leonid17

A new biography of Diaghilev by Sjeng Scheijen which I am informed is a good read, has already been published in Dutch and will be available from in the USA and UK from 15th October 2009 details on AMAZON website.

You often write very well and I note that you are not lacking in humour. I think Miss St.Dennis has a place in history and although neither alone as a solo performer or an orientalist dancer, she has made a mark on American dance history and is known of in England.

Ruth Dennis under her own name appeared in three plays on Broadway produced by Belasco in 1901, 1902, 1903. In the "Dubarry" play Miss St. Dennis appeared at the Criterion Theatre Broadway from December 1901 to May 1902 when she was cast as Mlle. Le Grand a dancer from the Grand Opera

What has any of the above got to do with Lady Kay's original question and more to the point what has it got to do with dance. The simple answer is nothing. I find your posts extremely odd, as they read as if you want to punish this man who has never done anything to you personally. I think his status will survive your comments.

What sad news. I saw Mr. Prokovsky dance with de Cuevas, Festival Ballet and the New London Ballet on very many occasions. Mr. Prokovsky was a true star performer with a very strong virtuoso technique which he shared with his long time partner and wife Galina Samsova. Their performances were for Festival Ballet aficianados legendary. I have strong memories of them in all the classics and other works, especially in the John Taras masterwork, "Le Piege de Lumiere." Mr Prokovsky had a wonderful ability to stay in the air in cabrioles as if he was actually floating for a moment which he used to good effect in "Le Corsaire" pas de deux which he and Misss Samsova for a long time made their own. Mr Prokovsky was extremely personable and charming on and off stage and my condolences go to his wife and son.

Simon I enjoyed reading the historical content of your post but was apalled at your reference to Mr. Shawn in a manner that I find had a touch of the gutter and was an unnecessary element in your telling of the story. It is not okay in my view to cast aspersions publicly on anyones private life on what is after all a website where serious discussions take place about ballet and dance. It personally has put me off visiting balletalert as I always thought the standards of this site were extremely high. Amended

Russian custom. They seem to have learned that what is seen at home as a gracious acknowledgment to the audience is seen in New York as vulgar applause milking and have stopped doing it on their visits here. I'm surprised to hear that they still do it in London, but perhaps the London audience is more patient than New York's. I assume the Londoners are more polite. It has been a tradition in Russia and in London I think almost always they have taken bows. I think it breaks the continuity of the portrayals. I personally am out of my seat and up to the Floral Hall as soon as the curtain goes down.

Struchkova perhaps? You are absolutely correct. I think she is wonderful and I never forget her and Liepa in Romeo and Juliet on stage which I saw four years later.

Wow and I thought I had found some interesting links. When will the list of goodies end.

There are achive films of famous dancers and companies on the British Pathe News archive website at: http://www.britishpathe.com/ Try searching, Alicia Alonso, Natalya Makarova.Russian Ballet etc and watch a harrowing interview by the press at London Airport as Dame Margot Fonteyn tries to explain she does not know ehere her husband is, there is a short film in German of Balanchine's Nutcracker made in 1965. Search Paris Ballet or French Ballet and you get a miscellany of news reports all with dance sequences of some sort . Dancers from Radio City Music Hall Ballet perform 'water lily dance' in the Gardens of the Nations on the roof of the Rockefeller Building. A few of the films are mute.

Thank you Victoria and Bart for the information. It was such a curious little film. I am sorry I missed the production as I have always been a fan of Violette Verdy. Ps For a lot more interesting PATHE NEWS ballet shorts check .

Yelena Yevteyeva was in my opinion one of the last great artists of stature of the Kirov ballet. Altynai Asylmuratova was the last. Yevteyeva on her last visit to London danced a Saturday matinee Giselle at the Coliseum which all of the regular audience counted as one of the greatest Giselle performances they had ever seen. When I see Yevteyeva accompanied by Komleva when the Kirov visit London. I think of an artistic age long gone which was graced those two dancers and Zubkovskaya, Kolpakhova, Sizova, Semyenov and Soloviev and many more.

Looking for something completely different on the Pathe News website, I found the below short regarding a 12 year old dancer appearing in London called Claudia Cravey. I have found that today she is a a teacher in Florida, but did this American child also have a dance career? http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1083

I thought Fokine's "Eunice" at first, but I am not sure about the headress and shoes being correct for that work. She was a demi-caractere and character dancer. I had no idea until I read your above information that she had reached New York where I now find she died in 1960. Thanks for posting the card. In most of the postcards I have seen of her she looks stately. There is a good deal of information to be found about her post Marinsky life at: http://books.google.com/books?id=t-OLyzKAq...ova&f=false PS She was with Pavlova's company on her early tours to Sweden and appeared with her in London as well. Vera Zorina was a pupil of Eduardova who also taught Leni Riefenstahl and a number of notable modern dancers.

Thank you Jane. I found the caption with Alexandra Ansanelli's photograph a bit too touching. She will be missed.

You seem to have read Karsavina's thoughts on the "Flow of Movement". I agree Dale with everthing else you say. I have watched the video four times today and am still enjoying it as bring back many memories of this extraordinary dancer on stage.

Still off topic. If he pays that much attention to reviews and his status in London Cygnet, I wonder how he responded to the criticism of his conducting of the Ring last week and the criticism of his singers one of whom got booed? He is the Artistic and General Director of the theatre and curiously Yury Fateev has been given the curious and seemingly lower status compared to the past, of Deputy Director of the Ballet Company of the Mariinsky Theatre not Artistic Director.

For me, this counts as possibly the best filmed version of the variation to be seen. The unforced creaminess of the her first arabesque into a penchee is as gentle as a sigh and a wonder to behold. Steel underlying feminine softness. Thanks to all concerned for making it possible.

Thanks Christian. I was thrilled when I saw the TV broacast. It seemed an insight into the past which performances by major Russian companies at that time, somehow often just missed.

The date for the premiere of the production of Esmeralda at the Bolshoi is to be the 25th December. Edited to correct error.

This expands the question of height into a question about the dancer's proportions. The illusion of long legs is usually enhanced by having a short torso. So is the current favored body type short torso/ long legs? Let's say that you have two female ballet dancers, each 5'8" or 5'9 -- "tall" by most standards even today. One dancer has a short torso and very long legs and arms. The other has proportions more typical of the dancers on whom Petipa set his dances. How would these differences be reflected in how well (and how musically) they can dance the Petipa ballerina roles? Regarding what you ask about the current favoured body type. How would you categorise, Ananiashvilli, Vishneva, Cojocaru, Nunez, Osipova or Rojo? I don't think of them as particularly short torso/long legged on stage, All I have proposed is that the fairly unified proportion of dancers in a company is to me more pleasing and that Petipa and the ballet choreographers of the 19th century deliberately chose only short dancers with a balanced figure. I know Taglioni was apparently of an elongated physique, but there has only been one Taglioni. I can confess that the very tall Deanne Bergsma as the Lilac Fairy remains after Zubkovskaya my favourite in this role due to the expansive yet embracing quality of her performance and of course her superb mimetic ability. So yes, tall dancers can be successful in some Petipa roles if they are artist enough and the have balanced proportions. The Royal Ballet is yet to produce another Bergsma. You have asked quite a wide question in asking me to compare and contrast two body types when there are other considerations to be taken into account not mentioned. I think, it would depend on the strength of their technique in allegro passages which may be a problem for a long legged dancer as can virtuoso steps. When I see a tall or long legged dancer perform a gargouillade, I shudder. It just look plain wrong, like spiders legs. Where there is the inequality in the proportions you describe in your first type, balanced Petipa shapes cannot in my opinion be achieved. Musicality is always a problem when you consider those dancers that perform steps precisely to the music and those that inhabit or become the music and body shape then, does not enter the reckoning. I think having possibly grown up with the RB, Festival Ballet and the Kirov of 1961, a preference and a rightness of proportions seemed established for me and later historical study reinforced that. Supreme artists overcome any of the short comings of torso or leg length, like Ulanova, but they are in my opinion quite rare and if not of the first rank, spoil for me the inherent perfection of balance, of the experience of Petipa's choreography.

When I said, "We do not transpose up or down operatic scores for singers because of limited or peculiar abilities. Today we find authenticity an accepted approach in the restoration and performance of opera and music. Counter tenors up until 40 years ago were almost de trop. Today they are di rigueur in many vocal works." I was really dealing with three seperate aspects and I did not make myself quite clear. I was thinking of counter tenors not exactly related to authenticity as he was earlier than current trends. I can remember the shock as a child hearing Alfred Deller on the radio singing Purcell and I apparently said, "My brother and I can sing as high as that, but we don't sound so soppy." I did grow to love Deller.s voice later. Some years ago researching something else I did find that there was a Dutch orchestra attempting authenticity in the 1880'or 1890's. Ps I forgive your pun.

Ouch! I took that on the chin but I don't think you really meant to be insulting in that statement as I read it. I think you will find that I have referred enthusiastically in my posts dancers of the recent past and the current enthusiastically including the seemingly tall and I always watch performance from an objective point of view because I live in the real world and not the imagined world I would like to live in. You may remember that I enthusiastically reviewed the seemingly tall Veronika Part. Balanchine is a "neo-classical" choreographer and I have been referring to ballets of the Academical Classical Ballet School genre. "As for Petipa, he created the ballets, and had a choice of dancers he had in mind when he was choreographing. The "first generation" choreographers all had that luxury -- Balanchine, Ashton, et al. A director casting Swan Lake today does not." " Nutrition back in the days of the Imperial Ballet was not what it is now -- children in many developed countries are simply taller." While nutrition may be a feature of smaller children, I think you will find it is genes that determine height and when you look at large groups that are generally shorter, it is an inherent individual ethnic typology at work. I am sure you have read of the rigours of the examination of pupils for the Imperial Theatre School. Pupils were chosen for the aesthetic (short)and Petipa along with former ballerina's sat on the board that made decisions. Measurements were taken, flexibility, turn out and feet were checked as were teeth and doctors took part in the examination. I would think there is very little difference in this process in academies attached to companies across the world today. The Imperial Theatres being a huge organisation for those that did not make any kind of career there was generally a place of employment found for them.

Ballet, concerts, theatre and the circus continued in Moscow and St.Petersburg with some interruptions throughout the war period and Goleizovsky was producing ballets at the Kamerny Theatre Moscow during 1919. It was the content of the story that prevented his staging of, "The Masque of the Red Death."

It is a grave error to suppose that all people in Russia or England were shorter in the Petipa era. You only have to look the number of guards regiments with their height restrictions. Even(forgive the expression) the peasant class produced tall off spring. As short people have been always with us so have the tall. The average height of American females age 20 plus is 5'3.8", the average height of White American female 20 plus is 5'4.9", in Russia the average height is 5'3", in the UK 5.4.3", in France at 20 plus is 5'4.3" But to reach those averages, there must be a huge number around only 5' tall. I think you will find today there are many classical dancers that exceed the above heights and I am not sure what the attraction is for very leggy dancers. Is it aesthetic? Petipa, in general had excellent casts for his ballet and I am pretty sure that small dancers in 19th century ballet were chosen for very particular reasons.