leonid17

Thank you so much innopac for rounding off the story of Violeta Boft's life. What courage not to renounce her American citizenship. It makes her artistic achievements appear even more significant.

The first page shows the Hancock Opera Opera House which tells us the performances were in Houston Texas. According to "Impresario" A Memoir by S. Hurok he was organising tours for Pavlova from 1922 so it is possible that your date of 1924-1925 is correct. It could not be much later as Muriel Stuart left the Pavlova company in 1926. I have been apalled all my ballet going life at the sight of, "The Dying Swan" on a programme. It can only be called "The Swan" because that is the name Fokine applied having been inspired by a Balmont poem, "The Swan."

....or the Sadler's Wells, for that matter Sir Robert Helpmann started late for a ballet dancer and joined the Sadlers Wells Ballet in 1933 he was by all accounts, a reasonable technician and a remarkable dance actor. “When Helpmann arrived in London in 1933, Rawlings (Margaret Rawlings actress and friend) sent off a letter of introduction to her friend Ninette de Valois, who was starting her own dance troupe. That introduction with Rawlings's high praise was enough for the normally imperious de Valois. There was no audition, and she acted as if Helpmann had already joined her new Vic-Wells Ballet company. Helpmann would later say that de Valois needed male dancers and any man standing upright on two legs would probably have been welcomed. De Valois had, in fact, cast her cold eye over Helpmann's strengths and weaknesses and saw potential. If he fell short in technical aspects of his ballet training, she could see that his theatrical savvy could cover that shortcoming until he learned better. Taking in his look and attitude, she diplomatically did not mention his flamboyant wardrobe choices for street wear. She did famously remark, "I could do something with that face." (See http://www.glbtq.com/arts/helpmann_r.html ) His breakthrough with the Vic-Wells company came (1933) when he replaced Anton Dolin in De Valois “Job” performing the role of Satan. With this performance, he had arrived as a potential leading dancer and the following year he was cast opposite the companies leading ballerina Alicia Markova in De Valois’s, “The Haunted Ballroom” Aged 40 and some what past whatever technical peak he had reached, he partnered Margot Fonteyn in The Sleeping Beauty when the Wells Company visited New York for the first time and he achieved international status overnight. The New York press took this stellar pair to their hearts and referred to them as Bobby and Margot. Helpmann prior to New York had danced leading roles in more than twenty ballets, staged his own works and established a remarkable partnership with Fonteyn. He acquired another string to his bow with his cinematic appearances, the first being “The Red Shoes. See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0375818/ where his early English TV performances are also listed. Broadway called him on a number of occasions See credits at http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=15086 and as an actor he appeared with the Old Vic Company and toured Australia with Katherine Hepburn. I first saw Helpmann in 1964 as the Orator in wonderful performance of “A wedding Bouquet” and later in “Checkmate”and Cinderella.” Though no longer a dancer, he had a powerful theatricality that came from his ability to project in a way that I have found to be unique. I feel this ability must have contributed to his convincing successes as a in the lead roles in classical ballet. Indeed, the critic and author Arnold Haskell wrote, "[Helpmann] is the only man I know who was an indifferent dancer from a purely classical point of view, but who could act the role of a danseur noble so perfectly that he carried conviction from the moment he appeared on stage." PS Re: Mel's question, "What did the other guys dance like?" Anton Dolin performed with the company and the "virtuoso" Harold Turner joined the company in 1935 and the outstanding Michael Somes shortly after, but whose early technical potential was somewhat affected by war service and subsequent injury. It is important to remember that London did not have the advantages that New York had, with having more than a handful of Ballet Russe dancers settled there to establish companies. De Valois and Rambert were virtually starting from scratch as far as male dancers were concerned. Amended:*** I do not know how I forgot to include Stanley Judson especially as I met and chatted with him on a good number of occasions. Judson was a very good technician and as an early member of the de Valois company he partnered both Alicia Markova and Lydia Lopokhova in leading roles.

Of course you are quite right Lynette about Etudes. Because I did not see last years performances, it slipped my mind.

Probably no more so than any other of us when we reach certain age. I also love this music but it is for me associated with an embarassing memory of Serge Lifar standing up in the stalls waving his hand to the audience to acknowledge the applause of a performance of this ballet and sadly few people seemed to know who he was and the applause dwindled, but that did not stop him waving. It is the type of celebratory exhibition ballet I am happy to see, but like Etudes, it no longer gets performed in the UK.

Not being a member of either the Bolshoi or Kirov ballet, books on Russian ballet history do not give much information about Bovt’s career Curiously the Russian Ballet Encyclopaedia overseen by Yuri Nikolaevich Grigorovich states Violetta Trofimovna Bovt was born on the 9th May 1927 in Los Angeles. Bovt graduated from the Moscow Choreographic School where she was a pupil of the distinguished teacher Maria Alexseevna Kozhukhova who was in turn a pupil of the distinguished St.Petersburg teacher Klavdia Mikhailovna Kulichevskaya. Bovt became a member of the Stanislavsky Ballet where among others she was partnered by Maris Liepa during his four years with this company. With this company, her roles included, Odette/Odile, Esmeralda, Medora, Cinderella and a number of ballets choreographed by Vladimir Pavlovich Bourmeister including the creation of the leading role in “Joan of Arc” in 1957. She was by all accounts, an extraordinary dance actress with a fully integrated academic technique. Mme Bovt died in 1995. NYPL Digital Library has the following Roger Wood photographs of Violetta Bovt. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital...ion&rOper=2

I have seen Suite en Blanc and Noir et Blanc. Has Lifar's ballet now acquired a third name?

I have read about Violetta Bovt and a number of my friends saw her dance with Moscow's Stanislavsky Ballet in the 1960's and told me she was extraordinary. I have always felt a disappointment that I never saw her dance and today whilst researching dramballet, I found these clips and could not help thinking that Kenneth MacMillan might have seen these films. See: http://www.nme.com/awards/video/id/A4qgvdTD4-8/search/bovt

Thank you for posting this Christian. You are right, "It is quite lovely..." I was also struck by the warmth of his smile and the light in his eyes.

I do not think it is possible to talk about the integrity of any ballet production that takes a significant artwork like “Napoli” and tramples on its status as a (mostly) genuine historic ballet by a recognised great choreographer. My feelings about Bournonville’s “Napoli” is that it exists with an integrity in the sense of wholeness To disturb such wholeness, is to impose inconsistencies that are both a denial of a masterwork and ultimately the congruence of the Romantic ballet as a genuine historic genre worth protecting. I have as perhaps you have, seen many failed productions of “Giselle”, “Swan Lake”,” Sleeping Beauty” etc. There have been some variable productions of “Napoli” over the years, but surely from the descriptions we have read, none possessed such a blatant vulgarity in turning its back to Bournonville’s genius.

The State Tretyakov Museum in Moscow is currently showing, VISION OF DANCE. Celebrating the 100 anniversary of "Russian ballets" of Serge Dyagilev in Paris See: http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/ PS I have deferred to this sites spelling of Diaghilev

or 2-King Florestan dancing with Aurora's aunts...? Lets not get too deep about these characters whose names are I suggest are simply a plot device because soloists danced the roles, they therefore had to be given names to fit in with the story. They do of course get no characterisation unlike the original Perrault or elsewhere.

I learnt something about Lopukhov from, the translation of “Writings On Ballet And Music (Studies in Dance History) by Fedor Lopukhov that Stephanie Jordan presented and was published in 2002.It is widely available as new and second hand on various websites.

I am sorry Quiggin I did not realise that it would revert to Danish when I posted. I have Google translate on my toolbar which does the trick.

The Royal Ballet’s first production of Sleeping Beauty was that staged by Nikolai Sergeyev and premiered on 02 February 1939. When de Valois revived the production after the war the Florestan and his Two Sisters pas de trios with choreography by Ashton was introduced and first presented on 20 February March 1946. The cast was Florestan – Michael Somes, his two sisters were Moira Shearer and Gerd Larsen. Ashton also choreographed the Garland dance. To this same production, De Valois introduced The Three Ivans.(Music The Sleeping Beauty, Op.66 / Act 3 - 28e. Pas de deux: Coda (Allegro vivace)(The Three Ivans) into the last Act and the Bluebird pas de deux on this occasion was supervised by Stanislaus Idzikovsky. The Three Ivans were originally introduced in Diaghilev’s staging of The Sleeping Beauty(1921) and was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska and the Florestan Pas de trois introduced by Diaghilev into Aurora's Wedding (1923) using the Act III music from Sleeping Beauty which originally accompanied the Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Sapphire Fairy variations. I always enjoyed the Florestan pas de trois but today prefer the Jewels variations .

Here are two Danish newspaper reviews of "Napoli." http://www.berlingske.dk/scene/bournonvill...fellini-univers http://kpn.dk/teater/dans/article1882060.ece

Thank you Alexandra for your brilliant post. Earlier this year Jane pointed out, “The Royal Danish Ballet still does The Lesson, of course - a couple of years ago it was chosen as part of Denmark's 'cultural canon' (the other dance works being La Sylphide and Etudes).” I think the whole Bourninville oeuvre should become part of Denmarks cultural canon and in fact become part of a newly created UNESCO protected world heritage art form status. Companies like the RDB, the RB, ABT, Kirov, Bolshoi, Cuban, etc can call upon in some instances a huge repertoire of highly successful works that are rarely or never revived which could give some respite for dancers and audiences alike from the more familiar classics. Knud Arne Jürgensen makes a very good case for the revival of Bournonvilles larger oeuvre, “Of Bournonville's numerous unpublished writings, it is his choreographic records, which attract special attention, because it is through them that we can follow, at closest quarters, how ballet as an art form developed during the whole Romantic period from the end of the 1820s up through the next five decades, resulting in an artistic flowering rarely seen before or since. Bournonville's choreographic notes are quite exceptional in this respect, for here we find some of the most famous dances and divertissements from the culmination of Romantic ballet. Analysed from a pure technical view of the style, Bournonville's choreographic notes appear as one of the most eminent and complete depositions of Romantic ballet step technique and aesthetic style foundation. Seen in this perspective, the importance of his production notes reaches beyond simply that of having preserved his own works and those of others for posterity. His records actually represent a direct reflection of the very pulse of the Romantic ballet. I would encourage anyone who has only a little familiarity with Bournonville, to read Jurgenson's whole article under the heading “Reconstructions” to be found at: http://www.bournonville.com/bournonville37.html Denmark is a country with various traditions reaching back to more than a thousand years. It does not deny its Royal Heritage nor the Danish heritage buildings or historic towns like Aarhus. For a small country, it has somewhere around 200 museums and more than forty art museums and galleries. So we know that Denmark does value and revere things of the past but not it seems, its most glorious balletic heritage. It is a failure of nerve when ballet companies stage new works which are not a real fit for an academic classical ballet company, but is is even worse when it abuses its own great heritage works.

English ballet criticism is at an all time low and I have given up reading most of our critics. I wonder what take the distinguished critic Mary Clarke as both an admirer of the RDB and visitor to Copenhagem, would be?

The magic of great stage performers is that when they stand still, they are able without moving a muscle, continue to fascinate and mesmerize audiences in continuance of who or what that is being portrayed. Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in Les Sylphides created an extraordinary performance because of their three dimensional dept of characterisation. Yes, this ballet requires characterisation but not of the obvious dramatic kind as it remains an evocation of a dream world. While Les Sylphides is divorced from human experience, it remains clearly recognisable as an illumination of a relationship of types of expression that is present in Chopin’s music, which Mikhail Fokine in turn reveals in a new dimension of inspirational choreography, creating a significant world of its own. How I miss the type of experience that music with choreography is able to convey when performed by the likes of these two great dancers. Part of their success in this ballet, comes from the direct connection that both artists had with their historic links to the original production. Rudolf Nureyev was in a direct line to this ballets creation when he was a member of the Maryinsky/Kirov performance tradition of Les Sylphides (Chopiniana) and Dame Margot Fonteyn was coached by Tamara Karsavina, Lubov Tchernichova and Serge Grigoriev the répétiteur of the Diaghilev Ballet Russe. I am glad you enjoyed it Cristian.

Thank you Jane for drawing attention to this review. Every English ballet person I know like myself, went to Denmark to see Bournonville ballets that had clear connections with original productions. It was the sincerity and purity of the RDB productions together with the extraordinary talents of it dance actors that gave Denmark any kind of performing arts status. The Royal Danish ballet has always been admired by ballet cognoscenti across the world as the leading guardian of the Romantic tradition as epitomised by one of the few great choreographers of academic ballet Auguste Bournonville. The raison d’être of story telling of the Romantic ballet and the later Academic Classical Ballet is a signified morality, through the use of symbolism, allegory and allusion. Eva Kistrup in her informative and clearly detached view of the new Hubbe production says, “Hübbe has a major problem with the philosophical and religious foundation of August Bournonville's ballets. I cannot help but to agree with Ms Kistrup when she states, “Removing the religious motives from "Napoli" does more than removing a few ave marias, it destroys the dramatic base of the ballet and reduces "Napoli" to an incoherent story with no dramatic core or reason.” Elsewhere she says that the Bournonville choreography survives the incursions of Bournonville’s enemy. I have not seen this production and would never see it, but it recalls other tampering of major ballets which always to me, might be interpreted as narcissistic symbolic acts associated with inadequate choreographers. It also appears that this is a another suicidal event in yet another great ballet company, that has undermined its heritage by not respecting the significance of original productions which speak as clearly and loudly to present day audiences as they did when first produced. Having read about Hubbe’s production, I am entering a period of mourning recalling RDB performances of the 1960’s with the likes of Margaret Schanne, Kirsten Ralov, Kirsten Simone, Inge Sand, Solveig Ostergaard, Neils Kehlet, Niels Bjorn Larsen, Fleming Flindt and that paradigm of style and nobility, Henning Kronstam. Miss Kistrup ends by saying, “I will not call the production a 100% failure because it did show that Bournonville is strong enough to be tampered with and it may help to lighten up the notions of what you can do or not do with Bournonville. However, I would not recommend the RDB to tour this ballet, especially before it has been given a serious work over and found some coherence between it various segments. I hope Hubbe’s production dies a swift death and not rob future audiences of the experience of a great ballet company heritage. The” visitdenmark” website promotes, “Denmark is now going to join the list of countries that attract a growing, but fastidious, international cultural audience looking for outstanding artistic events. What has made this possible is not least the new Copenhagen Opera House, combined with the world-renowned Royal Danish Ballet. “ I somehow think they were referring to the famous traditional Bournonville productions.

Thank you for your comment. There is I think, a problem in the appreciation of some of these films, because changes in aesthetic appreciation in populations since that period, may limit younger people in their appreciation. The shared experiences of yesterday were not open to everyone then and may have diminished further in the last 40 to 50 years with social and cultural changes.

I think the Paris Opera production has some nice costumes, some of the sets have a grandeur but with vulgar kitsch touches and for me the Paris Opera style has (Yvette Chauvire excepted) always shown too much semaphoring of the physicality of the steps they are executing and in general, the epaulement of the last two generations of dancers is a generally a killer. Rudol Nureyev has to take some blame. but the significant legacy of Sylvie Guillem in the performance of academic classical ballet in Paris and across the world. has left a most negative impact and influence. Chac un a son gout.

I could not find if this link had been posted before. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000036/003621eb.pdf

I think most of the major theatres in Europe that present ballet have financial support over and above government subsidies. The Royal Opera House Limited for instance is beginning to project itself as much of being a corporate status organisation than purely an arts organisation which, give the recent financial situation, is no doubt a necessity. The last published accounts of March 2008 showed it received a state subsidy of £26.3m . Financial report available at http://www.charity- ommission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts/Ends75/0000211775_ac_20080330_e_c.pdf Added: The finances of Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris. see http://www.sinic.gov.co/SINIC/Publicacione...08327111712.pdf

Dear Andrei I agree that Alla Osipenko was an extraordinary Lilac Fairy at a time when the Kirov Ballet was at its most classical and I treasure that memory alongside Irina Kolpakova and Vladilen Semyenov as the perfect classicists as Aurora and Prince Florimund. Alla Osipenko was beautiful physically and facially conveying an elevated power that exuded a powerful mystery upon an impressionable teenager. I also agree with esperanto that Deanne Bergsma was an extraordinary Lilac Fairy who was a good fairy incarnate. Her grandeur of movement and the warmth of her expression reflected a spiritual quality not matched since in my experience except by Lyubov Kunakova whom mohnurka referred to. KitriSpanishDancer says, "I personally dislike the whole Lilac Fairy Variation, actually i really don't like sleeping beauty at all. Some of the variations are pretty but there are too many codas, to many variations, and it doesn't tickle my fancy. If i had to pick the leader fairy i wouldn't pick lilac, there are so many other fairies( finger,crystal, woodland glade, canary ....and that other one) the composer could of chosen... it upsets me. :angry:" Connoisseurs of Academic Classical Ballet have over generations referred to "The Sleeping Beauty" as the apogee of the genre. A statement to which I can add nothing except to concur.