Paul Parish

THanks Dr b -- it's great to have that essay ready to hand. Makes me think again of how he admired Ray Bolger, who has an unearthly lightness and freedom in his movements --

i haven't found much about his training so far -- but it may have involved high-wire tightrope walking. It certainly did in the case of his idol Fred Stone, a comic vaudevillean who literally bounced onstage. Bolger saw him as a child and "knew at once" that's what he wanted to do. Bolger modeled his performance as the Scarecrow on STONE's performance in the 1902-1911 stage production of The Wizard of Oz. Certainly you'd have to pull up to do high-wire work. If you look at Bolger's pas de chats carefully, what makes them so funny is how his legs seem to be hanging off him. THis is only an exaggeration of what ballet dancers strive for. Lorna Feijoo floats over her legs like this in Tchai pas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8lNWDfzcCY But tap dancers seem to have cultivated this quality -- esp the shorter Nicholas brother http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJL01VpvbE (2:30 ff) Where did they learn it? I don'tknow.

atm, I'm sure you are right. Several people have told me they saw "Once in love with Amy" and have never forgotten it -- it was a soft-shoe dance. Hans, can you tell us how he did it? Where is mbjerk when we need him, alas.... ......................... edited to add Well look what I found: "Once in love with Amy" is a soft-shoe done in tap shoes, with little arabesque turns and the sweetest, silliest, goofiest spell of enchantment inspiring hte whole thing. See for yourself

miliosr, you're really onto something.... though it's not completely hopeless. The more that young ballet dancers cross-train with contemporary dancers, the more they'll encounter "energy-work." I'm calling it that, not sure WHAT it's called, but in Butoh and also in the descendants of Ausdruckstanz, theyre's intense interest in being able to develop techniques of altering energy states -- to move way into the self, far behindhte surface, to be come very cold, or very forward, -- whatever, these ARE techniques, and it'swhat's missing most in the very facile dancers coming out of hte ballet schools now -- a ballet like Dark ELegies -- which by hte way the Limon company dances superlatively well -- requires that powerful, deeply withdrawn energy, to creat e that "after great grief a formal feeling comes" communal emotion whthout which the Tudor shapes would not have any force as gestures.

Macaulay's article's very fine -- I hope the'rell be more testimonials like Marga's -- from people who were there and know what the spirit was like in the creation and performance of those things.HTe stories I've heard all atestt to that -- how the lights went out in the middle of your turn and you had to fall onto a rug and get whisked off-stage on the rug.... ther'es a WONDERFUL photograph of Ellen Cornfield in blue Rauschenberg tights and in mid-air next to an outlandishly colorful construct of Rauschenberg's in Herbert Migdoll's wonderful old book "Dancers Dancing"-- big outsized pictures, very exuberant.

In every Balanchine bio, when it comes to the Broadway work, there's always at least a mention of how much Mr B enjoyed working with Ray Bolger (who intitiated the hoofer role in Slaughter on 10th Avenue). It's always intrigued me; I've wondered what he was like. This clip gives some idea of the awesome technique -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjTGNDOA0JU#7v4L-UHLazA It's really astounding. Bolger was not just a clown, though he was a genius clown -- look how centered he is how he floats -- how he can pull up. Anybody have experience of seeing Bolger live?

Miller's pose in hte postcard photo is rather singular-- whether or not she WAS stocky, with her front leg turned-in like that, and with the knee bent, yet, she sure does look awkward. Can this be the image Balanchine wanted? Maybe.... the pose is kinda like the "Who Cares?"/Agon pose, with the front leg turned in, knee raised, like a prancing horse or a Broadway chorine -- except that the "standing leg" is on pointe (which is a big exception). How do the rest of you read this pose? Actually, Apollo does some pirouettes landing in a turned in lunge on the balls of his feet that look rather like this -- Miller's tutu looks odd with this pose, makes it look like there's something wrong with her left hip.

thanks, dancesmith, for that thoughtful post. That struck me as really smart. THe thing about popular culture bart and everybody, that you have to remember is that unlike in the 30s, right now it's 80% the product of advertisers. Now people aren't stupid, and we all understand that advertisers are trying to amuse/distract us while they get their hands on our wallets -- so nobodyreally trusts advertisers, but we're all kinda suckers for hte way the advertisers fsweet-talk us and seduce us and and make us feel they're entertaining us for free -- and htey are VERY entertaining. Problem is, it is NOT free. They play on snob value, but they also pretend to be populist -- though they're not REALLY interested in hte well-being of people who don't have money to spend. In fact, they're trying to make us feel insecure, so we'll step in line with whatever they say is cool.... They get paid to do that, and paid well -- and htere's lots of talent working behind hte scenes to keep it all appealing. I guess I have to give Groening more credit than this, but basically he has no critique of commercial culture except to say watch your wallet. I can't watch the show it makes me depressed. in fact, I've disabled my TV. So IMO, it's not particularly satisfuing to study what they're up to -- it's NECESSARY to figure out their strategies, since I htink one needs to keep up good defenses against htem -- and you have to give them credit when they do something remarkable. But remember, they're trying to make a fool out of you, since a fool and his money are soon parted, and it's your money they want. ................................ edited Sat AM to say, well, I guess I went a little off the deep end here. Still, it's the advertising that strikes me as burning with a hard, gem-like flame.

Violette Matthew or benjamin Stewart?

Wonderful report on Beauty, helene -- I had no IDEA that there was mirror breakage in Sleeping Beauty! how did you like the fountain? ........................ edited to add, I've now read all your posts, helene, and wow, what a wonderful trip you've taken ME on. Read it backwards, and right now I'm touched by your sense of the sad young queen as an essence that should inherent in the ballet dedicated to her. For some time now I've been struck by the way Fonteyn kind of doubled as the queen -- they both looked exactly the same, same face especially, and same gallant and modest war work and same readiness to do heir duty and make the gestures that people needed to see and be the person the people needed to have in charge and look up to. Fonteyn's Aurora was the answer to the cry "Woe to the land whose prince is a boy," in the counsel to princes tradition that came down from before Shakespeare's day.... with de Valois in the background as eminence grise doubling as the Queen Mum. SO I'm particularly struck by how right your feeling seems to me. (I think Frears's movie was about this, too -- certainly Mirren's performance was Fonteyn all over again.)

Cornejo. First or 3rd girl Bizet?

oops, I see you've already consulted the macmillan version.... Is there any reason to think the king's mime scene (condemning, then pardoning the knitters) in this production is not authentic? Monica Mason was teriffic as Carabosse in the film of it.

If you'd like to see the mime, I'm almost certain that in the Royal ballet's video of Macmillan's production the scene is included -- some women dance very tricky footwork while doing some kind of needlework with their hands, the king sentences them to death -- I BELIEVE he crosses his fists below his wais --, and the queen interevenes to rescue the poor women.... You could probably learn hte mime from the video more easily than from a written account, esp since the gestures would be timed to the music....

atm711 must be right about Marie-Jeanne in that Baiser photo (and my GOd, look at Franklin's elevation!) That sure looks like Marie-Jeanne's chin to me, and her eyes. It's very characteristic of her, to have her eyelids almost closed like that.

What fun to read your post, Perichoresis. Welcome. Did you know that the early Christian mystics thought of the trinity as doing a perichoresis -- I mean they were Greek, or wrote in Greek, and if they didn't come up with the term, they used it for the way the three aspects of God inter-relate, they thought of it as a dance. That video you mention is vivid in my mind, also -- the image of Merrill Ashley in tears, the sound of Allegra Kent saying, as she twirled her iris, that there were some dances she thought that she did rather well, and that amazing voice of Millie Hayden saying "He never said anything like tthat to ME" -- it was clear that they were formidabl;e people, tremendous people in their own right, and they were talking about someone who had meant untold worlds to them... it gave you a kind of perspective on things that lined you up with infinite grandeur..

The thing that struck me tonight when watching a lot of youtube clips was how weak the hip action is from the newbies. Jason can DO footwork, his feet are neat, remarkably placed, and his shoulders are handsome -- though his head does not rise from his back, and his hips are -- well, there's no only no intrigue down there, they don't even seem to be involved in keeping him moving -- he's powerfully centered, but it's not from the front of the pelvis. That pretty girl with the long legs can make some nice shapes but she's really got no hip action when she's transferring weight. She can shake her bootie when she's planted, but that's another thing altogether. Kristi is hella better than anyone else, but still, there''s some way in which what she's doing, though it's impressive, it's not dancing. She doesn't seem musical, not in my book.

soundless Vishneva or Lopatkina?

Again, I couldn't make the symposium today -- but friends hwho did told me on the subway tonight that Helgi said he's been watching the Mariinsky Symphony in C on Youtube. They may have heard it wrong -- but it should be on the podcast oftoday's

A friend emailed me yesterday: "I know YouTube is supposed to be subversive, and we all expect favorite clips to be removed at any time, so it was interesting to hear at last night's New Works Festival Symposium on the "emerging role of technology in communicating dance" how YouTube, dancer blogs, digital diaries, etc., are going to be essential in helping a new generation find entry points into the closed, arcane (not to geeks but to normal people) world of ballet. Is it possible the "Balanchine police" have already removed the Marinsky Symphony in C anyway? Nancy Reynolds of the Balanchine Foundation was at last night's symposium and said Mr B would be in the digital forefront today." THe whole symposium is podcast on the SFB website, so to hear what participants actually siad instead of just a precis, go to sfballet.org

Best I've EVER liked Nioradze -- in fact , I love her phrasing in this -- eboth first and last movements, and she's dazzling in hte finale. lopatkina can dance both slow and fast -- I really like her adagio; it has its own integrity, it's her own, and it's wonderful. Rather like Tanny's; her balances are more confident htan either Tanny's or Allegra's. maybe like Toumanova's might have been I love hte way she's moving all the time.... the slow fouettes are REALLY wonderful, and hte big develloppe is magisterial, wonderfully phrased -- and his transition from the one hand to hte other is really beautiful, too. her pivot to arabesque is magnificent and hte penchee is glorious. Didn't make me cry, like Allegra does, but I love it anyway. If you think she's cold, check her out in in the Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dts4SQbiHdM&fmt=18 and think again.

I'm enjoying Jason Taylor's footwork -- though he did stumble badly in the Viennese waltz, his lightness and accuracy in the "up-ups" astonished me -- and the clarity of his shoulder axis is wonderful to see. Kristi can do amazing things, and her frankness about the difference between putting your foot flat on the ice and the reach from the heel in ballroom was disarming, there's something about her shoulders and neck I DON'T like. By the way, for anyone who's missed the show but would like to see the dances, they're all (well mostly all) up on YouTube. That's where I've seen them. Enter "Kristi dwts" in YouTube's search box and you'll get an array of shoices, and can browse from there.

Sylvia pdd was WONDERFULLY danced by Cheryl Yaeger -- and Julio Bocca? -- of ABT about 20 years ago. She was unbelievably light and airy -- it's a completely different interpretation from van Hamel's statuesque version. I believe that it was set on the Bolshoi a few years ago by Marina Eglevsky (whose father was Tallchief's partner in the premiere, and to whom I believe Balanchine left the ballet in his will.)

Like Robert, I can't really say why I feel so sad, but like him, I do. I only knew Michael through his posts here, as "mbjerk" -- but everything he said seemed so thoughtful, considered, "rounded," i always wanted to know what he thought about anything. THe smallest insight might grow into the biggest realization, and anything he said seemed to have real life in it. "Ballet is one of those things you do in order to find out why you do it."

When I was a graduate student at Oxford, I noticed that the Brits are not "concerned" to support their statements with examples. As an American, it seemed arbitrary -- but then I noticed that what they were saying was remarkably pithy and interesting. The drawback of the American method is that it's easy , VERY easy, to get some facts together and then make an argument using the materials you have to support your case, whether it's interesting, insightful, TRUE, or not -- of course it's TRUE, the facts are there -- but it's often just something safe to say, a very uninteresting, even trivial truth. And worse, it's a good way to disguise a rationalization, and an excuse to avoid going REALLY deep into the matter, which will often require you to go on some hunches, or insights you can't account for. They actually encourage opinionated eccentricity, like Clement Crisp's -- who is rarely eccentric in his judgments, just in his manner of expression. They're responsible in a different way.

I believe I've read his attending the famous Saddlers' Wells Ballet opening [Fonteyn in Sleeping Beauty?], with Robert Irving and Lincoln Kirstein, and they noticed how good Lambert's conducting was. OK, I just double-checked, and it's in Duberman's WONDERFUL bio, "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein," p 453. You should own a copy of this book. Aslo, Balanchine thought that the English training of the average dancer was the best he'd seen, but found it prim. In earlier chapters, when Balanchine first came to the US, Kirstein took him to Harlem a lot. And of course he knew what Broadway dabcers were like, and admired several of them -- Ray Bolger, the Nicholas Brothers, Fred Astaire -- enormously. You can't beat "I Remember Balanchine" for stories about him. PS: One of my ballet teachers, who'd been a soloist at NYCB and took his class, recalled that they all went to see the Kirov do Sleeping Beauty and were blown away and wanted to dance it but he said "When you can dance like that , we do Sleeping Beauty."