Thanks, Helene.
Sorry, again, his last name is spelled G o d u n o v, not Gudonov.
"Many of us, huh." I red some American people think, for instance, Johan Renvall surpassed Baryshnikov by far in terms of technique and physical ability. Should I provide link? Sure he didn't surpass him on longevity on stage.
Or I'm sure some or maybe "many of you" could agree with Fernando Bujones when he said 'He (B.) has the publicity and I have the technique." Some UK critics would agree with him.
I repeat, I believe this kind of discussion leads to nowhere. As one of your fellow countrymen said
" Of course Baryshnikov isn´t the best, how could he be? There`ll never be THE best dancer.You could say that Baryshnikov`s dancing was a wonderful combination of strength and lightness,or he was just a media phenomenon with a nice fattie butt. Just like you could say Bujones was engaging and passionate, or cheesy and a bad actor. Or that Godunov was a marvel of speed and precision,or that he danced like a power drill with only two settings:angry and angrier.All a just a matter of opinion."
So it's just a matter of opinion and we could spend all life long arguing. Let's not do that.
As US critic Lewis Segal said, Godunov was a heroic dancer, but there was and there still is no heroic ballet in USA. Nobody here would dare to stage Spartacus", - he said.
About Spartacus, Bolshoi style and ABT dancers, if anybody's interested. I'm sure many of you know this publication. This Laura Jacobs is so smart.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb33...ag=content;col1
I did provide. In my next post. Would I repeat? Ok.
Please, before reproaching read mesages with more attention, please, please.
The topic is a documentary about Godunov, and what conclusions the authors made and what our conclusions are. So I've already expressed my opinion on that.
I 'll rephrase: this is a ballet forum and in my opinion this is a wrong place to discuss his versatile movie roles. Good enough? And.. sorry, again, his last name was G o d u n o v.
I suggest you watch please Carmen-suite with him and Plisetskaya and maybe, just maybe, you will change your mind, this was his finest performance IMO. Though it was rather in a studio than on stage, but he did that on stage in the Met in 1974.
Oh, and later as ABT principal he did Petit's version too, partnered by young Susan Jaffe. That was good also.
Thank you, Helene.