Paul Parish

Very FAST!! It looks liike the fact that Alonso could SEE, she made part of the dance -- she keeps looking at him, as if to make sure he's real -- and sometimes hte head position is not hte one we're familiar with, since she's turned her head to see him...... Of course, there are many htings in here we're not used to -- no supported jumps into the piques at the end is hte only thing I really miss, but even that is ok given the integrity this interpretation possesses. Wonderful. Thanks for posting htis, Christian. Lovely.

Polyphonyfan -- yes, of course, absolutely -- with weight and gravitas, and almost tragic feeling.

Do you know? Was it one of Diaghilev's program-note writers? Bakst? Benois? Or Lopukhov? Vaganova? Levinson? The idea has certaihnly taken root, and few would contest it -- but who was the first to articulate it?

I would give a lot to see this film -- or the opera it's based on. Wagner himself said that no poera had ever struck a nerve with the public like Auber's did - indeed, it caused a riot at its first performance in Brussells which led directly not only to the Belgian revolution -- the fighting spilled into the streets and the regime came down - -but also to the Petipa family's [who were important folks at the Opera] having to leave town in a hurry. It's important to notice that the heroine/title character of hte opera is played by a dancer -- she can't speak, and obviously can't sing. WHAT can this opera be like? What can this MOVIE be like? By all accounts, Pavlova was electrifying then and her performance still looks alive and fresh now. if i were an enterprising silent-film-festival programmer, I'd include this in my festival.

Thanks, Pheranc -- to me that looks likea revision, and not just a different moment in an evolving tableau -- in the 1928 picture, it looks like one of hte handmaidens is in handstand, with her head close to the knees of thekneeling person, and the big-haired person stands in the front of their triangle, facing away from Parnassus [as if she were sliding hte goddess down hte hatch, off to Hades? but that would be another ballet, 'persephone' ;)] anyway, s/he is definitely facing away from the big picture, supporting the legs of the upended goddess at hte calf -- no? Christian, thanks for that wonderful picture -- who are they? THe second muse looks like Lorena Feijoo maybe have looked 20 years ago.

THANK YOU THANK YOU HTANK YOU. WONDERFUL images. New to me, and well, let's just say you've certainly made my day, QUiggin and Pheranc WHAT IN THE WORLD is going on at hte foot of the mountain in the apotheosis? Looks like Pluto has arrived and upended the handmaidens....

check out the winged footwork on this amazing video; the magic starts about 20 seconds in The video shows exquisite batterie and double frappes, as executed by the Paris Opera Ballet-trained former San Francisco Ballet ballerina Muriel Maffre [it looks like her legs and feet.. She is now director of the SF Museum of Performance and design, which is currently showing her piece in which dancers make designs with paint on their shoes by executing the classical ballet barre exercises. Notice how her tendu always goes to the same place, no matter how many times repeated nor how fast. Notice also the exquisite clarity of her about-face [demi-detournee on both feet on pointe], the height of her instep and actually the way her ankle itself opens at the fery top joint, where the tarsals meet he tibia, and he disciplined way her toe comes back toward the working heel as she plies. There's a free event this saturday at "The ANNEX, 1420 Harrison st, SF this Saturday at 2 pm; it's a fund-raiser, the paintings made by 5 of our best dancers will be auctioned off, but admission to the spectacle will be free. Come if you can. I'm going. Maybe I'll see you there. Please say 'hi.'

Thanks JMcN for posting that article. What character she has, and what gifts.

Were there no reviews in hte German papers?

any reports up yet? How were they recevied?

The trailer made me like this more than I did when I saw it, on the day it was broadcast. What Alexandrova says, especially about Abderakhman, I found more moving than I did her behavior in the ballet itself -- and Abderakhman I thought was the only one of the principals who danced with enough soul to keep it alive. I'm with Bart and Christian -- Alexandrova is just not right for the role, however much she may feel it in her heart, she's not built to make this ballet expressive. Her cheekbones are too big, her eyes are too close together -- she's a wonderful dancer, but she does not look the part. Actually, she just doesn't have a clue about Raymonda -- what she says about Abederakman is interesting in the abstract, but it's not in character. Alexandrova is too healthy, boringly normal. She does the moves, but they don't mean anything. Even the Hungarian solo, she's impatient with hte wrist things -- Semenyaka made amazing drama out of rotating the upperarm bone, taking it from a parallel line into full turn-out. Alexandrova is not interested in this at all. it's like "Whatever -- sure I CAN turn my wrist over as I take it back from my head. Here, I'll show you. idiot." .on top of that, DeBrienne cannot do his pirouettes, and though his jumps are showy, he's just spindly, and lacks lacks majesty. Everybody ELSE is excellent -- especially Shipulina, and the two men -- the pas-de-bourree dance to the harp is out of this world beautiful -- and Virsaladze's sets are beautiful in this light, the dream is wonderful, the 2 soloists in the dream are fantastic. If only Semenyaka had had this level of production values behind her version! For me the great Raymondas are Plitsetskaya's, Bessmertnova's, and Semenyaka's. Kolpakova is glorious, also. And Novikova is extraordinary in her version -- and yes, I'd rather see her pick up the flowers!

There are many different translations into English of the French academic language/ Most dancers call the Wilis' arabesques voyages "chugs." Slight hops in fondu aret not much used any more, but they're effective choreographically -- Balanchine used a string of them going backwards in Tchaikovsky pdd, and of course ODILE did them in the Black Swan pdd [which has a complex connection to Tchai pas]. Back to signature steps -- Kitri does a million versions of the grapevine step, usually as Failli pas de basque -- often ending in a lunge croise leaning out over a pointed foot. The arms and head positions are as story of their own, but if we're talking teps, failli pas de basque is a big deal.

Very nice work by Kochetkova there. Especially sexy the little swivels, almost hip-hop in their feeling --beautifully rotated, very clear and clean,yet another of those places where the display of rigor and style in the small steps makes the BIG steps look awesome.

I don't stop feeling sad about the death of John Percival. I owe him a lot, much more than I realized until I saw the obituaries, pieced together the information, and mapped it onto my life. He lived a long, full, very productive life, and he's now with Ashton, Buckle, Balanchine, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky -- and Vsevelovsky and Petipa, too, probably -- so he should be happy up there -- but the loss to us is bruising. It was great to see him again when he started writing for Danceviewtimes, and to realize how much I'd missed reading him, since the days when he first introduced me to the idea that dancing was something you could think about. I started reading him when I was at Oxford, roughly in 1969, in the daily paper. I looked in the Times for his reports as I looked for news of what was happening in Berkeley and Cambodia. I was country-come-to-town, this was my first exposure to ballet, I'd been the best rock-and-roll dancer in my high school, I was crazy about dancing -- as indeed is almost everybody in Mississippi, where I come from -- but it was new to me to think of it as something you could think about and not just DO. My first ballet was La Fille mal Gardee, Saturday matinee, and I was thrilled, I realized I'd understood every word of it. but I did not know HOW. SO I looked for someone as interested as I was, none of my friends were, even the balletomanes struck me as not-tuned-in -- but there was Percival, and he got it. AND he saw everything, and he had the sanction of The Times behind him, and the paper was free to read in the Grad Common Room, every day. And he was in it nearly every day, it seemed. So if I couldn't get to every performance -- I was a graduate student, and Covent Garden was an hour away by the fastest train, and there was no fast train back -- Percival became my window onto the performances I had not seen. When I look at the programs I still have, it's amazing how rarely I actually made it to the ballet -- I've only got about 10 -- still, it seems like I would have died without ballet, and I wrote about it in letters home all the time. I remember running through the train stations, and that as I got closer to Covent Garden I ran across the street crossings and tossed myself with little jetes onto the curb (pointed feet, heel forward,) and didn't care who saw me, and I'd slice through crowds by putting my arms epaulee, in 4th arabesque, like Dowell running off-stage. I couldn't stop myself, I was so excited -- I noticed it at the time, and thought 'that's odd' but didn't try to stop it -- I'd also developed a florid British accent, like no-one spoke except the widows of brigadiers, and hadn't tried to stop that, from happening, either, except that I also noticed that I still said 'y'all' and 'fetch' and 'tomAYto' -- again, with no struggle, the change was not for particular words, it was systemic, and ballet similarly took me like a disease -- and Percival was my mentor in this induction. Percival was like my daily feeding. His writing was direct -- without being conversational, like Pauline Kael, he made you feel like he was your friend, you had company in this. And for a Brit he was emotional without being [like the Americans] "overboard". He'd been a conscientious objector and knew his mind, and this can not be underestimated. in 1969 I was myself in the process of becoming a conscientious objector [to the VietNam War], and I can testify, it's an isolating, difficult process, to go against the grain of a vast tide of public feeling, to wrench yourself out of the ethos you belong to. And he was objecting to World War 2!! DH Lawrence, EM Forster have written tellingly about being COs, the difficulties of being out of step with your whole generation, and the sense that you have to pay back in your own coin, something commensurate with the sacrifices that the soldiers your age have made. Still, the British prize their eccentrics and do not make pariahs of them; au contraire, perfectly thoughtless people contrive to have opinions and parade them; everybody does it, or did it,even Christ Church toffs ["Antelope, excellent word! -- it has such a 'woody sound"]. I'd venture to say that part of Percival's need to write so much, and to praise the dancers who'd fascinated him, and to respond to their epiphanic performances with his honest impressions, was to make this payback. When people have real emotions and responses to art and can articulate them fast and often and with unflagging gratitude, as Percival could, it's a tremendous gift to society as a whole. it's testimony he's giving. It's almost secondary, how clearly and succinctly he can say what he means, unmisunderstandably. That's speculative, -- and memory is clouded by nostalgia, and an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude, and even more by my ignorance at the time when he was virtually the only person telling me what I should admire and how I should feel about what I'd seen. He made it seem reasonable that a "thinking man" would think about this extravagant subject and have plenty to say and not hesitate to report on this wordless art as if he knew with great certanty what the dancers had been saying with their bodies, He could distinguish fairly -- it seemed so to me, I'd seen the same dancers and felt much the same way -- between the singing tones of Anthony Dowell and Donald MacLeary, Sibley, Mason, Park, Collier, and Nureyev - the last of whom was then as intoxicating a performer as Mick Jagger. I think I saw Performance and Dances at a Gathering within a week of each other -- all the above-mentioned dancers were in DAAG [except MacLeary], AND Lynn Seymour (the girl in green) -- and each seemed one to be absolutely NOW. I don't remember any of his particular opinions, nor what Percival said about DaaG, though I wish I did now.... but the point is, he was not discussing an esoteric art. He wrote plenty about non-academic dance -- which was not strange at the time (though maybe it was in England). in New YOrk, Croce [whom I had yet to read] was writing about ice-skating and Fred and Ginger and and Balanchine, Jill Johnson was pushing hte art of the personal essay into manifold voluptuous cul de sacs. I'd bet (though I don't know) that Percival was reading them. I wasn't yet -- I was reading HIM, grateful for the example of someone who clearly did not feel he was crazy to be so interested, and was skilled enough at reporting to give you an idea of what you'd missed. On reflection, I can not remember in particular anything Percival said -- but I do know how strongly he affected me. it was the kind of attention he believed that dance deserved that emboldened me to think i could think about it, too. Whether or not I shared his opinions is secondary; the example he set was how much he made you feel he'd enjoy comparing notes with you, with anyone else who watched with as much desire as he did. Now that i write about dancing myself, and know how panicked I feel if I have to write more than twice a month -- I feel like I'm disappearing if I can't get some solitude -- I wonder where he found the nerve to write so often. It poured through him, as if he were an Aeolian harp, responding to the spirit of the dance. He saw, he felt, he wrote.

I loved his writing. Read him all the time, for the report itself but also for the sense that he subtly cultivated of where the pleasures really lay; he always gave plenty of context, but hte great thing was, you could believe he was telling you what he really thought and how he really felt and responded to the ballet itself -- to the dancers, the dancing, the music, the choreography, the mis en scene, the phrasing, the look and feel of the whole thing.

When I wrote that, YG's was the ONLY complete Raymonda I'd ever seen. I still prefer it to Nureyev';s, where the dances are stuffed with awkward excrescences and Raymonda herself has gone faisandee. WOuld love to see others in the flesh. I was NOT bored by YG's; I was enchanted by the dancing.

Jesus, what a workout!

Natalia, I've been looking for more youtube clips of the ballet but don't find anything with Titania in it -- only a few butterfly's uploads, including the Maryinsky curtain, a 4-second clip of the forest scene, and a couple of clips of the wedding march. If you would PLEASE upload links of anything including Kondaurova, I'd be SO grateful. The production from photographs, looks sumptuous, and SHE from photographs looks staggeringly beautiful as Titania -- but you can't tell how she moves. from still shots, nor how much wit is present in the pdd with Bottom.

Wonderful photo, saw it in some context -- probably the Tanny novel -- recently. i don't think Laing was in it, either. He WOULD have been associated with City Center Ballet, probably, when Tudor did his brief stint with them....

That plush quality, softness of landing in demi-plie, and accuracy of landing in fondu with a real melting quality, is incredibly beautiful and very rare. Anthony Dowell had it. Karsavina in her book on technique, the flow of movement, recommended the practice of fondus as the mechanism of the jump -- and looking at this I found myself thinking that without a good fondu on each leg, it's probably not going to be at all easy to land a double tour equally well in both directions.... Anyway, he's wonderful, and I bet he's 20 times as wonderful live as he is on video, since it's in the theater that that softness and accuracy in landing is most thrilling. I'd love to see him dance Apollo! And thanks also for more views of Lorna Feijoo. -- so! musical! And for a chance to see the thrilling Cuban audience. Bliss must it be to be in a house like that, when the audience is already on their feet cheering before the flying-fish dive (I'm calling it that since I've never seen one before and don't know what to call it...

To think it was once sexy to wear bathing suits at your waist line, and minimize the basket!

Beautifully centered mover.... I really like the old home movie from the 50s when he was still a kid. Effortless.

Fantastic performance -- exquisite phasing, subtle use of the head, beautiful shoulders, arms. All the turns in the variation should have ended croisee before the releves in arabesque, some didn't, but it was still no problem -- she makes excellent choices onstage, which shows she takes some risks and has ballerina temperament. Wow!

I like her emphasis on community -- "what are you looking for on the floor? Do it for them!" and reminding them that their trajectory lies among the circle made by hte other dancers. She comes back to that several times Even the develloppe without the swooning backbend makes it more aware of the others. So it's not so much a fantasy of I-thou, but a fantasy of finding an ideal peer-group, if the ballet is about a poet and his thoughts (as I've seen somewhere suggested), it's not like a poet looking for ONE TRUTH, but being at home with his thoughts"

Yes, Helene, those are Lambarena dresses -- designed by Sandra Woodall. Lorena's wearing hte ballerina's costume. They are all beautiful. THank you Christian, for the topic and hte clips. I DO wish you could post her variation from Tchai pas -- or the whole thing, which she danced with Damian Woetzel and which makes fugitive appearances on Youtube -- since it is , after Kyra Nichols's and Violette Verdy's and Elizabeth Loscavio's, the most musical and most satisfying and most "spontaneously" musical performance of that role that I've ever encountered. She came to Berkeley with the Cuban Ballet in Giselle and I was out of my mind from her first pas de basques. Lorna Feijoo is a very great dancer.