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pherank

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Everything posted by pherank

  1. Ekaterina Kondaurova dancing La Mort du Cygne - Plisetskaya watching from the audience (sitting beside Putin - how lucky) [Mariinsky II Opening Gala] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH22aornAzs Kondaurova TV documentary with clips of Midsummer Night's Dream, Le jeune homme et la mort and more:
  2. "Very often we see relationships approached from a male perspective." "She added that the lack of female choreographers is partially down to women taking breaks to have children and that they are ‘not aggressive in self-promotion’." If only what Rojo said was half as interesting as some of the implications that people seem to be finding. I can't actually find an explicit 'argument' in Rojo's statements. She makes an observation, yes, and I think a valid one. It's obvious to me that males are going to be creating any art from a male perspective (although I would add, an 'individual' persepective as well). Even if it is a male trying to truly understand what it might be like for a female, he isn't experiencing anything as a female, so there you go. RE: ballet choreography being weighted towards men - What do people propose to change, and how, and what will be the presumed benefits? That would be interesting to know.
  3. I agree - the comparison doesn't really work well. What I found curious, and more interesting, was her talk about how male choreographers work VS female choreographers. Which is just interesting, but it doesn't preclude one or the other, and doesn't make one approach superior. I guess she would be more comfortable with the "this is the situation, let's find a language for it" approach. In reality, each choreographer will be a bit different from the others, especially given the fact that there is no agreed upon method, no formula, for creating choreography that will just work for all artists. Agreed - I just see this has her obvious way of drawing attention to the company. It just happens to be kind of lame to have to resort to talking about "Porno". So much for art and any notions of 'nobility'.
  4. Certainly a valid question, Sandik. And a difficult one, I think, because it would be partly tied to the choreographers whose works they danced (and the choreographer's particular gestural language, which is under constant development), and partly tied to the dancer's company environment and training. We need to know what Jiří Kylián desires in a dancer, and Wheeldon, Forsythe, Taylor, Tharp, etc. (and now-deceased modern dance choreographers like Alvin Ailey). And I think it would be difficult to identify any 'movements' at work as it seems to be part of the art of choreography to strike out on your own and not fall into place as a disciple of any one established choreographer. The need for speed, hyper-flexibility, and Balanchine's notion of a continuous flow of steps seem to be well established in modern ballet. 'Pure dance' is popular amongst the modern dance choreographers (and cheaper to produce). But beyond that I can't say exactly what has been established. Do you think partnering has changed appreciably? Something I didn't convey well earlier, as I fumbled for words, was that I doubt that people wanting to see great renditions of traditional story ballets are admiring the performances for their 'quaint' and 'antique' qualities. And just because the stagings and costumes depict past eras of human history, the audience doesn't necessarily feel disconnected - in fact, most of us are easily able to put ourselves in those places, times, and situations. And this brings me to the important part, something that seems unique to this artform: traditional ballets that are well staged and well danced provide the audience with a moment of living history. And if the performance is really exceptional, "transcendent" as some like to say, then for a short while, it is as if we see the unbroken chain before our very eyes: an unending ritual passed through the generations of dancers. I think that moment, for me, comes up most frequently and obviously in the procession of the Shades in La Bayadère. Watching the procession, its easy to feel as though we're seeing an ancient, but still living and still vital ritual. It's kind of eerie when the sensation hits you, but it is most definitely beautiful. This effect is much less common in modern ballets of the present day, in my opinion, but there was a time when a Martha Graham, or Isadora Duncan could evoke something deep and ancient in their dances. Modern ballets strike me as often being insular and private (as in 'your own private world'). The persepectives shown (if they can be discerened) are so often personal, interior, psychological and not communal. That is of course my own reading of the modern ballets I've seen, and I'm sure there are examples that contradict this.
  5. It's great to hear Perron talk about dancers doing exemplary work in modern ballets. But I think she inadvertently ends up criticizing more than just Macaulay's preferences when she states, "But to me, his sense of ballerina grandeur is a bit outdated. He says that people think of ballerinas as having an “old world” quality. This is true for Swan Lake, Giselle, and Sleeping Beauty. But while the classics are still treasured, the ballet world has exploded beyond the classics..." I find that "ballerina grandeur", and even an "old world" quality is precisely the quality that ABT fans (one obvious example) appreciate in their dancers, and Macaulay is very familiar with the ABT audience. But fans of Paul Taylor's company aren't necessarily looking for grandeur in the dancing - they've other concerns. It really is a mixed bag of expectations when you look at particular companies and their associated regional audiences.
  6. Re: cancelling Xfinity - Good for you, Jayne. Put your phone on the Federal Do Not Call list and let Xfinity know: no more telemarketing. Fortunately, MCB seems to be in much better shape organizationally and spiritually than SJB has been, and there's no John Fry to make a mess of things (yet).
  7. pherank

    Yuan Yuan Tan

    This blog post tells about Ms. Tan serving as a jurist for the Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition. From the photos I see that Ulyana Lopatkina was also a jurist: http://www.sfballetblog.org/2013/07/yuan-yuan-in-beijing/#more-7007
  8. I suppose that means she is actively looking about. Not fun.
  9. I've been wondering where Courtney Elizabeth will end up - I've haven't even heard rumors about what happened with her.
  10. Yes, Moulin Rouge the film is one of those projects that marked the (now prevalent) tyranny of the special effects department buffoonery over all content and aesthetic considerations. I like how Wikipedia describes the film as an "Australian-American romantic pastiche-jukebox musical". Say that 10 times fast.
  11. Hi Sandik, What you say about Astaire not receiving mention for choreography was often true, but there are countless instances of cast members and dance partners saying, "but Fred put together all that…" And in his Broadway days, Astaire devised countless routines. Under Hollywood's star system, project assignments (and thus credits) were assigned before a project had even begun, so we do see some situations where credits go to persons who had next to nothing to do with a project. Hollywood was (and is) all about power politics, and who you know. Not so much a meritocracy. Absolutely recommended reading: The Astaires: Fred & Adele (look for it on Amazon.com using the Ballet Alert Amazon Search). You'll learn all about the 'fabulous' Adele Astaire who was perhaps the most recognized star of her generation - now mostly forgotten due to the lack of film evidence of her work. She's been reduced to a rumor. There are very interesting parallels between the Astaire parents (especially Mom) and Suzanne Farrell's parents and numerous other "stage parents" you may have read about. I see a pattern forming... [Edit] I just ran across this page on Wiki that attempts to list all of Astaire's solo and partner FILM dances, and there's this interesting quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Astaire%27s_solo_and_partnered_dances So I may have to concede on this point: Astaire worked with Hermes Pan mainly on his film musical projects. And that explains also why Astaire is able to keep "stylistic consistency" throughout these projects. The Broadway work of the Astaires was a different matter though.
  12. Invitation to the Dance scene with Gene Kelly Tamara Toumanova - Don Quixote variation Toumanova and Serge Lifar - Ballet Russes 'home movie' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4plpRCUqj4 Toumanova as The Doll in Ballets Russes Petrouchka (1940) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyhOvGU_uUU Nice slideshow of Toumanova photos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvYpoiM5Iy8
  13. Yes, that remains a mystery, and in all of my readings/research I've never found an adequate explanation for why Balanchine didn't try to seek out Astaire for possible projects together. Perhaps it was just B's usual problem with male stars and their egos. And of course Astaire like to do his own choreography.
  14. I'm wondering if anyone saw Wheeldon's An American in Paris BALLET for NYCB? Was it considered a success at the time? As some of you already know, it was Balanchine who first proposed the AiP Ballet idea - to George Gershwin and Sam Goldwyn, during the production of The Goldwyn Follies in 1938. And it did happen to be a plan for a FILM ballet (naturally, because he was talking to Hollywood people). Balanchine obviously saw real potential for the concert music to be used as a ballet score. The Bernard Taper biography includes a description of his attempt to sell his ideas: It had occurred to Balanchine even before Gershwin's death that Gershwin's American in Paris suite might be suitable for ballet, and now together with Ira Gershwin he worked out a libretto. In this project Balanchine intended to put into effect his ideas about ballet in movies. The possibilities of the medium intrigued him, and the opportunity to try out some of his conceptions had been one of the temptations that had lured him to Hollywood. A movie ballet, he felt, ought not to be merely a stage ballet on film. It need not be a continuous dance observed from a fixed angle, as the stage required, but could be a montage of dance shots, photographed from whatever angle or distance one wished. And it could employ effects the stage could never achieve, especially in the realm of fantasy, which seemed to Balanchine a quality particularly suited to the film medium. The American in Paris ballet was conceived of as a fantasy quest. The milieu was to suggest the Paris Exposition. through which an American, portrayed by the tap dancer George King, would search for Zorina, the girl of his dreams. Seductive, tantalizing, ever elusive, she would manifest herself now here, now there--at one moment in a Spanish pavilion, another time in a Ferris wheel, yet again high overhead among the stars of the zodiac in a planetarium--always just beyond reach, and vanishing each time just as the American was about to take her in his arms." [There's more relating to Balanchine's demonstration of the camera shots to be used, and Goldwyn's increasing annoyance at having to move his chair about...] It's an interesting bit of our American dance history: one of those great "could have beens".
  15. Your link works - and it's a rather clever piece. A fun take on the pitfalls/pratfalls of partnering. If you want the image of the video to appear in your post, don't use the link button above, just type the URL this way in your post and the video will embed in your message when you Post or Save Changes: [ url ]PASTE YOUR URL HERE[ /url ] But don't use the spaces after/before the brackets as I have done above (that was necessary to keep the forum from recognizing my typing as a video link). It used to work using the "media" bracket code too: [ media ][ /media ] But I don't think that works anymore.
  16. Filling Station - great suggestion (and available on the Jacques d'Amboise DVD). I recall reading that the little joke at the end (when the apparently dead woman is carried off the stage, but "wakes up" and waves to the audience, revealing that she was only "dead drunk") was Balanchine's suggestion to Lew Christensen - an actual death would have been too dour.
  17. I'll admit I enjoy the red purse and the eyeglasses, and even the cow with tutu. Believe it or not, the Mariinsky has performed Spuck's Grand Pas De Deux (Lopotkina has danced the lead). The Russians don't know what to do with the Western 'hip swivel' dancing, so they insert their own movements (though that kills the humor a bit). And as you can imagine, the danseur is rather careful in his mistreatment of Lopotkina. I wasn't able to see it at SFB, but Wheeldon's Cinderella stepsisters are reputed to be more humorous than wicked. But I'm told that some of the jokes can wear on the viewer.
  18. Hmmm. Does that mean "one" is dead and gone now?
  19. And LIttle Humpbacked Horse (which I just happened to mention on another thread). Ratmansky seems to have more humor in him than most.
  20. I think you have it exactly right, Nanushka: when Ratmansky can't decide between pure dance and story ballet, his choreography is apt to confuse rather than delight. I think he's having trouble with the idea of an allegory - and Chamber Symphony is not an allegory, by me. Apollo is one of the most successful allegorical ballets. Symphony in C is a successful 'pure dance' ballet. So I guess placing Chamber Symphony between the two Balanchine pieces signifies its "inbetweeness". But it's not really bridging the gap in a meaningful way. There are some lovely moments, to be fair, but because many of those moments seem reminiscent of other well-known ballets, the impact is slight. Still, Balanchine would rework his favorite ballets, so there's no reason Ratmansky couldn't continue to improve Chamber Symphony. Ratmansky is rather more successful with the obvious "story" ballets, such as his version of "Little Humpbacked Horse".
  21. Christian Spuck's Grand Pas De Deux is very much in the same vein of humor as Robbins' The Concert. Well I suppose it is less subtle, but Grand Pas is certainly good natured: And there is the work of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo which is mostly all humorous.
  22. I like flaws and feel more comfortable around people who have them. I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. --Augusten Burroughs (found on Vanessa Zahorian's Facebook site)
  23. I believe this is a photo of the Ecole's Défilé:
  24. Hello All: I managed to attend the ABT's mixed rep performance at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on 7/11/13. [This required an Amtrak train ride to get there from San Diego]. I was sitting in the Circle Balcony area which affords a nice angled view of the stage. Plush seating in that area too. [Though I've heard that much of the other seating has little legroom]. DC is a fairly good-looking, Modernist, clean theatre (it was my first time). Acoustic quality of the Pavilion was fairly average - definitely not great. But the orchestra played well and the conducting was effective. Apollo One of my favorite ballets, so it's difficult for me to watch in a disaffected, impartial way: I'm full of expectations. I was thrilled that ABT dance's the older, longer version of Apollo. Marcelo Gomes is certainly commanding as Apollo. He's an excellent dancer in general, as we all know. I doubt that there was a lot of rehearsal time for this performance, but Gomes seemed to have everything down cold. And that leads to my first nit-pick: Gomes tended to be so ultra-precise in his performance that it felt a bit stilted at times when the steps just needed to flow and show genuine agitation. Even the crazed/agitated moments are uber-controlled by Gomes (think Apollo emerging from the swaddling clothes, or the moments when he is testing his new, physical body). I wanted more edginess from Apollo the character (the Muses also tended to smile at inappropriate times which further takes the edge off). The birth scene with Leda was more forceful, and perhaps more explicit, than I'm used to seeing. But I liked this more intense portrayal (although some of the same arm movements - the thrusting towards the belly movement - was used later in Calliope's variation). The repetition of the "belly thrust/hit" was kind of odd. And I'm not sure if it's a good thing to relate Leda's giving birth to Calliope's performance for Apollo. The "nice flying lesson" portion of the PDD had problems - it looked like Paloma Herrera was not on the optimal balance point and they were both straining to maintain the position for the necessary seconds. The effect was somewhat ruined by their strain, but, they're both such fine dancers that they managed to keep things moving along. I should say that I really enjoyed Melanie Hamrick's dancing as Calliope (and she appeared again later in Chamber Symphony). I hadn't seen her in anything before, so I'll just say that I liked her lines and general carriage. There was a bit of awkwardness at the end when Leda and the handmaidens assemble at the foot of the stairs below the Muses. I don't mean that anyone stumbled, but that the flow of things was not so good, and it distracted from the Muses as they raise their front leg on pointe, on the stairs. The final pose of Apollo and the Muses should have a certain grave thrill to it: mysterious, and yet expectant. I tend to think Gomes remains more marble statue god, than living, breathing god though. It was a very good performance, but not as some ABT fan's like to say, transcendent. Chamber Symphony I'm starting to sound like a broken record regarding Ratmansky ballets: there's a whole lot of intense goings on, but much ado about nothing? I mean really, what is it all about? Chamber Symphony either alludes to, or simply borrows, themes from a multitude of ballets: from Onegin to Dances at a Gathering to Scotch Symphony to even West Side Story, but I couldn't see the relationship to the Shostakovich score (that was merely Ratmansky's departure point). James Whiteside danced the lead with real energy and angst (Gomes' Apollo could have used a bit of that), but, to little avail - he ends up back in the same enervated, depressed mood he started in, thanks to Ratmansky's choreography. And why exactly? Who are we observing, and what all is he going through with the various groups of dancers (and what do the different groupings symbolize?), if anything? And I don't think it's a case of, as Balanchine said, "How much story you want?" We're missing some needed pieces of the puzzle. The ABT soloists and Corps dance with great vigor - but much of the effort seemed wasted on a largely incomprehensible "story". The audience was appreciative though - heck, it's ballet in Southern California, after all. Hollywood Moment: During one of the breaks I saw Nigel Lythgoe ("So You think You Can Dance?") walking about with his lovely "companion" (girlfriend? wife? "associate"?). Symphony in C I'll just say that it was very well danced, and the energy level generally remained high throughout, building to the climax in the finale. In the 2nd Movement with Veronika Part there were some slow points where she should have flowed more serenely with the music, instead of 'falling out' of the music at points. But this is being very nit-picky. NOTE: The little Tina's Tacos stand in the plaza gets 4 out 5 stars (great quality - you decide what condiments you want to add, but there could have been more selections to choose from). That's the place to eat for 'cheap' (well, cheaper).
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