Paul Parish

Thanks for posting this.. Please go on ,and say some more -- what did you think they were trying to do? I haven't seen his company since it was the Bolshoi, back before the Fall of the Iron Curtain, when the Soviets poured all their resources into it..... But even then, the Bolshoi was a turned-in company -- they never have turned out very much, and it was a shock to me to see the ballerina, Bessmertnova -- who was married to Grigorovich -- just barely turned out, doing all sort of things "Wrong," and yet just one of he most glorious, heartreaking, tragically beautiful things I'd ever seen........ THeir way of dancing was so heroic, their way of connecting with us was not to"acknowledge' us, that would be too much like a merely social gesture -- as if Artur Rubenstein had treated us as if we'd come over to borrow the lawnmower-- but like we were going to church, and this was going to be something where we left our personalities behind and paid attention to WHAT's REALLY GOING ON....... It meant there was a LOT of stylizing of hte ballets -- like in Romeo and Juliet, even hte DUke when he saw all the dead bodies in the marketplace did en dedans pirouettes (or something) to express his wrath..... But in the course of a whole evening, it all added up to something..... I don't know what kind of resources Grigorovich has got now -- he's been out of office at hte Bloshoi for quite a while -- financial, or even more important in terms of what artists are wanting to dance with... but I'll always think of him as a major talent

Thanks for posting this.. Please go on ,and say some more -- what did you think they were trying to do? I haven't seen his company since it was the Bolshoi, back before the Fall of the Iron Curtain, when the Soviets poured all their resources into it..... But even then, the Bolshoi was a turned-in company -- they never have turned out very much, and it was a shock to me to see the ballerina, Bessmertnova -- who was married to Grigorovich -- just barely turned out, doing all sort of things "Wrong," and yet just one of he most glorious, heartreaking, tragically beautiful things I'd ever seen........ THeir way of dancing was so heroic, their way of connecting with us was not to"acknowledge' us, that would be too much like a merely social gesture -- as if Artur Rubenstein had treated us as if we'd come over to borrow the lawnmower-- but like we were going to church, and this was going to be something where we left our personalities behind and paid attention to WHAT's REALLY GOING ON....... It meant there was a LOT of stylizing of hte ballets -- like in Romeo and Juliet, even hte DUke when he saw all the dead bodies in the marketplace did en dedans pirouettes (or something) to express his wrath..... But in the course of a whole evening, it all added up to something..... I don't know what kind of resources Grigorovich has got now -- he's been out of office at hte Bloshoi for quite a while -- financial, or even more important in terms of what artists are wanting to dance with... but I'll always think of him as a major talent

Thank you so much for starting htis thread -- San Franciscans know Tomasson's Sleeping Beauty well, and will be eager to hear what the dancers make of it and how the production as a whole goes over.... I'd LOVE to know; I'd love to see the Danes do it.... I'm sure they'll make the Bishops and Lords and Ladies and Baby Aurora seem to have real lives and real consequence (as our performers never do)....

THanks for starting htis thread, Terry.. Ballet lovers in SanFrancisco will be especially interested to read anything baout Elizabeth Loscavio, now ballerina with Hamburg, who was the most interesting dancer -- the most imaginative, most musical, wittiest, most accurate, but also the most daring classical dancer we had. How's she doing over there?

I've only seen Malakhov live ONCE, but I'll never forget it -- he was dancing young Adam in "The Creation of the World," with he Moscow Classical BAllet, they came through San Francisco in , oh, 1990 or so-- I had never seen a male dancer who looked so beautiful.... Nureyev was androgynous, and, in a way, Malakhov resembles him -- the same coloring, high cheekbones, large eyes, beautiful ribs, clear center, beautiful hip-bones -- but Malakhov has much longer and more beautiful legs, and the most beautiful feet I've ever seen on a guy.... he is really more refined, more elegant, both in hte body GOd gave him and in the way he uses it -- though he's still young, Nureyev, GOd grant him rest, trashed his instrument and kept on stumbling around out there.... well, let's not go there.... Creation of the world is a character ballet, and Adam is as much acting -- Malakhov was wonderfully naif, like a boyish Bambi -- as it is dancing, and he was a wonderfully imaginative actor. SO I can't compare him with someone I've seen do Swan Lake or Giselle or Dances at a Gathering -- though I'd sure like to see him DO Dances at a Gathering, and Apollo.... I do know he made me want to see him in anything When he did grand jete, the grand battement was so long , so light, and it involved lifting and OFFERING the foot so sensitively -- but with plenty of power, it was not languid dancing, not a t all -, his front leg flew up so lightly, his torso rode the wave, and his back leg stretched out behind and followed hte curve of hte jump -- I'd never seen such a clear "up and over" leap before....

Linsusanr , I totally agree with you about Dances at a Gathering..... He's one of those dancers it's hard to imagine anybody not liking -- it's like hte sunrise, how could anybody not like that.... I hope can see him in Mark Morris's a Garden this week -- they announce casting on the web-site, www.sfb.org -- he's very delicate and poetic in that section to the celesta music....

Thanks for all these wonderful posts -- I feel almost like I was there. Y'all got something going in Boston.... It also makes me miss both Mikko Nissinen -- we'll never forget what a beautiful dancer he was when he was here in San Francisco, sort of like Helgi Tomason all over again with blond hair.... And Jose Martin, what a thrilling dancer.... And thanks for posting the Phoenix review -- Good Lord, what a good paper that must be. Marcia B Siegel is a great critic, (though maybe she was better on Mark Morris's "V" than she was on Wheeldon',s piece, maybe it gave her more to think about -- in any case, I'm grateful to her, she always gives ME something to hink about) and the sidebar follow-up on later performances by Jeffrey Gantz is fascinating, too -- esp his notion that ballet-orchestra performances of "concert" works can be more revealing than "famous-orchestra" versoins. It reminds me, after hearing Constant Lambert's recording of the Overture to GIselle -- my GOD< what a great interpretation that was -- made me want to hear him conduct Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, AND the 7th......

St Laurens's version is still kicking -- I've seen it here in a very very good school recital, marvellous choreography.... And I don't know who all had their hands on the version the National Ballet of Cuba dances, but even in their loud toe shoes and in front of those awful sets, Lorna Feijoo carried the production over the top, dancing effortlessly, with such high spirits.... Her mime was fabulous -- she did not have to do a gesture large at all for it to register at the back of hte house, and you always knew where Swanilda stood on any question... She's the boss around here, but she's so much fun, you dont mind. Swanilda is not my favorite heroine, she's so extraverted she's almost a bully, but as a symbol of the power of Nature, the power of women to bring forth life FOR REAL, as opposed to Dr Coppellius' attempts to do it thorugh wiles and cleverness, she's a wonderful thing - and Feijoo had an irresistible, irrepressible charm of an old-fashioned but never out-of-date kind..... We all simply loved her.....

I was gonig to say the prequel to Jewels was the Mistress of hte COpper Mountain, but there's really nothing witty about that, whereas YOU GUYS!!!

I was gonig to say the prequel to Jewels was the Mistress of hte COpper Mountain, but there's really nothing witty about that, whereas YOU GUYS!!!

BW, I didn't know anything about Bournonville till the Royal Danish Ballet toured the US -- in hte 80's-- I saw them in San Francisco and could not believe my eyes, this was court dancing of the finest kind, clear, modest, difficult, but carefully made to conceal its difficulties without ever looking drab or dull or..... it reminded me of the King Tut show, in that everything you saw was ravishingly beautiful but somehow modest and lovable and lovely and you just wanted to take it home and keep it.... it's the first time I saw Ib Andersen, whose ballon beat anything I HAD EVER SEEN, not even Nureyev and Dowell, not even BAryshnikov was more wonderful than he was IN HIS WAY..... Ballet NUt, San Francisco Ballet dances Bournonville's version of La Sylohide, which he choreographed not long after Taglioni's version was done in Paris -- they're not doing it this year or next, but it should rotate back into the rep before long-- the word is that a wonderful young Danish dancer is coming to SF to be our next great ballerina, Helgi's signed her so the rumor goes, so maybe la Sylphide will re-enter the rep soon.....

BW and Ballet Nut and At and all, I've seen a video of NYCB doing "Bournonville Divertissement" -- a compilation of great bits, ending with a lot of the last act of Napoli, that Peter Martins put together and has passages I could not live without..... Don't know if it's available anywhere, but a library that's got a good collection, like Santa Cruz's, might have bought one when it was current 20-odd years ago.... A very young Darci Kistler is OUT OF THIS WORLD in the pas de deux from Rossini's William Tell -- pique turns in attitude that float down into huge ballonnes, the prettiest ronde de jambe sautes I've ever seen, character balances with flexed feet while tucking her thumbs into her shoulder straps, exquisite footwork, exquisite phrasing, art-concealing art, it all looks effortless -- dancing with Ib ANderson, who was merely fabulous. Peter danced Flower Festival at Genzano with Merrill, who's not right for hte role but isn't bad...... Heather gives one of the most beautifully disciplined performances I've ever seen -- such light, beautiful entrechats Helgi Tomasson is in it -- it's that old -- very fine..... Robert Greskovic doesn't mention it, which is pretty much the FIRST time ever I've run into a video he hasn't mentioned..... though he DOES mention a video of 50 Bournonville combinations, which I'd certainly like to see......

you are so right, Prisma -- Watts was quite a creature -- her rib cage did go haywire towards the end, but if you never saw her looking simply beautiful, check out hte Bournonville divertissement..... and wasn't that her in hte pas de trois in Emeralds? BUt she was awesome in 4 Temperaments -- small part, awesome dancing...

"and where he goes I'll swallow, I'll swallow, I'll swallow.." Emily Litella, Emily Litella, you SLAY me, you SLAY me, you SLAY me...............

"and where he goes I'll swallow, I'll swallow, I'll swallow.." Emily Litella, Emily Litella, you SLAY me, you SLAY me, you SLAY me...............

First of all, Ballet Nut, you have made my day.... That reminds me of the Lithuanian joke," A chicken is not a bird, and Poland is not a foreign country." Ah yes, we need more wit onstage..... I've seen dancers at City Ballet for example who were so dull it was unbelievable -- soloists like the dreary Theresa R -- in Diamonds -- who couldn't do tombe pas de bourree pas de chat interestingly -- Diamonds has got a LOT of potentially deadly passages... Think on the other hand of Stephanie Saland, who did not have a reliable cabriole (see the Bournonville Divertissements), and they had to drench the stage in Coca Cola, I'm told, to make it sticky enough for her to be presentable in the tours de fini without falling out of them at hte end of Western Symphony, but WHAT A WONDERFUL DANCER she was, in fact, she was a principal dancer, at New York City Ballet, no less, where technique is supposed to be all in all...... She had such feeling, and such style, and such line and musicality.... What a creature she was.... I didn't see her live much, but I'll never forget her at the end of Serenade, being borne offstage like she was entering into Paradise...

First of all, Ballet Nut, you have made my day.... That reminds me of the Lithuanian joke," A chicken is not a bird, and Poland is not a foreign country." Ah yes, we need more wit onstage..... I've seen dancers at City Ballet for example who were so dull it was unbelievable -- soloists like the dreary Theresa R -- in Diamonds -- who couldn't do tombe pas de bourree pas de chat interestingly -- Diamonds has got a LOT of potentially deadly passages... Think on the other hand of Stephanie Saland, who did not have a reliable cabriole (see the Bournonville Divertissements), and they had to drench the stage in Coca Cola, I'm told, to make it sticky enough for her to be presentable in the tours de fini without falling out of them at hte end of Western Symphony, but WHAT A WONDERFUL DANCER she was, in fact, she was a principal dancer, at New York City Ballet, no less, where technique is supposed to be all in all...... She had such feeling, and such style, and such line and musicality.... What a creature she was.... I didn't see her live much, but I'll never forget her at the end of Serenade, being borne offstage like she was entering into Paradise...

Ballet is so difficult -- the simplest things are hard, just going straight up and down is very difficult, if you're really going absolutely straight up an down -- that it reveals the deepest impulses towards movement, and thus who you are shows up uncommonly clearly, and is visible from far away... THe wonderful thing about Ahsley was how her godlike she looked, her shyness was still there even as she articulated and clarified transitions nobody'd ever been able to show.Her shyness was the other side of her fierce determination to make herself presentable....

Ballet is so difficult -- the simplest things are hard, just going straight up and down is very difficult, if you're really going absolutely straight up an down -- that it reveals the deepest impulses towards movement, and thus who you are shows up uncommonly clearly, and is visible from far away... THe wonderful thing about Ahsley was how her godlike she looked, her shyness was still there even as she articulated and clarified transitions nobody'd ever been able to show.Her shyness was the other side of her fierce determination to make herself presentable....

wHOEVER EMILY LITELLA IS, THAT'S A GREAT LINE TO BE FAMOUS FOR. What I love in a dancer is presence of mind -- sometimes that looks like personality, sometimes that looks like technical confidence. I've seen a dancer do double tours who i know can't do them, because he's really a modern dancer in a ballet company, whose training had developed presence and understanding of the function of posturing (ok, the guy I'm thinking of has had a lot of Graham, and he decided to treat a double tour as a kind of gesture, and DID it), so you might think of it as personality, moxie, he pulled it off -- but in fact he's a very good dancer in small ballet company without a lot of actual ballet training having to do ballet STEPS because that's what the choreographer made last year and there mustn't have been to rechoreopgraph the sections for hte new guy, even though the new guy was going to be carrying a great deal of the ballet, and blow me down if he didn't pull it off -- but it wasn't just his musicality, he actually used some OTHER technique to pull him through. whew, that's a long sentence...... maybe start over.... what I love to see is bravery -- some dancers get courage/confidence because they've always had it, their mothers doted on them from the moment they were born, and they love to have an audience; sometimes that helps people pick up technique easily, "without having to work for it." SOme dancers get their confidence because it's an escape from life, they don't dare go to the door to pick up the paper without doing their make-up, but they find they can perfect their technique, they can do things and know they can do it and understand that that makes them presentable....... And they're right -- it does.... That's the American way. Merrill Ashley. SOme get confidence bcause having the chance to play a role gives them a structure they "don't have in life"... many people said that Nijinsky ws like a nobody when he was himself, but when he was imitating somebody, or creating a character (onstage or off) -- he;d pretend to be, say, a drunken, lecherous old woman -- it was unbelievable, the depth of detail he could pack into the creation.... I recently saw a video of Violette Verdy 's great solo in Jewels, and some of the suspensions she held, hte dynamics she gave that part, the releve so fast, the suspension how breathtaking the way she held it out to the last possible moment. and hte luxurious softness in her shoulders! out of this world beautiful... IT's both technique and personality, and what an ability to seize the moment and make it matter....

wHOEVER EMILY LITELLA IS, THAT'S A GREAT LINE TO BE FAMOUS FOR. What I love in a dancer is presence of mind -- sometimes that looks like personality, sometimes that looks like technical confidence. I've seen a dancer do double tours who i know can't do them, because he's really a modern dancer in a ballet company, whose training had developed presence and understanding of the function of posturing (ok, the guy I'm thinking of has had a lot of Graham, and he decided to treat a double tour as a kind of gesture, and DID it), so you might think of it as personality, moxie, he pulled it off -- but in fact he's a very good dancer in small ballet company without a lot of actual ballet training having to do ballet STEPS because that's what the choreographer made last year and there mustn't have been to rechoreopgraph the sections for hte new guy, even though the new guy was going to be carrying a great deal of the ballet, and blow me down if he didn't pull it off -- but it wasn't just his musicality, he actually used some OTHER technique to pull him through. whew, that's a long sentence...... maybe start over.... what I love to see is bravery -- some dancers get courage/confidence because they've always had it, their mothers doted on them from the moment they were born, and they love to have an audience; sometimes that helps people pick up technique easily, "without having to work for it." SOme dancers get their confidence because it's an escape from life, they don't dare go to the door to pick up the paper without doing their make-up, but they find they can perfect their technique, they can do things and know they can do it and understand that that makes them presentable....... And they're right -- it does.... That's the American way. Merrill Ashley. SOme get confidence bcause having the chance to play a role gives them a structure they "don't have in life"... many people said that Nijinsky ws like a nobody when he was himself, but when he was imitating somebody, or creating a character (onstage or off) -- he;d pretend to be, say, a drunken, lecherous old woman -- it was unbelievable, the depth of detail he could pack into the creation.... I recently saw a video of Violette Verdy 's great solo in Jewels, and some of the suspensions she held, hte dynamics she gave that part, the releve so fast, the suspension how breathtaking the way she held it out to the last possible moment. and hte luxurious softness in her shoulders! out of this world beautiful... IT's both technique and personality, and what an ability to seize the moment and make it matter....

I have to get behind Dirac and agree, we love the dancers we love for very deep reasoons, the reasons why are almost as mysterious as it's possible to connect with -- and if htey matte to you, they matter to you, and there's no need to justify it, nor any reason o let someone talk you out of it..... arguments aren't very important.... ALso, videos show us SO LITTLE..... look how dull Baryshnikov looks on video. The only one that gets ANYWHERE NEAR how exciting he was is Vestris, which Jakobson made very carefully, brilliantly, to show Baryshnikov's ability to change style and energy state instantaneously..... But the way he built a performance over time, and the level of excitement he dared to SART OFF with, you had to have the live experience, to be in he same room with this fabulously controlled, fabulously dangerous man to feel that..... only the tap dancers really come through -- the Nicholas Brothers are IMMORTAL in their film clips... Speaking of not coming through, i don't get it with Moira Shearer -- fonteyn's gifts weren't modern, and they were very English -- where as Mr. B so wickedly said, "if you're awake it's vulgar already." Fonteyn excelled at stillness, which is actually electrifying onstage, though not onscreen. She had excellent placement, which, again, is miraculous to see if you're actually in the same room, but on screen just looks like in effect trick photography. A friend who'd danced in some Petipa thing described it as "total placement anxiety" -- which is witty, and also it's spot-on, for hte theatrical excitement is in hte exposure of the dancer to our gaze -- it IS scary, like a high-wire act. Balanchine's more dynamic -- he wanted people to be moving -- moving through positions, but moving -- it's much more touch and go. ... Alexandra, is there any way you could recover the specifics of what Balanchine said? Maybe a course of hypnosis? I'd love to know....

Again, I'm running out the door, but htis is all such interesting stuff... I just want to say, I really respect Leigh's sense that Billy the Kid is a great ballet and you WOULD want to try to get to hte bottom of WHY..... Blly the Kid is VERY great ballet. It's so much greater than Filling Station, I don't know where to begin.... But start with that dance Billy does every time he kills someone... it ends with him tossing himslf onto one foot, crossing the ohter in front in a kind pf B-plus devant, and then this wave rises up his spine, upthrough the chest and spreading so his shoulders mantle, he looks dangerous, like a cobra that's spread his hood, ready to strike.... Lance James, who was coached in the role by Loring himself, told me that it's "a controlled retch" -- he's throwing up. And James was famously great in the role, Lroring thought Oakland Ballet did it the best... But to me, this is where "overdetermined" applies -- it's somuch more suggestive and ambiguous than that. The first time I saw it, Michael Myers had done the role, and looked like Marlon Brando....I came out of the theater doing that move, did it all the rest of hte week, like I was singing some song.... what it made me feel was glamorous -- like a cobra, or like Dracula spreading my wings -- a glamorous outlaw, separated from the rest of mankind but FAMOUS....becoming confirmed in my glamorous crime. It was incredibly poignant, to see Billy hardening in his outlawry, confirming his destiny....... and all because he killed hte man who shot his mother... However you read it, it's one of htose places where a sequence of movements has a fantastic metaphoric power, it's like a proverb-- and it makes me think of Loring as having unique penetration, insight ..... I also would love to hear how Manhattnik's encounter with Eifman went. I was not prepared for how absorbing I'd find the Grand Inquisitor section of "the Karamazovs" -- I'm not exactly a convert, but that vision of Ivan Karamazov was righteous, and the dancer was magnificent. Gotta run.

Again, I'm running out the door, but htis is all such interesting stuff... I just want to say, I really respect Leigh's sense that Billy the Kid is a great ballet and you WOULD want to try to get to hte bottom of WHY..... Blly the Kid is VERY great ballet. It's so much greater than Filling Station, I don't know where to begin.... But start with that dance Billy does every time he kills someone... it ends with him tossing himslf onto one foot, crossing the ohter in front in a kind pf B-plus devant, and then this wave rises up his spine, upthrough the chest and spreading so his shoulders mantle, he looks dangerous, like a cobra that's spread his hood, ready to strike.... Lance James, who was coached in the role by Loring himself, told me that it's "a controlled retch" -- he's throwing up. And James was famously great in the role, Lroring thought Oakland Ballet did it the best... But to me, this is where "overdetermined" applies -- it's somuch more suggestive and ambiguous than that. The first time I saw it, Michael Myers had done the role, and looked like Marlon Brando....I came out of the theater doing that move, did it all the rest of hte week, like I was singing some song.... what it made me feel was glamorous -- like a cobra, or like Dracula spreading my wings -- a glamorous outlaw, separated from the rest of mankind but FAMOUS....becoming confirmed in my glamorous crime. It was incredibly poignant, to see Billy hardening in his outlawry, confirming his destiny....... and all because he killed hte man who shot his mother... However you read it, it's one of htose places where a sequence of movements has a fantastic metaphoric power, it's like a proverb-- and it makes me think of Loring as having unique penetration, insight ..... I also would love to hear how Manhattnik's encounter with Eifman went. I was not prepared for how absorbing I'd find the Grand Inquisitor section of "the Karamazovs" -- I'm not exactly a convert, but that vision of Ivan Karamazov was righteous, and the dancer was magnificent. Gotta run.

Again, I'm running out the door, but htis is all such interesting stuff... I just want to say, I really respect Leigh's sense that Billy the Kid is a great ballet and you WOULD want to try to get to hte bottom of WHY..... Blly the Kid is VERY great ballet. It's so much greater than Filling Station, I don't know where to begin.... But start with that dance Billy does every time he kills someone... it ends with him tossing himslf onto one foot, crossing the ohter in front in a kind pf B-plus devant, and then this wave rises up his spine, upthrough the chest and spreading so his shoulders mantle, he looks dangerous, like a cobra that's spread his hood, ready to strike.... Lance James, who was coached in the role by Loring himself, told me that it's "a controlled retch" -- he's throwing up. And James was famously great in the role, Lroring thought Oakland Ballet did it the best... But to me, this is where "overdetermined" applies -- it's somuch more suggestive and ambiguous than that. The first time I saw it, Michael Myers had done the role, and looked like Marlon Brando....I came out of the theater doing that move, did it all the rest of hte week, like I was singing some song.... what it made me feel was glamorous -- like a cobra, or like Dracula spreading my wings -- a glamorous outlaw, separated from the rest of mankind but FAMOUS....becoming confirmed in my glamorous crime. It was incredibly poignant, to see Billy hardening in his outlawry, confirming his destiny....... and all because he killed hte man who shot his mother... However you read it, it's one of htose places where a sequence of movements has a fantastic metaphoric power, it's like a proverb-- and it makes me think of Loring as having unique penetration, insight ..... I also would love to hear how Manhattnik's encounter with Eifman went. I was not prepared for how absorbing I'd find the Grand Inquisitor section of "the Karamazovs" -- I'm not exactly a convert, but that vision of Ivan Karamazov was righteous, and the dancer was magnificent. Gotta run.