Swanilda8

Thanks so much for the suggestions! This is very helpful.

By mid-century I mean anything between 1920 and 1970.

Part of my project is actually to talk about the very large grey area between 'pure' abstract and 'pure' narrative ballets. I'm looking for any ballets in which there is no plot or narrative arc and in which the dancers are not playing identifiable characters. I think you could make an argument either way for Les Sylphides, but for the purposes of this question I would count it as abstract.

I'm working on a project comparing abstract ballet of the mid 20th century to narrative ballet. I have lots and lots of examples of narrative ballet, but I'm having trouble coming up with more abstract ballets, other than the dozens by Balanchine. I can think of a few Robbins ballets, two Ashtons that I know of (Symphonic Variations and Scenes de ballet), and the Lopukhov Dance Symphony. But that's it. I feel more than a little ashamed of myself.

Help me, Ballet Alert! What choreographers and ballets am I missing?

Here's one of d'Amboise performing the full-length version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkv-tlgOFY4

Personally, I prefer the shorter version. The sunburst is so beautiful, and frankly the opening scene makes me more than a little uncomfortable.

Yudi, good choices! Looking at the London line-up, I think Flames of Paris is the most exciting ballet to get tickets for. It's a ballet that you can't see performed by another company, and it's both fun and thought-provoking.

As for Bayadere with Krysanova, Smirnova, and Chudin - sounds like an excellent cast to me. Krysanova's especially good at Petipa roles.

Given the age gap, it's not that surprising that the Kirov corps didn't have much exposure to Balanchine. Also, from the way it's phrased, I'm guessing it's a bit of an exaggeration. Probably, some or most of the dancers had heard that there was a choreographer named Balanchine who was very popular in the West, and maybe would have heard a brief description of some of his ballets, but nothing along the lines of what Russell believes is necessary for dancing one of his ballets.

Thanks for linking to the article. I'm constantly fascinated by the process of recreating Balanchine works, the people who take that responsibility, and how much of this process accords with Balanchine's own wishes. In the final paragraph of the article of the article, Boal quotes Balanchine: "He said, My ballets are like butterflies - beautiful today, and one day they'll be gone,' and then adds on her own 'But I hope he's wrong. Not on my watch." Are the stagers doing him a favor in preserving his legacy or going against what he believed ballet should be - a work of the present?

I got to see the Kaptsova/Skvortsov evening and it was wonderful. It was quite a contrast to the Stuttgart evening - the Bolshoi soloists aren't as practiced at the idiosyncrasies of Cranko choreography, but they had a really good handle on the characters. I thought Skvortsov was very compelling as Onegin, and fleshed him out even more than McKie. I wish I could have seen the opening night cast, but it was not to be.

Full review: http://itinerantballetomane.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-russian-epic-returns-home.html

Thanks for the videos! It's great to compare the casts. Also, I'm now very much looking forward to seeing the ballet tomorrow with Kaptsova/Skvortsov/Ovcharenko.

In other news, according to twitter, Evan McKie still hasn't received his visa to perform in the ballet on Saturday. At what point do they decide to put in another dancer and who will they choose? Also, have the other principals (also all Stuttgart soloists) received their visas?

There's an article in the NYTimes today about Iksanov being forced out as Director of the Bolshoi:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/world/europe/bolshoi-director-forced-out.html?hp

From what I've heard, this can only be a good thing, but I'm interested to know what the more knowledgeable members of the community think.

(also, minor irritant: they repeatedly refer to the ballet Onegin as 'Eugene Onegin')

Of course it's the critic's job to measure dancer's on very high standards, but I disagree that there is an 'ideal' that they should be measured against. There is no one ideal performance of Odette, or Giselle, or the lead role in Serenade, why should we assume that there's an ideal body type? Critics should be able to comment on dancers' bodies because they affect their performances, in fact the body is part of the performance, but the problem here is the assumption that every performance would look better if the dancer were taller and thinner. I couldn't disagree more. Different performers can bring out different things in a part based on the instrument that they have been given (and then perfected). How sad would a ballet world be without Sarah Mearns, Carrie Imler, Ivan Vasiliev? Not despite their bodies, but (in part) because of them.

This is just killing me. I've waited all year in the hopes of seeing Hallberg in Moscow, and I have tickets for the 17th and 20th - such joy! Only to have it dashed away.

Tickets for the 21st are still available.

I am considering it, but even buying third balcony seats pushes my student budget to the limit (and beyond). The only seats available now are all 6300 or 7000 R.

This is just killing me. I've waited all year in the hopes of seeing Hallberg in Moscow, and I have tickets for the 17th and 20th - such joy! Only to have it dashed away.

Sigh. At least Ovcharenko is still on for the 17th.

Amatriain / McKie / Osadcenko / Vogel on the 20th are not to be sneezed at, I assure you.

I know! I didn't mean to dis the Stuttgart soloists. I'm very much looking forward to them - it will be my first time seeing Stuttgart dancers live, and since I assume they're on a specific contract for that evening, at least they can't take that away from me.

This is just killing me. I've waited all year in the hopes of seeing Hallberg in Moscow, and I have tickets for the 17th and 20th - such joy! Only to have it dashed away.

Sigh. At least Ovcharenko is still on for the 17th.

Zagrebin was the Jester when I saw Swan Lake. He was good at all the jumps and spins, but it's hard to get a sense of a dancer's other abilities from that part.

I went to see Sergei Polunin at the Stanislavsky twice last week, once as Basil in Don Quixote and once as the Prince in Swan Lake. It was my first time seeing him. He was absolutely spectacular, especially in Swan Lake, although he and Natalia Somova are not good partners for each other. I really liked the Stanislavsky's narrative take on Swan Lake, especially in the third act. Rothbart enters earlier than normal in the act, and the national dances are part of his attempt to trick the Prince into declaring his love for Odile. At various places in the national dances, Odile takes the place of the leading woman and then just as suddenly disappears - it helps explain why Siegfried is so distracted and makes such a terrible mistake, and it also helps ramp up the tension during the act. The orchestra was powerful and lyrical as ever, and the costuming was a little hokey. Kultura was there filming it, so presumably it should make its way to youtube at some point, though I can't yet find it. I have a full review of the two performances on my blog, here: http://itinerantballetomane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/sergei-polunin-at-stanislavsky-theater.html

Oh my goodness! This means I saw one of his last performances with the Bolshoi. It seems like a mistake to me - he's an amazing dancer.

I'm jealous that you were able to meet Krasovskaia - what an opportunity. I have to say I'm surprised that she hadn't seen de Mille's work, since American Ballet Theatre performed Rodeo in 1960 and Fall River Legend in 1966 while on tour in the Soviet Union. I believe that the movie of Oklahoma! was also played in theaters in the USSR.

Thanks! Hopefully, my thesis will be a book one day, but that day is probably many years in the future. Prevots' book is very good. Clare Croft has also done some excellent work on NYCB's 1962 tour. She hasn't published it as a book yet, but there's an article available, and her dissertation is on ProQuest, for anyone who can access that.

It's all very interesting stuff- a lot of intense emotions and hard work. And audiences in both the Soviet Union and the United States (but especially the US) just went crazy for the dancers.

As for sharing my Moscow experiences, I just saw Swan Lake on Thursday (and reviewed it here: http://itinerantballetomane.blogspot.com/2013/05/russian-swans.html). It wasn't the cast I would have picked, but that's one of the dangers of going to the ballet here: I have to buy tickets about two months in advance, and they don't publish the cast list until 2-4 weeks before the production.

Thanks for the kind welcome! I'm writing a dissertation on the first ballet tours between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War - so the Bolshoi traveling to the US and ABT and NYCB traveling to the USSR.

Hi! My name is Annie. I'm a dance and music historian, and also a blogger (I blog under the title the Itinerant Balletomane). I'm living in Moscow this spring and summer for research, so I'm seeing a lot of the Bolshoi and the Stanislavsky these days. I'm new here (obviously) and I really look forward to chatting with everyone about the world of ballet.