pherank

Mathilde Froustey is just beginning with the company, and this is normally the summer break at SF Ballet, but they are just about to leave for a tour to New York City: http://www.sfballet.org/tickets/ontour Froustey dances in Suite en Blanc (not a surprise) and I think 3 other mixed rep ballets, which will all be new for her. We have a forum thread discussing the visit to NYC. So I wish Froustey bonne chance with these new works. Simone Messmer form ABT is also brand new to SFB, and will be danicng in some works for the first time. It should be exciting for the New York audiences. Hopefully the new dancers will have had enough rehearsal time, and feel confident about their roles. The SFB regular season begins with the Nutcracker in December, so Froustey will need to learn some parts for Helgi Tomasson's version of the ballet - it is a big, beautiful production. I hope she genuinely enjoys being at SFB, and chooses to stay. We shall see!

A question to the group: there is original rehearsal footage (from 1947?) of The Four Temperaments showing Mary Ellen Moylan and Tanny Le Clercq, and probably others - Does anyone know who shot this footage, and where it resides these days? Is it in the Jerome Robbins Media LIbrary?

Wow - Damian Smith is being listed in some of these performances - and he'll dance in Ghosts with Yuan Yuan again. I guess he wants to ease his way into retirement: a little at a time. EDIT: according to Leba Hertz, Smith will dance the 2014 season and that will be the actual end of things. So good news for those of us planning on catching these SFB performances. http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Damian-Smith-retiring-from-SF-Ballet-after-18-4733560.php Lorena Feijoo is now being listed in the programs too.

I really don't know, DB - I've since returned the book to the library, so can't look through the bibliography. But I'm guessing, no. I tend to agree that Kattner-Ulrich's dissertation is well done, and easy to read. Aside from a few points I stumbeld over, it is a good compendium of reminiscences from people like Geva, Markova and Danilova.

This video is pretty interesting too, and a bit different in manner from the others: Boy Meets Girl

I just found an English translation of the Aquarius song (video above): I love that video - makes me laugh everytime. Especially the part where the woman in the background tries to imitate the band's movements and she starts to fall over. ;) I also like the "sandwich eating" movement at the very end of the video, after the music has ended. And all the choreography when the band is arrayed on the red carpet - that's just brilliant.

I'm not even sure what the titles of the video songs are, but here's a couple samples of lyrics from other songs: from Machine Civilization

I have heard about her interest in ABT, and that seems the most likely place for her to guest. But I'm sure there are many places where she and Belingard could teach, if that is of interest. I'm happy to have Dupont and Belingard come to San Francisco Ballet, and keep Mathilde Froustey company. ;) (Or maybe Froustey would wonder, "Can't I get away from these people?") But certainly, London would be a good option for them.

It's nice to be able to hear from someone who could be there - thanks Nanarina. I have to hope that Dupont is able to come to the US to do some dancing after POB retirement. Who knows what the future will hold?

Just because they are so fun to watch: here are World Order from Japan. They have a signature slow motion walk that you will see in most of their videos, but there's also a lot of clever movement with interesting tempo shifts. And they create the music as well. "For those unfamiliar with World Order, they are a unique Japanese band created in 2009 by former mixed martial artist, Genki Sudo, that incorporate music, slow-motion and classy suits into a pure blend of auditory and visual awesomeness." --William Goodman "Welcome to Tokyo" "Aquarius"

Here's a few more photos of the Albertina Rasch Dancers. I enjoy the aesthetic of these old photos. "Albertina Rasch (January 19, 1891 – October 2, 1967) was a naturalized American dancer and choreographer. Born in Vienna in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1891 to a family of Polish Jewish descent, Rasch studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome in 1911. She formed her own dance troupe, The Albertina Rasch Girls, and the Rasch Ballet, starred in a number of Ziegfield productions. She also appeared at the Moulin Rouge, performed with Josephine Baker, toured with Sarah Bernhardt, and opened a Manhattan dance studio (where Bill Robinson taught tap) before adapting her classical training and techniques for the Broadway theatre and films." Another photo by A. C. Johnson Photograph by Haz, 1931 Ziegfeld Follies by Florence Vandamm 1927

Hello Diane - "flock of birds" sounds about right. I thought that their poses were the perfect mix of stylization and natural movement. I went ahead and added the credit information to my original post.

Just a reminder that there are great interviews collecting at the Ballet Initiative website. And the interviews can cover a range of topics depending on the interviewee. Christian Cudnik has recently posted parts 1 & 2 of his interview with Jacques d'Amboise. Even if you've read Jacques' autobiography, I think you will find the conversation adds to the story. http://balletinitiative.com/podcast

On the videorecording, at least, the playing is credited to Gordon Boelzner. Thanks KFW, I think that must be the version I've seen online - from 1980 with Farrell, d'Amboise, Mazzo, Watts, Martins, Von Aroldingen, Luders and Andersen. The video quality is poor and the audio doesn't always seem synced well with the images, but at least almost all of it is there.

Did Chilgren also play the piano onstage for Mr. B's Davidsbündlertänze?

You are right, RG - I finally found the link that mentions this material at the NYC Library: http://www.worldcat.org/title/valse/oclc/438155528 [DVD, transferred from 16mm reversal print via Digital Betacam cassettes]

KFW shared this link with me - an interview with Kendall regarding the writing of Balanchine and The Lost Muse. And sure enough, there are many fascinating bits in the interview, not the least of which having to do with the actual process of writing this type of book. The interview only adds to the story, which is part of what makes reading so fun, and so maddening: the process of life just goes on and on, and there's no formal summing up, only more information... And here are some wonderful closing lines:

I see now that at the end of the sequence that the credits mention piano music being added on later - the original footage was silent (I kind of ignored the credits the first time through). My understanding is that there is a full version of the ballet somewhere in the Jerome Robbins media library, and I don't think it was recorded at Jacob's Pillow, but elsewhere.

That's great news for Abatt. ;) Froustey dancing Suite en Blanc makes perfect sense - she has to know that one well from the POB. But everything else will take lots of cramming.

Fantastico! Great find, Neryssa - you get the gold star today. This looks to be the footage that was used in the documentary. The audio sounds like it was added on later - either that, or they went to some trouble to mic the piano in this presentaton footage at Jacob's Pillow, and clean things up. The first thing I notice is how closely Le Clercq's movements correspond with the movements of the earlier "Three Fates" dance - the sharp/spikey elbows, and jarring movements that succumb to inertia, soften and fade. When the two partners intertwine arms, the tempo of their movements is quite different from what I've seen in modern versions. Not that one way is necessarily "right", but here we get to see what was first developed with Balanchine presiding over matters. Pretty thrilling, I have to say. I'll have to watch this a number of times and give it more thought...

I don't yet know the photographer, but this is one of my personal favorites from the world of dance. [EDIT: This is a photo of the Albertina Rasch Dancers in costume for Rio Rita (1927). Photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnson.]

Name that ballet! Sorry, no prizes. ;)

"It tells us almost as much about Jennifer Homans as it does about the history of ballet." Precisely. And I don't actually have a problem with that myself because Homans does explain something of her personal approach/viewpoint in the Introduction. But is that enough? Perhaps not, given the amount of "blowback" that has appeared, especially regarding the closing section of the book. This is a stylistic issue to me, that is certainly fixable in a re-write. For me, if a book is ultimately successful, it is because I am inspired to learn much more on all the various subjects touched upon. And that in fact happened for me with Homans's book. So I can't say the book was a failure by any means. There is a tremendous amount of information inside, and it is always the reader's job to try to figure out what is plausible and useful, and what is problematic, and open to interpretation (or even factually incorrect). I don't think I understood, for many years, that most people regard whatever non-fiction they happen to be reading (or watching) as a compendium of actual facts. We seem to give these things the benefit of the doubt and assume that all is "true" until we come across something that really rubs our values the wrong way. Then we might start to question matters. In graduate school, I was finally introduced to the notion of a 'critical reader', who plays detective and pieces together some sort of 'truth' from the textual evidence - never assuming the writer to be all knowing and completely trustworthy (or even competent) on all levels. But it is a life's work to get good at playing text detective: you've got to learn about stylistics, grammar, as well as the real world characters and events being referenced. Mark Franco's criticisms are valid (even though he can sound rather nasty himself in making his points), but the Homans book is still worthy reading, and that's the truly important point.

Another thing to think about - the actual pairings. My own preferences tend toward: Vanessa Zahorian and her husband Davit Karapetyan Maria Kochetkova and Joan Boada Sarah Van Patten and Tiit Helimets Yuan Yuan Tan used to work primarily with Damian Smith (and they were a great team), and Vito Mazzeo I believe, and now that both are retired it's difficult to say who she best pairs with. I'm also not really able to say who Frances Chung works best with - I think that is still being figured out. But there is something to be said for mixing things up and creating suprise chemistry.

Yes, I can understand that, but to be fair to Ms. Froustey, she's brand new and doesn't know any of the rep. She would have had a lot to learn in a few short weeks on top of getting situated in SF. It was nice to hope for, but I m not totally suprised that it's not going to happen. I do wonder if she'll travel with the company to NY as backup/understudy, or if she's just waiting for Nutcracker time...