leonid17

The Bronze Horseman was widely performed across the Soviet Union with new productions into the mid 1960's. The ballet was staged in three acts and 13 scenes together with a Prologue. Friends of mine saw it performed at the Kirov in the late 1960's. If this ballet is worth re-staging, members of the cast from that era who are still alive, are only in their early seventies. I also was moved when I saw the statue and the mention of it makes Pushkin's poem come flooding into my mind There are suites of Gliere's music for this ballet still available in recent recordings.

The film is available for $18.71 at First Run Features http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/dancerdvd.html

Famous people in England get celebrated with a blue plaque inserted into the exterior wall of their former home which is visible from the public highway. ie Someone famous lived here. The Times has carried an article on these commemorations and adds a comment about Dame Ninette de Valois, ” Nearby, at 14 The Terrace, overlooking the river, is a recent plaque to Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, who in her declining years was sometimes seen drinking a pint of beer while reading the papers on a Sunday morning in the garden of the Coach and Horses round the corner.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_...icle6822483.ece

This production of Giselle has now been changed to Peter Wright's version in which Margaret Barbieri was absolutely wonderful in her Romantic realisation of the role. http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090.../-1/NEWSSITEMAP

Thank you Jane I saw the performance but had not seen the film.

The Ziegler was the Official biography of Mountbatten to which the Mountbatten family contributed. I personally find that the Ziegler did not sufficiently denigrate Mountbatten who was and is, generally held in low esteem by the British public of a certain age. One is not suprised that, "The family wasn't too happy.", but it could have been worse, as there was much more to reveal. The Daneman and the Kavanagh books do not either capture the Dame Margot and the Rudolf Nureyev that their colleagues and her admirers knew. The goodness, kindness and great artistry alone are their stories. There is no psychologist qualified to link Dame Margot's or Mr Nureyev's private life to their artistic life. Not one of the biography's of Dame Margot or Rudold Nureyev give an analysis of the growth in roles over a long period of time nor do the exhibit any real knowledge of the ballet art. Most authors like most critics have learnt about ballet from the outside to the inside and can never grasp the inside to the out in any depth. I am also sure that there has not been a single biographer who is qualified to give a psycholigical analysis of any famous dancer, but it seems to me that they pretend they are. I think you hit the nail on the head when you say, "It depends on what kind of a deal the writer has cut with the person doing the authorizing, and what that person has in mind. It is true that there is usually a tradeoff – in exchange for special access to papers and friends, a writer may agree, or there may be an informal understanding, that certain subjects won't be emphasized and certain views not taken. It's even more likely that the authorizer will seek out a writer who is already in tune with his views." I think this is a biography that not that many balletomanes in England will want to buy as I believe they are interested in a number of the MacMillan ballets but not the man who created them and perhaps that is the right thing as it is his oeuvre that is significant not the man and these two aspects as I am sure this biography will show, are clearly divisible. I will order it from my local library

Being based in London, I should be able to answer the question. With no regrets, I can say that I have not read Jann Parry for many years along with a fair number of other writers on ballet in London newspapers.

There is an inkling as to what some of the biography will be about in The Independent @ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertai...62-1777977.html PS Apparently the biography was commissioned by Deborah MacMillan.

I do not believe in the "Crazy Lynn". She was definitely unconventional in some ways, but I can say having spent a number of weekends in her home when a girlfriend of mine was nanny to her twins. Miss Seymour's home was a model of really good housekeeping on her part, the boys were very happy, bright and balanced and she appeared to be exactly the same and also a little serious. The sadness was that MacMillan's era of Director of the Royal Ballet was his undoing and the undoing of the Royal Ballet, from which despite having some better dancers than he had at his disposal, it is going downhill due to its current repertoire of destruction. I hope this book does not include an element of the myth making. MacMillan was a creator of about six fairly important one act ballets and a number of one or two act ballets which were in error, produced as three act works and that is a consensus among friends across Europe and in the USA.

The choreographic additions apart from the Ashton’s Neapolitan dance which was resuscitated in the 1992/93 season, include David Bintley’s Act 1 Waltz, Irina Jacobson’s pas de trois variation and the National Dances in Act 3. Leonid, has your focus moved here to Royal Ballet versions of Swan Lake rather than Sleeping Beauty. Are you in fact referring to Ashton's Neapolitan dance being reintroduced to the ballroom act of Swan Lake i 1992/3 ? Likewise the other changes that you mention. And I thought I could multi-task. Apologies trying to deal with more than one correspondence at a time.

All rules regarding employment in the UK are ultimately subject to EU regulations. We cannot make our own laws if they do not conform to EU legislation. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published the first review of the shortage occupation lists for skilled workers coming to the United Kingdom from outside the European Economic Area. The shortage occupation list has three stringent tests: the occupation in question must be sufficiently skilled, there must be a shortage of workers and it must be sensible to fill this shortage with workers from outside the European Economic Area. Professional dancers are on the Shortage Occupation list. Dancers are required to be sponsored by the employing dance company to work in Britain. In England, dancers can now study for BA (Hons) Ballet and Contemporary Dance. At the Royal Ballet School, "In academic areas most students will complete one A level (current choice is from Art, English, Maths and French) and two BTEC National Awards in Performing Arts. (Students complete the award in Dance in the first year and Arts Management in the second.) For overseas students there is an excellent provision for English as a Foreign Language." Updated legislation can be read at: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecont...for_dancers.pdf Apologies for going further off topic. Amended 07.47

I think he has an exotic other worldy look when young of the type if he had been a woman you might call jolie laide. I am not surprised that Arlene Croce saw him as , "the angel thug.." because there was a toughness about him, no doubt learnt when he left the Paris Opera in 1943 to join the French resistance to fight the Germans. Make your mind up for yourself with the following photographs:- http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/503716...e-Life-Pictures http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/56233662/Roger-Viollet http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/56233664/Roger-Viollet http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/56233661/Roger-Viollet http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/55755581/Roger-Viollet Added http://www.willoughbyphotos.com/gallery2/m...ris+HR.jpg.html Amended Typos

I am so pleased to see Nadezhda Pavlova's name mentioned. She was an extraordinary dancer whose career should have been much more than what it was.

I agree. I would also recommend Diane Solway's more accurate, more respectul and without the dreadful salacious, unsupported material present in other biographies.

To many people he remains a legend. When he danced Bluebird in London Dame Ninette de Valois was heard to say I have got three boys who can dance the role as well as him. To which Richard Buckle retorted, "If that's the case why have we never seen them." Here is a tiny clip of Babilee dancing and talking. There is something very beautiful about his face and expression which is not conventionally good looking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuMBw7wz5Ns He reprised L'homme when he was 61 years old. I would suggest his theatricality grew not only from his personality and talent, but also from his work with Roland Petit.

Thanks to Jane Simpson, the following Giselle clip has been identified as Liane Dayde and Michel Renault and not Beryl Grey and Yuri Kondratov as published by Pathe News. What do people think of the Dayde’s Act 1 solo? http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=60289

Well spotted Jane. Renault is familiar to me from the Serge Lido books and I checked Dayde with postcards rg posted last year. If you compare the costumes in the film to those shown in the newspaper, there is a match. Dayde's coloured skirt does not show very well in the newspaper photograph as it is such a bad print.

You are quite right it is not Beryl Grey.

Sometimes it really is delightful to watch in silence. Her every movement is defined so clearly. I really appreciate the opportunity to watch this on British Pathe's high-quality film, created to be projected on large theater screens. I wish we had the same for U.S. ballet in that period, so we didn't have to rely almost entirely on telecasts meant to be shown on fuzzy 7- or 9-inch television screens. My big disappointment in Helene's group was Beryl Grey: both her Giselle and her Odette/Odile. I've never seen her on video and somehow expected more and ... different. I only saw Beryl Grey at the very end of her career and it appeared to me that something had been their once, but the spirit of the dance had left her. She was however more technically competent than in the clips you watched and I have a number of friends who subscribe to her having real technical ability..

Some more clips from British Pathe News. Does anyone know of an American equivalent showing ballet sequences? An 88 year old Olga Preograjenskaya teaching a class http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=64308 A curiosity. Paris Opera Ballet corps dancing round and round 1932 http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=9010 New production of Gayane at the Bolshoi 1957 with Raisa Struchkova, Marina Kondratieva and Yaroslav Sekh http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=66693 Another curiosity, Man and woman tap dancing en pointe. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=49761 Mayfair Ballet School London 1932 http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=19117 Margarita Drozhdova of the Bolshoi 1968. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=72220 Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev with the briefest extract from Raymonda http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=41204 Sonya Henie dances “The Swan” on ice. 1934. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=5037

Mme. Hermine reminded me of the Dick Cavett interview with Sir Frederick Ashton who said Nijinsky was shorter than himself. I put Sir Frederick at about 5'4".

(p.28) I don't buy the Dancing Times these days so I am glad you mentioned this article. Was there ever a more elegant man or dancer (well, Erik Bruhn). I love what Hubbe said, it moved me deeply reviving in my minds eye Mr Kronstam standing outside the Royal Opera House for all the world looking like a young Lord that had stepped out of an 18th century English painting so noble was his bearing. If you can find the photographs of Mr. Kronstam as the Prince in "Sleeping Beauty", he simply radiates nobility.

It is an interesting question you pose. There can be quite a difference between dancers who perform ballerina roles and actual ballerinas for Baldina with her St. Petersburg training she would probably have stood out as having a more refined style compared with her colleagues at the Bolshoi in those years she spent there which along with her highly talented husband's status ensured her getting leading roles. It does depend who is measuring the status and the criteria being observed. If we talk about the ecole classique delineation of Danseuse Noble as equating with ballerina, many so called ballerinas of the past would perhaps, be excluded. Today the title is generally obsolete except in the press. It was perhaps the power of the ballerina, especially the Prima Ballerina Assoluta, that brought about the title of Principal Dancer as an inclusive term for dancers who regularly perform leading roles which I think reflected an inclusivity of status within a company rather than the exclusivity of status of a ballerina or Prima Ballerina. For those seriously interest in Academic Classical Ballet, who feel they know the criteria for a dancer being called a ballerina rather than a Principal Dancer also as matter of course perpetuate the term, but not everybody would set the same criteria for such a nomenclature. I do not believe Alexandra Baldina was ever given the title of ballerina and every photograph I have seen of her she looks a demi-classical or even a demi-caractere dancer. Ps Miss Baldina appeared on Broadway in shows choreographed by her husband Theodore Kosloff and his brother Alexis.

The choreographic additions apart from the Ashton’s Neapolitan dance which was resuscitated in the 1992/93 season, include David Bintley’s Act 1 Waltz, Irina Jacobson’s pas de trois variation and the National Dances in Act 3.

This always to be preferred, especially in Academic Classical Ballets. A prince would be brought up to always be princely not reacting like some one from the lower classes. Save the drama for Carabosse. Remember where it was first produced and the fact that it was seen as ’homage’ to the Imperial Family. In works like the Sleeping Beauty, I personally find Bonelli in a direct line from Somes to MacLeary and following Jonathon Cope. I would like to see a return to the Oliver Messel production (without the choreographic amendations) which I grew up with. Failing that I could happily watch Vikharev's reconstruction for the rest of my life.