Paul Parish

Thanks for the "heads up."

seems like Puccini learned everything from the middle section of Lensky's aria.... Wonderful, Helene -- thank you so much,. I'd never heard Sobinov before. Really moving. and also -- especially -- Gremin's aria. Such integrity in the performance.

Papeetepatrick, I agree with you about Tchaikovsky's music; something awful must have happened in Miami, since the music is so noble (in the words of balanchine) and if it's well played, it's and so beautiful, and unmisunderstandable, . Stravinsky admired Sleeping Beauty above all ballets, and died listening to the Pathetique Symphony. Tchaikovsky's operas are fantastic things too -- here's a good entry-place: Fritz Wunderlich singing Lensky's aria, the one that comes before the duel, when he knows that something awful is coming and how did this come to pass? So noble, so beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhpavbk6ZD8 wonder what you'll think.

Perhaps with the advent of two comedians of the calibre of Leclerq and Robbins, the first movement of Bourree F MIGHT work again. I was just reading last week about how awful Aurora's Wedding was in Miami, and the critic for the Herald went so far as to say that that ballet was dead -- sounds like a terrible performance, with from other accounts I read a very bad performance of the music. Well, bad performances of Sleeping Beauty are unbelievably ghastly because of how beautiful a great one can be -- this is the absolute test of lack of imagination. We recently saw ABT's Paloma Herrera and 4 cavaliers in unlikely garments do the Rose Adagio in such a deadly way I could not believe how much I hated it -- but it was the personnel and the direction that killed it, but that doesn't mean Sleeping Beauty is over with.

Great stuff, RG! Starr Danias was a beautiful dancer -- beautiful pose -- look at her back foot. OMG! The studio photo of diana Adams is not just a pose -- she's jumping, "standing in the air" as Cecchetti used to say.

The white-unitard looks seems to have been around at SFB since at least 1978, when the following photo was taken of Dennis Marshall as Mac http://veenet.value.net/~cchris/FillingStation.html Not sure why -- but Lew Christensen was alive in 1978 and co-directing SFB with Michael Smuin. (He suffered failing health for some years anddied in 1984). THe costume is constructed by "Grace." I think it's very UN-Cadmusy without the suggestiveness of the hunk in cellophane. The set looks fabulous.

Coda,I agree with you about Osipova's Giselle-- her mad scene is extremely upsetting, I found myself carried away, she's virtually kicking everybody, she just won't HAVE it, and her defiance really moves me.

I wish I knew more about Erik Bruhn's portrayal of Dr. Coppelius -- It was sensational, and widely remarked at the time, for its complexity of characterization. The Danes know something about bitterness and hope -- Sorella Englund's famous portrrayal of Madge (Bruhn was also a great Madge) may give an indication how great Bruhn's Coppelius was. THe theme -- wanting to animate a lifeless assemblage of parts -- is also present in Mary Godwin Shelley's Frankenstein. And the idea of dancing with a dol is of course central to the Nutcracker. Also check out DV8's "Enter Achilles."

THank you Delibes -- for the work of translating, and for the discernment in the first place to realize how important a story this is and to get it into English.. From my vantage point, the Bolshoi is looking like a GLORIOUS company -- the talent is amazing and looks like it's been given every encouragement, and the cream has risen to the top. He's been a great leader for them.

Bravo, Span Cox. Well said, sir! It's TRUE. Ballet is a fantasy of ideally frictionless interaction, like it must be in the world above us, in hte heavens. Grace abounding, wit in overplus. This applies to behavior as well as to jumps and turns and lifts -- and if htere's no generosity when the boy offers his hand to the girl, there's something wrong right there at hte start... I's wonderful that you just came right out and said that -- after acknowledging that it makes hte heart beat faster to have something like this to profess, you then do espouse it. It takes courage to do that. Thank you.

I don't find Osipova "athletic" -- despite the huge scale on which she dances, I find her like Baryshnikov and Sizova, the Nicholas Brothers, Fred Astaire -- someone who is profoundly classical in the way she moves. It's not muscular dancing -- she's moving her BONES around, it's just phenomenally easy and accurate for her, and she can do more in the space of time she's got than anybody else. Of course Kitri is her entryway -- her energy is outrageous, offscale, she embodies the comic sublime.

My experience confirms Ostrich's -- I saw the Yakobson company here in SF about 10 year ago and was VERY glad I went -- They did almost exclusively Jakobson's miniatures and I was fascinated. I took Remy Charlip as my guest and HE loved it too -- and Remy is a genius of the theater. Amy, if I were you I'd take the chance and go see them. Edited to add -- Well, I just went to both links you give, nad neither seems to be for the Jakobson company -- at least, not at first glance -- in fact, they seem to be two different sites for the SAME company.... SO I don't know what to advise. BUT if WHOEVER it is is gonig to do Giselle, I'd say, probably go. Giselle can stand up to lower production values and still really deliver -- there only has to be one really beautiful dress, and if the company can DANCE, well, that's what's called for. The Cubans come in loud hard shoes and it doesn't matter. Oakland Ballet has danced Giselle more convincingly at times than San Francisco Ballet -- their mime was more sincere, andthe jumps really got off the ground. Myrtha must be a JUMPER. So must giselle, all the Wilis , they jump jump jump. If they understand the ballet and love it and dance sincerely, it might be something the likes of which your students have never seen.

Way to go, JANE!!! THis thread is just like a string of diamonds.... WONDERFUL anecdotes. I'm specially fond of hte facial exercises. WHAT WERE THEY? Who teaches those any more? Another lost art....

Sally Streets has given sautes without plie in her class - -we did them in first, and she said "they'll tell you the truth about your feet.' I have that book -- dedication to the Countess Tolstoy (on whose farm she lived out her days), intro by Anton Dolin, many photographs showing Valya Simoukova ( a student of Dudinskaysa's, who helped with publication) illustrating the steps. though it says on hte back cover that she wrote it at the height of her powers, in fact, it's clear from DOlin's intro that this is a SECOND book, which she wrote after recovering frmo mental illness; hte first she wrote in Paris; the MS would seem to be in the archives of the Paris opera ballet. She gives 6 classes, Monday-Saturday (a la cecchetti and , i think, Bournonville). Monday's barre begins with grands ronde de jambes en l'air, slow, to open the hips, then plies in 1st 2nd, fifth front and back (I guess they're grand plies)then 16 slow tendus encloche (careful attention to head positions), then 32 faster (there's no mention of second position -- but since these tendus go through first, probably??? she included tendus to the side closing in first [but forgot to mention them?]) anyway next is rond de jambes a terre, then adagio, then grand battements, then petit battements sur le cou de pied.center begins with more tendus, (pirouette from 2nd), frappes, a devilish temps lie with little ronde de jambe en'l'air as the preparatory step for pique into arabesque..... some releves -- then there are several adages, and THEN allegros, beginning twith hans's 8 jumps in second, with and out plie, then releves in second, ditto -- very good medicine -- followed by 5 assembles over, the first 4 coming forward, the 5th travelling sideways, and a soussus) These are the kind of thing that clean you up.There are 8 more allegro exercises, and port de bras at the end with back bends to be continued.

If you have time to add a personal memoir to your list, a book that gives a tremendously vivid sense of life at that time is Tamara Karsavina's Theatre Street: her point of view is limited by her station (she was a little girl, a student at the ballet school), but her mind is one of the finest -- her intelligence is first rate, she's amazingly observant and DEEPLY thoughtful, she listened to and was interested in everybody she ever met, including servants and dogs, and simple descriptons such as what it was like for her father to get to his little twice-a-week job teaching at an orphanage will give you a very clear sense of moving about through town.... And it's just wonderful reading.

There's some wonderful footage of Ulanova and her student Semenyaka taking a walk, sitting on a park bench, and ulanova strokes Semenyaka's hair with the sweetest, most lovely gesture.... that gesture spoke volumes, as did the look on semenyaka's face, like she's her baby. I saw it on youtube....

It's her BIRTHDAY!?!? Well, we should all celebrate and watch the youtube clip of her dancing the White swan with Sergeyev (in 1940), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO6NIyAiX4c -- Talk about demode, she makes balletl look like a lost art. it's done in front of a curtain, but it could not be more serious, nor more sublime. her absorption is complete- - though she does things that are simply no done any more, like leading forward with the knee in devellope, the whole thing is so noble, so chaste, it leaves ALL others looking small somehow.

Sounds very festive -- an EXCELLENT way to approach midnight on the last day of the year. Thanks for the report -- I'm coming to LOOK for your reports, dancerboy -- it's really great to hear what's going on at La Scala. What does "Bolle was ... as ever" mean? How do you feel about him? I can imagine -- the hype is like that around David Beckham; but when I look at him, not having had the chance to become jaded, I find that I like him very much -- he's responsible, an "answerable" dancer; not as spontaneous as I'd like, by any means, but still, there's such honesty in the way he pulls up I find myself admiring him, and grateful. And he's willing to be beautiful -- that's probably no big deal in Europe, but around here we see people still husbanding their glamor, saving it for someone else.

Good sleuthing, Mme. Hermine -- Thanks. (And happy new year!)

I rather like Vainonen's Nutcracker. THe Kirov Academy brought it here on tour about 10 years ago, and it filled the stage in a generous way. I particularly liked the quadrilles for hte older girls. It's gracious and large-minded. THough there is a passage of vulgar comedy in the party scene which makes fun of an elderly character, who stumbles around -- which to me seemed out of place. It occurred to me that it was in there to give Stalin a laugh. I have no idea if that's true, but it did occur to me that it might have served as a sop to the censors -- like throwing something to Cerberus to distract him so you get by.

I think he was no les than a genius. The way dance arises out of situations in 7 brides for 7 brothers is so rigorously logical, it ALWAYS makes sense, and again and again, you just can't wait for it to happen. I saw hte movie as a kid and remember it as making me overjoyed, just beside myself with delight. ABout a year ago I rented it from netflix and watched it 4 or 5 times before sending it back, and it just kept getting better and better. THe boys htemselves were like a litter of puppies -- Jacques d'Amboise included -- o my god, what a wonderful movie. I am so grateful to Michael Kidd.

They were also dancing "Crystal Palace" on that tour -- music by Bizet, choreography by George balanchine Maybe some of your pictures of Palais de crystal, for which you've identified some of hte dancers, I think, would help you identify some in the crowd.

Mme. Hermine, thank you so much for that GREAT link -- The timeline is so valuable -- It's fascinating to see that Leger's Ballet Mechanique was the same year.... and also Rene Clair's Entre-acte to Relache... Snd Wigman's hexentanz got filmed a few years later. Wow. I know it's easy on the internet for people to claim to be someone they are not, but I think this may WELL be posted by the Kirov Ballet in fact. The Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet, are also posting their precious materials on youtube -- as is VAIMUSIC, which has videos of Tallchief and Leclercq that are just unbelievable in their quality -- and there are also fantastic clips of Alicia Alonzo up right now, also, that also seem to be not pirated but posted by the copyright owners. It looks like -- it would be great if this were true -- the free advertising at youtube is boosting sales of the DVDs of these great old performances.

hEY eD, JUST STUMBLED ONTO THIS THREAD (INCOMPETENCE AT COMPUTERING HAS SOME ADVANTAGES) OOPS, CAPS LOCK. jUST SAW YOUR TEACHER Lisa IN SALLY'S CLASS YESTERDAY, WAS THINKING OF YOU, WONDERING HOW IT'S GOING -- SO how did Carmina Burana go? Did you like the ballet? What's it like from the inside?

Thanks forthis report, db87. It's wonderful to hear that both Bolle and Zakharova are maturing as interpretive artists -- they have SO MUCH to offer. I agree, the Bourmeister is a very interesting version of this ballet -- The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet danced it here in San Francisco a few years ago, and it is impressively coherent and powerful. Gotta ask, did Carbone dance? How'd she look?