leonid17

You are absolutely right. Marie Taglioni's choreography has not survived in any shape or form. For his version it is said thatLacotte based it upon; prints, notes, drawings, and archival materials from the time of the ballet's original production. Although it may be seen to use the vocabulary of Taglioni's era, there can be no claim to authenticity. The version we see with Kolpakhova, was staged in St. Petersburg in 1979 by Lacotte.

Definitely such work is certainly of interest, as long as everyone is aware of the implications of "reconstruction." Of course you are absolutely right and such reconstructions may have limited appeal to many amongst an audience. What I like most about the Hodson/Archer endeavours , is their archaeology. This may not tell the whole story, but like a tour around the British Museum viewing artefacts, we are brought into contact with a work of the dance almost lost. Having read most of the literature on Jeux I feel I have seen Nijinsky's ballet if only, through a glass darkly.

Thank you for posting this Christian. I have two versions of this pas on an old video. As probably one of the most complete and truly classical ballerinas of the 20th century, Irina Kolpakhova came to this role at the end of her career. There are so many felicitous moments that it remains a joy even having watched this film over and over again. For me it lifts the heart. What epaulement, what an experience to see beaten steps performed so low off the ground exactly what one expects to see in classical choreography evoking the Romantic ballet. Here we see her flitting across the stage and not with beats sprung so high, as to have a smack of the circus. I was fortunate enough to see her performance of this pas live and it matches in beauty and wonder the performances I had seen when she was in her prime.

Which takes us back to the subject of a ballet as H.S.H. Princess Stephanie of Windisch-Graetz is the great, great granddaughter of Archduke Rudoph of Hapsburg, who died in Maryerling in 1889.

The photograph is taken by the Atelier Adele of Vienna which was founded n 1862 by Adèle & Max & Wilhelm Perlmutter-Heilperin. Adele Perlmutter-Heilperin who were photographers to the Austrian Imperial Court from 1890. There was at some time an additional photographer I.Boris and the studio was active from 1862 to 1905. At the bottom of the card it reads Adele Wien. You can see a photograph of the founder at:- http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/27448

Marie Paul Taglioni is seen here aged 17 (Born 1830) in a hand coloured Lithograph. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O102676/...mile-signature/ Given that Cabinet photographs of the type illustrated did not appear until c1866, Marie Paul in this example looks exceedingly young.

I agree on both counts. Thank you Farrell Fan.

You are correct, but for me she does not make this clear. New works are always welcome in a classical ballet companies repertoire but there may be a correlation between the number injuries the Royal ballet has experienced in recent and the result of performing works that their eight years of training did not prepare them to execute. Ms Mackrell begins her article with a direct point of the long service of Miyako Yoshida with the Royal Ballet and continues to talk about the sense of family in companies. That sense of family in the Sadlers Wells Ballet was maintained through the continuing employment of older dancers and especially through dancers of the company who became influential choreographers. When the company became the Royal Ballet and choreographers like Cranko and MacMillan appeared alongside Ashton and a sense of continuity of progress within the company and a sense of family truly existed. When Ms Mackrell states, "These days, that degree of attachment is rare. Dance today is rapidly reinventing itself – and dancers want to experiment with as wide a range of choreographers and styles as possible. Factor in the current precariousness of their professional lives – the short-term contracts and minimal wages – and it's not surprising many feel they have to keep on the move to survive." In my opinion, this critic gets it all wrong. Of course members of the Royal Ballet feel attached and love the work and the works they perform. I do not believe that young dancers especially, “and dancers want to experiment with as wide a range of choreographers and styles as possible.” Here Judith Mackrell is touching on a very interesting subject without mentioning the realities that it echoes. There has been a political influence for instance with the Royal Ballet in which pressures from some critics seem not to want to have to watch the same ballets over a period of time. From this a band wagon has been formed , to seek the reduction of academic classical by having the company dance so called modern works to attract a so called younger audience. Younger audiences will never keep theatres of any description alive. It is regular patrons sitting in the more expensive seats, which help contribute to financial viability. As to modern works, I believe dancers soon learn how hard the tradition is and many of them, even if they do not succeed, aspire to becoming a soloist or principal in the classical ballet repertoire first and foremost and interestingly, few dancers of this company have ever made the transition to a company in search of a wider range of styles possibly because there is a sense of family at the Royal Short term contracts and minimal wages I would suggest, applies to smaller companies rather than the Royal Ballet, which is where Ms Mackrell's premise for this article began and she then gets confused as if Ms Yoshida’s experience of belonging to a major academic classical ballet company might be compared to dancers in a series of UK modern dance companies. It is also interesting that she makes no mention the Rambert Dance Company which has a continuum with the Rambert Ballet Company making it the oldest of the modern companies in the UK. What has “It's no accident that the pioneering choreographers of the last century – Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham et al – worked with a core of dedicated performers. Dancers are a choreographer's instrument it's tough when they don't stay in one place.” got to do with her UK experience she has been talking about?

Thank you for posting this video. From the premier onwards, I saw every performance of The Dream with this cast for a good number of years. Nostalgia does not get much better than this. It brought tears to my eye seeing Sir Fred's meticulous attention to detail in the rehearsal. I felt he loved the work and this pairing who realised his work so perfectly. It was The Dream that established Sibley and Dowell as a highlly successful star partnership. Hearing his voice and seeing him work momentarily closed a gap in my life and showed how much we had lost. PS Thank you Helene for posting the other videos.

Bakerkina was expressing what may have been a generally held view on Kschessinskaya. Lydia Lopokhova when on a snowy day was offered a lift from the theatre by Kschessinskays, refused the lift because of Kschessinskaya's reputation. The grande dame was the mistress of a number of notable members of the Imperial Family. The only role of note that I can remember that Bakerkina danced, was the Second Star in the Petipa Pugni ballet "The Two Stars". Is there some significance in the jewellery and the big bow in this caricature?

I very much like your description of Dame Margot, but I can't quite get entirely, the complete parallel with Lopatkina. I have only seen Lopatkina dance the full length Swan Lake once and although the high leg extensions (which is not an arabesque in the academic classical ballet sense), offended, I thought the control, fluency and expression in the lakeside scene was extraordinary. So much so, that I said to my friends, I am now going home as I do not want to spoil the experience. They persuaded me to stay and I should have gone home. There is no doubt that Kurgapkina did bring out something extraordinary from Lopatkina, which struck me as odd, given that the Kurgapkina I witnessed in the early 60's was the kind of soviet dancer I most disliked. I have now seen a number of the Ed Sullivan shows, sadly we never quite had the longevity of celebrity TV show here on UK television.

There was a discussion on the film last year in the topic, " New BBC Fonteyn movie "Margot". There are a wide number of comments to read.

You are correct about the Cunarder Line providing "nicer" accomodation for 3rd Class passengers. On some lines this class had meant sleeping in open berths in large rooms(cabins). When Aleksei Kozlov travelled to America 3rd class on the Lusitania, it meant sharing a cabin with four or six bunks.

Mme. Hermine has indicated the source for my original post on the subject and I have found that Ellis Island was the first point of call for a number a ballet personalities travelling to America from Europe.

I think this film was made around 1963 and it shows Fonteyn elegaic but not at her most expressive. I especially remember a full length performance they gave in 1967 in which they both hit heights they never reached before or after. This film is a happy memory of how the ballet was once danced. Thank you.

You are quite right look at the caricature of Mathilde Kschessinskay adorned with a multiplicity of diamonds. I am not sure she thought they flattered her status although Nikolai was on friendly terms with the Prima Ballerina Assoluta he calling her Maliya and she calling him Kolinka..

The Legat's did as you say, in most of their caricatures depict dancers in their roles. Last year when we were posting about ballets with insects, I wrote, " The Whims of the Butterfly(Les Caprice du Papillon) ballet in one act based on a poem by Yakov Polonsky called The Grasshopper Musician. Choreography Marius Petipa, music Nikolai Krotkov. First performed at a private performance June 5 1889 first public performance at Maryinsky 25 October 1889. I have a Legat caricature of Cecchetti in a Green costume with a violin in the role of the Grasshopper Musician which he danced in a revival of the ballet in 1895." I have yet to find a a Russian source, but having now checked my files, I find the Bulgakov caricature you posted is rightly described as "Rothbart", which does have an added creepiness, as Mel suggested. I am sure that there is either a photograph or an illustration of Bulgakov in the role but my memory is not so sharp as it once was and I will have to search among my books.

Alexei Dmitrievich Bulgakov (b. St. Petersburg 1872 d. Moscow 1954) was a pupil of both Marius Petipa and Pavel Gerdt who gave notable performances at the Maryinsky appearing in the roles of Rothbart (as you mention), Drosselmeyer in Nutcracker, the Don in Don Quixote, Brahmin (La Bayadere), Claude Frollo in Esmeralda etc. Bulgakov also appeared in Diaghilev’s first Paris season in Scheherazade, Egyptian Nights and later as Kaschei in The Firebird, as the Tsar Dodon in The Golden Cockerell appearing with the company from 1909 – 1914, his last role was in Massine’s Legend of Joseph. He had become regisseur at the Bolshoi in Moscow from 1913 and appeared there as an artist until 1949 when he retired from performing aged 77. I believe he taught at the Imperial Theatre School in Petersburg and certainly at the Bolshoi Theatre School from 1926 - 1929. I have a good number of the Legat cartoons but have not seen the Bulgakov before and I am glad you posted it. Do you think the Legat’s cartoon is not so much a depiction of a role, but instead, a commentary on Bulgakov being both an angel (and if that is a forked tongue as appears to be ) with a sting in the tail?

New York Times has photographs of dancers taking part in Monday's Gala. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/1....html?ref=dance

Try her website:- http://www.mistycopeland.com/home.html Thank you, leonid. Any idea how current the announcement on her website is? Misty's name had been on the calendar for several dates when casting was first announced, all of which have been removed, and her ABT bio page now lists none. (By comparison, Stella Abrera's gives dates for six roles.) I am pretty sure I kept this link after seeing it on my local website here in London. I would be surprised if the ABT regulars aren't up with the news. So no doubt a post will soon follow.

Wow, I've been wondering where IS Misty? Will she really not be dancing this season, is there anything official on that? Try her website:- http://www.mistycopeland.com/home.html

Sorry to go off topic, but I get confused by the grouping of Ashton with Balanchine when they did not work in the same genres. Do you not also think that in your list of admired choreographers, there is no comparison of like with like and I would suggest that each choreographer needs to be measured in the context of their individual style(s) not against one another. To reflect my rather elderly view, I would say that many dance works employ dancers’ en pointe, but they in my opinion remain dance works and not ballets. Ps I know you personally did not start this argument and I especially enjoyed reading your review of the Gala. As to comments elsewhere, regarding bigotry and racism, every classical ballet role has an emploi and I would suggest it is not too much to expect dancers’ appearance in the Don Q pas de deux to reflect the more than obvious Spanish influence. I have on occasion seen male performers wear black wigs to confirm the source of the appropriate characterisation and I am fairly sure Petipa would not have countenanced a blonde haired man performing Basil. However, as a Gala is not necessarily so much about art, but borders on an entertainment, I am not surprised therefore, at a less than Spanish looking dancer performing the pas de deux. Ps There was a particularly good series of posts on "emploi" on ballet talk in 2000 see:- http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...c=2919&st=0

Thank you for your well observed comments. look forward to reading more.

I am glad to be able to read this gala as it appears there was much to applaud including its benefactor Mr. Koch. However, I personally would have liked to have read a more detailed exposition of the various pieces danced and the performances given. On this site in the past, I have learnt to expect shades of a professional review instead of unnecessary personal remarks about dancers with little detail of their actual performances. Sadly the result is that I felt underwhelmed by some writing which I think robbed the reports of the status of the event and the dancers. Thankfully there were some contributions that gave a flavour of what after all was a kind of special event. All though I do not always agree with Alistair Macaulay I enjoyed reading his review. See:- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/arts/dan...a.html?ref=arts[/url]

Related article. This is one of the American police and investigative shows I like to chill out with and I suspect we have another year or so to watch it. We also have a copycat version of this show, "Law and Order UK".