felursus

I, too, watched the prize ceremony. I didn't have sound for most of it, so I had no idea what the woman (forgot her name) was saying. I could only hear what the man was saying - and he used a term I couldn't find in my French dictionary (Yes, I keep one by my computer) - it sounded like "sagie" - but that could be the poor sound quality. Could someone French please help?

When Nijinska came to London to stage Les Noces for the RB, the bride was danced by Svetlana Beriosova. She certainly would have been able to communicate with Nijinska in either Russian or French as well as English. When the work was staged in France, a friend of mine, the choreologist Juliette Kando (who also speaks fluent French) went to help out. She never complained to me about communication difficulties I shall certainly make a point of asking her about it.

1) Apollo 2) Serenade 3) Concerto Barocco 4) 4 Ts 5) Agon 6) Ballet Imperial (restored) 7) Symphony in C 8) Theme and Variations 9) Prodigal Son 10) Western Symphony I chose them to demonstrate the wide range of Balanchine's talent and the styles in which he choreographed.

I, too, have kept everything - and although I go to performances fairly rarely these days, I have programs going back to 1960 (only because I lost some earlier ones). I now have the problem of doing "something" with them, because my co-op is cleaning out our basement storeroom. The official "rule" is that EMPTY suitcases may be stored there but nothing else. Well, I have a gigantic steamer trunk packed with programs PLUS two filing cabinets full of them. In addition to ballet programs, I have opera and concert programs as well. The Old Met programs were large and flat and so didn't take up as much "stacking" room, but the playbills are just too fat. For a period of time I would save one whole program from each calendar month and stick the cast list from the others into that one. It's still far, far too many. I think I shall go the scanning route. What an enormous project that will be! However, some of my programs have been autographed, and I guess I shall have to keep those. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. And I have several boxes full in my apt.... As someone else said: I would NEVER in a million years be able to put my hand on a specific program - except some of the very old ones. Librarians: do libraries like old, autographed programs - eg. the RB Swan Lake, 1965, Fonteyn/Nureyev (it was the only one they did together in NY that year)??

Grace Archer, Michy? Now if you'd been in England you'd know that there is (or was) a long-running radio soap-opera called "The Archers" over there and, yes, there was a character called "Grace". Too bad I don't have a good use for my own birth name, which I think would have been a great stage name: Karen Karman. Perhaps I can still become famous (or infamous) for something. I knew someone who was asked to join the NYCB back in the 60s. She had 3 days to decide on her stage name. Now she had already used her own name on stage, as she had been a child actress and had appeared in several Broadway productions. Her real name was Betty Jane Siegle, and I guess it was thought to be "too Jewish-sounding" at the time. She changed it to Bettijane Sills, and became known in the NYCB as "BJ" (although someone once refered to her as "the girl with the initials".)

Igor, here - reporting from my water-logged grave in the Venetian lagoon. I guess I didn't drink enough vodka, but Gyorgi did dish out great zakouski. We had lots of fun banging out odd rhythms on the pots and pans as he cooked. It was the food that provided my inspiration, I guess, and not the drink....

Igor, here - reporting from my water-logged grave in the Venetian lagoon. I guess I didn't drink enough vodka, but Gyorgi did dish out great zakouski. We had lots of fun banging out odd rhythms on the pots and pans as he cooked. It was the food that provided my inspiration, I guess, and not the drink....

If you think the Bond piece was a great April Fool's joke, you should have seen the one Ballet.co did the year before - the subject was the newly re-discovered, detailed choreographic notes for Giselle Act III. It seems that Act II is but a drug-induced dreams (shades of the Shades), and Albrecht and Giselle elope together, travel the world in a sail boat, (if I remember correctly they are attacked by pirates, too), and witness lots of lively, international dances. I think the article says that the ballet ends with Giselle and Albrecht returning in triumph back to Giselle's hamlet and celebrating with all their friends. It doesn't mention what happens to Hilarion and Bathilde. (Perhaps she decides he's so sexy that she goes for a morganatic marriage, too.) This type of humor is very, very British. There was the famous BBC April Fool's Day piece on the spaghetti harvest in Italy, and two year's running the Guardian did centerfolds about a country called "Sans Serif". sans Serif is located somewhere in the Indian Ocean and consists of two islands: one is round, and the other is shaped like a comma - so the general shape looks like this: ; . The articles were complete with information about the politics, the geography, the industry, tourism, education, etc. in Sans Serif. There was even a photo contest for "best holiday snaps".

So why do we do it? Because male designers/photographers/magazine editors/publicists think women should look a certain way? (Men have had some ridiculous-looking fashions, but they haven't had to wear anything positively unhealthy since high-heels for men in the 17th c.) Women have been corseted to the point where they couldn't breathe and could barely hold themselves upright uncorseted. Women have been "forced" to wear shoes that give them a lot of pain AND ruined their feet and possibly helping to cause them to have major problems walking in old age. Women have been forced to starve themselves or (as now) to exercise rigorously to work off every meal they eat. Women have been forced to undergo painful surgery to correct the 'flaws' of genetics. (Even Iman did this.) If it's not the fault of the designers, etc., is it the fault of the women themselves for slavishly following fashion? I think the "powers" have decreed that an imperfect woman is not going to make a perfect mate, so men are hypercritical of any flaw they perceive in a woman. If she isn't perfect then she's not going to make a perfect wife/mother/vessel to carry on his genes. I know that this sounds like a gross exaggeration, but I have a fashion-conscious colleague who attended a medical convention with her then-boyfriend at a luxurious hotel. One day while waiting for an elevator to take her to their room, she was stopped by a man who told her that she was a "very attractive woman" but it was "too bad that her appearance was spoiled" by a broken fingernail (which had just happened - and she was actually on her way to fix it). She exploded! But this is indicative of the way at least some men view women.

A native of our burgeoning city has made a fortune selling widgets to the masses. In fact, he's totally cornered the market in widgets, necessary items of everyday life, and can give Bill Gates a run for his money in the wealth department. He, personally, is not interested in the arts, but he has a son, BA and MBA Columbia, who was bitten by the dance bug while living in New York. Junior has dutifully returned to his native city to learn the widget business and misses the cultural scene in New York. Junior has recently made a big hit on the stock market (he had friends in high places at Enron and sold his stock before the crash) and is motivated to use this windfall to benefit his city. Furthermore, Junior is married to the daughter of wealthy New York arts patrons who is equally determined to become a famous arts patroness in her husband's home town. After all, as a child she was dandled on the knee of every famous choreographer/ballet company director in New York and abroad. One of the ballet teachers in town is an ex-major company soloist who is not only a talented teacher but has a flair for choreography which shows off her students talents. There are enough talented students to form a small company. Jr's wife arranges to fund an expansion of the school and helps to attract well-known teachers and soloists to perform with the fledgling company. She also funds choreographers who are becoming well-known to come and do pieces for the company. And, lucky for her, there happens to be a young dancer, a native of SimCity in a major US company who is becoming known for his choreographic talents. What could be better than home-grown talent? After a few years, our widget manufacturer goes to meet his maker, and Jr., now one of the richest men in America, is in a position to build a new theater for dance in SimCity - named after Daddy, of course - complete with an abstract widget sculpture in the foyer. By this time the company has begun to make quite a name for itself and has begun touring nationally and has even been invited to the Edinburgh Festival. The local society are all falling over themselves to be on the Board and to donate money to fund seats in the new theater. Alberto Vilar, too, is impressed and donates money to fund a grand staircase - named after him, of course.

I would have said that the RB was the National company. In contrast, a company like Northern Dance Theater or Scottish Ballet were provincial companies (although the Scots might like to argue that Scottish Ballet - current problems aside) is really THEIR national company. What's the difference? A national company is more likely to tour abroad to represent its nation in major venues. Regional/provincial companies exist to spread their art to the local area first and to the rest of their nation second. If they tour outside their own country, they know full well that they are doing it on the heels of the national company. Ok - Britain has a problem here - they also have the ENB which does tour abroad to major international locations but still doesn't have the cachet that the RB does. The US does have a definition problem. The NYCB is basically Balanchine oriented - a specialty company. That leaves several other major companies vying for the concept of being a national company. ABT has the NAME, but there are other companies who also tour internationally and whose composition may be more "United States" (currently ABT seems to be heavily laden with dancers of non-USA origin). On the other hand there are companies that are CLEARLY regional/provincial in nature and do not try to be anything else. They are an important outlet for the talents of local and other American choreographers and some have attracted performers of an international caliber.

The other day Iman was interviewed on the "Today" show with respect to her new book. The book is a collection of photos and essays written by different people. One of the points Iman stressed in the interview was how sad it was that there is so much emphasis placed on the external body leading to a terrible crisis of confidence among the vast majority of women who cannot hope to have the perfect exterior of a fashion model. She confessed that even she had succumbed to having to live up to an image she couldn't fulfil naturally - she admitted to having had breast implants.

He will be sorely missed. NOt only was he a great ballet conductor, but he was a very sweet person as well.

Years ago I read a biography of Nijinsky written by a classmate of his (alas, I've forgotten the name, but I'm sure someone here can supply it). The writer mentions that the students of the ballet school frequently participated in performances. I seem to remember him saying that they got paid for it, too. Participating in performances was supposed to be part of their general education in the theater arts. This practice still continues. If you look carefully at the old videos of classical ballets with children's parts you may be able to pick out future principal dancers. For example, there's a Bayadere filmed at the Kirov in which one of the two children with the jugs on their heads is Ayupova - she looks like she's about 12 or 13.

Galina Samsova once said that the trick to doing great balances during the Rose Adagio was to wear one of Fonteyn's shoes on her right foot - because Fonteyn had, for the size of her foot, HUGE blocks on her shoes.

Throwing flowers on stage in the middle of a performance is nothing new - it's been going on since the 19th c. However, what really took the cake was during a run of the opera "Lucia di Lammermore" with Joan Sutherland at Covent Garden way back in the 70s, there were fans who insisted on throwing streamers onto the stage when Sutherland took a bow after her character dies. Unfortunately for the fans, there is yet another scene in the opera before the end, and the streamers risked the life of everyone in the theater, as some would land in the footlights, and the heat could cause the paper streamers to ignite - this without the problems that the other singers had trying to wade through ankle-deep piles of the streamers!

Throwing flowers on stage in the middle of a performance is nothing new - it's been going on since the 19th c. However, what really took the cake was during a run of the opera "Lucia di Lammermore" with Joan Sutherland at Covent Garden way back in the 70s, there were fans who insisted on throwing streamers onto the stage when Sutherland took a bow after her character dies. Unfortunately for the fans, there is yet another scene in the opera before the end, and the streamers risked the life of everyone in the theater, as some would land in the footlights, and the heat could cause the paper streamers to ignite - this without the problems that the other singers had trying to wade through ankle-deep piles of the streamers!

Excuse me: the Czardas is a dance from Hungary. The mazurka is a dance from Poland, and Hungarians (except in ballet companies) wouldn't be caught dead doing it. I would like to know how the Poles, or Hungarians, or both got into Bruges.

Amen to Mayerling, Martin's Swan Lake, and Edward II. I'd like to add votes for "Paradise Lost" (I remember telling someone that I might have seen a worse ballet somewhere, but I just couldn't remember where...) and Neumeier's "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian" - I think it MAY even surpass Edward II in sheer awfulness. Also, being prejudiced, I'd like to add anything by Pina Bausch - but none of her stuff fits Alexandra's definition of a turkey.

Alas, Mel, the brown tights are a dead giveaway!

Well, the original question was about TODAY'S humble ballerinas, but as everyone else seems to have gone well back of today, I'd like to add: Margot Fonteyn, Margot Fonteyn, Margot Fonteyn! You couldn't get more humble than she. When we were doing the get-in for the Nureyev and Friends gala we had to cancel a planned rehearsal. Somehow Fonteyn didn't get the message and turned up at the theatre. SHE apologized to US and said she hoped we didn't mind if she did a barre on the stage. She held onto the proscenium for support and made sure all the stage hand knew that they could ask her to move if necessary.

In response to Alexandra's query about when is it vulgar vs. when is it fun, I'd like to say that IMO it depends on the ballet and what is being done. Balances held for an excessive amount of time so that the music has to stop would be appalling in 'Giselle' but might be fun in the Don Q pdd. (I put up a question in regard to "missing princes" in the Rose Adagio which points to this issue.) In general, I think that if the music has to come to a complete halt - as opposed to a brief pause, then it's pretty vulgar. I certainly think bows in the middle of the 2nd act of Giselle are vulgar, although in the past I have seen Giselles who DID come out for one. Today they seem to run across the stage to acknowledge applause. (Hey, it may even put them on the correct side of the stage for their next entrance!) Another pet peeve of mine is excessive extensions. Some artists - Guillem, for example - know how to control this. We all know that Sylvie can wrap her legs around her head, but she has demonstrated that she doesn't HAVE to do this all the time. It's great however in something whose whole point is vulgarity - eg. the Grand Pas Classique.

In response to Alexandra's query about when is it vulgar vs. when is it fun, I'd like to say that IMO it depends on the ballet and what is being done. Balances held for an excessive amount of time so that the music has to stop would be appalling in 'Giselle' but might be fun in the Don Q pdd. (I put up a question in regard to "missing princes" in the Rose Adagio which points to this issue.) In general, I think that if the music has to come to a complete halt - as opposed to a brief pause, then it's pretty vulgar. I certainly think bows in the middle of the 2nd act of Giselle are vulgar, although in the past I have seen Giselles who DID come out for one. Today they seem to run across the stage to acknowledge applause. (Hey, it may even put them on the correct side of the stage for their next entrance!) Another pet peeve of mine is excessive extensions. Some artists - Guillem, for example - know how to control this. We all know that Sylvie can wrap her legs around her head, but she has demonstrated that she doesn't HAVE to do this all the time. It's great however in something whose whole point is vulgarity - eg. the Grand Pas Classique.

Well, if you go to Southern Germany or to Austria a lot of women wear dirndles. There seems to be only a couple of patterns for them - and even that may depend on the locale. Of course they make them up in lots of different material patterns and different bodice colors. I have seen productions where the girls each had a slightly different shade - say, 3 shades of green, 3 of brown, 3 of rusty orange, 3 yellows, etc. I guess my vote is that the village dressmakers don't have much imagination, a great variety of materials and only 1 pattern. It's always a shock to view a village where the dressmakers have been allowed to let their imaginations run wild.

Well, unless this is a 'new' tradition, it's one I never heard of or witnessed during my 13 years in London including 5 working at Covent Garden. However, there used to be a traditional Friends' Christmas show, and all things went on there. That was the venue for the famous Wayne Sleep impersonation of Olga Korbut. Of course that doesn't mean that some male dancer actually did perform a female role during an actual performance - lots of things would go on on the last night of the season (and even at other times - such as when Michael Coleman and Gary Sherwood, who were performing the soft shoe dance from 'Facade', put blue bands (team colour) around their hats and wore big "Chelsea" buttons to celebrate their favourite team's participation in a football cup final).