Victoria Leigh

Are they calling this a BALLET company???

That's a good question, citibob. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. From a dancers standpoint, I feel that it is too big and that all the dancers do not dance enough. When I was there I was in every ballet every night, when I was in corps and as a soloist. I don't think I would like it much now, with nights off or one ballet or one act of a ballet. From the company standpoint of course it allows them to do larger works, and have plenty of extra people to cover all the roles because there are several casts of everything. Of course with as many casts as they have in the principal roles I usually feel that no one gets to dance it enough to really have the chance to make the role their own. Being much larger, I suppose, it makes them a "Major" company, but then, I always thought it was a "Major" company I loved their own repertoire too. Especially the Tudor! We did full length works, but not nearly as many as they do now of course. But, we did them. When I was there we toured A LOT! We traveled all over this country and played in every State and also a lot of foreign countries. The company is so large now that it is much more difficult to tour, and they don't do nearly as much of that. I loved the touring. It was an education in itself, and I loved the whole experience. It was always nice to dance in NY too, but now they do much more there and very little touring. I'm glad I was dancing when I did and not now

Alexandra, I'm going to disagree just a bit with your ABT history. I was in ABT in the 60's, as you know, and I believe we were a corps de ballet well before Swan Lake (full length) was done. We did Act II in the early 60's, along with Les Sylphides, Giselle, Etudes, and La Sylphide, which all came before full length Lac. I do not remember that the company grew in size at all during those years, or even the year they had all 4 acts. We had 40 to 43 dancers throughout the time I was there. It was after Baryshnikov came that the company grew considerably larger. I could be wrong on the numbers, but that is what I remember. As to the companies today, I agree with Ari. I do not believe it is to much to ask of a dancer to be a Swan or a Sylph one night and do Rodeo, or Billy the Kid, or even In the Middle... the next. Good heavens, we did programs with Les Noces or Billy in between Sylphides or Grand Pas Glazunov and Etudes or Theme and Variations! And then the next night we might do Pillar or Fall River with Sylphides and Etudes or Theme. Then Giselle or La Sylphide the next night. I don't know what Kisselgoff meant by dancers NOT trained to act, because I disagree with that! I was trained that a dancer is an actress who speaks with her body instead of words. I believe that and it is certainly a part of training a dancer. And I don't feel that dancers who can do Odette/Odile cannot turn around and do a Hagar or Lizzie, although maybe not Cowgirl ;)

Been there, done that, Leigh ;) Several times, actually. How could I tell? Well, I'll talk about two of them. One came at 11 and and the other at 12 years old. One with excellent early training, the other not so excellent. But, it was just there. You could see it immediately when you started working with them. The "dance intelligence" maybe, along with the musicality, the body, and the desire. While everyone else struggles to comprehend and then to execute whatever it is you are teaching, they just do it. Not perfectly of course, but so exceptionally well for their age and level, that it is very evident. When you show line, they make line. When you show movement, they MOVE. When you put on the music and they dance, you are looking at a dancer in miniature. You can just see where this is going. It's the combination of exceptional facility, intelligence, musicality, potential artistry, and total commitment and every once in a very great while it just walks in the door. (We have a few right now at WSB, actually.) What did I do? I trained them! And they became dancers and had lovely careers and now have retired and one has a baby and the other one is pregnant. And I'm a "grandmother" :) :eek:

As long as the choreographer is there to rehearse the ballet that might work. But what happens when that choreographer is not there? We have a lot of new choreography every year too, but if the ballet master did not learn and rehearse the ballet after the choreographer leaves it would be total chaos, with rehearsal by committee! I don't THINK so! Someone has to have the final word as to what the choreographer did and what he wanted and exactly what count it happens, and if you leave that to the dancers you could have a whole bunch of different opinions about it.

I don't think I would care to see a company without a ballet master, or several ballet masters if it is a very large company. This is a job that is, IMO, highly underrated and the people who do this often thankless work are rarely given their due. It is very, very difficult to learn all the ballets and be able to stage and then coach every role. A company without someone in this position, leaving the staging and coaching to dancers, will not get the best work done, IMO of course, on either the staging, coaching, or dancing. It is just too big a job for a dancer to do and dance as well, unless he or she is perhaps just doing a small character role that they have done many times before.

Yes, it was directed by Dowell, and he plays Drosselmeyer, but it was produced after the renovation of the Opera House, so it's not very old.

Okay, even after watching Nuts for the last month, I have to go with this one! http://www.hallmark.com/hmk/Website/Shoppi...=General&page=1

Easystuff, I suggest that you rent some videos of The Royal Ballet and see for yourself that she did not have bad feet at all. There are also lots of books with photos of her. Go to your local library and look through the ballet section. She was very beautiful, and had very good feet. They are not the "super extreme" feet of Sylvie Guillem or Paloma Herrera, but they are still quite fine.

I suggest the library, Dance Fish ;) Find the book entitled Complete Book of Ballets, and look it up. The main characters are always the same in this work, however sometimes there is a Peasant Pas de Deux, and sometimes not. Also, some do it as a Pas de Quatre. The number in the corps will vary according to the size of the company.

I think Revelations makes a deep connection with almost everyone! The music in totally infectious, the choreography and the dancing wonderful, and I really think one relates to this whether they have anything to do with church or being black or anything else!

Gala Performance would be at the top of my list, for sure!

I think Margot Fonteyn's series of 6 hours on PBS is on video. It's called The Magic of Dance, and it is Ballet History.

Ballet is beautiful when it is beautifully performed. Ballet itself has no beauty unless those doing it have beauty and the ballet itself has beauty. The most beautiful idea and choreography and sets and costumes will not be beautiful if the dancers have no classical line, artistry, musicality, and tecnique. I can watch beautiful dancers in almost anything, but I can't watch bad dancers in anything. In other words, a bad ballet can be, IMO of course, at least watchable (if the music is not awful), as long as the dancers are wonderful. But if the dancers are bad, then I don't care how good the ballet might be or could be, it's not watchable. I will admit to also having a very hard time watching a ballet with music I really don't like, even with good dancers.

Welcome Iceland! I think most female dancers really don't pay attention because they are so used to seeing men in tights After you wear them for a little while it will seem very normal and right, and you won't give it a second thought.

Glebb, I agree on Lynn Seymour, but I loved her! Her Giselle was new every night, but always wonderful, at least the ones I saw when she danced a series of them with us in Nat'l. Ballet.

Actually Le Combat was first produced by the Ballet de Paris, in London, in 1949, with Jeannine Charrat. I believe that NYCB did it after that, prior to ABT's staging with Lupe Serrano. While Lupe was totally brilliant in this role, I do believe that it was danced first by Charrat and then Hayden before Serrano, but not totally sure of that.

Thank you for clarifying that, jmbailey, and welcome to Ballet Alert! Online We are all hoping that things will work out well for the Boston Ballet, which is indeed a very fine company!

Actually, Mel, I don't think that part is in the film, but I can't remember for sure. Mme. Hermine, I remember very little about the filming except that it was actually a live show, and we did the scene but evidently not all of it was seen because of the news of the Cuban Missile crisis. What I remember most about it was that it was a small group of us, 8 I think, and Erik staged it. Working with him was the best part of it all

Bruhn and Fracci's La Sylphide performance happened on the night of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and part of it was never seen. I was in it, and I have never seen it.

Dale, this is great news! Any idea of where it is available? I want to order this immediately

Wow! Jack that is awesome, and I would really, really love to see both the Cincinatti tapes and the Aloff interview. Freddy was always a great joy to work with, and I would guess that at 80 he is still such a joy! I was fortunate enough to work with him when he taught company classes for ABT and I, along with everyone else, totally adored him.

Nope, sorry Leigh, really don't remember anything about it except that I'm pretty sure it was actually 1961 and we premiered Etudes there. I was thinking 62 at first, but that's not right 'cause it was in my first season with the co. when we played there. But it was already called the 54th St. Theatre. I think it was the fall of that year, but I guess it could have been early '62. My memory is that we did that very soon after I started with the co.

Nope, sorry Leigh, really don't remember anything about it except that I'm pretty sure it was actually 1961 and we premiered Etudes there. I was thinking 62 at first, but that's not right 'cause it was in my first season with the co. when we played there. But it was already called the 54th St. Theatre. I think it was the fall of that year, but I guess it could have been early '62. My memory is that we did that very soon after I started with the co.

And ABT performed at that theatre, the 54th Street Theatre, in 1962 or '63, not sure which.