Paul Parish

DIssing the Undiscussible. Sibley or Dowell?

Arpino. Ray Bolger or Arthur Mitchell?

sofiane COnstant Lambert or Robert Irving?

With respect, IMHO what's happening at newspapers is simply that they're trying to "raise productivity' BY "DOWNSIZING labor costs" (i.e., paying writers less) by firing reporters of all kinds, with different excuses as needed -- NB the LA Times recently let go of their very senior and very important dance critic, the excellent Lewis Segal, -- which we all noticed -- but in fact they've gotten rid of a HUGE percentage of their pnews-gathering reporters of ALL kinds, because -- guess what? they got bought up by the Chicago Tribune, and Chicago thought LA was costing too much. The deeper story is that for over a decade "shareholder interest" has required higher profits at newspapers than used to be thought necessary. It first showed up 15 years ago when they started downsizing the "newshole" in proportion to the amount of space being given to paid advertising -- which meant that reporters like George Jackson were restricted to 8 inches (when he had had at least twice as much -- esp if it was a dance company never seen before, which requires more exposition just to give the background). Then it became "productivity" -- and these draconian cost/benefit theories have since justified firing lots of reporters everywhere, at almost EVERY paper, except the WSJ and NYT -- with the result that the papers have filled up with "soft news" features that could be run any day of the week (in SF, they've been features about why people jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, interviews with yet another homeless person or internet gambler or senior citizen taking a yoga class) while the NEWS has gone increasingly uncovered. The canard that "people are not interested in dance" is a pious belief that's convenient for editors and publishers -- it's not true, it's NOt how the PUBLIC feels -- though if interviewed, the man in the street will admit that he hears less and less about dance (but that's just because "the papers" have stopped covering it). But the man in the street watches Dancing with the Stars. I'm making a gross generalization, of course, there are exceptions, but it's basically true: of the metro dailies and most of the "alternative papers" (e.g., the Voice). yes the dailies are getting less and less informative -- but they are still solvent. If they're not making money like their shareholders want, they didn't use to. But there's NO QUESTION that the current LA Times, and also the Voice, are not the great papers they used to be.

From here it looks like EUropean companies are trending away from the kinetic appeal towards towards spectacle itself -- so dancers with striking, elongated proportions are required to complete the picture. ANd maybe always the case -- AMerican dancing from Balanchine to Cunningham has always been "more" about the dancing -- finesse, transitions, rhythm, strength, technical polish - than about the plastique -- though Balanchine certianly did like having tall women on stage flashing about. They're easier to see. THough little bitty dancers like Plisetskaya and Makarova were VERY easy to see.

I've always seen this as like those Biblical stories who have all the important events both ways. Like in Genesis, whereh the same story is told in all its variants. Giselle is buried inthe forest because Ophelia was buried in the forest -- and Giselle owes tremendously to Hamlet -- both hte unready prince and hte freaked- out heroine's madness, orbit in the gravitational sphere of Hamlet. But it's sweet to think that Giselle is delicate because as Chauviree said, she's from hte wrong side of hte blanket and has a drop of the high-strung noble blood in her. Which is part of what attracts Albrecht to her. This is pretty scandalous stuff, but the French like to think like that -- and it certainly is fitting to the story to think of her as one in a LINE of peasant girls who've been taken advantage of by hte landlord. (THough I like Albrecht to be ALSO super-high-strung and desperately in love with Giselle, like Baryshnikov was.) So she's got that finer quality, and also that weak constitution, by breeding -- perhaps it's not in the libretto, but Chauviree was many people thought one of hte very greatest Giselles of her era. The most interesting thing I've read about htis recently is Osipova's interview about doing Giselle -- the section hwere she said that in doing hte mad scene, she actually lost rtrack of what she was doing -- that she got 4 text messages during intermission from people who were afraid she'd gone round hte bend -- including one from her mother. And she acknowledges that it DID mess with her mind. And it DOES look on hte Youtubeclip like she stabbed herself but it wasn't enough -- and it also sounds like she herself, hte ballerina, does not know WHAT she did when she was in the throes of the action. VERY great performance; it's up on Youtube -- check it out for yourselves, everybody, and see what you think.

Semyonova brought down the house tonight -- Makarova seems to have changed the production quite a lot -- perhaps to accommodate the guest artists. Much different all over. Wonder what it will be like with the Perm dancers. Only a couple of years ago, they did the mime scene. Also (I THINK) Ashton's Pas de Quatre (gone now -- it's the Pd3). Act 4 seemed different too. Semyonova was overwhelming -- she's very modern in her lines and temperament, but she's also a star. Sklyaurov danced with her -- seemed like a hot guy and a virtuoso, but not much of a character. Beautiful legs, high, easy arabesque, not much soul. Perm's group were very nice Benno -- who'll be Siegfried tomorrow afternoon -- was fantastic. Good as much of it is, it seems to require the music to be played at "wrong" tempos -- usually draggy. So though the orchestra played well, the music sounded unidiomatic. The czardas and Mazurka were very fine. And Spanish. Tarantella was weird, almost no actual Tarantella to it, no heel-toe, no nothing -- but the other character dances were great.

Yes -- allegra Kent's recollections of Doubrovska are real revelations.

Natalya, I agree with yu acros the board - including tremendous admiration of Moiseyeva, whom I saw a couple years ago when Perm came to Berkeley with Swan Lake, and a few years before down the peninsula when she danced Aurora in their Sleeping Beauty. The old values of courtliness and sincerity were much in view, and Moiseyeva was incredibly generous. She is a natural Odile; her Odette took a lot of work, but i respected her the more for her understanding that Odette is hte real thing and she MUST make us love Odette. They open here inBerkeley Friday with Polina Semyonova, which brings us our first chanceto see this glamorous long-lined dancer groomed by Malakhov-- but in a wayI'll be sorry not to see the older fashioned style done purely.

Thanks, Delibes. THese are fascinating -- I think (though I'm certainly no expert) it would be a mistake to take Zakharova's remarks as "sincere" -- they may well be a profession of tractability to Putin. And Alexandrova's may also. (Kremlinology 101). Let me recommend The Rise to Power of Louis XIV" ( movie by Rossellini, who was I THINK an Italian communist) to anyone interested in these questions -- esp since Alexandrova is so refreshingly clear about understanding that the Bolshoi is hte shop-window of communism. She has a penetrating mind. Louis XIV's political use of the power of spectacle in general, and ballet in particular, to control his subjects was I suspect studied by the Soviets.

I htink Marian Walters nand his wife dance like they're in love. Check out their grand pdd from Sleeping Beauty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS_VZPaIow4 -- I would not want to see the whole ballet danced like this, it's too modern, but for the pdd as an excerpt, I think they make it romantic and courtly and poignant and really really LOVELY, and also make Petipa look completely prophetic (which itself is RIGHT ON). His devotion to her is a glorious thing.

I like the image of the Sylphide on the BT4D site -- would look great on a t shirt or a mug. I'd wear it.

THanks Chris-- working like a charm. I just used divx frn the site.

I saw Anna micro's clip on Youtube. My Lord, despite ALL the things one could object to, the overall phrasing, and hte incredible lightness of her upper body, and something inherently romantic about her breathing make me love her anyway. No, she doesn't point hte foot she's jumping from, no there's something way wrong with the rhythm of her sauts de basque -- but the parts she HAS applied her imagination to are so important -- the pas de bourrees, and yes, Lord, that soussus, when she turns her head so slowly to look at him, those details matter enormously, and hte overall rhythm and breath-like quality of all the dancing are wonderful.

Hardly anythnig would get me more excited than the chance to see Osipova as the Sylphide -- she dances from SO DEEP, there'd be no chance to mistake her gift for gymnastic -- But when I go to the link -- thank you thank you, Legwarmer -- what downloads to my computer seems to be incompatible with Windows media player, so I get the music/sound but WMP puts up an abstract light show for visuals. ANybody eolse encountered this problem; anyone have a solution?

Wonderful post, Emilienne. Thanks. I don't know whether you've heard this old story aboutt when Martha Graham first saw Serenade -- she burst into tears when hte corps turned out to first position ReMozartiana, maybe it would be worth it to see if you could get hold of the video of it with Farrell -- maybe your library has it? The variations make sense when SHE does them (they're hilarious, some of them), and hte opening prayer is sublime. It's a strange ballet. Kyra Nichols and Nina Ananiashvili did make it their own, too, but not many can. AND you should see Castelli in the Gigue. Nothing can make the minuet very interesting, I'm afraid.

From my limited experience of ballroom, I can attest to Sidwich's sense that connection can tell you a GREAT deal -- if your parrtner knows something, with a good connection you do too. We used to do an exercise where one of us danced with our eyes closed -- as a lead I remember the incredible new sense of security I felt when I realized that I could close my eyes and not see what I was dong and my partner could keep us from bumping into anybody, with slight unmisunderstandable shifts of weight. It led to a very floaty way of dancing. Actually I learned to follow as well, in SF most of the Lindy hoppers worked to learn the other side, and guys did not necessarily lead nor did women necessarily follow. The curious thing about this is you can find that your partner is making you hear parts of the music you're not listening to -- the guitar line, the bass, the sax, or is really tuned in to the way the singer is toying with hte beat,. SO a good partner can do a lot of hte listening., and it could be either one. And you can (depending) feel the bass in your solar plexus.

Jaqueline K Onassis was actually editor for Francis Mason's wonderul book, "I Remember Balanchine."

Pavlova's way of dancing hte swan can be seen on youtube -- enter "Pavlova swan" in hte search box, and hte RUL will come up - it is incredibly powerful performance, very simple, she bourrees and falls and gets back up and bourrees and falls and gets back up, 4 times, each time it gets more urgent. Nobody else makes it so dramatic.

Nobody has mentioned Marian Walter, of hte Berlin Staatsoper Ballett, who's bowled me over with a youtube clip. Sleeping Beauty, yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS_VZPaIow4 First of all, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts -- it's the way he and his wife Ianna Solenko dance together that wins my heart, and hte moving pictures they make together compose so harmoniously they may have converted me. Their way of dancing this performance of Sleeping Beauty grand pas may have reconciled me to high legs and a modern way of dancing this pas. They're BOTH examples of the tiny-headed, long-necked, long-limbed "mannerist" -- cf Bronzino or Pontormo-- shaped bodies that are so fashionable now, and his proportions are even more exaggerated than hers -- his head is smaller maybe than Adam Luders's, and that's going some distance -- but his face fits his head as if by magic, and his expressions are legible and intelligent and ATTENTIVE TO HIS PARTNER. His attentions to her are so endearing, he stands in fifth as a tribute to her -- and when he promenades her, his steps are like a race-horse's. These are FABULOUS qualities of courtliness and they look innate (though perhaps Malakhov has been coaching him? for certainly Malakhov has these qualities, too). When he offers his hand, he invites her with his eyes to accept. It is so romantic, you'd think it dcouldn't go down in Sleeping Beauty -- except it IS Sleeping Beauty, and he is the desired one. Finally, I must say, I love his thighs. Ib Andersen had thighs like that, though not on such long legs. Like a grasshopper's, or a race-horse's, such a noble shape, made for jumping -- such a body makes all the unreasonablenesses of ballet disappear -- it looks natural to push off and land through the toe with legs like that, and with such deep reserves of strength and cushion in the thigh.

Balanchine himself was great in character parts -- as Drosselmeyer he was wonderful, and as Don QUixote he was incredibly great.

Gong back a ways, Charlie Chaplin was both a fan AND an accomplished dancer. Many of the British Royal family love the ballet; the late queen mother was a personal friend of Ashton's, as was Princess Margaret. QE2 is said to love to dance, and Prince Charles is a good Scottish country-dancer (saw him once on some video, was impressed), and of course, they're patrons of hte Royal Ballet. Can't think of anybody living tht hasn't been mentioned.

She was glorious as Juliet in the Bolshoi film. ALso, her Giselle -- hte second act adage is one of hte greatest I've seen. The jumps are so light, the penchee is a reverence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67FT2X9sS2U Thanks for the photographs, RG.

Well, I think "the rest" is fantasy -- if hte fantasy of hte Sleeping Beauty could be filled out completely without hte costumes, and it's possible, I guess, with a REALLY imaginative company, then thatwould be the shw of hte century. "Ballet is about creatures" as Allegra Kent said -- and she should know. She came onstage in "The Concert" channeling Felia Doubrovska, entering the space EXACTLY as Mme Doubrovska entered the studio -- in her nothing pale blue costume with the scarf tied around her (as both Danilova and Doubrovska dressed to teach). How much more do you want? But the fantasy has to REALLY inform the movement -- and remember, the way the lighting can be changed now, with computerized instantaneous changes, means that costumes don't have to do so much work, the lighting can change the mood incredibly.

My feeling is that there is no ballet so bad that the right company can't make it interesting -- kinda like "Springtime for Hitler," the right artists can sometimes find the tone that makes it work. I've certainly seen ballets -- Fall River Legend, for example -- performed by the home company (ABT) as if "this old thing is just too embarrassing, I can't believe I have to go out here and do that" -- just after having seen it perfoirmed by the Oakland Ballet (I know, I harp on this theme too much, but it's the truth) as if they had no idea it was old-hat and they ALL knew people who came from families seething with hostitlity and they really sank their teeth into it and Summer Lee Rhatigan made Lizzie into a GREAT role, and hte performance melted the walls it was so disturbing and upsetting and fantastically realized. Similarly, when San Francisco Ballet did Jinx, which was choreographed by SFB director Lew Christensen and is probably his masterpiece, they all looked too light -- especially the women -- too supple, young, and gifted -- to create the Fellini-esque mood of a down-at-heels circus of quietly-desperate performers that Stravinsky's music SO ably supports -- but the OAKLAND Ballet made it riveting. They had the weight, the timing, the emotional depth, the chunkier bodies, and the tradition of character-dancing it took to make the whippings look violent. So much of what's lost is style, phrasing, posture -- if the style could be somehow revived, even the most dated ballet could suddenly look like a window onto a strange but fascinating world. After 9/11, Joanne Woodward decided to stage the VERY old-fashioned play Our Town -- with Paul Newman as hte stage manager and a fantastic supporting cast. It was filmed for PBS (I guess) and broadcast -- anyway, it's out on DVD and rentable, andmy God! that'll take you back. It's wonderful. Check it out.