Victoria Leigh

Maya Plisetskaya in Dying Swan at the Old Met. The first time I went to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, when the orchestra came up and started the first notes of Swan Lake. Toni Lander in Miss Julie, and also the variation Mel mentioned in Grand Pas Glazunov. Lupe Serrano in Le Combat. The first time, and every time, that I saw Dark Elegies. There are more, but these are the ones that come to mind first.

Ben Stevenson's Swan Lake, for Houston Ballet, has a proglogue. I haven't seen it for a long time, but I remember liking it and thinking it was quite well done.

I saw it this afternoon and thought it was totally delightful! Galeazzi was very right in the role, I think, and she has beautiful legs and feet and a jump to die for. I thought Kobburg was adorable, and his jump, as well as his turns, were exceptional. There were a few minor problems in the partnering, but nothing dreadful or that could not be attributed to first time in the role nerves.

Samba, if the costumes were like those worn by earlier productions, including ABT way back when I danced this ballet, they are indeed very cumbersome and difficult to dance in. They were just plain heavy! The colors in ABT's early procuction were different from those in the Royal and in ABT's later production, too. We had some rather strange colors, as I recall. The corps were in red, the two small soloists in pink and ---not sure of the second one, and the two tall soloists in orange ( ) and purple! The white couple were the same, and of course the blue boy. It was the 4 soloists colors that were so strange. It's been so long that I can't even remember now if I was the purple or the orange girl!

It was a staple when I was in the co., in the days of one night stand tours The corps de ballet was rehearsed to the eyelash by Dimitri Romanoff, and it was indeed very, very difficult to do it to the standard he expected. He made life hell on wheels for all new corps members - but they learned, and they got it right! I used to think sometimes that the biggest advantage to becoming a soloist was finally getting out of Les Sylphides

Doug, I have this CD, but only one copy Sorry to hear it is out of print. I could put it on a tape for you, but I'm afraid that is the best I can do. Have you tried any second hand stores? Or Dance Books in London? www.dancebooks.co.uk

Sickle feet, arabesques which are poorly placed and too far side, winged feet, crunched toes, flapping wrists, poor port de bras, sloppy in-between steps, careless partnering, sloppy poses by male dancers when partnering (turned in legs, crushed or sickled feet), supported pirouettes where we see the partners hands creating or continuing the turns, bad spacing, bad timing and lack of synchronized corps work, mannerisms and affectation, and of course LACK OF MUSICALITY!

www.artslynx.org/dance/index.htm Check out this site. Try the Master Sites section. Most companies have web sites, and most of them list the repertoire. This will show you whether they are more classical or contemporary. Usually there are some photos too. There should also be an address or phone number to contact them, and maybe an email address. You will need to contact each company to find out their audition policies.

Just a minor edit, Alexandra...the Carreno's did the Friday night performance (not Thursday), and the Sunday matinee. Michele Jimenez and Runqiao Du did Wed., Thurs., and Sat. nights, and Brianne Bland and Jared Nelson did the Sat. matinee. I saw all three casts, and enjoyed them all, however, I felt that the Carrenos' had a bit more difficulty with the partnering and lost some of the fluidity in their pas de deux. She was very dramatic, and he was technically very fine, but together they did not work as well as our own two couples. I feel that I am being objective here, however, as you all know I am connected to Washington Ballet, so the possibility of some prejudice does exist

Really delighted to hear your thoughts on this, Manhattnik, as I felt exactly the same thing when I saw the performance of Giselle with Kent/Carreno here in DC a couple of weeks ago! I had always liked Julie Kent very much, but had not seen that degree of artistry before, which put her into a whole new category, at least in my mind.

Coppelia was the very first ballet I ever saw, and it was when I was about 9 or 10 years old I think. It was the Sadler's Wells Ballet, and I believe that the Swanhilda was Elaine Fifield. I really don't remember much about the production except that I was totally enchanted with it

Jackie Kennedy was present in 1965, at the State Theatre, for ABT's world premiere of Robbins' Les Noces. Bernstein conducted that performance, and it was quite an exciting event

Leigh, I was in ABT's performance of Billy the Kid at the White House. I believe that we were the first ballet company to be brought in to perform. The occasion was a State Dinner for the President of the Ivory Coast. It was quite a feat fitting that ballet on the tiny East Room stage, but what an exciting day that was for all of us who were privileged enough to be there! We were flown to DC from NY in one of the Air Force jets, rehearsed early in the day, and then had some rooms at a nearby hotel for the day. The performance was not until 10:00 at night, after the dinner. It was my first time in DC, and also my first performance in Billy the Kid! There are photos of us on stage, with the President and Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy then took us on a tour of the White House. And then we were flown back to NY! A great memory

dancerchika, I'm not sure that I understand your question. Can you clarify what you are asking about here?

Bard, Amanda and John will not be dancing Romeo and Juliet. There was a conflict I think. You will see Michele and Runqiao on Sat. night We have 3 casts, with the Cuban guest artists dancing the Fri. night and Sun. matinee performances, and the Sat. matinee will be Brianne Bland and Jared Nelson. I saw Michele and Runqiao on Wed. night and I thought they were beautiful!

Nutkin, the only video I know of that is available commercially is the Pierre Lacotte "La Sylphide", which is a version supposedly "after Taglioni", with music of Schneitzhoffer. The Danish Ballet's version by Bournonville is set to music of Lovenskjold. ABT and other companies have danced this version, and I wish there were other videos of this ballet available. (The ballet to Chopin is "Les Sylphides", which is a totally different work.)

All of the above, BalletNut! They are Giselle's friends, it is to entertain the nobles as well as the audience, and it is an opportunity to give talented soloists some good classical dancing! It is also, with the exception of Giselle's solo variation, really the only major section of classical dancing in the first act, so, if not there, it is missed. In the Nat'l. Ballet of Canada production they made it a pas de quatre, which was quite nice, actually. Since there are two female and two male variations, that works out rather well.

That scenario works really well for me, Andrei! And I absolutely agree that she is a virgin!

I do not post often about ABT because I am totally prejudiced when it comes to this company. Having said that, I will also say that there have been some times recently when I was less than thrilled with them. That was NOT the case last night! All I will say right now is that this was a Giselle not to be missed, and I was VERY VERY glad that I was there for this one! I know there will be a lot written here today about this performance, and lots of full descriptions of the entire performance. While there were a couple of things I could pick on, they were minor, IMO, and overall it was a very special night. Julie Kent and José Manuel Carreno were magnificent, and for me they made Giselle what it should be and rarely achieves. And they made ABT look like the company it can be. The musical phrasing, especially in the second act, was sublime, and the coaching for this production was the best I have seen in a very long time. The audience was on it's feet for this one, and it was highly deserved!!!

WOW!!! CONGRATULATIONS, LEIGH!!!

This is only speculation, and observation over the years in terms of watching very young, exceptionally talented dancers doing too much too soon. IMO, they are over-used and abused instead of nutured and developed. Sometimes they survive, often they don't. It is natural for directors to want to showcase such talent, but it also can come to the point of exploitation, which is a huge disservice to the dancer in the long run. This is one of my problems with the competitions, which set the young dancer up for stardom, and all that flash and dash, technical whiz-bang thing just doesn't work so well as they try to fit into a company. One of the reasons is that they have always been "stars", and sometimes have not developed the ability to work in a corps de ballet, or even to work in many different styles. Or, if they are given the principal work right away, so much is expected from them that they fold under the pressure. Principal dancers need to have some degree of maturity and steady experience in a company, a chance to grow up, and to be a dancer before they are suddenly a "star". On the opposite extreme, many very talented dancers languish in the corps for years and never get the opportunity to be developed into soloists and principal dancers. While not all really good dancers in the corps of a major company have the potential to go beyond that, many do. In very large companies this can be very difficult, as they are just not noticed, or people keep getting brought in as soloists and principals while the company dancers remain in place. I don't know what has happened to Paloma, but I have always been one to defend her and just kept saying 'give her a chance to develop, she just needs coaching and time to develop some aspects of her technique that are not quite there yet. She is enormously talented.' But, last night was sad to see. I was in the 4th row, and could see very clearly that she was NOT happy to be up there. While the ballet as a whole was, as others have said, still sleeping last night, she did nothing to help that at all, technically or artistically. Right at this point in time she has not lived up to her potential at all, but, she is still young, and this can change. The talent doesn't go away, but obviously some things are in the way of it's development in this case.

Juliet, I also liked the Taylor work very much. I saw the rehearsal Tues. and the performance last night (Wed.) I think it's interesting, and very well danced, and I do think it's a ballet. Carreno is certainly an elegant and handsome cavalier, but I was disappointed in his technique in the variation last night. He did not finish the rond de jambe sautés, and then did some sissonnes which were lovely at first but sloppy feet on the ending of each jump. Murphy's "unengaged demeanor" did not work for me at all. She is certainly strong technically, however. Michelle Wiles is lovely in Theme soloists, but mismatched with the other three in terms of height. Found this distracting.

From the Oxford: "Swan of Tuonela Sibelius' Legend for Orchestra (1896) has been used several times for ballet purposes, e.g. by A. Saxelin (Helsinki 1948), W. Ulbrich (Leipzig 1958), and Dolin (Guatemala 1965)."

He wrote the music for the ballet Scaramouche which was first produced in 1922. His concert music was used for a number of other ballets over the years, including several versions of his Swan of Tuonela. Other works include Obsession, Lady of Shalott, Sea Change, Pelleas and Melisande, The Tempest, and Perisynthion. The dates and choreographers are listed in the Oxford Dictionary of Ballet.

Hi Amy, nice to "see" you again! My pointe was really only that I don't consider the typical Balanchine dancer, i.e., dancers trained only in that style, to be representative of the American dancer. They are most certainly one "breed", so to speak, but they are not THE American dancer. I can't begin to define what that is, however, or even if there is such a thing, but, IMO, the American dancer is more often a "mixed breed" in terms of training, although generally more classically schooled and less stylistically limited. ABT is perhaps more European in appearance, but they have, and have always had, many wonderful American dancers along with dancers from Russia, Cuba, Spain, etc. I admit to prejudice, as I always have, when it comes to ABT But, I also prefer dancers who can dance Giselle along with Balanchine, Tudor, Ashton, MacMillan, DeMille, Robbins, Tharp, Taylor, etc.