Marcmomus

The Royal Academy of Arts in London have an exhibition about Degas and Ballet from Sept 17 to December 11, 2011. http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/degas/ has the following: "In the autumn of 2011 the Royal Academy of Arts will stage a landmark exhibition focusing on Edgar Degas’s preoccupation with movement as an artist of the dance. Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement will trace the development of the artist's ballet imagery throughout his career, from the documentary mode of the early 1870s to the sensuous expressiveness of his final years. The exhibition will be the first to present Degas’s progressive engagement with the figure in movement in the context of parallel advances in photography and early film; indeed, the artist was keenly aware of these technological developments and often directly involved with them." Perhaps there will be an associated publication.

I saw Homage to Fokine on Monday August 1st and Don Quixote the next evening. Anastasia Petushkova was the Firebird. She was excellent but I regret not seeing Kondaurova in the role as I think she's the best Firebird of all those available on DVD. Scheherazade is mainly a piece of cultural history, and knowing its original context is everything, as it's pretty ludicrous otherwise. Victoria Teseshkina was Zobeide and the slave Vladimir Shklyarov, and both were good. I appreciated the atmosphere of Chopiniana. Kitri was Anastasia Matvienko and Basil her husband Denis. Both were highly competent even if Anastasia didn't have quite enough brio for Kitri. Kondaurova was the Street Dancer. It's remarkable that they give such a small part to someone of her standing, but I was grateful to see her. She's also the Street Dancer on the recent Mariinsky DVD of Don Quixote with Novikova/Sarafanov. The impresario Victor Hochauser originally brought the Mariinsky for their first visit to London in 1961, and he also arranged this season 50 years later. Quite a record. I regret not being able to stay for more.

Thank you for alerting us to this DVD. I have watched it three times since it arrived the other day. The dancing is of a high order, and I am fascinated by Karsavina's introduction.

I agree that Terekhova and Ruzimatov is the best despite the image quality. I like that Vladimir Ponomaryov plays the Don in this version from 1991 and the current Kirov version with Novikova and Sarafanov from 2009. He didn't age much in between. Baryshnikov and Harvey's DQ is also great. The POB version with Dupont and Legris was disappointing, they could deliver but were a bit too old. Kitri must look young and Spanish and dance with her eyes. I loved Alonso's Ballet Nacional de Cuba version filmed in Paris in 2007 (BelAir). Viengsay Valdes and the rest of the young cast were brilliant. The Kirov are presenting Don Quixote in Covent Garden in the summer, and I have signed up for it, as well as for a tribute to Fokine.

The Kultur DVD of Creole Giselle is not too bad. Some scenes are a touch pale, probably because the stage was over-lit (shown by sharp shadows). There also the odd halo. I have many DVDs that are much worse.

Richard Collins, a British dancer who remarkably managed to arrange training with the Bolshoi between 1968-72, and was artistic director of the Cincinnati Ballet, died in an auto acident in 1992.

His pyrotechnics are available in the recently released DVD/BluRay of "The Flames of Paris" with Osipova.

Sergei Filin becomes new Bolshoi chief http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3311:sergei-filin-star-dancer-becomes-new-bolshoi-chief&Itemid=12

I thought Kondaurova was scheduled for Friday night but was absolutely delighted to see Lopatkina appear. I then went back for the Saturday matinee to see Kondaurova. I got a front row ticket an hour before the performance. It's astonishing that these performances weren't all sold out. Two performances within 24 hours is not usual for me, but I will remember these for the rest of my life.

Historical was indeed the wrong word, and quite tactless of me, I'm sorry. Unforgettable or memorable, even historic would have been closer to what I was trying to say. I wanted people to recognise that this material was not for everyone: that they shouldn't expect to see Osipova or Zakharova, and that they would also have to accept some technical deficiencies and the efforts of video editors with too many new toys to play with. Despite my complaint four excerpts from Don Quixote is really not that many among forty others, and even I can accept them when Maximova is doing fouettés without using her arms. It must be Minkus' music that sinks my heart.

There is a two disk set now available on Amazon.com that may be of historical interest to some people. It shows some great names mainly from the 1970's and 1980's. Some of the pas are over-familar (e.g. too much Don Quixote) but even these are different versions to what is already available on DVD. I believe that Ulanova's Juliet from 1955 is the only one available elsewhere on DVD, and Plisetskaya's Swan Lake excerpts are different to the two full-length versions already available for her. For me the set is worth it for Maximova alone, especially Valpurgis night. It's all in colour, and the rendition and image quality is not bad given that many of these are over 30 years old. Some items are unfamiliar and strange (Layla and Majnu); as usual there are some irritating close-ups, and the Giselle excerpt is nearly spoilt by intrusive repetitions. Overall though there is much to admire and enjoy. The set is confusingly called "Stars of the Russian Ballet". There is another DVD from Kultur with the same title that has excerpts from Swan Lake (Ulanova), The Fountains of Bakhchisarai (Plisetskaya), and The Flames of Paris (Chabukiani). Reviews of the new two-disk set on Amazon are mixed up with those of this other DVD presumably due to the titles being the same. All information on the DVD covers is in Cyrillic script, but there are English subtitles on the tracks giving a title and the dancers' names. These are too big, often appear late in each pas and stay too long. Given the paucity of material released on DVD for some of these great names, this set is very welcome. For those of you who saw them live, or have everything on videotape, this gives us late-comers a small window into a great period in Russian ballet. The Amazon URL is: http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Russian-Ballet-English-Subtitles/dp/B000KFWNWI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1298747729&sr=8-1 The contents are: STARS OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET Disk 1: Section 1 1. Credits (in Russian) 2. The Dying Swan ……………………………Maya Plisetskaya (1975) 3. Don Quixote ……………………………Ekaterina Maximova/Vladimir Vasiliev (1972) 4. Melody ……………………………Natalia Bessmertnova/Alexandr Lavrenyuk (1970) 5. Butterfly ……………………………Irina Kolpakova/Sergey Berezhnoy (1983) 6. Mazour Dance ……………………………Ekaterina Maximova (No date given) 7. Peri ……………………………Lyubov Kinukova/Marat Doukayev (1983) 8. Melody ……………………………Marina Kondratiyeva/Maris Liepa (1978) 9. Bayadere ……………………………Nadejda Pavlova/Vyacheslav Gordeyev (1979) 10. Don Quixote ……………………………Tamar Varlanova/Bolshoi (1971) 11. Swan Lake (Odile) ……………………………Maya Plisetskaya/Valery Kovtun (1973) Disk 1: Section 2 12. Credits (in Russian) 13. Swan Lake (Odette) ……………………………Maya Plisetskaya/Valery Kovtun (1973) 14. Narcisse ……………………………Vladimir Vasiliev (1971) 15. Esmeralda ……………………………Tatyana Terekhova/Nikolay Kovmir (1983) 16. Layla and Majnu ……………………………Maria Gorodskaya/Ella Kosterina (1971) 17. Giselle ……………………………Marina Kondratyeva/Valery Kovtun (1978) 18. Venice Carnevale ……………………………Svetlana Efremova/Valery Yemec (1983) 19. Don Quixote ……………………………Nina Timofeyeva/Alexander Godunov (1976) 20. Legend of Love ……………………………Lyudmila Semenyaka/Alexander Bogatyrev (1978) 21. Romeo and Juliet ……………………………Ekaterina Maximova/Vladimir Vasiliev (1979) Disk 2: Section 3 1. Credits (in Russian) 2 Sleeping Beauty ……………………………Maya Plisetskaya & Troupe (1977) 3. Icar (Slonimsky) ……………………………Ekaterina Maximova/Vladimir Vasiliyev (1971) 4. Variation (Ober) ……………………………Marina Kondratyeva (1978) 5. Bayana (Vila-Lobos) ……………………………Natalia Bolshakova/Vadim Gulyaev (1984) 6. Esmeralda (Pugni) ……………………………Nina Timofeyeva/Yuri Vladimirov (1976) 7. Giselle (Adam) ……………………………Lyudmila Semenyaka/Mikhail Lavrovsky (1978) 8. Bird of Prey (Ravel) ……………………………Elena Ryabinkina (1971) 9. Valpurgis Night(Gounod) ……………………………Ekaterina Maximova/Shamil Yagoudin/Stanislav Vlasov (1974) 10. Don Quixote (Minkus) ……………………………Lyudmila Semenyaka/Mikhail Baryshnikov (1968) 11. Rosa's Death.(Mahler) ……………………………Maya Plisetskaya/Valery Kovtun (1978) Disk 2: Section 4 12. Credits (in Russian) 13. Romeo & Juliet ……………………………Galina Ulanova/Yuri Zhdanov (1955) 14. Swan Lake ……………………………Natalia Bessmertnova/Alexander Bogatyrev (1983) 15. Raymonda ……………………………Irena Kolpakova/Vladim Semenov (1976) 16. Flames of Paris ……………………………Marina Kondratyeva/Valery Lagunov (1977) 17. Flower Festival in Genzano……………………………Tatyana Tayakina/Valery Kovtun (1977) 18. Angara River (Ashpay) ……………………………Lyudmila Semenyaka/Boris Akimov (1979) 19. Spanish Capricco ……………………………Larisa Trembovelskaya/Sergey Radchenko (1973) (Rimsky-Korsakov) 20. Don Quixote ……………………………Lyudmila Vasiliyeva/Ilgiz Galimullin (1991)

The clip was also easily recognisable as Les Sylphides. In the section of his biography of Diaghilev entitled 'With Diaghilev' Serge Lifar describes the 1928 season and states: "On June 2nd and 3rd we were in Montreux for the traditional Féte des Narcisses, where we gave Cimarosiana, Les Sylphides and Prince Igor."

For those who can't get to London, the book of the exhibition is really excellent: Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes 1909-29. It is available on Amazon. Apart from numerous colour plates of costumes there are essays on: Serge Diaghilev and the Strange Birth of the Ballet Russes by Geoffrey Marsh Diaghilev the Man by Sjeng Scheijen The Transformation of Ballet by Jane Pritchard Creating Productions by Jane Pritchard Leon Bakst, Natalia Goncharova and Pablo Picasso by John E. Bowlt Wardrobe by Sarah Woodcock Music and the Ballet Russes by Howard Goodall A giant that continues to grow- the impact, influence and legacy of the Ballet Russes by Jane Pritchard. and 14 other shorter essays. A three CD set (with the same title as the book) of much of the music used by the Ballet Russes is also attractive, but this may only be available from the museum's site.

For me the most striking thing -among many- in the V&A's superb current exhibition on Diaghilev was the newly-discovered film of Karsavina dancing Fokine's Torch Dance. This film was described in Forster's new book on Karsavina, but I never thought I'd see it so soon after reading about it. It is incredibly early film from 1909, taken in Paris at the start of her international career. The technical quality is excellent and motion is smooth. There were no over-emphasized facial expressions as seen on the 1913 film of Ekaterina Geltzer and Vasili Tikhomirov on the The Glory of the Bolshoi DVD. I was enchanted to see Karsavina dance, the only other snippets available seem to be her exercises from about 1920 on the The Glory of the Kirov DVD, although Forster also mentions 'a brief glimpse' of her partnered by Vladimirov in the Sylvia pas de deux. Does anyone know if this glimpse can be viewed anywhere?

If Albrecht is so keen on dancing why in many versions does he seem to demur for a moment when she asks him to dance with her? Modesty that he isn't any good? That he'd prefer to watch her dance than join her?

I noticed the article below about Darci Kistler in the New York Times last month. Ballet talk should mark the last Balanchine dancer retiring from NYCB. Perhaps some of you who knew or saw her would share your memories? Is there any DVD material of her available? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/arts/dance/27kistler.html

I would be amazed if anyone would reveal anything about current claque behaviour. Social networking with stars (really their PR agents) via the web and Facebook gives people the impression of personal contact and they repay this by unrestrained applause. Personal contact with artists was as important to the traditional claques as any fee. Many fans are so partisan and emotive that I doubt that any formal organisation for specific appearances is required. The 'greeting' applause for the first appearance, and the mandatory standing ovation for routine performances is partly a wish to pay respect and part claque behaviour. We have all sat in audiences at times wondering why applause could be so intense for so little artistry. In his memoirs 5000 Nights at the Opera, Rudolf Bing, the GM of the Met. for 22 years, describes his struggles with the claque. He hired a claqueur himself once, after he had fired Maria Callas from the 1958-59 season, and replaced her with Leonie Rysanek in Macbeth. The claqueur was instructed to call 'Bravo Callas' into the audience at an angle to prevent Rysanek from hearing it. This motivated the audience -who had hoped to hear Callas- to support Rysanek. Bing claims she rose to the occasion with a magnificent performance. Bing also limited opportunities for the claque by forbidding solo bows. I became aware of how the choreography of curtain calls and bows can restrain audiences at a Ballet Gala in Vienna recently. This was to mark the retirement of Gyula Harangozo, the Director of the Vienna Opera Ballet. The range of work presented was extraordinary wide, ranging from Le Corsaire, Coppelia, and Sleeping Beauty, through pieces by Balanchine, Forsythe, Petit, MacMillan to Alvin Ailey. There were dances to the music of Queen and Jacques Brel. (The Brel song 'Les Bourgeois' was choreographed by Ben van Cauwenbergh in 1993. It is available on a DVD called Divine Dancers: Live from Prague). Most of the soloists were from the Vienna Opera Ballet but guests included Polina Semionova and Alina Cojocaru, Linda Celeste Sims, Matthew Rushing, Noah Gelber, and Johan Kobborg. Every soloist received their applause in exactly the same way and none of them hung around milking it. The performances were for Harangozo and the artists were big enough to stand back. I was impressed at their discipline.

Studies in Ballet by William Chappell. John Lehman, London, 1948 He trained under Rambert, de Valois, Nijinska and Sergueef, and partnered Karsavina, Lopokova, Markova, and Fonteyn. Strong on theory, and opinionated, illustrated by wonderful line drawings by the author. Chappell, William (b Wolverhampton, 27 Sept. 1908, d Rye, 1 Jan. 1994). British dancer and designer. An enormously versatile talent, he studied ballet with Rambert and art at the Chelsea Art School. A member of Ballet Rambert in its earliest days (1929-34), he also danced with the Vic-Wells Ballet from 1934 to 1940. With the Camargo Society he created roles in de Valois's Job (1931) and Ashton's Façade (1931). At the Vic-Wells Ballet he created roles in de Valois's The Haunted Ballroom (1934), The Rake's Progress (1935), and Checkmate (1937). As a designer he worked for both Rambert and the Vic-Wells Ballet, designing Ashton's Capriol Suite (1930), Les Rendezvous (1933), and Les Patineurs (1937), de Valois's Cephalus and Procris (1931) and Bar aux Folies-Bergère (1934), and Tudor's Lysistrata (1932). He also designed productions of Giselle (1935) and Coppêlia (1940) for Vic-Wells Ballet and in 1936 he designed Boris Romanov's Nutcracker staging for René Blum's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. He published Studies in Ballet in 1948, Fonteyn: Impressions of a Ballerina in 1951, and Edward Burra: A Painter Remembered by his Friends in 1982. From 1951 he worked as a producer of plays and revues. In 1980 he was reunited professionally with Frederick Ashton, designing his Rhapsody for the Royal Ballet. In 1985 he designed Ashton's La Chatte metamorphosée en femme. The Dance of Life by Havelock Ellis, 1912. Some intriguing quotations in Chappell from this book, but I don't know how much of it is about dance, and how much about life. Havelock Ellis was the pioneer sexologist, who to his credit, didn't consider homosexuality a disease.

'Tamara Karsavina: Diaghilev's Ballerina' by Andrew R Foster is being published in August. The following is from the publisher's blurb on amazon.co.uk: Featuring over 200 stunning photographs from museums and private collections around the world, Tamara Karsavina: Diaghilev's Ballerina traces the life and career of one of the 20th century's greatest dance artists. This deeply-researched book details her rise through the ranks of St Petersburg's legendary Imperial Ballet where, alongside Pavlova and Nijinsky, she excelled in the classics and emerged as the supreme interpreter of Fokine's new choreography. Her spectacular debut in the West, as a star of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, put her at the forefront of all his historic seasons and confirmed her place among the greatest dancers in ballet history. Karsavina's major performances up to 1918, in each year of the Maryinsky and Diaghilev seasons, are clearly outlined and illustrated with exquisite photographs, many never before seen outside Russia. Individual chapters highlight her seminal role in the creation of such masterpieces as The Firebird, Le Spectre de le Rose and Carnaval. A legendary beauty in her day, and the subject of widespread adulation, Karsavina's formal portraits are simply breathtaking. Numerous candid photographs of her personal life also offer us a fascinating glimpse into the fashions and lifestyles in the great capitals of Europe one hundred years ago. With its comprehensive scope and meticulous research, Tamara Karsavina: Diaghilev's Ballerina is a long-overdue and indispensable resource for ballet historians and dance lovers everywhere. ANDREW FOSTER has been researching Tamara Karsavina's life and career for over 30 years and owns the world's largest private collection of Karsavina's photographs and images. He is a respected dance historian and is acknowledged by theatre museums worldwide as the leading expert regarding the life and career of Tamara Karsavina. Looks to me like the cat's pyjamas.

Nina Ananiashvili

She is also brilliant as the Firebird in the Mariinsky DVD: Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes: The Firebird/Le Sacre du Printemps 2009 Bel Air

I saw two Swan Lakes within 8 days recently. The first was the National Ballet of Canada performing James Kuldelka's adaptation in the Four Season's Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. The second was the Russian State Ballet celebrating the opening of Daniel Libeskind's Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin. One might wonder why attend two within such a short time, but circumstances offered no choice. It has been some years since I have seen this over-familiar ballet live, and the possibility of seeing modern and traditional versions close together appealed to me. The only other modern Swan Lake with which I am familiar is John Neumeier's 'Illusions like Swan Lake' based on the madness of Ludwig of Bavaria. I like Nureyev's POB version with Letestu and Martinez, and I don't think that he strays excessively from the original. Makarova/Dowell and Makhalina/Zelensky are of course the definitive interpretations among those on DVD. I have no difficulty with adaptations of familiar classics, though I am aware of the opinion that what would now be innovative would be a faithful revival of Petipa and Ivanov's original. The National Ballet of Canada is rightly proud of James Kuldelka's take on Swan Lake, first performed in May 1999. He replaced Petipa's acts I and III almost completely, but wisely made fewer changes to Ivanov's II and IV white acts, maintaining, I'd say, as much as 75% of the familiar choreography. There is a large athletic male cast in the first act, with only a single female, described as a wench. Why she was being tossed around between them all was clarified by the review in the following day's Globe and Mail, which stated that 'her gang-rape was particularly cruel'. The programme's synopsis was much more discreet, and somehow I'm glad I didn't know this was what was being portrayed. The violence on stage must have been subliminally transmitted as I was surprised at the depth of my hostility towards some latecomers being allowed to disrupt the centre of the stalls during the performance. I liked Kuldelka's robust choreography, not only because all the social dancing in the traditional first act can drag a little. Xiao Nan Yu was simply exquisite as Odette/Odile, notwithstanding her fluffing the last few of her 32 fouettés. After a moment with her face buried in Rothbart's arms, while the audience held its breath, she turned on a brilliant smile and danced her way back into our hearts, and Siegfried's. Siegfried that night was the new principal, Jiri Jelinek, previously of Stuttgart Ballet, giving his debut performance with the National Ballet of Canada. He was technically excellent if a little understated. The cast appeared under-rehearsed as there were too many errors, but overall I enjoyed it. The standing ovation was probably motivated by a desire to welcome Jiri; and to show support and appreciation for Xiao's otherwise excellent performance but it seemed to this observer to be emotional incontinence. I am more familiar with cooler European audiences. There was an excellent pre-performance talk by a dance historian whose name now escapes me, on the first floor of the Centre's glass-fronted three-storey foyer. It was rather an odd experience to be surrounded by the Friday evening rush-hour traffic on Queen and University and not hear a sound from outside: a tribute to modern acoustic engineers. I'll be back next season. Kuldelka is re-imagining Cinderella in November, and the 2011 season includes Don Quixote, and works by Balanchine, McGregor, Pite, Tharp, Béjart, Wheeldon, and Ratmansky. (www.national.ballet.ca). Porter Airlines now flies into Toronto City airport, ten minutes from downtown, from Newark, Boston and Chicago. The Russian State Ballet (of Siberia?) is one of those touring companies that seem to perform nothing but Swan Lake, the Nutcracker and Giselle. Perhaps I am being unfair, but these are all they ever bring to Dublin. Harsh commercial realities no doubt prevail. They imported Galina Stepanenko and Alexander Volchkov, both current principals of the Bolshoi Ballet, for the opening of Daniel Libeskind's Grand Canal Theatre two weeks ago. The theatre is set in a new square south of the river Liffey, and open to the water on one side where the Grand Canal joins the river. (The theatre looks superb and is more successful than Libeskind's Crystal extension to the Royal Ontario Museum further along University Avenue from the Four Season's Centre in Toronto. That was a brilliant idea rather poorly executed). It is a visual surprise to enter Grand Canal Square as it is hidden by surrounding modern offices. There are coffee shops and restaurants all around. The ballet was the usual traditional Russian version with the jester and a happy ending. The corps and soloists were all highly competent, no doubt due to endless repetition, and the staging and costumes sumptuous. Stepanenko was particularly good, Volchkov was rather like Jelinek, a little low-key but technically accomplished. My wife and daughter loved it, and I'll admit my expectations for this performance -and those of my two sceptical college-age sons- were exceeded, to the extent that we already have tickets for Giselle in March 2011.

This is a wonderful book, for all its occasional esoteric obscurities. It was fascinating to read well-argued critical reviews of performances many of us would give our right arms to have seen. When he discusses dancers like Kshensinskaya, Gerdt, Preobrazhenskaya, Karsavina, Pavlova, Danilova and Spesivtseva one appreciates his commitment to improving and illuminating the art. The book is composed of newspaper reviews and this conveys a sense of immediacy. Essential reading.

The Royal Danish Ballet's version with Lis Jeppesen and Nikolaj Hubbe (1988) has the dancers in shoes. The DVD is widely available, and the interpretation said to be exceptionally faithful to Bournonville.

Applause in (Catholic) churches is now common in Ireland, almost routine, if the priest praises or thanks anyone. I don't like it as mass is claimed to be a sacrament, with trans-substantiation held to be a miracle occuring during each mass, and to me applause dilutes the sanctity the ceremony should warrant. I hold this even though I dwell at the atheistic end of the spectrum of agnosticism and am rarely seen in any church. My stuffy attitude about this and other similar informalities in church causes much amusement among the believers in my family, that is, everyone else. I recall Irish-led applause at the end of a Spanish-Irish family wedding ceremony in the 14th century Basilica in Barcelona a few years ago created overt astonishment among the Spaniards in the congregation. Applause in the theatre is fine, even for a requiem.