Paul Parish

Hans, I'm finally reading this post. Very interesting 2 things: first, the important thing about the use of petite allegro onstage is its relation to social dances -- and the social dances of the moment are not very footy, EXCEPT for country-and-western, which haven't changed much. Lindy hop had lots of use for quick foot-work, and of course polkas, etc. and tap was incredibly intricate i n such things, but popular dance fashions aren't with us now. Second, and really unrelated, do you know the tape of 50 Bournonville Combinations? Fabulous combinations, demonstrated by Rose Gad and Johann Koborg [sp?], which intermingle large and small steps in the most fascinating ways. I don't know where to begin! There are so many ways of doing tombe-pas-de-bourree -- sometimes it looks like a cabriole, sometimes its unquestionably a cabriole. So I'll just say you MUST check it out. it supports your concerns in every way, and gives a thousand examples of how to attack the questions you're concerned with -- sur le cou de pied is very strongly addressed. gotta run, late for my day job.

She must be a symbol of Seattle. Her image is absolutely distinctive -- as recognizable as the space-needle's. Those feet are one of a kind, and look of her legs would be recognizable from a long way off. I'm sure the photo deserved its place above the fold, in the window. Probably sold more papers than usual.

Hey Rosie, I too started later in life -- I was 35 or so, and I'm still fascinated by it. You CAN continue to get better. Of course, you you can also get worse as you get older -- it's important to go easy on yourself and not crank your turn-out and not beat yourself up for not being perfect already. The co-ordination will take a while, and patience is going to be something you'll need to drink by the gallon. But it will certainly give you insight into performances -- and perfomances will give you insight into what you're trying to do in class -- AND there will be those moments when you feel like you're floating, when everything feels for a moment so easy. Enjoy yourself, and take it easy.

Don't know Life of Oharu, so can't say. You're getting me interested in seeing it though. Good luck!

Sansho the Bailiff is one of the most heartbreaking movies I've EVER seen. Many great things in it, but nothing compares to the moment when the girl hears the new slave sing "Zashu, Zoshyou, isn't life torment?" Only she knows that her real name is Zashyu, this girl has learned a song that must have been written by her mother, in code..... It's an effect out of Sir Walter Scott- - maybe already there in Japanese feudal epics, but it's VERY typical of Scotts novels, and it's what made Scott great and universally admired..... translated into japanese, and it's overwhelming, my GOD, it jus breaks your heart -- for the kids realize because of it that their long-lost mother is alive and somewhere they may be able to find her........ highest POSSIBLE recommendation for Sansho the Bailiff.

i didn't see it when SF opera did it last year, but I DID hear from the SFOpera-ballet dancers that they loved the music and enjoyed being in it more than most things last season.

Helene, Thanks SO MUCH for taking the time to describe that -- it sounds really wonderful. I have no idea if they were influenced by anything like what I'm about to describe, but in Chinese dance theater there are ways of having a large chorus create landscapes -- I saw a fairy tale about a horse, wonderful thing, that included a key scene in a field of tall grass, amber waves of grain, like, which was created by dancers lying on their backs with their arms in hte air - it's evidently an ancient and famous theatrical effect, highly stylized, really effective. And Bart yes, yes yes.

Bully for them! It's about time there was a good new opera ballet. Just from the photo in the Times, I have to say the costumes are beautiful -- and the corps showed beautiful peek-a-boo lines, shoulders down, lovely chin lines, well-turned legs.

Ah Filene's basement. I think they remaindered "Birds of America' down there. Poor thing, nice feathers though.

Yes, Bart, it IS amazing that variations can be so short when so much happens within them, and they are so important in he overall impact of a ballet. Vaganova said that she realized too late for her own career that success as a dancer meant success in variations, and that she made this the foremost feature of her teaching, to produce dancers who excelled in variations -- and the particular quality Vaganova developed in herself, which she was able to pass on, was the ability to heighten, clarify and amplify the impact of each detail of the dance. They called her style heroic, since the aplomb, strength, and accuracy of her execution revealed the geometry of the dance so clearly, and it became the hallmark of the Soviet style, the bridge between the aristocratic dance of old and the dance for the people of communist times. My favorite example of this is Alla Sizova dancing Aurora's first variation -- the clip probably lasts only 30 seconds -- it's no less than astounding, the clarity, freedom, and the variety of effects, the many facets she shows, and the scale of everything in those few seconds. It demonstrates right off in her first appearance that she's received the fairies' gifts. Simultaneously in hte US Balanchine was pursuing clarity in a similar way. There are brilliant and REALLY short variations throughout his work -- .e.g., in Theme and Variations, the one right before the pas de deux is incredibly effective and very short, with double-pirouettes to coupe, pas de chats flying sideways, soutenu, etc. -- Gelsey Kirkland was fantastic in that, it just made people scream -- so many facets perfectly presented, and over in NO TIME.

The guy running around with long blond hair sounds Pina Bausch (or School of) to me -- though the Petit guess sure sounds good.

Wondering, I WISH I could help, esp because my mind works like that, too. You might inquire at Ballet Internazional in Berlin. They've got a web-site and take emails. Maybe somebody would get back to you. How's your son growing?

Hubbe is a wonderful cavalier in Tales from the Vienna Woods - He was quite young when he did Sylphide in Denmark, and I think that production was directed by the great director Henning Kronstam, whose mark is all over it, and EVERYTHING about that production is first rate. I've watched that tape at least 20 times and I'm always finding new things to wonder at that carry that tale around its various bends, especially the contrast between the impetuous movement of James, the Sylph and Madge, versus the stolid, complacent pacing of movement for everybody else........ and Sorella Englund's Madge is unbelievable. She's hot for James -- it's not in any way obvious, but it's electric, and his antipathy to her is instantaneous.

Thanks, Ostrich. What a wonderful picture -- and how appropriate. Beats can be expressive -- some of them ought to be light, and others, as in this case, ought to be hard, heavy, punishingly difficult. What a great ballet!

Thanks, Farrell Fan-- Yes, it's true that she's never been bizarrely thin. I've also read that Mrs Ficker wanted her to lose a little weight and Mr B did NOT. She came back after Bejart thinner, Arlene Croce reported -- but she always looked healthy, especially when she was young. Still does.

I think this is the michael kors dress named after Suzanne -- pink silk mini dress-- and it DOES look apt. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/fashion/...ion&oref=slogin NB the article is about dangerously skinny models, and the picture is shocking... a reflection in a distorting mirror actually, so they're making the point. And at the same time, have to admit, it IS stunning.

I keep changing my mind when I see somebody who does beats beautifully, but at the moment i really prefer the Danish style beats -- mostly becaue they're NOT flashy. They're so subtle that you could almost MISS them if you weren't watching, the upper body is so beautiful you could be mostly paying attention to the epaulement and the joyous expression on hte face, and there's this shimmer down below, and then you look there, and good LORD! Violette Verdy used to do gargouillades sometimes as just a shimmer, like a whole-body smile -- it's a WONDERFUL effect, and at times (as in Emeralds) it's the one you want, because it's graciously self-effacing in the moments of maximum difficulty. In Napoli, the suppression of showy virtuosity creates a social spirit, the whole tribe is celebrating the rescue of Teresina and her marriage, and the entrechat-sixes are a kind of overflow of communal joy even when you're looking at a soloist -- so when virtuosity is done lightly, the virtuoso steps have a grace to htem that's way beyond the physical.... If you compare/contrast the NYCB Napoli with the Danes, you'll see what I mean

Karsavina instructs us for batterie to turn out as much as possible and to "restrict the compass of your degage" -- Later teachers ask you to pretend you have a 1000 dollar bill between your legs that you don't want to drop -- so as you brush sideways, you go the ABSOLUTE least you must before closing in the next position.... Suki Schorer's book has a set of pictures of a student doing tendus to second: one without dropping the money, and onther one where the bucks are on the floor and a hilarious expression is on the face. In the Royal Danish Napoli, the last act Tarantella begins with a man doing entrechat sixes that are so fine the heels barely separate before the feet cross -- utterly dazzling, since the feet are so powerfully arched the toes seem to separate less than the heels. HE's like an exclamation point in the air.

Franch men generally perform batterie fabulously. As do Danes. The finale of the RDB Napoli has maybe more beautiful entrechats-sixes than I've ever seen anywhere else. Vlillanoba beats well - here in SanFrancisco, they all beat well -- best of all are Jaime garcia Castillo, because his legs themselves are so beautiful and he's so musical, and Joseph Phillips, since the action itself is so clear and his demeanor so modest, and Guennadi Nedviguine, who has the biggest range of emotional color to his beats. And I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention somebody. Young Darci Kistler, though, was the finest -- in the NYCB Bournonville Divertissements, which was televised long ago but hasn't been published, I don't think, she danced the Pas de Deux from William Tell with Ib Andersen -- and she's probably the airiest, lightest, prettiest, cleanest, most enchanting vision of young free spirit I've ever seen, and the feathery batterie is a great deal of what made it so.

Actually for the Farrell, I instantly pictured her costume in Allegro Brillante -- maybe the skirt was longer, .... but she was moving so fast in that it was always flying.... and all those sous-sus'es gave her a bit of an Amazon look, so the idea of a dress that's an extended Grecian tunic is whati was picturing and quite liking for her. I am having trouble picturing a dramatic black dress with a tan belt.... And yes, Graham and jersey is a well-known marriage.

That quote from Jacobs is wonderful -- thanks for calling our attention to it. She CERTAINLY makes me want to see Part. I'd also like ot meet HER.

Well, I live in Berkeley and take class from Kyra's mother, and actually can claim as all Sally's students can, that I know Kyra Nichols. She's come home nearly every August for the last 20 years and taken class with us and sassed her mother and been very sweet to us; I've done the grand allegro from the corner with her, and the greatest thing about her is how easy she makes it to be around her. As the Baron says of the aviator at the end of Grand illusion -- or is it Rules of the Game? -- (s)he made it easy to forget (s)he was famous. She's nice to everybody. What a lovely person she is. And what a fabulous dancer -- but on top of that, what a testimony to good training. Unbelievable execution. I'll never forget the first time i saw her do chaine turns -- she was like a tornado. And entrechat quatres, my jaw was hanging off, people were making fun of me. Correct training is good for you. She's had a career with -- as drb implies -- almost no injuries. A couple of foot problems, surgery once or twice -- but working correctly has been good for her. Her mother has been a famously great teacher all this time -- even as ballerina of Pacific Ballet and then Oakland Ballet, Sally was already a famously brilliant teacher. Which she still is -- Saturday morning's pointe class was all about rolling down, and hard as it was (I was very glad to be in soft shoes), there was no denying it taught you a lot -- the entire adagio was done en face, so you could study every mistake in alignment and correct yourself.... but the exercise was musical at the core. Chryssa Parkinson, who's made a great name in a modern repertoire, won a Bessie, I think, studied with Sally as a young person and when I saw her recently she remarked that Sally had opened her eyes as a young person to the possibility of seeing every dance exercise as first of all a musical problem -- since all her combinations, even the barre exercises, are musically conceived, and if you have the rhythm, you pretty much HAVE the combination -- I think Kyra's Sugar Plum Fairy must have been with Pacific Ballet, not with SF Ballet -- at the time, SFB was in the doldrums, and Pacific Ballet back in the 70s was regarded by most dancers as a much more interesting company. And the other correction is that though Mr B may not have created roles on her, Jerome Robbins DID, and he used her a lot, and pretty much set her free, as she once told me, to "dance around the room." D'Amboise certainly gave Kyra big breaks; but it was her role in "Spring" in Robbins's "Four Seasons" that I believe i've heard made le tout New York start talking about her. So Robbins couldn' have been always awful to work with. I'm thinking of coming to New York for her last week. PS Thanks to Carbro for catching my mistakes.

Maximova was childlike and FABULOUS into her 50s -- I saw her with Moscow Classical Ballet here in SF in around 1990 (also first sighting of Vladimir Malakhov), dancing in a white unitard in (can it have been) a Romeo and Juliet pas de deux by Bejart, and she looked 14 -- those amazing feet, and such alacrity, and ardor. I took my ballet teacher, who'd danced for NYCB in the 50s, and she said Balanchine would have loved her.

the little store is . well, I nearly said "cool,' but the phrase is something musty. But WOW! the dvds that pop up are very appealing, and the prices are great. In n Out!

I've seen old footage of Violette in Emeralds, and the performance is -- well, the words I'd use would be voluptuous, ravishing, ecstatic. The lower body was very sharp and arrowy, and the upper body was dancing behind the music, like a jazz singer, toying with the beat, and her shoulders, breast, the whole upper body were like Isadora Duncan's, somehow she "left herself behind." The dance that's all port de bras was ravhishingly playful.... an awful phrase, but I don't know how else to put it. I can't think of anybody nowadays who could get away with it -- maybe Dolly Parton. Unbelievable feminine charm.