Paul Parish

Your honor, counsel is leading the witness......though i do totally agree with you all. In particular, he pas d'actions and variations lose their expressive power if they're not understood to be the equivalents of arias and quartets and NOT like rezitativ... The Kirov's 30-year-old Sleeping Beauty has TOO MUCH BOURREEING AROUND -- it takes the wonder away from the fairies's variations if everybody's on pointe all the time... and the court doesn't fall asleep in an interesting way.... Remy Charlip used to sing the following, to the tune of Odette's mime scene: "i'm the swan queen, please don't kill me, or the wicked witch will get you, dearie.' Pretty funny when he did it, but then he's a great ham....

the HEART for it-- That would be the hardet thing to find. DTH is the company who could do it, it's about freeing the slaves, and those are issues that DTH has very close to their hearts. that ballet is ABOUT something, and ABT would just do the steps...... maybe not, but I remember when ABT did "Fall River Legend," they looked like they were embarrassed. Oakland Ballet completely outshone them in that ballet, because they could put their hearts into noir family melodrama.

It's a great ballerina role -- Gelsey Kirkland was fabulous in it. Some of the side stuff IS drippy. It's a different kind of ballet from Lilac Garden -- there's much more interest in continuity, in flow, long floating phrasing.

sorry slightly off-topic. BUT.... Has Lindy Mandradjieff retired? That's a loss!! She was here at SFB wondeful dancer, and we all hated to see her go to City aballet -- When i was in New yOurk a couple of years ago, I saw her in the corps in Brahms-Schoenberg, looking marvellous...... and missed her all over again.... has she quit dancing or ogne somewhere else?

Bart Cook's back... Elizabeth Loscavio's co-ordination..... Sylvie Guillem's feet.... Vladimir Malakhov in toto..... Nureyev's nostrils.... Antoinette Sibley in toto.

Wow, Atm -- THAT"S amazing. What a treasure. THanks for taking hte trouble to post that.

Leigh's right about Stars and stripes and Vienna waltzes -- they're well-made (as Matisse said of HIS art) "for the tired businessman." but the difference between middle and high-brow is not social class but intellectual class -- the real issue is how hard they make you think; Kipling is middle-brow, TS Eliot is high-brow. Stars and Stripes is middle-brow, Moves and Don Quixote are high-brow. except that I'm not sure the term means anything much nowadays. It used to refer to novelists like James Michener, Pearl Buck, Edna Ferber, Leon Uris -- writers of "epics' with large swaths of history/sociology looped up in romance, without much of an argument to them, or light social comedy like "The Egg and I" or "Cheaper by the Dozen." Novelists like George Orwell, William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, EM Forster, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce were maybe harder to read (certainly the last-mentioned were) but above all they had a rigor to them that made you feel you were in contact with a mind of distinction. Orwell's "1984" was very widely read, maybe as popular as "Hawaii" -- but you could tell the difference; 1984 was a book that made it necessary for you to DO something. Brooks is a conservative columnist at the Times--and he's smart. I often find he's turned over a rock and found a topic that nobody else is talking about but IS a pretty big deal. He nailed the Democrats' problem early in the election when he pointed out that Kerry had a real problem: Clinton had been able to convince most of the public that he really DID care about religious matters and understood how religious people felt. He correctly said that many Democrats were mildly embarrassed by this but didn't hold it against Clinton, but that many others DID have religious feelings and they felt connected to Clinton because of it. But this time, Kerry did NOT make those people feel that way, and that would be the margin of loss -- and he was absolutely right. The margin was very small, but.... Brooks also had a very interesting column about "exurbia" -- new settlements beyond the old suburbs to which the midle-of-the road prosperous folks who could afford it moved to, to raise their children in an environment as emotionally similar to the one they'd grown up in as they could. "Normalcy" all over again. Brooks is nostalgic for the days when school-kids respected their teachers. He's got some truth on his side. But I'm not sure we can go back there.

I saw him dance only once -- as the cavalier in Ballet Imperial I guess Baryshnikov's first season as director -- what a beautiful company that was, and he was creme de la creme. It was a glorious performance -- noble, elegant, easy -- double cabrioles so delicate, like eyelashes batting.

Am half-way through my copy -- wonderful picture of Lifar on hte cover, as Apollo, with a magnificent curve passing through his spine as he does hte "neon-lights-in-Picadilly-Circus" thing with his hands -- both hands at hte same time, by he way -- We don't see line like that very often, no wonder Mr B thought Lifar was remarkable for his plastique. My favorite thing in the very good issue is the Jowett/Alexopoulos/Frohlich discussion of Robbins -- it's just fascinating. Check it out. And indeed, here's some very tasty writing by Leigh Witchell on the Bolshoi's "house special," DonQ -- wonderful piece.

I love assemble. i first noticed this when I saw hte Hungarian State Folk Ballet dance in Zellerbach Hall about 10 years ago -- the women were doing the most delightful steps I'd ever seen, jumping up in little red heeled slippers with NO SLINGBACKS and putting their legs together, knees to feet, and then I realized they were assembles in parallel and just the most beautiful thing. And then I realized I loved classical assemble even better -- like scissors closing, or a sword hanging in the air. i just love it.

Me, too, Ari- thanks

Thanks, Leigh -- hm, I've been assuming that the pas de bourrees travelled upstage -- they DON'T? the floor plan is forward on the upstage leg, coupe under, developpe, and then toward the audience? Wll, yes, a kind of critical mountain IS being made out of a molehill -- but there are little ciphers people often put into their art. Hitchcock made a point of sneaking himself into some scene in most of his movies. Directors like to build little secrets into things that will bind the work, make it gel, like adding an extra egg to your cookies. But i' m telling YOU this? And thanks, Mme. Hermine, for that insight into the pas de chat -- I did have the idea that that pas-de-chat thingy was kind of a throw-away move.... and a precipitee would fit that bill...

Alastair sets an example for us all by fearlessly demonstrating the steps in hte lobby, and with an air.... I try to emulate him in this, and many other things. My question about actually DOING the Fred step (Carbro, have you tried this? Bart, atm711, Choura?) is about that pas de bourree -- after the developpee in second (which as I'm picturing it is in ecarte back, the arabesque haveing been efface), is there a tombe, or do you step up up down -- he says there are four steps there, and I don't see how there can be FOUR steps into hte pas de chat unless you tombe pas de bourree (down up up down) into it....... I would go check my Cinderella, but the VCR isn't working....

WOw, it beat out the 3 volume Cambridge histry of English Theatre....

Bart, it is so cool that you can Lindy. And atm, i'm having a LOT of fun picturing your Savoy style. It's still necessary to watch out before kicking your neighbors; the cool place to lindy in SF is, by the way, called the Doghouse. Older dancers are revered. If you ever come out here, you MUST go to the Doghouse Saturday night, you'll have no end of partners. Bart, you reminded me how sweet it was to recognize a lindy partnering move in "Square Dance," which FB did really well htis year.... It happens several times in hte first movement, that when after dacning round the corps couples get together and stand still, framing the ballerina, they'll stand side by side, and she'll put her hand on his near shoulder -- then he'll gently pick up her hand , and move it behind his head and place it on his far shoulder -- they don't snuggle up or anything, it's all decorous, but it's intimate in a sweet gentle way, and it has an effect on me FAR greater than the scale of the movement -- I go "AW" inside every time they do it. Also, actually, I like both your candidates for ballerina who looks like the royal princesses - -especially since Princess Ann most certainly did adopt Markova's hair-do.... but I was thinking actually of Fonteyn, whose features to me look a LOT like theirs -- Princess Margaret's eyes are almost exactly the same. Fonteyn looks like their lucky cousin who got to have a "real" life and go on the stage and wear more interesting clothes.

Yes, It's Farrell... The Shrimp was a great beauty of swinging London... atm 711, it's a pleasure to talk to another lover and practitioner of the Lindy hop. And I sure wish I could say I'd seen Danses Concertantes. I'm afraid I (charateristically) overstated the Lindy look of Barocco -- though I'd bet it in Marie jeanne's day it looked more like jazz dancing (she says so herself) than it does now. The version of Lindy being danced we did in Mississippi in hte 50's didn't involve much kicking .. did yours? I was thinking mostly of all those pique ballonnes, and the coupe-releves in arabesque. They have the timing of the Lindy Charleston, which was simpler than the original Charleston. Our verision of Lindy, which we called the Bop, was in fact pretty much straight 6-count shag, toe-heel toe heel rock-step -- it was a fun dance, but much less fun (and a lot less kicky) than the Savoy-style version I learned a decade ago. In fact, we didn't kick much if at all. SO I wouldn't say all those battements look much like hte bop, either. So maybe we're not talking about hte same thing. But what ABOUT "Danses COncertantes"? What did that ballet look like? I;'ve never seen it, only read abut it. COntinuing our trivia contests, The Shrimp was a great beauty of swinging London... What dark-haired ballerina, whose flourishing period began 20 years earlier, looked a great deal like both the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret?

Evilninjax, there's also an old POB la Sylphide, starring the amazing unbelievable Ghislane Thesmar and some awfully good-looking young man...... THe camera-work was st\range, and sometimes the sylph's image would widen strangely -- BUT mostluy, in fact, the photography was mysterious and made her look almost like the light was coming from inside her,as in a cartoon - -and her technique was so extraordinary htat she did seem weightless....... again, pearls and bracelets and that elicate/expensive look. Sounds like you've got a lot to look at and study now, but if you ever get the chance, get the old video tape and compare the two. I'm sure it will be interesting, and I'd bet there will be moments of Thesmar's that even Aurelie Dupont can't match......

Actually, also, people who make new ballets often respond to the social dances that are popular at the time. When Balanchine arrived in the US, he found the Lindy hop (which was basically a fusion of the Charleston and the shag, danced to swing music) to be a hugely popular dance; it was an African-American dance that crossed over, and everybody was doing it, black people and white. Many characteristics of Lindy hop turn up in Balanchine's choreography -- the "legomania" steps and Charleston kicks, the speed, the wit, the "cool" attitude and the emphasis on spontaneity, the pelvic tilt, the placement over the balls of the feet (the best dancers, using "cat style," at the Savoy didn't put their heels down), the turn-in-turn-out steps, toying with the beat, the jazzy postures, elbows akimbo... Anyone familiar with Lindy will recognize it all over the place in Concerto Barocco. And for another bit of style trivia, what ballerina had front teeth like the great 60s fashion model Jean Shrimpton?

Western Symphony has a SCHERZO!!! THank you Michael, for mentioning htis... never heard of that -- What's the tune? What's hte character of the movement? Can it possibly be funnier than leClerc's mule-kicks in hte rondo? Inquiring minds need to know......

Fascinating question -- The biggest difference -- take what Giselle might have looked like when it was NEW and now-- and the difference would be how mugh HIGHER the women jumped as ballet developed, through Petipa and Balanchine, pointe technique has increasingly superseded jumping tehcnique -- which means that basically releve has developed and developed. and in pointe shoes dancers can achieve a perfected line, both feet pointed, and the ILLUSOIN of being air-borne, without having to leave the ground... (so there's actually less impact-related problems, more foot-related problems, but those are not aesthetic issues). And also there's been increasing use of the small muscles, which means, more stretch is possible. If you're not having to use the BIG THIGH MUSCLES so much, nor the glutes, which simply have to be used to jump high and land softly -- I repeat, alight like a feather -- it's possible to turn out more, and to work with greater turnout..... SO if the big muscles are getting less use, the stretch can be creater. We don't know what Taglioni's thighs looked like, but we can be sure they did not look like Gelsey Kirkland's. Taglioni was not just famous for her toe-steps -- what she could REALLY do was move in harmonious ways in the air, high up in hte air, with her long arms wreathing and wafting, and then she could land like it was nothing, with her arms settling down around her softly as she came to rest, a whle count later, which made it seem she'd gone even higher than she had. Already in the 50s Karsavina was complaining that Giselle's ballottes were never performed with elevation any more.... But feats of elevation for women were already on their way out when Karsavina was young (Karsavina could do entrechat-huit, which few men can do these days) -- the whole direction of ballet, heading into Sleeping beauty, had gone into pointe work, and hops on pointe -- a jump, after all, however high, is over in no time, whereas with a releve, you can keep the picture alive for a count or two, or 8, or in the Rose adagio, for 32 or 64.... Simple classroom combination, jete, releve hold hold hold -- the picture on pointe stands in hte air long enough to register on hte retina and even leave a shadow... and all the pas de bourrees that Balanchine explored so fantastically gave him ways of slowing down the effects of batterie to make them more visible -- and then he'd play them off against cabrioles and entrechats, which looked feathery and magical by comparison... this is also the era when men's steps started becoming huge. Siegfried's variations (which Petipa did not care about and were always set by the male dancers who did htem - -Gerdt did none at all) went from being lots of beats, rather Bournonvillesque, to being heroic grand jetes and grand fouette cabrioles, and the male dance esp in Russia expanded into similar slowed down, super-visible effects performed with colossal elevation.....

Goats, goats, goats. Mel could do this better than I but -- capricorn, capriole, caper, cabriole -- do these words sound familiar? Capricorn is Greek for goat, and to caper is to be able to move like a goat. "Cabriole" also derives from the Greek word for goat. Goats are famously nimble-footed, able to leap and run about on mountainous crags with sure-footed ease, and hte ability to move like that used to be the hallmark of a dancer. Nowadays, we tend to think of dancers as cat-like, but in ancient Greece and Rome, and in the neo-classicizing Renaissance, and again in the 18th century, goat-footed was almost synonymous with agility. And the goat-legged fauns that accompany Dionysus/Bacchus in Bacchanalias are dancing constantly. Capriole Suite? Sound Familiar? Frederick Ashton's first ballet, 1928, set to Peter Warlock's Capriole Suite, which was based on the airs written out in the Renaissance manual f dancing, "Orchesographie," translated int English by Cyril Beaumont in 1925. Thoinet Arbeau? (author of "Orchesographie," a neo-Platonic dialogue between a dancing master and a student code-named Capriole). Open your Code of Terpsichore to plate 14 and you'll see a pair of goat-legged fauns girdled in grape-leaves beside a premier danseur, portraying Bacchus girt with a leopard -skin and holding his arms "a la lyre", with a thyrsus in his upper hand. "Afternoon of a Faun" -- by the time Bakst was through fantasizing, Nijinsky's legs looked dappled like a deer's, but the htighs were already goat-like..... SO a pair of goats, if you're in the know, would be conspicuous by their absence in an Ashton ballet involving Dionysus....... By the way, it's curious to note that Lev Ivanov (who dies before the premiere) choreographed a version of Sylvia in 1901 for Preobrajenska and gerdt. Wonder WHAT it was like. Finally, how I envy you all. I love the music, and I also think that the temper of hte times suits a revival of thi kind of semi-preposterous ballet. I HAVE seen Mark Morris's wonderful version, for San Francisco Ballet, their best new thing in YEARS -- which is in some ways Ashtonian. Morris admires Ashton, and even quotes some of his favorite steps ( like hte attitude penchee-d to the side). WHoa, I've got to go watch my neighbor's new robot-vacuum cleaner do its thing. Semi-choreographable, it seems.... ................................. PS re the preposterous complexity of the story -- Morris went along with it too, and if you're curious, I discussed that a lot in what I wrote about SFB's production of Sylvia, in "Dance view times": at this URL: http://www.danceviewtimes.com/dvw/reviews/...spring/sfb5.htm .

"Hammoudi" means cutie in hebrew, and also probably Arabic!!! THe things you learn on this site! More handsome Danes: Ib Andersen, angelic Arne Villumsen, dreamboat Yes, Christopher Gable -- he was not only handsome, his way of being handsome was like an allegory of bright youth -- You could call his picture "Glad Day" and everyone would understand.

Silvy, I am so proud of you. This is the lecture your audience deserved. So simpatico to them, and to Mr Balanchine.... Thanks you for giving us all such a detailed report... WONDERFUL job.

me too, Jane -- DOn't meanto put you on hte spot, but I've been wondering how you're coming t terms with those two... In a way they're BOTH so American. I''ve had reason lately to be thinking of my days at Oxford, and hte kinds of things "the English" didn't need to have pointed out or tacked down, an how in some ways Americans need to justify their feelings by pointing out WHAT exactly made me feel that way, ways the English seemed ot feel were unnecessarily contentious and maybe got in the way...... It civilized me, I think, but I still can feel horribly insecure venturing an opinion I wouldn't know how to back up. You may never warm up to them. And there may be no need. But I do think it's necessary for Americans.

Carbro, that's just wonderful. What a prince! Thank you SO MUCH for reporting that.