Paul Parish

NOt sure about that "not acting" thinng. I haven't read up on MK lately, but my impressions of her are that she was most famous for her Russian dance, and for portraying the poor Esmeralda in hte Hunchback of Notre Dame, with some of the real feeling of Zucchi, and was particularly affecting because of her acting. She was also a famously great terre-a-terre dancer, brilliantly fast and accurate, and as a teacher... well, didn't Fonteyn say she didn't feel she could learn anything from Kchessniska, because she always said 'Today we'll go for speed"? (Maybe it was Karsavina.) MK and Preobrajenska were certainly competing teachers in Paris at hte same time, but Preo's students, I am under the impression, did better than MK's. (Fonteyn went to Preo.) Maybe i'm prejudiced -- I found her autobiography boring, mostly a list of dinner parties and compliments paid to her, written in very trite language with little insight. But that's my impressoin from many years ago; I haven't re-read the book, though I have not thrown it away. She must have been scintillating as a person, and as a performer, in complete command of the stage -- just not as a writer. THE one memorably wonderful thing I seem to remember from her writing was her spontaneous response to seeing Isadora Duncan for the first time -- she was thrilled, she stood on her chair and clapped. Now THAT -- well, I love that.

Well, funny you should mention basketball -- because it was Michael Jordan that made sportscasters have to start talking about ballet -- he was SO graceful, there was no other word they could think of. There's a lot of RESPECT for ballet in pop culture, I think. On the other hand, Garfield is barely popular any more. Neither is the Lockhorns. At least, they don't seem so to me.

Papeetepatrick, I think Guillem's high extensions in CInderella were exactly what Nureyev wanted. THe problem is Nureyev's manic choreography. Guillem CAN do 90 degree etensions. Check out her famous performance of "Grand Pas Classique" at hte Hans Christian Anderson Awards -- a display piece of not-great choreographic merit other than to test the aplomb it requires and displays to great advantage. She does a diagonal of releve ballones at standard height with immaculate rotation and elegance, turning in retiree on every 4th, and in the last sequence repeats the phrase with super-high extensions. I saw her live just a couple oftimes and was impressed with her finish and with her desire to give the audience something worth coming to see. She was miscast in "Fall RIver Legend" and yet took the ballet seriously and was the only person onstage who didn't seem to be embarrassed to be in this tacky old-fashioned ballet, and I admired her enormously for that.

I wish ALina Cojocaru wouldn't raise her leg so high sometimes, BUT ... it doesn't much matter in her case. I find her intuitions are SO fine, so true to her characterizations, which are so noble, and the general expansiveness of her dancing so in harmony with my taste in everything else that her high legs rarely bother me. Her giselle is so poignant and touching -- her mad scene w(in that Japanese production) is the finest most detailed acting I've ever seen, you can feel the daisy petal between her fingers, you can see her trying to think her way through this, thought by thought, incident by incident, where was I mistaken?" and she DANCES with the same intelligence. And she's only taking her leg a little higher htna Bessmertnova had already taken hers. If she weren't so extraordinarily free in the breast-bone, collarbone, shoulders, neck, arms, if her port de bras were not so expansive, and if her judgment were not so juste, the high legs woulod be exceptoinable -- but she uses her neck and arms as extensions as well, and you can't find nobler head positions.... And as Aurora, she modulates her extensions with very good taste. If she lets the leg go way up in he step-up develloppes, well, ok, that's climactic, it's OK there (and Sizova let her leg go way high there, too) -- what matters more is the way she stepped backwards into arabesque after arabesque as if it were nothing, and even more, the simplicity of her diagonal to the violin solo -- the reach out through the arms, the gentle corkscrewing of the wrists, a la Russe, the delicate feel for Russian character dancing that enlivens her entire upper body.... The things she WANTS to do fascinate me, as much as the fact that she can do them -- and in her case, high legs are way in hte background of her performances.

DO videos of Cojocaru's Giselles with Johann Kobborg and Manuel Legris exist for sale? there are clips all over youtube of some of the most extraordinary danicng I've ever seen in these roles, sincere, ethereal, ravishingly imaginative dancing. THey must be segents of videos, HUH?

What Christian says about Lorna Feijoo and Acosta applies also to her sister, Lorena, when she dances with joan Boada in Don Quixote -- they have the same schooling, they both know how to be "Spanish," and they really enjoy each other -- fantastic connection between them. There was something likable, also, in the partnership of Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley -- both were rather cool emotionally, but their connection to each other was very tight -- they were like twins, and they let us into their world -- without coming out to meet us, they did not hold us OUT -- well, HER dancing had a lot of spontaneity in it, and like Cojocaru, she was a little person who danced on a really large scale, which counts for generosity big-time with me -- and his generosity lay in his way of being scrupulous, which was not somehow egotistical like Bruhn's or Nureyev's but more in the service of an ideal, which frequently registered as chivalrous (he's a little like Fadeyechev that way, though with a completely different body-type). this was fabulous in Swan Lake -- and also quite intriguing in "The Dream," where for most of the hte ballet he's supposed to be quarrelling with Sibley, and the tension was complex and fascinating....

makarova Fan, do you like this performance? I haven't seen it yet, but... well, I was very moved by the performance she gave in CHildren of Theatre Street, where she (and Zaklinsky?) not sure who) give a private perormance for the kids (and of course for the camera0-- it was the first time I saw hte noble qualities I'd heard so much baout that made her so mucg beloved in St Petersburg.... I'd recommend that White Swan to anyone -- it's wonderful.

Perky, I think Croce was talking about the fabulous Nikolai Fadeyechev, who was certainly a big guy and danced with heroic generosity in every way -- his cabrioles hung in the air and he beat htem so slowly it was almost an assemble ouverte -- he had all the time in the world,, and when he'd finally come down he landed very softly. A VERY old-fashioned ideal, but you can see that it was an ideal. I personally adore fadeyechev. He's one of my favorite dancers, I fancy I can see something of Pavel Gerdt in him.

"Why should I make some girl miserable?" That's a very good answer to that question.

THanks, kfw-- the radio excerpts are so good....

What a Mensch she was. I LOVED her stories -- only 45 of them in her whole life, but CHOICE. You could feel the quality of her mind from the way she left stuff out -- the way she could "skip steps" (as we used to say in geometry class) and get to the QED had the electricity of real wit. Very much her own person, and yet very much a voice of her community -- I'm not Jewish, so it's not my own native lore, but I hear the music in those locutions and recognize the use to which they're put from my own family, especially my basque relatives. the way she used private jokes, family lore, the rituals that people share and give them a sense of having SOME security in hte world because if all else fails, YOU will recognize the reference and smile with recognition, which creates community, keeps bringing it into being. Her work was full of these little recognitions, and the focus was so good that a very small thing became a very big thing indeed.

I too am a fan of Alonzo's Pas de Quatre, everything about it, the head positions, the shoulders, the subtle changes in hte ribs, the arresting balances -- but most of all the POINTED FEET in jumps. her little cabrioles are the prettiest things anywhere, the ankles, insteps, toes have such alacrity to them....

I agree with you dancerboy about Zakharova -- just nothing earthy or Spanish about her. She can kick herself in the back of hte head without arching her back, but what's Spanish about that? My favorite is Lorena Feijoo of SFB --she's SO got the character. She's also got the style -- the spiralling line, with the arms crossing the torso hand on hte other hip; the turning of the profile against hte shoulders, the tilt of the head, the eyebrows, all those postuyres. And hte outrageous energy. I'd love to see Osipova; reports make her sound born for the role.... Though I hate the Bolsho's choreography for hher grand pas variation -- passe passe passe passe paasse passe passe passe what a waste.

Looks like Dolin to me.

I saw the version with the caller in hte Bay Area maybe ten years ago -- maybe the Joffrey brought it, but I thought it was the San Jose/Cleveland Ballet... Whoever it was, I liked it, quite a lot. I can imagine in a different mood finding it as unbearable as "Louisiana hayride," but the dancers were game, though it was VERY challenging for them (they finished a whole count behind the orchestra), but their eagerness to give it a go seemed to make the whole thing make sense, it was outrageous energy, like playing bumper-cars or something, the whole thing was really fun, tremendous fun, much more fun than the NYCB's performance in Zellerbach of the stripped-down version (with of course the male solo). When SFB did it, it wasn't really fun unless Tina LeBlanc did the lead, but then it was so much fun I was laughing out loud when she got to that RIDICULOUS series of piques -- she was totally on top of it, unbelievable, as when swift Camilla sweeps across the plan, flies oer the unbending corn, and skims along the main. I DO wish I'd seen it with Merrill Ashley.

Didn't Renvall have a major role in ABT's video of Dark elegies? I THINK that was him in the really difficult role.... what's difficult is uinting the technique and the depth of feeling.

"an adept political infighter" She DID have to threaten to quit -- which is pretty tough love -- in order to get the role of Cleopatra at NYC Opera (in which she triumphed, and also made the case for Handel's operas, which hadn't been heard for decades. In fact her singing Cleopatra's aria "V'adoro, pupille," is STILL the oneId mention, to recommend Handel to someone who wondered if Handel's operas are any good -- we had a thread up here about that last year, in fact....) Maybe those years singing on Major Bowes' show got her ready to make her way on fancier stages. Major Bowes was the guy with the proverbial hook (as in, "Get the hook!") It was as tough an audience as the Apollo's. You had to be good, and you had to know it.

Well, Cote could REALLY help put over anything by Kudelka. He's a beautiful dancer, modest, elegant, noble, AND he comes from the National Ballet of Canada and has had Kudelka create works on him -- so he understands the style very deeply. I haven't seen this Cinderella, but I DO remember seeing how the right dancer could make me really see value in works of Kudelka's I thought were hopeless -- in particular, Eric Hoisington bought the house down dancing like a Rodin statue come to life in Kudelka's setting of a colossal Brahms symphony for the San Francisco Ballet. Tone was everything for that (and stamina -- Hoisington started out at a superheroic pitch and built on that. Unbelievable.)

Azulynn, I saw Pavlenko dance Diamonds in Berkeley with the Kirov a couple of years ago now. She was absolutely mesmerizing in the pas de deux -- though in the Scherzo she was a blur. Lopatkina danced Diamonds another night and was fascinating all the way through -- the adagio was sumptuous and very deep, while her Scherzo was a thing of flashing brilliance. I believe I've heard that in Farrell's day the scherzo was not always performed.

She was a great human being, and a very great force for good -- her performances themselves MADE the case for a certain kind of singing, but the fact that she was so personable, so funny, and so human -- she could actually guest-host the Johnny Carson show -- made her the ideal spokesperson for opera and the high arts: there was nothing "elitist" about her, but so much that was excellent. She knew when to be vulgar, and when to be delicate, and she was great at both. Kinda like Peggy Lee all over again. The Times obit is full of information, and if you don't know her life story, well, do yourself a favor, read it. SHe hada hard life. She said of herself, "I don't see myself as a happy woman; but I am a cheerful woman. The work helped me make it." (something like that.)

Looks like Wolcott's the one who's parading himself to me.

He DID say that Kyra Nichols was the greatest ballerina of the last twenty years -- which A) explains why he was at HER retirement rather than Ferri's, and B) is the sort of assessment and ranking that one expects a major critic to make, and it's a bold one, and I agree with it and commend him for making it -- and for giving it Ciceronian pride of place, as the last word in his article. I think he's doing GREAT. I take back what I said earlier, when I said he was the best dance writer at the Times since John Martin. I now think he's just hte best dance writer they've ever had.

I don't think it lowers his "talent." It's not unheard-of for a male dancer to do TV to increase his exposure and his income -- Edward Villella did it way back when, and it was good for him and for everybody -- increased the exposure of male dancers, gave the rural public a chance to see a GREAT dancer, got Villella an extra income and some more fans -- the only downside I've heard of was that dancing on concrete studio floors was seriously bad for his feet. Hope Tidwell et al. are insisting on sprung floors.

Please ,those of us in San Francisco need t know, how is Julie Diana doing? She is very much missed here -- she first came to notice as the White Cat, at which she was simply stupendous. She was not a virtuoso, but what a personality! Her first Aurora was rather tentative, but still... quite lovely. Aurora may never be her greatest role -- she is/was a romantic dancer rather then a classical one, a natural Juliet, and a memorably moving Giselle. but she was moving towards it....

o Estelle, this is just Thrilling. I am so happy for you. May la jeune fille bring her parents great joy. Let me remind you, the wise American Gertrude Stein admired French women for their great good sense. She noticed that they all had dogs, and they spoiled their dogs. "French women understand that if you spoil your children, you spoil your future. So they have dogs and spoil the dogs. Very wise." Let me encourage you to follow tradition. And I hope you will all be very happy, your whole lives long. I am so happy for you, there are tears in my eyes. They are not falling, but they stand there ready to fall.