll let you know if things change.

It's happened again. I just checked VNP and came up with the ABT NYC Summer Intensive Performance thread for the first time recently, and it's been active for the last two days. Also, I'm simultaneously having almost the opposite problem -- when I check VNP, I often get a long, multi-page list of new posts dating back a day, even though I checked the board two or three times during that period.

Rodney, Ballet Imperial did not begin life at the Sadler's Wells Ballet. It was made in 1941 for the American Ballet Caravan, a predecesssor of NYCB, and the original ballerinas were Marie-Jeanne and Giselle Caccialanza.

While there's an honorable Romantic tradition of loose hair signifying madness, I don't think it suits ballet, which is a much more contained, formal art than opera. When it's used in Giselle it is out of place in a way that goes beyond the dramatic; all of the sudden we're not in a ballet any more, and the hair, as carbro said, seems to take over the proceedings. Now, we're talking about current productions, which reflect the esthetics of the present day. It may well have fit in with the ballet esthetics (and different choreography) of the 1840s.

Ack! I just took the composer test and I turned out to be Shostakovich! I demand a recount!

IE 6.0 and Windows 98 at one computer, IE 5.5 and Windows 2000 at the other.

I haven't been looking for a pattern, Alexandra, but I'll start now. This morning's VNP revealed to me the "Reading & Teaching History Today" thread -- started yesterday morning -- for the first time. I checked the board 4 or 5 times yesterday and it never showed up. As far as new topics starting when I'm on the board, I always Refresh my VNP before I leave, to avoid just that.

No big surprise here -- I'm Balanchine, and I didn't even cheat. My fave part of the quiz: the one & only answer to "Does your home company mangle your ballets?"

Has anyone else been having trouble with View New Posts? My problem is that sometimes, a thread or two with new posts does not come up. Today, for instance, I checked the board several times at the office, then just now at home, and discovered a thread, started this morning, that did not show up under VNP at any time today. This has happened 3 or 4 times since the change to Invision.

Well, I don't see Suzanne Farrell's name there. And I suppose Lucia Chase should have been given an award. Although I usually don't have much good to say of her, she did create and sustain a major ballet company for many years.

You can read this article here: http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/l...cal/5475148.htm