pherank
-
Posts
5,536 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Events
Blogs
Store
Posts posted by pherank
-
-
I was looking forward to seeing Froustey during the 2 week run in NY. I'm disappointed that she is not part of the tour.
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...
-
Which of the casts for Cinderella are recommended?
I think the closing night cast of Cinderella is about the same as the original opening night cast (in SF). Chung and Van Patten as the stepsisters were especially good together. But as Helene says, Ms. Tan won't be around forever, and is definitely worth seeing in person. And seeing Sofiane Sylve in the mixed rep - I would recommend that - she's nearing the end of her performance career.
The Mixed Rep performances will have something from everybody principal-wise, so they are a good bet. I join Natalia in lamenting the loss (through retirement) of Vito Mazzeo, and Damian Smith, but the company doesn't exactly look weak right now. That's the good news.
One notable absence here seems to be Lorena Feijoo - maybe she goes off to visit in Cuba at this time of year? Who knows?
-
In the summer of 1934 a return engagement of the Fokine Ballet to Lewisohm Stadium caused a sensation. After 15,000 seats and 2,000 standees were admitted, there were still thousands trying to get in. The police had to be called to control the crowds. On 8 August 1934 the New York Times had a headline on the front page that read “POLICE CALLED AS 10,000 TRY VAINLY TO SEE FOKINE BALLET AT STADIUM”.
Those were the days.
Folkine was also invited by Lucia Chase to be one of the first choreographers for Ballet Theatre in the '40's.
Nothing going on for Balanchine didn't mean ballet had all but died.
LOL - Yes, those were the days.
Having read many of the pages in the Kattner-Ulrich dissertation (but not all by any means), I can tell that she is purposefully focusing on Balanchine's relationship to the theatre scene in Germany (no doubt because she was at the Berlin Free University to do the research). And she spends some time discussing how little ballet was appreciated by 1920s Berlin - very different to the scene in Paris. The Ballet Russes apparently did not fare well in Germany. I really like some of this dissertation - I would like to see it improved, to deal with some of the weak points we mentioned, but there's some really great information in there too.
And that's my feeling about Balanchine and The Lost Muse as well, there are a few assertions that trouble me (or just confuse me as to their meaning), but it is a great story, and there's an awful lot of worthwhile information to wade through, and consider. It inspires me to learn still more...
-
Courtney's LinkedIn profile states "Classical and Contemporary Performing Artist and Instructor" in/near Charlotte, NC.
I've confirmed that Courtney Elizabeth is teaching at the Piedmont School of Music and Dance in North Carolina, and is now calling herself Courtney Elizabeth Stewart, so I think we can guess that she's gotten married since leaving SFB. Congratulations to Courtney!
-
Looks like Simone Messmer gets to appear in From Foreign Lands. Good for her!
I guess Mathilde Froustey won't appear until the regular season opens. She's on the beach in Santa Cruz ;)
-
However, Kattern-Ulrichl states,
No longer the art form that had all but died out in Western Europe and had stagnated in czarist Russia, he created an entirely new direction in the art of dance, one whose ramifications extended far beyond his own company of dancers.Ballet had died in Paris and Copenhagen? In Monte Carlo before Rene Blum was sent to a concentration camp?
I suppose the very first sentence could be considered controversial, since it is entirely Western in viewpoint: "In 1924 a small unknown group of young ballet dancers left St. Petersburg for what was to be a four month educational tour of Germany." They were obviously not "unknown" in Russia (and Kendall's book explains all that), but unknown in the West/Europe. It looks like Kattner-Ulrich did publish the dissertation (I don't know if anything was altered before publishing though):
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Life-Works-George-Balanchine/dp/383813690X
Her statement "no longer the art form that had all but died out in Western Europe" is definitely begging for more details - she must be referring to the post-Diaghilev Ballet Russes era, when companies were certainly struggling, and then WWII. And perhaps she was thinking of Balanchine's remark about how nothing was going on for him, so he would go to America. But I agree with you: that kind of broad, sweeping statement is not a good idea.
[Edit] I do like Kattner-Ulrich's listing of the various early Balanchine ballets, as well as the "Correspondence from George Balanchine to Serge Diaghilev (1925 - 1927)". And, the whole section describing the troupe's experiences dancing in Berlin (p100 and beyond) are quite fascinating. If enough people read the dissertation, it would merit its own thread. ;)
-
Pherank, many thanks for the link to Kattner-Ulrich's dissertation. Too bad this hasn't been widely advertised.
Pretty interesting, no? Being a dissertation, I can understand that it isn't widely known, but due to the wonders of the Internet, we can have a look-see.
-
It would have been helpful if she had said the first time she cited info Geva's bio that it had a number of factual issues, but in this case, she's given five reasons why the account is suspect.
It's a can of worms though to suggest that Geva made up a story regarding her wedding day. And for me, as a reader, I instantly want to know more, but we don't have much to go on. Mentioning that Georgia was a long ways from St. Petersburg, or that the railways were a mess, doesn't preclude the presence of those two people (and Andrei, aged 12, had earlier traveled on his own to Georgia, and obviously survived). And if Geva's version isn't credible, then what is the more credible version?
Geva is not Kendall's subject, and even if she had been, there's enough psychoanalyzing in biography. If a bunch of what Geva wrote in the memoir is suspect, why would the reason for this be something for which Kendall owes an explanation? If it were the only thing in Geva's memoir that was suspect, but Kendall had contrary evidence for it, Kendall wouldn't owe an explanation for that, either.I disagree that Kendall owes no explanations - that goes to the heart of what historical biographies attempt to provide: some facts and "truths" about a subject.
A couple of other spots that confused me:
"But Maria shouldn't worry about Aunt Mila or him, writes Andrei: the family was taking care of both [in Georgia]. "Better worry about yourself and Zhorzhik [George]," Andrei says, then adds with younger-brother wistfulness, "I can't believe I haven't seen him for five years! And during that time…I've become an artist." Was Maria herself really taking care of Georges, as Andrei implies, doing his laundry, bringing him food? Had she seen his school graduation performance? Had she traveled to Pavlovsk for his lezginka or his semi-failure in Swan Lake? If not, why not?"
> Good questions at the end, but how is Andrei implying that Maria is "taking care" of George (who is at the Mariinsky Theatre school). It would make sense for Andrei to tell his relatives to "take care of" themselves in very troubled times.
…"A postscript at the end of the letter only deepens the mystery surrounding this inscrutable family: "I'm very sorry about Babusia," Andrei writes, "maybe she's happy now." This seems to mean that Babusia, who we assume was Maria's mother and so his and George's grandmother, has died in Petrograd. maybe Maria has been preoccupied with nursing her. But how odd for Andrei to write like this about a grandmother's death--as if he wasn't personally involved. Balanchine, the brother on the spot, never even mentioned a grandmother."
> How does this signal that Andrei didn't feel personally involved? Is Kendall assuming that Andrei needed to write a formal letter on the subject? And how do we know that he hasn't already?
-
I've finished the book, yeah!
I'll admit to taking vicarious 'pleasure' in reading about life in Russia of the 1920s - I'm both fascinated and horrified: there is so much to be learned from those events, and those people, but the available records are few, aside from remembrances of the survivors, most of which are bitter and mournful.
Overall, this is an excellent piece of research, and there's little doubt it was an arduous task to cobble together useful and believable information, and weed out the hearsay. I do think that this book should be regarded as an important source of information for English language readers. I'm wondering if there is, or will be, a Russian language version of this book (and what Russian readers think about this work).
A couple of oddities I would like to mention:
Kendall has a tendency to question people's statements without giving the reader an adequate sense for why that person's statements are unreliable. We need to see evidence; otherwise, the author comes off badly. As an example:
"Geva wrote later that Georges's father and brother traveled from Georgia for the wedding, though this seems unlikely given the distance, the ruined railways, and the Georgian Balanchivadzes’ poverty. And where were Georges’s mother and his friends in a school chapel wedding? No one has left an account of it except the bride. Georges’s friends heard about it only afterwards; they’d barely known about Geva.
But for Georges, who did not advertise psychic events, this mariage was an ultraprivate affair, and in private terms a masterstroke."
So we should assume that Geva needed to lie about her wedding details? Sorry, why precisely? (Or is that being saved for Kendall's next book?). Why state that the marriage was "ultraprivate", but then question why there were few witnesses?
We get no clue as to why Geva's comments on the wedding aren't reliable until in the final portion of the book, Kendall adds, "This account comes mainly from Geva's memoir, Split Seconds, which contains so many questionable details and blurred contexts that we can’t know if it’s accurate."
But why not make that point from the beginning and display something of the inconsistencies in Geva's text? Otherwise, it's just Kendall's opnion with nothing to back up her claim. One person's word against another's: I can get plenty of that on YouTube.
A stylistic nitpick: Kendall uses contractions throughout her writing, and first names for 'characters', which I find a little odd in a mostly academic-toned work. It comes across to me as a stylistic affection - I'm not seeing how contracting phrases is even necessary in this type of work. The book is not conversational in tone, so why the informal style of written English given the subject matter?
Also, the ending struck me as being a bit abrupt, but I suppose Kendall wanted to leave off without going into matters that are much written about already by others.
I especially liked the section dealing with sexual politics during the post-revolution era. And it was interesting to learn how Balanchine was, for the most part, forced out of dance performance into choreography by the 'powers that be'. Also, the time spent on Lidochka Ivanova's story: her death, and her life, was a worthwhile effort in my opinion. It is worth celebrating a short, but exceptional life.
Take a look at this online dissertation on Balanchine's early life (cover is in German but text is English):
http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/diss/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/FUDISS_derivate_000000007745/Early_Life_and_Works_of_George_Balanchine.pdf -
Not sure if Ms Kondaurova is featured in this video of Concerto DSCH, but it is beauitfully danced:
Yes, definitely is Ms. K beginning in the 2nd section of the video (in the PDD - if you can call it that). Thanks for the video link.
-
The SF Ballet Blog mentions that Ms. Tan went to a book signing in China where she has released an autobiography of her life (so far) as a dancer, Ballet & I:
http://www.sfballetblog.org/2013/10/yuan-yuan-tan-book/
-
I'm sorry, but when I read "Rutger, a rogue ballet dancer" I thought immediately of Rutger Hauer.
LOL - I had the same reaction actually. I mean, I was ready for anything: Schwarzenegger, Jolie, whoever.
-
Sarah Van Patten is SID! (And with those eyes, who would think otherwise?)
But who the heck is SID? Well I've read the descriptions, but still don't really have a 'picture' of SID, the Film. Apparently they are in pre-production on this project:
SID is a science fiction ballet film short that takes place in the distant future when human society has all but phased out gratuitous activities, such as the arts. SID, an android, develops the ability to dance as she observes the performance of Rutger, a rogue ballet dancer. Her graceful and soulful dancing inspires love in Rutger, but is met with jealousy by the other humans who cannot accept the idea of an android, a machine, creating art.
While many science fiction films foresee a time when humans are overrun by advanced artificially intelligent machines through warfare, SID reimagines this theme. What if humans are eclipsed by machines not through force, but by our civilization losing track of one of our defining characteristics as humans: our ability to create and appreciate art?We are launching a crowd funding campaign in October. Its success depends on its ability to connect to bunheads, cinephiles, tech enthusiasts, science fiction geeks, robot hobbyists, WIRED readers, Futurama fans—people who want to see a film like this get made—so no matter how much or how little you will be able to donate, please help by spreading the word about SID !
-
After many attempts to get a ticket for "Le Dame" with Aurelie dancing the title role, I was thrilled to succeed in getting a seat for the Sunday matinee, on the 6th October, I have been trying for almost 5 years to achieve this, and had almost given up.. After being told all the time it was sold out, I phoned on the spur of the moment, last Monday. and asked about the availability and wonder of wonders there were two seats available in the orchestra where I like to sit. Having first checked Eurostar and a hotel, I snapped it up with much delight. At last, I am going. After checking the Distribution list, it is the last performance Aurelie is doing in the run. Which brings me to wonder, if in fact it will be her last performance of the ballet, before she retires. Taking into consideration the season is announced until mid 2014, it only leaves a short time before she will retire early 2015. It will be a delight for me but tinged with sadness to know this beautiful dancer will all too soon leave the company.
Good job, Nanarina - I'm happy for you (and envious). I agree that the opportunities to see Dupont live are fast running out.
-
Note: things have changed - Sarah Van Patten (a US citizen) is now the recipient of the Diana Dollar Knowles "grant" (the SFB wording is, "Appointed Diana Dollar Knowles Principal Dancer in 2013"). Congratulations to Ms. Van Patten.
-
The dispute has been resolved. Good news!
Great news, Abatt. I just found the explanation to be rather confusing:
“The problem in all ballet companies is that the orchestra members get paid more money than dancers, usually significantly more,” he said. The San Francisco dancers wanted the company to begin to address the disparities in compensation, he said, which they did."
We had heard before that: 1) money wasn't actually the issue, and 2) the artist were seeking better, more respectful 'treatment' from management (whatever that might be).
I have to say I am still confused as to what exactly transpired.
-
NY Times reporting that the SFB's visit to NYC may be cancelled due to the ongoing labor dispute.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/san-francisco-ballet-in-dispute-with-dancers/?ref=dance
But thankfully, the labor dispute is now over. ;) So keep your fingers crossed.
Edit: Maria Kochetkova posted this image today, mentioning that she is "getting ready for NY":
-
Thank you for this, pherank. It's a keeper
All the dances in one place!!!You are welcome, Alexandra. We definitely need the Spanish folk dances added in. There are just so many dances and variations on dances, so I tried to stick to the ones that have some kind of reference in ballets. I highly recommend watching the Sarabande video - great stuff, and it's easy to see a relationship to ballet's positions and steps.
-
For my own edification, I started putting together a list of European folk/social dances and links to video samples. So if anyone finds this of interest, please feel free to add samples (or if you can recommend better sample videos for any of these items, definitely let me know). I was looking mainly at dances that are referred to in various ballets. Note that many of these dances are also linked to a particular form of music sharing the same name. The quotes all come from Wikipedia unless otherwise noted. I'll have to deal with the Southern Mediterranean another time, but here's the first group -
Branle (Bransle)
"16th-century French dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle." "According to Arbeau, every ball began with the same four branles: the double branle, the single branle, the gay branle, and the Burgundian branle."
Branle Gay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a826x9x1oUs
Branle de Champagne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWNe-6EdsBo
Galliard
"a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbCTUvnawSg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDCxv3Hv2g
Anello (fifteenth-century Italian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcX8rrnVb5M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbUtpxuMptU
Sarabande
"Originally, a dance considered disreputable in 16th-century Spain, and, later, a slow, stately dance that was popular in France. Possibly of Mexican origin or perhaps evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influence that was modified in the New World, it was apparently danced by a double line of couples to castanets and lively music." --Encyclopedia Britannica
"In music, the sarabande is a dance in triple metre. The second and third beats of each measure are often tied, giving the dance a distinctive rhythm of alternating quarter notes and eighth notes. The quarter notes are said to correspond with the dragging steps in the dance."
Gavotte
"The gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo. The distinctive rhythmic feature of the 18th-century French court gavotte is that phrases begin in the middle of the bar; that is, in either 4/4 or 2/2 time, the phrases begin on the third quarter note (crotchet) of the bar, creating a half-measure (half-bar) upbeat."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9b6ldKKqu0
Bourrée
The bourrée is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century. It is danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pRW-yAe2L8
Minuet
"A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular group dances called branle à mener or amener."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1b4jH9Rk8
Chaconne
"…a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this it closely resembles the Passacaglia."
"The chacona was a sexily swirling dance that appeared in South America at the end of the sixteenth century and quickly spread to Europe, becoming popular both in the elite courts and in the general population." -- Alex Ross
This fine article contains sound samples (thank you!):
http://www.therestisnoise.com/chacona/
The dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRyeg_r2zqY
Quadrille
"fashionable late 18th- and 19th-century dance for four couples in square formation. Imported by English aristocrats in 1815 from elite Parisian ballrooms, it consisted of four, or sometimes five, contredanses; like the contredanse, the quadrille depended more on the cooperative execution of intertwining figures, or floor patterns, than on intricate stepwork." -- Encyclopedia Brtannica
"Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a rectangular formation, and a precursor to traditional square dancing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLvt-Tss_mU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syiClqV1HBQ
Cotillion
"The cotillion is a type of patterned social dance that originated in France in the 18th century. It was originally made up of four couples in a square formation, the forerunner of the quadrille; in the United States the square dance, where the "figures" are called aloud by the caller, is a form of rural contredanse that also descended from the urban cotillion. Its name, from French cotillon, "petticoat", reflected the flash of petticoats as the changing partners turned."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWR10wAndg
Tarantella
"The term tarantella groups together a number of different folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time (sometimes 18/8 or 4/4), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized forms of traditional southern Italian music."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM-B_KL3PFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOiOPtXSmpA
Mazurka
"The mazurka (in Polish, mazurek) is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the second or third beat."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XytcQovGT-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLvVYVwD2No
Czardas
"Hungarian folk dance. The Csárdás is characterized by a variation in tempo: it starts out slowly (lassú) and ends in a very fast tempo (friss, literally "fresh")."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSKqrhXGrUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTaaqlNvQ1c
Troika
"Troika is a Russian folk dance, where a man dances with two women. The Russian word troika means three-horse team/gear. In the Russian dance the dancers imitate the prancing of horses pulling a sled or a carriage."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CiQ8bKU4bw
Viennese waltz
"What is now called the Viennese waltz is the original form of the waltz. It was the first ballroom dance performed in the closed hold or "waltz" position."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1AkeBpyDsY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kditrEUhCU
Polonaise
"A dance of Polish origin. The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin.
Polonaise is a widespread dance in carnival parties. Polonaise is always a first dance at a studniówka ("hundred-days"), the Polish equivalent of the senior prom that occurs approximately 100 days before exams."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPeNd8luMQY
Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7a4BVtTr0
Polka
"The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajxfQk_zbjM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgLHOyzmrg -
You can read one of the early reviews here (it is positive):
http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2013/09/nyff-13-afternoon-of-fauntanaquil-le.html
-
The trailer for the documentary "Afternoon of a Faun" which a few of you will be seeing soon. Anyway it looks stunning and heart wrenching:
Excellent!
I'm really encouraged by the fact that the footage being used of Le Clercq has been cleaned up, and film rate issues have been fixed: it does look like people will be seeing the clips at life-like speeds and with decent clarity.
-
For any Russophiles out there: I came across this website, which apparently was intended to be a book, but the author could never find an interested publisher...
-
. But football - that's another matter. Way too much coverage for football which is often not provding a good 'product'.
I'm not a sports fan, but I wouldn't say that football or other sports are not good "products".
Not to stray down another path, but what I am referring to here is in fact a great big discussion in sports land: NFL games suffer from many 'quality' problems due to overwork of the players, and the unquestionable violence of the sport. Some of the problems facing the NFL these days that effect quality and people's perceptions of the sport:
- Use of performance enhancing drugs and illegal drugs (if players are caught it does mean suspension) has been difficult to control.
- An inordinate number of off-field criminal offenses by NFL players (and the numbers keep rising).
- Concussions are proving to be a big long-term health issue for the sport, and there will continue to be expensive legal issues around this. The sport is dangerous, and there is simply little the NFL can do to prove otherwise, yet many people like football...
- The general greed of the NFL league and owners has created longer seasons with pre-season games and now both Monday and Thursday night games that cut down on recovery time for players. There are currently 4 preseason games and 16 regular games, and if the team is 'lucky' they play in the post-season too. From 1947 through 1960, each NFL team played 12 games per season, which would have been easier on the body. But the number of games played has only grown. And then there's this crazy thing about teams being allowed 53 players on their roster, but on game day, they can only choose from 45 to play, and if there are significant injuries during the game the teams can actually run out of players at a particular position, but they are not allowed to pull from the 'extra' players. So what happens? The injured continue to play...
Last year, the NFL had an unprecedented amount of significant injuries, and also off-field criminal problems to deal with, and it definitely affected people's perceptions of the game. Fans want more football, but they are also complaining constantly about the quality of the games they see. This preseason and practice period seemed to end with more players injured than at any other time before. And that seems to be a general perception in NFL land. Fans want to see their favorite star players face off against one another, but what they see a lot these days are the replacements. And then they get to see the replacments get hurt...
-
To me, there simply isn't enough exposure in all communities. SF Ballet gives a free performance in the park each summer, but that's one single event. And most regional companies are extremely limited in the amount of community 'outreach' they can do. NYCB and ABT do a pretty good job of saying, "we're here!", but most of the companies in the US have a really difficult time even getting on the average person's radar. But football - that's another matter. Way too much coverage for football which is often not provding a good 'product'.
Fall Season @ State Theater Oct 16-27
in San Francisco Ballet
Posted
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.