Marga

Nadia and Solomon cannot use an orchestra because of the astronomical expense and organization that would require. Also, sometimes dancers have changed their choice of pas de deux in the last weeks before the gala. Where would you get an orchestra that would play this large variety of music, and in addition to rehearsing together, find time to rehearse with the dancers, many of whom fly into New York the day before the performance? You are right, zerbinetta, Lucia has danced in every gala produced in New York AND in every single gala produced in Paris, Cannes and Toronto by the Tencers. Cyril, her husband, missed the Toronto gala last April because of injury and Lucia danced wonderfully with another principal from the Munich Ballet. Lacarra and Pierre are the signature couple for the galas and it is Lucia's gorgeous Swan Lake pose that graces every piece of advertising and every poster for this event. Guillaume Cote filled in at the last minute for Gudanov and was not able to dance the Paganini because he doesn't know it. He and Lunkina have not danced together before. She is an extraordinarily expressive dancer with an extremely lyrical quality to her dancing. I'm surprised that didn't come across for some viewers. Cote was recently made principal dancer at the National Ballet of Canada. He is still young and his star rose quickly. He is the best danseur the National has, in my opinion, yet still is developing his technique. What I like is that he actively seeks coaching for his principal roles, traveling to the Paris Opera, for example, in order to portray them as classically correctly as he can. He held up pretty well on Monday for a last-minute replacement. My only advice to him after his performance as James is to work on getting his heel front when he lands from big jumps and when he does a series of traveling beats along a diagonal. The Martha Graham Ensemble was a disappointment to me, too. I would think that they would have advanced further by now in both quality of dancers and rendering of the choreography. The inspiration for the decades-old "Steps" was the breadlines of the depression and how people joined them reluctantly, but of necessity. So there was this dancer who depicted those persons who tried to resist joining the gloomy inevitability of the line, but knew they would have to succumb in order to survive. After seeing all the lovely shoulders-down, open-chested, long-necked elegance of the ballerinas that preceded the Graham piece, I had trouble shifting gears to accept the collapsed chested, shoulders up, chubby-by-comparison Ensemble dancers. In my days of studying Graham (a long, long time ago), I swear the dancers were more svelte! Whether or not the present Grahma dancers are chunkier than those of the past, up against the ballerinas on Monday night, they sure looked it. The legendary Yuriko prepared this piece, and Yuriko was my Graham teacher in the late 1960s. She was an exremely harsh taskmaster and I can't help thinking "what happened?" She was tough with her dancers in dress rehearsal -- the old Yuriko feist is still there and I was delighted to see her after 37 years -- but it seems to me that the Graham company would have better dancers in the first place and especially after so many years. Was Graham really better in the 1960s or has my perception changed? Anyone else have thoughts on this? As far as Diana Vishneva's height, I'd say that she is around 5'6". Both Lunkina and Vishneva are about the same height. On Monday night, they were the tallest ballerinas! It was terrific to see the shorter dancers in predominance for a change! In the New York Times accompanying photo you see Lucia Lacarra with black footless tights and a dangling pointe shoe ribbon -- and without makeup. This pic was taken during rehearsal. In the actual performance she wore pink footed tights with both ribbon ends nicely tucked in. The Times photographer was told it would be a full dress rehearsal, meaning costumes would be worn. She was very surprised when I told her that, except for one or two in partial costume, the dancers would all rehearse in practice clothes and warmups. She said that the Times needed photos of dancers in costume (of course!), so did her best with those in as close to performancewear as possible. Tip to dancers in future galas: If you want it to be your picture that appears in the Times next to the review, wear full costume (and tell your partner to, too) during dress rehearsal!

ABT corps de ballet's rising star, Jared Matthews.

I dont think she is -- at least in the documentaries Makarova made during her return to the Kirov Asylmuratova seemed just average height. Not much taller than Natasha. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are right, canbelto. Altynai would be considered a short dancer today. I used to think she was tall too, Hans, from her photos in the halls of the former Kirov Academy. That was many years ago, before I began to meet many Kirov and Bolshoi dancers, thanks to my daughter's ballet school being the seat of operations for Stars of the 21st Century ballet galas.

I can only guage her against my own height (5'4") and she is definitely taller than I am! I have visited with her as she lounged in street clothes, stood next to her while she was in costume in slippers, me in heels, and watched her in rehearsal many times. Next time I see her I will ask her her height. If 5'6" is the new medium, then she is medium!

Paul Taylor wasn't bad for jumping when in his prime, but it was Carolyn Adams, a "principal" with his company for many years, who was a high, light jumper, incredibly strong and technically perfect. She was a beauty, and smart, with a career plan for when she would finish dancing.Merce's choreography was an on-the-ground, not in-the-air style. His dancers could jump (one of his main dancers, Viola Farber, was my modern teacher for years and an amazing dancer) because of the enormous strength his technique developed. His jumping, however, required you to jump low but as wide and far as possible -- not easy! Modern dance, as a whole, is not about jumping at all, in direct contrast to ballet. Modern is of the earth and ballet of the air. Within modern there are many codified techniques: Graham, Cunningham, Limon, etc., which are worked out as specifically as Agrippina Vaganova's Russian ballet technique. Modern dance allows itself to evolve over time, which is part of its mandate, while in classical ballet, the preservation of the age-old tradition is paramount. We return to it to find its essence if we stray too far. Modern is based on inwardness, on finding the seat of the spirit, the nub from which it emanates. It is philosophical, usually fraught with thought, and experimental, requiring meditative forays into your inner self and really feeling your physical reactions and letting them initiate your movement. Ballet is outward, demanding we suppress inner search, in order to, paradoxically, free the soul to express itself. Indeed, Balanchine admonished his dancers "Don't think, dear, just do" (and "don't talk, just do" and "don't act, just do"). So, just because we have a thread on best jumpers in ballet, I don't think a parallel thread for modern is quite the ticket. Ballet and modern really can't be measured with the same ruler.

I enjoyed your post to this thread, Ballet lovers, but want to address your choice of Svetlana Lunkina as a "little ballerina". Sveta is svelte, but not short. She is about 5'6" tall.

Sorry, Richard. I used to drive the New Jersey highways and was hit in the face with the industrial pollution and awful smell before I even passed the "Elizabeth" sign. Now, of course, that's not Newark, but no one out of area knows anything about Elizabeth, New Jersey. Newark is close enough to warrant a cigar. I know parts of Newark are as beautiful as most of the state is. Indeed, a large part of my family lives in Jersey and it is a state I love for the childhood memories it gave me. In keeping with the theme, Newark was a natural choice since a notable Mafia family is/was located there. The pollution info came right from a Newark internet site -- I always do my research! Let me ask you -- do you ever take a dip in the Passaic? I have lived near the shores of beautiful Lake Ontario for over 3 decades and Hilarion wouldn't fare too well were he tossed in that toxic tea either! I hate having to explain my banter .....

..... Newark, New Jersey, on the banks of the lower Passaic River, which everyone knows is contaminated with hazardous substances including dioxin, PCBs, DDT, heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which render a heavy, ominous haze to the atmosphere. Mercifully for Hilarion, he dies the instant he hits the water (making the cement shoes totally unnecessary).

This post of yours, Juliet, led me to do a search until I found a 3 year old thread on great Myrthas. I picked it up with a new post and hope others will continue to contribute to it. It's a very interesting subject.Here's the link: Great Myrthas

Oh, indeed, Alexandra!How wonderful it would have been to see Gloria Govrin dance Myrtha!!! If only Balanchine had done Giselle...... (now I'm deliciously musing about who would have danced the other roles....) I would also have wanted to see Volochkova's Myrtha. For those who did see it, I wonder ... did it suit her as well as I imagine it must have?

I've bought hundreds of ballet books on Ebay. Afterimages was only 99 cents (plus shipping). I purchased all of Arlene Croce's books of her dance reviews, Writing in the Dark, Sight Lines, and Going to the Dance, in addition to Afterimages, through Ebay. I was considering paying the $50 (Cdn.) that our local dance shop was asking for Sight Lines, but thankfully found it on Ebay for less than $5 (U.S.). Even considering postage to France, I think you can save more than a few dollars by checking online auctions -- and, of course, Amazon .

Cute, chrisk217! :rolleyes: When you are watching Act II Giselle, there is no "backstage" -- at least not if the company dancing it has successfully transported you into another world! The Wilis, as cargill said, propel poor Hilarion to his death in the lake. The Wilis are in a forest glade (conveniently located next to a lake), turned eerie at night by their ghostly presence.

I'll give you the ones I know for sure: Wendy Whelan = whale-in Suzanne Farrell = rhymes with "barrel"

Actually, although very flat/tiny-torsoed and slim-legged and with a finely-boned head and face (due to her birdlike skeleton!), Irina Dvorovenko is not short at all. I've stood next to her and spoken with her backstage (I'm 5'4") and would gauge her height to be about 5'6". I guess that might indeed be considered "medium" height these days!

Oh, how I love this thread! Thank you, canbelto, for starting it -- and for your wonderful opinions with which I totally agree! My interest is more than general because my own daughter who started dancing professionally at the age of 17 two years ago is 5'1½" tall. She is a beautiful, lyrical, Vaganova-trained ballet dancer who grew up in a studio that clearly favored the tall dancer, but where she was very highly regarded for her strong technique and lovely presentation. So it is that for years I have been comparing tall and short dancers (with a very vested interest) from the past and present. I have also read on BA how some don't care for bigger heads, preferring the Balanchine pinhead that has taken over ballet in the head-size category. I find it hard to find the face, much less focus on it, in some small head-boned dancers (of which my beautiful daughter is not one, either!). Even ballerinas like Larissa Lezhnina have been "accused" of having too big a head! My prejudice is not insurmountable, like yours, canbelto, for I was a besotted fan of Suzanne Farrell and truly like long legs and long arms and long feet and tapered fingers -- but not to the exclusion of the petite ballerina with her delicate appeal masking the strength of her limbs and torso. I was completely enamored of Melissa Hayden and her spritely, yet rock solid, performances, and of Suki Shorer's quintessential soubrette interpretations. (I also adored both D'Amboise and Villella, to name a couple of male counterparts). I want to "love" the tall ballerinas more, but find it hard to as well (and this feeling probably includes a huge helping of the personal prejudice we've been faced with as my daughter makes her way in the world of ballet, which is already so highly competitive that to succeed in spite of one's height is a huge accomplishment in itself). Too much height can weigh a dancer down, make her look silly in some tutus and ridiculous in some roles (Volochkova as Giselle comes to mind). I mean, imagine the incredible Gloria Govrin -- or someone like her -- as Aurora, for example. Yet, shorter dancers are not even wanted at some company auditions if they aren't least 5'3" -- no matter their skill or potential to become full ballerinas. (European companies who more often state their height requirements in their audition ads seldom want to see those shorter than 165 cm. Let's see -- that would leave out the likes of Ulanova, Dudinskaja, Fonteyn, Suki Shorer, Tina LeBlanc, Jennifer Gelfand, Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojocaru, Daniela Severian, Rut Miro, Lucia Lacarra and Xiomara Reyes!) Space is relative. "Taking up space" is a confusing concept to me. There are, for instance, those who believe that the bigger the car, the more space it takes up on the road. While I have never driven a big car, I know that this is not true. Cars are usually in a state of constant movement and each one enters and leaves the "space" vacated by the car in front of it, with neither one "taking" up any more space than its predecessor. It is the same with dancers. I don't think there is a need to make one forget that a dancer is "tiny", as if there were something wrong with being shorter than the next dancer. I would never go see a company whose dancers were all amazons -- how boring! My observations over 50 years of watching dance, much to my dismay and bewilderment, have led me to the conclusion that many people would welcome such a thing today. Dancers who stand inches lower than their colleagues are often described in reviews as dancing stellarly despite their short stature. And, indeed, it seems that you must always bring something extra to the table of ballet today if you happen to be the perfect height of the dancer of 100 years ago -- that your dancing will forever be judged with your height "handicap" as a criterion. I am so happy to read the responses to this thread so far -- all so positive! Maybe there's hope yet for ballet.....

Patricia Wilde (NYCB) Alla Sizova (Kirov) Edward Villella (NYCB) John Clifford (NYCB) Marnee Morris (NYCB) Kevin Pugh (National Ballet of Canada) Farouk Ruzimatov (Kirov)

Helene, Conrad Ludlow was a true noble cavalier. He was not a particularly gifted male soloist and would never be considered in the same category of technique or artistry as his contemporaries d'Amboise or Villella. As a partner, however, he was unsurpassed at the time.

What a good topic! I second the nominations of Nicholas Magallanes, Jacques D'Amboise, and Conrad Ludlow, all of whom I often had the pleasure of seeing dance. From those eras, let me add Igor Youskevitch, Andre Eglevsky, Royes Fernandez, Erik Bruhn, John Kriza, and Edward Villella! Some of today's great partners are Cyril Pierre (Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich), Thomas Edur (English National Ballet), Jose Martinez (Paris Opera Ballet)and Maxim Beloserkovsky(American Ballet Theater). That they dance primarily with their wives is no doubt what makes them great. When I'm watching Lacarra, I have to remind myself to take my eyes off her in order to see what Cyril Pierre is doing! He gladly takes a back seat to her, which helps him to be her perfect partner -- he sees his job as making it look like her dancing is sheer, effortless perfection. Thomas Edur adores his wife Agnes Oaks to the same extent. Their pas de deux are works of art. Edur has a way of presenting Oaks that is exquisite -- they are a single entity that moves as one. Yet, as the observer in the audience, my eyes are focused only on her. Oaks takes to the air around her with the facility of a gliding, soaring bird. It is her husband/partner who makes this possible. Martinez, tall, thin, and elegant like his wife, Agnes Letestu, is one of the finest dancers in the world today, as is she. Together, they are a formidable partnership, unmatched in musicality, classicism, and line. Their coupled poetry is sharp and precise, contrasting with the Edur/Oaks soft, emotional lyricism, and the Pierre/Lacarra acrobatic and sometimes intensely personal partnership. Maxim Beloserkovsy and his wife Irina Dvorovenko are the golden couple of married partners -- they are both physically gorgeous -- striking, stunning examples of human beauty. Superbly trained, they execute steps with impeccable mastery. They relate to each other as if they are in love, which, of course, they are. Maxim lets his wife get the glory while he works just as hard behind her. They exhibit such a well-honed harmony, gained in their many years of dancing together, without making it ever seem phoned-in. I get a sense, each time I watch them, that they are excited to be dancing and showing their joy of working together again -- every performance is so fresh! It's to the credit of these husbands/partners that they dance as if they were the ones being watched -- giving each performance all of their technique and artistry -- all the while knowing it is their ballerina wives the audience is watching. If they were any less perfect in the execution of their roles, we would see them MORE, as we always notice when someone is not up to snuff and divert our attention to them to see if we can find more to criticize. As with ballet in general, the trick is to make it look easy. When we have flawless male dancers and we still watch only their partners, that is one indication of their greatness as a partner.

It was quite a stunning event, Alexandra. I have to apologize for not writing when promised. My computer is infected with a terrible worm or virus and when I sat down to write the review, I was met with with a real can of worms. Not only was I unable to open the interent, the virus had placed dozens of icons on my desktop, some quite awful, and hundreds of unwanted files in my hard drive. I tried to delete them from my computer, but the cursor would hardly move and each deletion I attempted took several minutes. It was an agonizing process. We will be taking the machine to a specialist. Meanwhile, I am writing from an interent cafe that closes in less than 20 minutes (I finally found one in this small town we live in now). I am so eager to share what I saw with Ballet Alert readers that I have been wording and rewording the review in my head since last Thursday night, right after the gala. It was an evening that left me in a state of euphoria, like I used to feel after a great New York City Ballet performance in the mid-60s. Oh gosh, I forgot to bring my program here to the interent cafe! Okay, I'll give you part one from the top of my head: Most memorable dancers of the evening: Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur of the English National Ballet. They danced Impromptu and the Don Q pas de deux (both reported on by another BA member who saw them dance these in Columbus, Ohio about 10 days ago). This husband and wife team is one of the couples I was so eager to see and they were magnificent. They began their careers at the Estonian National Ballet (where my own daughter began her career a year ago) under their original names, Age Oks and Toomas Edur. They are an Estonian Ballet success story, having found well-deserved fame outside of Estonia. Because of their offstage relationship, their dancing melts them together to move as one, each knowing the other's movements so well that there are no surprises in their partnership which might hinder them in any way. Yet, they are fresh and technically precise, at once ethereal and strong. Agnes, especially, is so accomplished that you are able to enjoy her every nuance and heart-stopping technical feat with total confidence that she will not falter, that she will bring us into a rapturous state of "more, we want more!" The balances, the softness, the steeliness when required, the perfect fouettes, even! More, next time. I'm reaching the end of my online time. But one thing to leave you with: Anastasia Volochkova -- a class act all the way. Yes, she is big for a dancer, but absolutely normal weight for a svelte woman. She is about as tall as Patricia Barker (who danced an accomplished, beautiful, modern, underappreciated solo), but has larger bones, for sure. Volochkova would have a tough time finding a partner to lift her. She, however, has a chance at an interesting career as an independent artist, a solo dancer of very interesting range. More about her coming up! You'll love hearing about the second solo she did.

A total of 25 dancers performed Thursday, Sept. 9, in the 21st annual Gala des Étoiles in Montréal, Québec. It was a night of amazing performances in a huge theatre at the Place des Arts which was full to the rafters with enthusiastic balletomanes. I just returned from Montréal and am too exhausted to write my review tonight, but I promise to write about everyone's performances tomorrow. From the Canterna sisters' passionate lyrical dance to the extraordinary fiery flamenco of two young men from Madrid's Nuevo Ballet Espagñol, with Volochkova's and Margie Gillis' solos, classical ballet variations and pas de deux, and super-technical modern ballet in-between, danced by a range of dancers world-known to locally-known, the evening was an astonishing array of incredibly beautiful dance. Review anon!

I have bought a few ballet books from Deirdre Carberry's mother, who is an ebay seller. She told me Deirdre has been living in England for a few years and is not dancing at the present time. My vote for Bluebird is Kevin Pugh and for Florine, Natasha Makarova.

The Estonian National Ballet dances the Bigonzetti version of Coppelia. It is very modern and quite strange. My daughter was learning it last year as a corps member (but didn't get to dance it) and she did not like it at all, since she is a very classical dancer. Many of the company members love it and some say it's their favorite ballet to dance. One of the female principals stated so in a TV interview earlier this year. The ballet has angular, jerky movements and some very unballet-like combinations of steps. It feels strange to be seeing it, my daughter says, danced to the familiar Delibes score.

Dear GeorgeB fan! One must be (or have been) a very young girl deeply in love for the first and only time to understand why Giselle did what she did. You are analyzing that which cannot be analyzed.

.....and he was a judge at this year's Varna competition, as well, held in July.

Ah, the curse of the (natural) overly arched foot!-- hops on pointe and balances do present a problem.....