leonid17
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It was after seeing the Camargo Society performance of Giselle with Olga Spessitseva and Dolin in 1932 that Markova first realized the possibilities of the role for her(She had seen Pavlova dance in 1919.)
Markova's first performance with the Vic-Wells Ballet Company took place on New Year's Day 1934 at the Old Vic in a production staged by Nicholas Grigorovich Sergeyev in which Markova had a triumphant success partnered by Anton Dolin.
Sergeyev was trained at the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, joining the company in 1894 and was promoted to soloist and régisseur, or stage manager of the Mariinsky Ballet, In 1904 he became régisseur-général in 1914.
In time Giselle became Markova's most significant role and the one whose depth of expressive possibilities she continued to develop throughout her career.
It was Diaghilev who changed her surname from Marks to the more Russian sounding name Markova.
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Vaganova had originally cast Ulanova as Myrtha. Fortunately, Yelena Liukom, the first prima-ballerina of Soviet Ballet, and a revered interpreter of Giselle, saw at once that it was Ulanova's part and coached her for her debut in the Ponomaryov production after Petipa.
Galina Ulanova was not just outstanding, world-famous ballerina, she alone is an epoch in the history of Russian ballet epitomising, its artistic and high aesthetic pride.
Ulanova's sensitive expressive performances remain spiritusly unique. Ulanova was compared with the Venus by Botticelli and Raphael's Madonna. Touchingly, beautiful and tragic as the Swan Princess she was considered impossible to forget.
Over the years of her success Ulanova would become an immortal image, which is impossible to forget as senior members of the company would confirm.
Perhaps different in some ways to the 19th century balllerina's in the roles of Odette/Odile and Giselle I have found those that saw her talk with a hushed voice never wanting to describe what was called a miracle
of dramatic and aesthetic execution.
She won the hearts of audiences with Giselle - mysterious, as if becoming a levitating light shadow, yet at the same time filled with great spiritual power.In “The Fountains of Bakhchisarai as Maria her dramatic measured sense of gesture and the plastique of her poses responding to her fate are filled with images showing that the drama of her captiivity which was doomed to soon end echoing the heroines of Pushkin and Shakespeares through dance.
Although a pupil of Agrippina Vaganova, her parents Sergey Ulanov and her mother Maria Fyodorovna were both ballet dancers. Galina Ulanova destiny arose from her parents and which through her mother an outstanding teacher. she would grow into a legend. Oddly, Ulanova was at first a reluctant pupil extremely shy and often tearful at the strain of the daily routine of the yet she performed out of a sense of duty to her parents.
Yet inescapable from her daily routine of the class, a sense of duty arose perhaps more so when she experienced the thrill of taking part in performances.
Over time she gained confidence and made a great friend in Tatyana Vecheslova also destined to become and outstanding member of the now Soviet Ballet of Russia.
Maria Fedorovna who coached her daughter through four of the years of her ballet training was never quite sure that Anna would succeed.When a graduation performance arose, the final performance of a school year for senior pupils , Anna was among the dancers immediately allocated one figure, which was particularly plastique, expressive and soulful. Her mother looking closer at the stage realized it was her daughter.
Alicia Markova had no such journey to becoming a ballerina.
Pushed from the beginning of her dance classes you would find this,”Little Pavlova,” dancing a version of “The Swan” up and down English seaside resorts before she was twelve years old.
Born in the same year as Pavlova she was encouraged to take ballet lessons as she had weak legs.
Pretty much soon after she made her stage debut aged ten , she was later billled as “Little Alicia the child Pavlova.
In London she was to study with Serafina Astafieva Born 1876 who studied at the Boshoi Ballet school and graduated from the Imperial Theatre school in 1895 who had danced withe Diaghilev Ballet Company.
Astafieva as a somewhat statuesque character dancer(and a Russian Princess) had earlier married Josef Kshessinsky) brother of the Imperial Ballerina Mathilde Kshessinkaya.
For two years(1909-1911) Astafieva had appeared with Diaghilev Ballet Company. Her pupils at various times included, Rambert, Fonteyn, Markova, and Dolin.
Unlike Ulanova, there is regrettably little film of Markova(later Dame Alicia) there is no way I can make a proper assessment of her abilities.
However I did see a revival of Chopiniana that Markova staged for English National Ballet and I sometimes think it was the best staging I have ever seen.
Markova was definitedly admired by older balletomanes I knew and I found her to be a warm and generous person on the occasions that we met with no side or sense of grandeur.
At an intimate occasion at the Pavlova Museum in Ivy House she talked and described events of here life and times with her great friend the most charming grande dame Alexandra Danilova.
Markova's solid legacy has been The Festival Ballet(later The English National Ballet) she founded with Anton Dolin(later Sir Anton which had changed its name over the years and remains today as The English National Ballet.
The National Film Theatre in London has a record of the films of Alicia Markova appeared in as follows in no particular order.
Markova and Ashton (1931)
Alicia Markova Frederick Ashton
Markova (1972)
Dame Alicia Markova (1974) Dame Alicia Markova (1985)
Featuring
Mavis Nicholson Alicia Markova
Dame Alicia Markova and Doris Marks (1991) Synopsis
Prima ballerina Dame Alicia Markova and her sister Doris Marks, nee Barry, who had a successful career on the stage, particularly at the Windmill Theatre, talk about their background, their different careers, the triumphs and traumas.
Tales of Helpmann A Profile of Sir Robert Helpmann (1990) Cast
Dame Alicia Markova: The People's Ballerina (2000) Synopsis
A profile of Dame Alicia Markova, as she celebrated her 90th birthday. Traces the four decades of her career from its beginnings in 1924, when she left London to became a teenage star in Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russe company.
Dame Alicia Markova: The People's Ballerina (2000) Dame Alicia Markova and Doris Marks (1991)
See:http://www.ballet.co.uk/old/legend_js_alicia_markova.htm
Having spent almost three hours with Galina Ulanova with a colleague Geoffrey Whitlock watching Pavlova dance on film, she become most (gently) agitated at so many movements and moments that it was apparent that she was possessed with a gentility of spirit which was much more than humilty.
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In our modern society, access to figures of reference in ballet seems to be at ease. One can just enter a vast world of full lenght videos a click away from our own phones. Coaching is greatly expanded also, and now there are more and more dancers worldwide that are able to share previous knowledge in the classics when changing companies and even countries. However, reading yet another book on Dame Markova-(I feel a very special attraction for her type of dancing, sort of aloof and with a particular sense of center and self control that I find fascinating)-I started ruminating in the way she started developing and molding her Giselle, the differences with our current vast access to points of comparisson and the way her work influenced future generations of Giselles in the western hemisphere. In Maurice Leonard's "Markova: the legend", she talks at lenght about it, and about her scarse points of guidance-(an early performance she saw with Pavlova, which she couldn't remember very well, but mostly the vision of Spessivtzeva in the role, Alicia still a very young teenager dancing already with Diaghilev.
Then, during the early 30's comes her breakthrough with the role, in which she had only the even more aloof Nicolas Sergueev as her regisseur, with zero demonstrations and little to say besides the basic choreography. Long story short, it seems to me that what we all know about Giselle in the western side of the world comes from a very strong line via what Markova developed-(Pavlova might had danced it worldwide too, but I don't feel there are remaints of her interpretation). Alonso then was a continuation of Markova's style, and from then on, the imitation continued in Cuba full force. I might add that it has greatly extended to whenever Cuban ballet coaches teach Giselle.
Then there is Russia/Soviet Union and Ulanova. I have never read a book on Ulanova, but..could it be that her interpretation was also a work from scratch like Markova's..? She had Vaganova as a teacher, but Agrippina did dance the role only one time and was not a success, according to her biography. Who might had helped Ulanova develop the character...? I'm more inclined to think that she, like Markova, molded it greatly on her own.
My final question then would be.. Could the Giselles we watch today be a somewhat derivative product of either one of this two ballerinas...? More often than not I find, when watching a sequence of performances in a course of days, too little to differentiate from ballerina to ballerina-(the Russians being the hardest).
Then I saw the Osipova/Acosta video and, for the first time in years, I saw a different Giselle.
Any thoughs...?
Galina Sergeyevna did study with Vaganova, but importantly she also studied with her parents Sergey Ulanov and Marie Romanova.
While Fedor Lopukov was artistic director at the Kirov, he took a special interest in her development. He had recognised her rare potential when she was in the school. "She has a secret hidden in her soul" he once said. (John Gregory)
Vaganova had originally cast her as Myrtha. Fortunately, Yelena Liukom, the first prima-ballerina of Soviet Ballet, and a revered interpreter of Giselle, saw at once that it was Ulanova's part and coached her for her debut in the Ponomaryov production after Petipa.
See:http://www.ballet.co.uk/old/legend_js_alicia_markova.htm
Having spent almost three hours with Galina Ulanova with a colleague Geoffrey Whitlock watching Pavlova dance on film, she become most (gently) agitated at so many movements and moments that it was apparent that she was possessed with a gentility of spirit which was much more than humilty.
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Many Thanks.
Just saw this! Welcome bac
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Just saw this! Welcome back --
Many Thanks.
Leonid
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I am always happy to read your posts but now will be wondering what happened to ll the intermediary Leonids on the way to Leonid17...
One always has to retain a little mystery about oneself, otherwise each one of us would become an open book which could be read by every one and who would really want to be known so publicly.
I am glad you have been happy in the past to read my posts and I hope you will be interested to what I have say in the future.
I now have to get into the swing of it as I am a little rusty and will in general mostly post about ballet history
unless some post makes me get out of my pram.
My best wishes to you Amy Reusch.
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Ballet Alert just isn't Ballet Alert without Leonid. I am very happy to read your comments here once again.
How very kind. I am truly touched by the responses from my former and now current posters.
Thank you.
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Thank you sandik and bart it was most kind of you and I missed you and the gang very much.
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I would like to refer back to the first post and tighten the title to a somewhat more detached view in the following.
Internationally speaking I would only include most significantly of all Anna Pavlova, Lucia Chase(Co-Founder of American Ballet Theatre), Ninette de Valois and the Russian Agrippina Vaganova as having had a truly wide world affect upon the 21st century performances of Academic Classical Ballet. The other women mostly did sterling work but, if you are talking about the world stage of ballet even Marie Rambert(mostly in dance) or Mary Day (ballet) both of whom I have spent some short time discussing the art who I admired, do not reach the influence of the above named artists. There are of course some very distinguished women dancers from the world of 'Dance' and that would certainly begin for me with Martha Graham and Bronislava Nijinska but they are outside the world of Academic Classical Ballet. Perhaps a greater influence upon “Important women in ballet” has been the legendary list of academic classical ballerinas and of course the great influence of academic classical male dancers who have attracted enormous audience around the world defying Balanchine's dictum that “Ballet is woman.” Arlene Croce wrote,” His pet peeve in the theatre was the kind of emotionalism that aims at exciting false empathy in the spectator—the opposite of classical art. Mentions Hegel and Coleridge. For Balanchine, art was not something created de novo but a refashioning of hand-me-down material in such a way that it becomes new. He subscribed to the Hegelian view of history as a spiral: everything recurs, but in a different form. For this reason, he saw no harm in appropriating: he stole and was stolen from—that was the way of art. One of the great Balanchine statements is a definition of what tradition means to the artist: “You must go through tradition, absorb it, and become in a way a reincarnation of all the artistic periods that have come before you.” -
Dear Leonid,
I was hoping it was you. I have missed your posts.
Glad you are back
Thats very kind of you and I have missed you and the old gang very much.
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I was Leonid before and after a long holiday I am now Leonid17 and hope I can keep up with the current standard of postings.
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The wider influence upon ballet across the world in modern times has to begin with Anna Pavlova.
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"We took the best of the French school, with its grace and lightness, the best of the Italian school with its power,
strength and expression, and fused them with "duzha," our soul. Pyotr Gusev (1904-1987)
At its best, this is quite true.
However, as we know, the French school today is less graceful and light, the Italian school now dances like other schools and the soul is not always present with the Russian school.
The sentiment remains however.
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My question is why are the fouettes sacred when so much else of the ballet is not?
My question is why are the fouettes sacred when so much else of the ballet is not?
The simple answer is the historical context.
The 32 fouettes are not merely a test of technical skill and strength, they have become central to the deceitful character of Odile exhibiting the the dominating magical strength of her personality confirming in the process, her underlying personification of her nature as being evil.
Odile's impersonation of Odette creates a taunting and seductive version of Odile to which Siegfried submits beguiled by the magical impact of the thrillingly sexual fouettes.
The Prince's mother is delighted that Siegfried is taken with Odile. He announces that he will marry her and kisses Odile's hand. The Prince's mother and von Rothbart join their hands. The scene darkens, an owl cries out and von Rothbart is revealed as a demon. Odette appears helplessly at a window as the white swan, while Odile laughs loudly. Siegfried is horrified, and flings away the hand of his newly betrothed.
Clutching his breast, he rushes out of the castle.
Academic classical ballet drama at its best.
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But my real question is, can anyone point me to a helpful, substantive discussion of what we mean when we say "contemporary ballet"?
It looks like you might have started one right here with Quiggin's response.
I haven’t had a chance to follow this topic, but hope to. Dirac posted this link yesterday entitled “Judith Mackrell gives a warm welcome to the influx of modern dance choreographers in ballet,” which might be interesting. I read it a few days ago but don’t recall all its specifics.
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/may/19/natalia-osipova-ivan-vasiliev-ballet-contemporary-dance
You write," Judith Mackrell gives a warm welcome to the influx of modern dance choreographers in ballet,”
Modern dance is modern dance and ballet is an historic art form in itself and rightly described as Academic Classical Ballet.
Too often we see works described as ballets when they should only be described as "Dance Works."
Dancing 'en pointe' doesn't make a "Dance Work" a ballet in fact, there is most frequently not a shared identity between the two genres.
I know there is an historic context going back to Diaghilev, but that still doesn't make a correct description.
Right around the world the are numerous Academic Classical Ballets that are attended in there millions and the same ballet lovers would not cross the road to watch a modern "Dance Work."
“In terms of how 'dancer' and 'choreographer' are understood, I think it is very important to make a distinction between ballet and modem dance at the level of these basic concepts. The concept of the dancer is not the same in modem dance as the concept of the dancer in ballet. And the concept of the choreographer in modem dance is not the same as the concept of the choreographer in ballet. That is, one may use the same terms but be speaking a different language.” See, Gendering discourses in modern dance research by Sally Gardner originally published on 1 July 2004 in Dance rebooted: initializing the grid
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I am a great fan of the Mariinsky Ballet performing Balanchine.
Of course its quite different to how NYCB perform his works today which in turn is quite different to how the NYCB danced Balanchine in the 1960s.
The most important thing to be considered is that NYCB had some kind of Neo-Classical (a ghastly, cheap and vulgar coarse expression) Style and the Kirov/Mariinsky has a more complete Academic Classical Ballet Style arriving from a higher form of both teaching, coaching and of course a higher aesthetic.
The fact is the Trust allows the current Mariinsky Company to perform Balanchine's works and is obviously happy with the results and not merely money-grabbing as I feel some posters have been seen, to imply.
Regarding
It used to be said, in the 60s and 70s if I remember correctly, that if you took only the corps de ballet of the Kirov (now Mariinsky), you would have the best ballet company in the world.
I never heard that said anywhere in Europe. The superiority of the Kirov in terms principal dancers in the 60's and 70's has not been equalled since those decades.
Find me the equal of Alla Sizova, Alla Osipenko, Irina Kolpakhova (generally considered among the greatest classicist of the 20th century) that alone Gabriella Komleva, Inna Zubkovskaya, and Xenia Ter-Stepanova.
Find me a more stylish prince than Vladilen Semyenov, or more perfectly trained dancer than Yuri Soloviev and what about the character dancers of that era etc.etc.
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This may be quite an interesting resource.
I found an archive covering a wide range of articles etc @
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I have read, misprint or not, that a 1000 new staff will be employed.
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I have avoided contributing to this thread as the political overtones are far too strong a danger for the Mariinsky dancer(s) concerned.
The results of power without responsibility from support from the West in this matter, should be considered, as it undoubtedly makes the Mariinsky management and ultimately President Putin rather more angry than conciliatory when criticised.
President Putin is generally considered to be taking an increasingly hard-line since his return to office which has been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent with the arrest of opposition activists and introduction of restrictive legislation.
Why do I mention this, firstly because Valery Abisalovich Gergiev was personally appointed by President Putin as General and Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre and secondly, he is a close friend..
There are financial pressures upon the Artistic Director from within and without the Mariinsky and the new Mariinsky II Theatre opening next Spring which cost 700,000,000 US Dollars has no doubt put pressure on the Mariinsky's finances.
The dancers despite being told the reasons for the changes, rightly feel they are unreasonable.
The company has always been ruled from the topdown and unions in general throughout the world have little power to what they had in the past.
Remember what happened to Vaziev when he tried to assert his artistic and managerial status over Gergiev.
If the contents Catherine posted are correct as published in http://www.rosbalt.ru/piter/2012/12/05/1067662.html?fb_action_ids=383218961767249%2C383204408435371%2C382982808457531&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map= there are several worrying points made by Maestro Gergiev.
In case you know little about Valery Gergiev see:-
http://www.nytimes.c...wanted=all&_r=0
It seems for the dancers, that what should be a discussion of art, performance and conditions of employment has now become a trial of strength with probably only one winner.
The company is every year taking steps a way from its glorious past and I yearn for a reprise of the 1961 tour which locked me into my love for academic classical ballet.
PS
I would have thought that Gergiev the musician is not so happy to be involved in this imbroglio, but with power comes responsibility and in this case a very personal responsiblity.
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Absolutely, Mashinka. It was also interesting that, in this article, the MT's press representative, Oksana Tokranova, is quoted as saying that Keenan Kampa (USA) and Kim Kimin (S. Korea) are soloists (along with Xander Parish of the UK, who is at the Choryphee level). I suppose that Tokranova means that they are being given soloist-level roles (which is true)...but, last time that I checked both the Russian and English-language rosters of the company, Kampa is Corps de Ballet and Kimin is Trainee (not even corps de ballet). The rosters were published well into the current season (early October); it could be that this letter and concerns of the dancers' union may be why Kampa, in the end, was listed as corps & Kimin remains 'trainee'?
I am also wondering what may be the unofficial role of foreign tour sponsors, like Ardani/Kings of Dance, in the casting and opportunities for promotion? Yuri Fateev is, after all, a co-producer of Kings of Dance (as cited in his bio on the Kennedy Center playbill for two seasons in a row)...meaning a possible financial tie with Ardani, the main producers of Kings of Dance. One would hope that Fateev's role in tours does not influence the possibilities/fate of his dancers back home, i.e., that a perceptionof Western Aesthetics does not influence promotion of dancers who, for example, may not have the 'long legs' that Russians THINK the West wants to see.
It's all very interesting. 'Bravi' to Daria Pavlenko, Dmitri Pykhachev, and others who are the leading the Dancers' Union and calling for a government investigation.
Thank you for posting this information.
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A countries long established musical culture is an undoubted influence that often divides individual musical taste from one country to another, obviating what one might call a universal qualitative appreciation.
In general, I think music lovers in France hear high status classical music in a different manner to music lovers in Germany and as such, do people in England.
Meeting points occur at a high degree with a good number of composers.
I do believe however it is of no use to compare an opera composer with a symphonist, as we are not comparing like with like.
Music critics and music lovers in general are all capable of adopting an absolutistic viewpoint which in the end makes for me, both a rather empty discussion, but also definitely a bit of a fun as oppositeviews collide, which often reveals more about the person making the statement rather than the music itself.
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...frankly, a lot of the core contributors have either said pretty much all they want to say or are saying it elsewhere...
I miss Patrick...
Ditto.
How important are Odile's 32 fouettes?
in Aesthetic Issues
Posted
According to Russian sources Yekaterina Maximova appeared in Swan Lake on at least two occasions first in Dance of the Little Swans (1958), secondly asOdette-Odile (1968).