Paul Parish

Well, Youoverthere, star dancers sometimes say inflammatory things. Rasta Thomas a couple of years ago said something foolish to the effect that Mark Morris's ballets were not ballet, or something like that, which just indicated the defects of Mr Thomas's virtues. (Maelstrom, in particular, is a beautiful and very great ballet.) He's a splendid dancer in a very particular style, but his education is not broad. I know nothing about Mr Vincent (except that I saw him dance the swan) but I don't see why his views should be thought to be canonical.

Whitelight, I like your screen-name and the way you think. Keep it coming. You've got Homans' number - it's got a lot of zeroes in it. I agree, modern dance is harder to write about -- and the reasons why are obvious. Unlike ballet, every modern-dance choreographer may/can/maybe should make up his/her own vocabulary. It's hard to get a sense of the idiom without having seen lots of it or (ideally) have taken class with them. Without that, it's hard to know what they intended, much less whether A) they achieved it or B) it was a worthy aim (worthy can certainly include amusing). Sometimes, as with Duncan or Graham or Jooss, the movement is onomatopoeic -- i.e., it echoes what it's talking about. And in those cases, it was really possible for the dance to have a popular impact and a following among people who spectated. But modernism has included a large dose of exclusiveness --TS Eliot was long ago when he was writing poetry that kept the booboisie out. BUT he did it in the name of writing honestly, of trying to displace language so it said something he needed to say -- the sincerity was of an austere sort, but it was not cynical. And if some of the lines wee impossible, others (like"I have measured out my life in coffee-spoons" were unmisunderstandable). When dancers finally got around to being that "difficult" it was the 50s and the climate of opinion was different -- in the 60's well, I must say, pedestrianism was one thing BUT contact improv could/can in fact be a very exciting thing to watch. A group like DV8 can use many of the discoveries of Contact in theatrically riveting ways still.... Well, I remember the moment of clarity I felt when I heard Trisha Brown say that she'd woken up and decided that she no longer wanted to make dances that interested the 400 people who were hip to what she had been doing. But wonderful stuff came out of that period. I'm not in fact sure that "Glacial Decoy" or her more recent opera-house work are any more fun or interesting than "Spanish Dance' or her other early work, which was certainly homespun but my GOD the wit! or that Mark Morris has done anything that better than "Shroud of White." Well, what I can say about writing about contemporary dance is that I'd rather bite my tongue than write about somehing I didn't think I "got." But there HAS been stuff I thought I got, and when I got it, I often REALLY LOVED it. And it did things that ballet doesn't do. SO I wrote about it. You should too. Luckily, I didn't have an editor who insisted on having something when I didn't want to write. I found the thing that was necessary was to recapture the way I felt and say what that was like -- i.e., with similes, to compare it to something else the reader could imagine. "She danced like water" or "like a snake"; or "the geometry reminded me of a washing machine that was off-balance but was still able to function." Whatever. It can be very satisfying to write like that -- and it does a wonderful service to the public, who'd like to have a clue as to what's going on during this brief span we have when we're alive, even if for most it's not something they'd necessarily do themselves.

Well, i'm not sure about the consensus, but I think it's ballet; so do most British critics, including the hell-on-pretentious-upstarts whip-smart Quentin Crisp (or at least his writings suggest that). And certainly Crisp, though he doesn't frequent this board, is as fastidious in his way as any of us. In any case, I do admire it; I feel it's drastic, in fact it's radical, but that it's a faithful interpretatoin of the material, and true to the music. This go-round, without Adam Cooper, this incarnation lacks the classical rigor that made it so coherently tragic when it was new. Cooper was dazzlingly beautiful in hte role, perfectly proportioned classical figure and action, rather dry in his presentatoin, in hte great British manner. His white swan was better than his black one, and the death of Cooper's white swan was truly overwhelming. By the way, I think the question of the composer's name (which started this thread) is actually a legal one -- the original title ("Tchaikovsky's Swan lake") was the property of Adventures in Motion Pictures, Bourne's production company -- but the managers of that company got far out of line with what Bourne thought he was up to, and he had to split off and start a new company, called New Adventures or something, in order to regain artistic control of his work. Something like that....

Great question, Amy -- and a really nice citation of Miss Dunning at her best. Actually, it's SO tempting to rely on the over-acting analogy. The main problem with over-acting, though, is ego, isn't it? The actor is stuck in on the border of entering his/her character, can't get across, and is forced back onto mannerisms in hopes of keeping anyone from noticing the failure of imagination -- or is that maybe just a definition of one kind of over-acting? Some parts must be drawn large, they're built for it -- like Lady Bracknell or Big Daddy. Von Rothbart in McKenzies' (awful) Swan Lake. Some people thought that Farrell distorted Concerto Barocco by dancing it too big, some thought Makarova distorted the White Swan by dancing it too slow..... I think van Hamel "over-danced" Balanchine's "Sylvia Pas de deux" -- grand as she was, the ballet doesn't CALL for that.

Hey Lynette, Wish I could say for sure about the date of ENB's -- I think there is a connection with Royal Danish Ballet's Ashton Romeo and Juliet - Peter Schaufuss is the connection (Schaufuss's mother, I THINK, was Ashtons -- original?-- Juliet at the Royal Danish Ballet, where he made his R&J). MAkarova made her SL when Peter Schaufuss was director of the English National Ballet (he starred in it but was i thought strangely wrong for hte role -- handsome, glamorous, technically brilliant, yes, BUT temperamentally he was cocky, he strutted, which didn't make the Prince plausibly sensitive or melancholy). Leanne Benjamin was fabulous in hte first act pas de quatre. Makarova herself, looking pretty, made a tiny appearance as a serving-girl with a flask of wine. So it must have been not long after her retirement, maybe ... MAYBE? around hte time she did "On your Toes"? I expanded what I postred here about Perm into a full-scale rview for this week's Dance View Times: http://www.danceviewtimes.com/2006/Spring/03/perm2.html wonder what you'll think.

I found Perm's version, shown last week here in Berkeley, very satisfying. Especially Ashton's choreographyfor hte corps inact 4, so moving, so intricate, so appropriate, -- and beautifully danced. THey get the basics right; it's a tragedy.... the young prince enters reading, and walks into hte waves carrying her lifeless body at the end. That's righteous. There are aspects of the decor I don't like -- SO many characters with long ugly hair. SOme unattractive costumes at court. But the swans are well dressed, and the lakeside scenery is good enough. The choreographic choices are very fine, mostly (I don't like breaking up the dance of the would-be brides; the rearranging of hte order of act 2 , with hte pas de deux at the end, I didn't like so much but a case could be made for it). The dancing was sincere, handsome, generous -- which is more htan can be said for most Swan lakes. Classical and character dancing were both distinguished. in the national dances the Mazurka was especially beautiful. ANd the pacing was very smart -- Black Swan was truly exhilarating -- the prince was not a glamorous sort of guy, but his DANCING hurried away hte soul. He could absolutely soar. Moiseyeva, the ballerina, I admired a lot -- she's another dancer who's transfigured by the act of dancing (a natural Odile, not at all a natural Odette, too muscular, too strong, but she made a sincere attempt to make you love Odette.... beautiful phrasing, lots of heart). THere are lots of penny-wise-and-pound-foolish Swan Lakes out there; this one put their resources very much in the right place.

I'd say that Tomasson HAS had good success with the triple bill at SFB -- true, Swan Lake sells more tickets, but triple bills don't do badly here. The SF opera house was virtually sold out for last Sunday's triple-bill matinee (and that's a 3000+seat house). "Artifact Suite" went over huge, and there was a strong word-of-mouth. Many people came back to see it two and three times.

Have you SEEN the way Bolender danced Agon? he was like spaghetti -- like Phlegmatic. Like olive Oyl. Lots of fun to watch, but he was NOT ANYTHING like Villella, who was the strongest man of his weight class in the boxing ranks in the Merchant Marine (or something like that). Villella was a ragazzo, a rascal by type... which is why it would have been so much more fun to be a kid in HIS department in Midsummer Night's Dream, jumping all the time. This is all off the top of my head, haven't had time to look up any of this, and so memory is having to limp around and serve more than perhaps memory is really capable of -- but I THINK I've got this right.

Yesterday's links included this excellent assessment of the founder of the Royal Ballet by Zoe Anderson in the Guardian: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1744257,00.html I just wanted to give it a bump and call folks' attention to it. In particular, it's rare these days to see a journalist acknowledge that public service could be selfless; Madam was iron-handed, but what she was doing was her duty as she saw it. And what a vision. Worthy subject, excellent writing.

Bart, when I saw the topic description, before I'd read your first paragraph, the image that came to mind was Serenade. SO I guess I have to agree with you. "Artifact I" (Forsythe) also makes a tremendous opening statement -- and every time the curttain (kamikaze curtain) goes back up, the image is arresting. I'll never forget it. Paul Taylor's "Last Look" Merce Cunningham's "Summerspace" The empty stage at the beginning of Robbins's "Glass Pieces" "Mozartiana"

Opening night it was Muriel MaffrewithPierr-Francois Vilanoba, and Lorena Feijoo with Pascal Molat. Muriel tore it up, but Lorena is nevergoing to be outdone, and she had an exit being spun around while flaring her legs upstage and rteturning to soussus downstage that made the crowd go crazy...... She's got blazing accuracy. Funny, it shows you some of hte difference between Balanchine and Forsythe to see Lorena -- she's almost never cool enough to do Balanchine, but in Forsythe she can follow her natural instincts gofor broke and it's exactly what's called for

The move actually tends to STIFLE dissent within Israel. It's not hard to imagine an Israeli dance company making a piece against the occupation, on the order (say) of Dance Brigade's searing piece.

Artifact Suite brought the house down last night-- huge ovations for the ballerinas, even bigger for the corps -- even the pianist, Michael Mcgraw (who indeed put the boogie in their butts) got huge applause. O and those corps dancers -- Lily Rogers!!! I'll say it again, Lily ROGERS!!! Brooke Moore!!! It's rare for a ballet to bring out our women's personalities -- we're used to seeing wonderful performances from the corps men, who dance like stars of other companies -- but this time the girls are as on fire as the boys. Even in the DARK, you can tell who they are. Megan Low, who's not got anything like an extreme build, is dancing huge, and with such gusto. And of course the guys-- Garrett Anderson, as always, Jaime Garcia Castillo, Joseph Phillips, James Sofranko especially. And Ilana Altman, incredible phrasing, like Zorro. When the curtain went down, the dancers could be heard cheering onstage. They know what they did. Everybody, if you can get there, you've just got to go.

Essential reference, fabulous gossip, 100% perfect loo lit... Every home needs one.

Isaw/heard the SF Opera/Kirov Opera collaboration of Ruslan and Ludmila here in SF about 10 years ago, and it was out of sight wonderful -- especially the little wizard with the 10-foot long beard who flew all around the stage. And Ludmila was great, and Glinka's music was as amusing as Rossini's, and both ballets were fabulous to see, since they were in Bakst's designs and they brought the old EARLY Ballets Russes photos to life and showed Fokine's choreography -- they did the last act in Paris in 1911 or so, called it something else (Festin de Pierre? was it?), but the pictures of Nijinsky with his hand under his nose came to life right there onstage. But I'm wondering what you're talking about -- which character is the Bayan? I'm guessing it's Ludmila's Arabian suitor, who falls asleep while singing his aria and has the dream vision-ballet of all his harem back home dancing for him.... but I'm not at all sure that's what you're talking about. I DO remember there was a strange quality to the aria, but I thought that was mostly to show the effects of the witch's enchantment on him. Perhaps it's another character altogether?

Carbro, I have to agree with you. Your comment made me think of "neoclassical" dancers who're not thought as character dancers who've been fabulous in character roles--Patricia McBride in Coppellia, where she amped UP the character aspects of the role. She certainly brought out the character elements in Tarantella, also -- but then Suzanne Farrell made BIG hay out of the Hungarian stuff in her section of Brahms Schoenberg, and was quite a gypsy in Tzigane -- all of it with intelligence.

Taranda's amazing. But top of my list is Derek Rencher. Actually, shared honors with Alexander Grant.

Let me second KayDenmark's request: please, anybody, if you can, post some kind of link to this poster for those of us who don't live in NYC......

O she looks just like my image of the Countess Rostova, Natasha's mother, in War and Peace -- with that "Asiatic" face Tolstoy describes. Thank you for posting this, Tammy. And Carbro, thanks for finding the link with the photo....

Sounds like somebody's been climbing the family tree and got light-headed up there. Seriously, embarrassments like this happen often when a group feels it's time to heap itself with honors, especially if a major transition is taking place.

Roach, How exciting for you to be discovering ballet right now. I'm sure there are plenty of BAlertniks who remember what a godsend ballet was when it first appeared in their lives. It certainly was so for me, and it was certainly Swan Lake that made a believer out of me. My favorite version is the Royal Ballet's. I wish there were a recording of Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell in it, for that's the couple who broke my heart in it -- but there is a very fine version with Dowell and Natalia Makarova that is readily available for sale, and which you might want to take a look at. Unlike the Russian versions, which are great but unfortunately had to have happy endings for Soviet reasons, the RB's version really is a tragedy. The dancing in soloist roles is not so hot, but the principals are wonderful -- actually, Makarova's white swan is gorgeous but IMHO a little creepy, her black swan shows her real strengths -- and the national dances are great, especially the czardas. (WOW!) Good luck with all this. It's great music, isn't it?

I sure wish I'd seen Kirkland. She was right for that role, in so manyways. Thank God for the film of Maximova. And Bessmertnova, who was out of this world. The most poetic couple I've seen live were Cubans, Lorna Feijoo and whoever her partner was. She was perfect in both acts, a plausible country girl with maybe some noble blood on the wrong side of the blanket. What I'll never forget was the lightness and airiness of her jump, and how when she was still,she was SO still.

bart, you're right -- Zizi Jeanmaire's hair was VERY much a trademark -- she looked liek a pixie. In San Francisco, Muriel Maffre has very short hair, almost as short as that. It's worth noting that Sylvie Guillem's ear-length page-boy haircut, with bangs -- kind of a Buster Brown, like Louise Brooks' but a little longer --is built into Forsythe's Paris-Opera ballet "in the middle somewhat elevated.' The role was made on Guillem It's part of the ballerina costume, the (red?) page-boy wig. When Maffre made her debut at SFB, it was in this role, and many of us remember the insoucinance of that hair as against her astonishing feet, which she used like knives.

Don't know about Voronsova, but I just watched the movie the other night and recognized hte 10-year-old Yuri Zhukov, who came to San Francisco Ballet from the Kirov (where he was one of the dancers who worked with dancers from the NYCB, I think with Farrell, in setting some Balanchine) and had considerable success; really memorably as the Prince in Sleeping Beauty and as James, wonderful James, in La Sylphide. he's been retired several years and is teaching at SF City Ballet School. The other thing is that Mezentseva's private performance of the White Swan (with Zaklinsky) for the children is one of the finest I know of on record -- it's chaste, beautiful, noble, majestic, simple. The few moments in hte austerity of the performance that have a melting quality to them are fantastically expressive for occurring in such a restrained context. The movie is worth having and keeping formany reasons, but especially for that.

More Praise! I typed the name of a video I need into the Amazon box and in no time I'd found it and, yeah, I bought it. It's really handy.