Marga

I enjoyed the piece on Dena Abergel very much. Let's hope Pauline Golbin does lots and lots of similar interviews!

Well, of course, there's Raisa Struchkova, who died Monday. Anna Pavlova Alexandra Danilova Galina Ulanova Melissa Hayden Irina Kolpakova Natalya Dudinskaya Alicia Markova Not exactly in this category (sorry!) but impressive for ballet: Suzanne Farrell -- considerable staying power, although she didn't make it to 50. Evelyn Hart (49 years old) is still at it! And since this thread started with modern dance and the retirement of the wonderful Dudley Williams, I'll mention Merce Cunningham -- over 60 years of dancing under his belt! Well, for one thing, I'd say really good genes. I suspect that Melissa Hayden as well as Evelyn Hart danced into their 50th years on sheer determination.

Thank you, Marc, for the announcement of Raisa Struchkova's passing. It is always sad when a ballet great dies. So much history goes with them. It is then up to us to remember what their contributions meant to ballet. Here is one very interesting bio of Struchkova, which includes an interview: Born for Ballet Struchkova was also the editor of Russia's Ballet Magazine for 15 years: Ballet Magazine

Well, then, you've probably tapped on mine! I know what leaning forward does to the view of the person behind me, but I live with a severe health problem which leaves me no choice but to lean forward after about an hour of sitting when the pain in my middle becomes excruciating if I don't. I put up with my discomfort as long as I can until it becomes too painful to endure, then I just have to lean forward. I try to lean off to the side so as not to block the view too much. Now, everyone does not have my problem, but before you approach your next shoulder, finger pointed in readiness to tap, remember there may be a legitimate reason for the errant leaner. Buying tickets through ticketmaster does not allow me to choose my seat, otherwise I would get last row seats or side seats every time. (And, if anyone kicked my seat, it could trigger a hypertensive paroxysm. I suppose I should start to consider whether attending the ballet might be more life-threatening than my disease is. Being jostled can someday be the indirect cause of a heart attack or stroke for me. Not all balletomanes walk around in the same body. I know one does not think of this when one has always been well. I used to be well, too. Now I know better, and give people the benefit of the doubt before unleashing my ballet-rage on them. ) What about the patron who is six feet (or more) tall? I can NEVER see through them and there's little they can do about it other than slink down in their seat. Hmmm, maybe the too tall and the infirm should not be allowed to go to the ballet? My dad and uncle used to always fall asleep at the annual Nutcracker, even when they were young and the venue was still City Center. I don't think this behavior should have disqualified them from attending the ballet! The years spent observing this Christmas tradition, with its requisite restaurant dining, dressing up in pretty clothes, hearing the lilting tones of the overture as it began to transport us to the world of the Stahlbaums and the upcoming magic of the snowy forest and the realm of the Sugar Plum Fairy, was made so much sweeter by having the family all sitting together. The dads dozing off was part of the outing! Sure, our mothers had their elbows primed to jab at the first snore, but I would have felt an emptiness at not having my father there. My father is gone now, but my uncle is still alive (just turned 89) and now he goes to the ballet to watch my daughter dance, after crossing the ocean with my mother in order to do so. He is peacock-proud and quite involved in his ballet dancer great-niece's life, helping supplement her meager income and writing back-and-forth with her. Maybe those catnapping years at the ballet 45-50 years ago planted a seed? I'd like to think so!

In telling others about this site I say Bal-LAY' a-LERT' and Bal-LAY' Talk (no emphasis on the "talk"). American Bal-LAY Thee-AY-tur......hmmmm, FF.......wouldn't the first word be pronounced more like "AmUrican"?

If you meant "let" as in "let me come in!", then, of course there's somewhere they're saying "bal-LET" -- a big somewhere, as in all over Europe. In Estonian we add a second T (ballett) to make sure you get it right! (and, of course, the "ll"s are somewhat palatalized and the "a" is pronounce "ah"). As far as the topic alluding to English speakers only, I remember most how markedly Betty Oliphant pronounced BALlet. Of course, she was an Englishwoman, and her emphasis was quite "uppity" sounding, as if any other way of saying it was simply unacceptable.

In a nutshell, the NYCB still carries the Balanchine mystique. He gave his dancers through the decades a kind of fairy dust that informed their dancing. No matter how each individual dancer enhanced their style and technique, they all carried his stamp......carried it to us, the audience and to the next generation of dancers who didn't have the opportunity to work directly with him. There is much more, of course, but my first reaction to the query posed is above.

Walpurgisnacht Ballet -- long hair flying in resemblance to the fires of hell! How could it possibly be danced in buns ???

The bio is called To Dance and it is a thoroughly fascinating account of a dancer's life in the USSR and then in the free world. It is one of my favourite dancer biographies. Panov wrote it with George Feifer and it was published in 1978 by Knopf.

... edited to remove my post, written from memory, with incorrect info...

Being an Estonian, and raised in an anti-communist family, I am coming from the same place you are, Iza. I appreciate the rest of your post as you explain how maturity helps you look at art as art, without the politics attached to it. I still have trouble with separating it out, and I don't apologize for it either, given the atrocities that occurred under the Communist system.It wasn't easy for those ballet dancers, either, who had to conceal their capitalist leanings in order to be able to dance and indeed, not be persecuted. And there were many of these "closeted" individuals, and not only in the world of ballet, of course. I have the Sleeping Beauty video and don't consider it one of my favourites, probably because of my residual feelings. I concede that Kolpakova was the great dancer she was, there's no question about that, but give me Asylmuratova or Sizova any day as Aurora.

Yes, but this summer she will be in Florida teaching ballet from June 27th to July 23, along with Tatiana Terekhova : Issaev SI

Irina Kolpakova (not Koplakova, Solor), former Prima Ballerina Assoluta is Assistant Artistic Director of Eldar Aliev's Ballet Internationale in Indianapolis, Indiana. I wonder if all these translocated former Russian ballerinas (in Kolpakova's case, a former Soviet ballerina, she being the Communist counterpart to Alla Osipenko, her direct competition at the Kirov, who was suppressed for her anti-communist views) ever imagined they would be ensconced in midwest and coastal American cities in the 21st century. Alla Osipenko spent time teaching in Connecticut and still teaches in Florida SI's. She and Kolpakova were both in Vaganova's last class.

The Estonian National Ballet supplies its dancers with (a) as many pairs of pointe shoes as each needs. The dancer has only to go to the office manager (a former dancer with the company) and ask for more shoes. (b) Grishko.

It pegged me to a "T" (except for that bit about being a follower and that other bit about not being satisfied with individual projects), skewed or not , including my favourite colour and season. I'm a sanguine! Living in the "Age of Faith", I am told by this test that I could be a housewife with a very happy family (check!), or other things -- many of which I have been in my life -- like shopkeeper, artisan, and farmer (well, make that gardener in my case). Thanks, Alexandra, that was fun. P.S. And with this post I'm also bronze, as in Bronze Circle!

We have some. Anna Antonicheva, one shoe, given to my daughter by her ballet teacher after the first time Antonicheva danced with the school's company. Antonicheva danced Giselle, my daughter the peasant variation. Another student was given the other shoe. Chan Han Goh, signed, but brand new. My children's school had a silent auction where they were a donated item up for bids. They came with a poster. No one else was interested in them. Martine Lamy signed shoes for my daughter many years ago when daughter was just starting her ballet life. Karen Kain, one shoe, unsigned, which we got at a National Ballet open house. I discovered it among other shoes in a bin of $2 donated-by-dancer shoes that were used as a fundraiser. I know it is her shoe by the size, shape of the shoe after being danced in and the way the elastic and ribbons are attached. It was used in a performance of Kain's swansong, "The Actress", the name of the ballet written on the sole. One of these days I might have her sign it. Daughter has a pair of her own shoes signed several years ago by Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington. Since daughter has often been in the same open class with the above NBoC dancers, she is not "celebrity-struck". She would never ask a dancer with whom she shares a barre to autograph shoes for her, deeming it unprofessional. When she embarked on her ballet career, she gave me the bag of shoes which had been in her closet, knowing I would appreciate having them. It's nice that she got the shoes, with more than a little thrust from her autograph-collecting mother, when she was younger and just starting out. They are wonderful keepsakes. I also have a pair of well-danced-in shoes signed by a dancer from the Milwaukee Ballet from over decade ago. One shoe has "The Nutcracker" written on it, the other has the dancer's name, which I can't make out. The shoes were part of a deal I bid on for the programs in the auction. I think we have more that I can't remember offhand ..... The shoes are kept in a bag in the closet pending the day I get a display case or cases for them to add to our ballet library. Isn't it a curious thing to covet a dancer's smelly, worn pointe shoes? The more mangled, broken-in, sweaty, discoloured and battered, the better!

..... I don't know what she's up to now, but the NYCB website may have that info. <--Checked there -- nothing. I found references to her in articles about the Career Transition for Dancers Benefit at City Center, 2003, and there's a pic from that event in Paul Boos' (Les Ballets Grandiva) blog: Teresa Reyes at Career Transition for Dancers Benefit at City Center

I would refer to as many biographies about Balanchine as I could get my hands on, Silvy. Also, the book I Remember Balanchine to get the dancers' perspectives on their work with him.....and any Dance Magazine or Ballet News or other magazines (The New Yorker had a great piece on him years ago) that I could find. If you can get any of the books written by his dancers, either their autobiographies or others which explain how he worked, this would provide a great framework for your lecture. I wish you had access to my personal ballet library, Silvy! I have all these publications, videos, and much more.....you would get dizzy with the amount of wonderful information in print on the great Mr. B! You're getting me excited.....! I would love to give a lecture, too, because the research would be so wonderful to do. I'd keep the lecture user-friendly, with plenty of published anecdotes, Balanchinisms and pictures in addition to the factual information. Good luck with your preparation!

Nadia and Solomon Tencer did it again. A sold out performance of their 31st gala of artists from around the world brought together, for 3 brief hours, stars and audience to revel and kick up their heels in a whoop-di-do of pleasure and real artistry under the intriguing appellation "Hearts On Fire" which hinted of love, lust, passion, ardor, sexual tension and sizzle. And we got it all. For sizzle and sexual tension, there was the sultry Argentinian exhibition of "Tango Metropolis" dancers Pilar Alvarez and Claudio Hoffman. They danced once in each act, first "Ablivion" and in Act II "Libertango", both to the music of Astor Piazzola. These two technically superb dancers mounted the art of the tango on a new pedestal, moving as one body around the stage -- one undulating, ever-mobile, smoothly changing, mesmerizing body -- never losing the rhythm of the steps or the ballroom requirements of the tango, but elevating them to a classical level. Bravo/Brava! They brought down the house in both acts. Sizzle, again, was brought to us in the forms of Desmond Richardson and Sandra Brown of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Sizzle and tension, spidery plasticity, opening-closing, folding, expanding, jumping, falling, slowly fanning out, unravelling, pulsing, stretching, smooth as silk, unbroken movement. Sandra Brown (SAB --> Baryshnikov's ABT --> Lar Lubovitch --> theatre, TV, movies ++ --> Complexions since 1998) is 3 months pregnant, and, seeing her ever-so-slightly thickening middle (bare in the costume) harboring the new life inside her added a palpable living energy to the piece. While remaining a mystery to the audience, this element gave the performance a real, nurturing, maternal "heart on fire", leaving them poignantly moved without even realizing why. Their appreciation of both dancers and the piece they performed -- "Ave", choreographed by Dwight Rhoden to music by Caccini -- was vociferous. Eleonora Abbagnato and Gaël Lambiotte, she of Paris Opera Ballet and he of Dutch National Ballet gave us simple, unadorned love. They danced a pas de deux in each act, first "Nuages" by Jyri Kylian to Debussy, second "The Man I Love" (Gershwin) from Balanchine's "Who Cares". Those who saw Abbagnato in New York February 14th and were left unsatisfied by the choice of choreography, would have enjoyed her performances in Toronto so much more. Wearing bright red, befitting of the evening's theme, instead of the Karinska-pink for "The Man I Love" [sidebar: I would have loved to have seen Patricia McBride in the "perfectly simple strapless black velvet" (Toni Bentley, Costumes by Karinska) she wore while guest performing the pas de deux somewhere outside of New York in the 1960's.] -- Abbagnato and Lambiotte carried off the choreography skillfully, with technical near-perfection, but without the Balanchinian sense of abandonment-outside-the-technique. Hands were too held, body movements not off-center enough (and we know Abbagnato can do off-center after seeing her "Kasimir's Colours" in New York's gala), and without real sensuality or anticipatory sexual tension. Maybe a hint of flirtation was there, but mostly it was a comfortable, easy love displayed by characters who, most of all, loved to dance. Not the stuff of which this choreography is made, especially given the underlying circumstance of its creation, the departure of Suzanne Farrell from NYCB. Still, it's always wonderful to see anything from "Who Cares", just for the music and choreography and the pretty positions it demands. If you wanted a Balanchine-fix, however, you didn't get it. To be fair, if one is not trained in the style, then it is the rare dancer who can adapt it on top of their own training, no matter how well-honed their technique. I think you have to "live" Balanchine -- for a few years at least -- to get it into your body and senses. More to come.

A curious thing happened just a few hours ago at the "Stars of the 21st Century" ballet gala in Toronto. Daria Pavlenko (Kirov) and Ivan Putrov (Royal Ballet) were performing the Act II pas de deux from Giselle. There was a group in the full-house audience that didn't seem to understand what was going on as they began to clap in unison (as is done with fouettés) during the passé relevés in Giselle's variation. They stopped soon after noticing that no one else joined them. I don't know if they were enthusiastic teenage dance students or not, but it was a bit jarring, as I was so caught up in the moment. Pavlenko's interpretation of Giselle as a Wili was superb.

Absolutely marvelous! Thanks for bringing this column to light. It sounds sort of like my own attempts when I try explaining Giselle to the ballet-uninitiated. Let's hope this "promo" brings in more people to watch the ballet. :yes: :blush:

I was just re-watching that tape last week. It is quite extraordinary! I always forget how fast Hayden danced! And Tallchief, too. I was quite in love with Jacques D'Amboise back then, and this video displays his youthful charm and power. He proved that every male principal doesn't have to have perfectly pointed feet to be a danseur noble. His footwork, indeed legwork, was so swift, his manner so elegant, his partnering so strong and attentive, his presence so commanding, his looks so handsome, that Balanchine had an incredible drawing card in him. Pairing him later with Suzanne Farrell was another coup in marketing a perfect partnership. In "Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' ", made decades later, we are still witness to his tremendous energy and infectious passion for dance.

Helsinki is a good choice, not only for seeing visiting companies but for the Finnish National Ballet! It is truly a hop, skip, and a jump to Tallinn. My daughter dances with the Estonian National Ballet, so I naturally second that suggestion. Their season begins in October and ends in early June, and alternates evenings with the opera. Repertoire is both classical (Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Nutcracker) and contemporary (Mauro Bigonzetti's contemporary Coppelia, Attila Egerházi's Firebird, Jorma Elo's Red With Me, Luciano Cannito's Cassandra) and, as elsewhere, the same ballet is presented for a period of time before going on to the next, but sometimes different ones are thrown into the mix mid-month. Oh, and the cobblestones are only in the Old Town, not all over the city! Both Stuttgart and Het National are excellent choices as the companies are very strong right now. They are both large and international in composition. I'd love to go and see Larissa Lezhnina at the Het! Their website has video clips of the principals and soloists. You'll see how worth it a visit to the Netherlands would be. I'd love to be in your shoes! At Stuttgart you have the wonderful Alicia Amatriain and Friedemann Vogel to look forward to as well as an incredibly beautiful, extremely talented troupe of dancers from everywhere. Their season runs from October through July and includes Balanchine, classics like Giselle, Romeo & Juliet, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and varied contemporary ballets by different choreographers. It's a world-class company.

Thank you for expressing that sentiment, Farrell Fan! Its succinct message speaks volumes. My one regret is that at the time I was seeing those great things I took them for granted. -- insert emoticon for 'wistful' --

You're right, Ari! But I don't think anyone will get mixed up. With the globalization of ballet, dancers and audiences unused to it will begin to realize it is a supreme accolade. So far, I've only witnessed this phenomenon occuring at the very end of the performance, and, at least in North America (for now!) it is preceded by the kind of applause we are used to hearing.