leonid17

The up to date casting for London is on the ABT website @ http://www.abt.org/performances/calendar_index1.asp What I said in earlier posts about presenting "Swan Lake" to sell seats appears to hold true, as the veteran presenters of Russian ballet in London Victor and Lillian Hochhauser, have the Kirov bringing this same ballet to London in August this year, despite the fact that numerous performances will have been given in this city over the current ballet season.

A Memorial Service to celebrate the life of Irina Baronova will be held this Friday the 13th March at 12.00 Noon at St.Paul's Church, Covent Garden London on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of her birth.

Farouk Ruzimatov and quite unsuitable in academic classical ballet and somehow for me at least it has a tiny smack of the cabaret where I think it belongs. We are not talking here of the expressive stance of Flamenco or folk or character dancing where it is not only necessary it is compulsory.

I have yet to be convinced that the Greeks danced in a way that was choreographed like a ballet. I seem to remember reading that dance was more a movement of gesture in Greek plays although one presumes that the movements that apocryphally caused children in the audience to flee and women to abort on the spot at the sight of frightening vengeful furies when Aeschylus staged the ,"The Eumenides", that something more than gesture took place. If I remember correctly the word 'choreographie' did not enter the lexicon until 1700(such an easy date to remember) with Feuillet. Because learned persons for centuries used Greek and Latin as the languages of scholarship, words such as choreography were created when no such delineation of a writer and stager of plays with acting, singing, dancing and effects existed some 2,500 years ago. The mere mention of iamb by Paul Parish, brought to mind my English masters stinging comments of what seemed the torture of grasping iambic pentameter when a schoolchild.

Elizaveta please find herewith my understanding of dramaturgy in the context you have outlined. In the first instance it is simply the process of dramatic composition and the manner in which elements of a ballet/drama/opera appear on the stage. It can also denote some who adapts a work for the stage and the person that carries this out can be called a dramaturge. In the context of soviet ballet, the dramaturge falls into two roles. Firstly you have a production dramaturge who prepares story lines of a production for performance. In this he will examine the script/libretto for any infelicities in respect of political thought and will possibly or probably add content to manner of representation of characters either decreasing or increasing their prominence. He will certainly act to create a unity of purpose through discussions with the artistic director, the choreographer, performers and composer, The work would be destined to reflect history as it is to be seen, current cultural ambitions and if that was not already covering political content that would be firmly addressed. Before the above process had been undertaken I understand that somewhere in the theatres directorate there would have been placed a dramaturge whose role was to ensure that no member of the theatre attempted to infiltrate revisionist ideas in terms of artistic policy or in public statements. I think some persons, certainly of the past would have said I have got it all wrong, but as the great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is reputed to have said, "Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." You can google away for more but I have found two links that might be of some small interest, Best wishes. http://www.artmargins.com/index.php?option...&Itemid=104 http://blog.oup.com/2009/01/prokofiev_juliet/

Many thanks for posting Amy. Great to hear your views on the event and it sounds successful from what you have told us. Hope it encourages everyone who saw it to learn more about the history of the Ballet Russe without which I doubt we would have the classical and neo classical ballet we know today.

there was something of a tribute at the end of the 1988 calgary olympics as well. Thank you so much for posting the John Curry 'Les Patineurs'. I saw him skate in London when he was very young, watched him on televison many times and met him at the ballet on a number of occasions when we discussed ballet classes that he had taken and he explained the different placing of the weight in skating to that of ballet. He felt that he would never win the major prizes due to Russian and other countries voting practises. Later of course he studied in the USA with both Gus Lussi and Carlo Fassi which led to him winning both the World and Olympic championships in 1976. As a pastiche or a tribute to the Ashton choreography it is honourably re-choreographed for the ice and clearly shows echoes of the original ballet.

Tough. There goes the fairytale book... And a return to serious discussion I hope.

HARRIMAN INSTITUTE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Although some events have already taken place there, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University is presenting a continuing series of events celebrating and linked to the Diaghilev Centenary as follows: Diaghilev – era Russian Dancers on Film Thursday 12 March 2009-03-06 EXHIBIT: Homage to Diaghilev: Enduring Legacy Tuesday 31 March 2009 – 22 May 2009 The Fate of the Bolshoi and Maryinsky Theatres after 1917 Monday 13 April 2009-03-06 Between Neoclassicism and Surrealism: Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in the Context of the Russian-French Connection, 1900s-1920s Thursday, 23 April 2009–Saturday, 25 April 2009 Celebrating Diaghilev in Music and Dance: Afternoon of a Faun and Les Noces Saturday, 25 April 2009, 8:00pm Check their website as the programme looks more than just interesting: http://www.harrimaninstitute.org/events/le...s.html?id=balle

Boston Ballet's programme contribution to the Ballet Russe Centenary, runs from 14 - 17 May 2009 with the following ballets being performed The Prodigal Son MUSIC: Sergei Prokofiev CHOREOGRAPHY: George Balanchine Afternoon of a Faun MUSIC: Claude Debussy CHOREOGRAPHY: Vaslav Nijinsky Le Spectre de la Rose MUSIC: Carl Maria von Weber CHOREOGRAPHY: Michel Fokine Le Sacre du Printemps MUSIC: Igor Stravinsky CHOREOGRAPHY: Jorma Elo (World Premiere)

The Barbarians are at the gate in Copenhagen, they have already entered London, whose next?

Please find herewith a link to the programme (not very exciting) for the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House August 3 -15 2009 http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/mariinsky/index.aspx Details of Gergiev's 'Ring' Cycle is also shown.

Maria Tallchief was an extraordinary dancer with an international reputation and was probably the first American dancer to exhibit a well controlled and highly developed technique. President Eisenhower in 1953 named her as “Woman of the Year”. She was notable for outstanding performances in many ballets and her essaying of Balanchine’s “Firebird” is legendary. You get some idea of her qualities in clips available on youtube in “Les Sylphides” with Royes Fernandez. Her showing in “Flower Festival at Genzano” does not see her at home with what I assume was unfamiliar choreographic style. I have yet to see a film of any ballet that fully captures a dance performance and a film cannot be compared in any sense to the experience of a performance in a theatre. Maria Tallchief was a star of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, NYCB and the American Ballet Theatre where she continued to exhibit her ability in a wide range of roles. Miss Tallchief was awarded the American National Medal of Arts in 1999, The Metropolitan Museum of Art presented a special tribute to her in 2006. You write, “On the basis of this single recording, I must wonder to what extent Maria Tallchief’s repute owed to her having been George B.’s wife, an American Indian, or just an American. Perhaps our country seized upon her, as it had on her one-time husband, to be our ballet standard-bearer when it thought it needed one. Perhaps, too, those American standards then were lower; e.g., Maya Plisetskaya was born in the same year as Maria T., and the difference recalls a Cole Porter song, Night and Day.” I think a little googling and the reading of some books might have brought you to a different understanding of Miss Tallchief.

What sad news Jane. I saw him dance on a number of occasions and met him in London in the early 1960's. I remember him as a sunny handsome man whose infectious smile blazed into the area around him. It is not enough to say he was an outstanding dancer, he was a true star performer with an international reputation. His first ballet "The Lesson" has been produced right around the world. My condolences go to Vivi his ex-wife and his three daughters.

You can read up to date news of Dennis and Anastasia Matvienko on the Matvienko registered website at: http://www.matvyenko.com/en/news_160.html

I believe Macauley was both right and wrong when he said that both the Kirov and RB do some Balanchine ballets better than NYCB. The most important thing is that these companies do it differently and dare I say it much more to European taste as they imitate neo-classicism but still retain their own (somewhat debased) schooling. I recently saw the RB dance Serenade and Theme and Variations. In my opinion, the first was given a perfunctory performance whilst the second was excellently performed and brilliantly led by Rojo and Bonelli. I do not think at their best anyone can perform Symphony in C like the Kirov but in other Balanchine ballets they have been less effective. My concern about Balanchine performed by NYCB is that Balanchine appeared to me to change the performing style and the shape of his female dancers by the late sixties and I have never quite got over that.

I have been reading Mr.Macauley since he first started writing reviews in London and through the beauty of the internet I am still able to read them. I personally like his passion for ballet and his independent voice that usually gives a reason for his opinions. He is never going to write like a fan (short for fanatic) and I believe you will find that his opinions of particular dancers varies from performance to performance. Unlike myself as a member of an audience I can avoid watching dancers who I do not admire. A critic has no such choice but still has to write a review and given the nature of the repertoire and casting of the NYCB., he or she is going to see the same dancers they do not admire and it is not their job to remain silent on the matter. Mr Macauley is after all is only a critic and as such I never raise my expectations that high because it is the nature of critics to be vexatious unless of course they are rather dim. I look for information first and opinion second simply because a critics job first and foremost is to inform and one has to trust that the arts editor of a newspaper ensures that is what he/she does. Having written this I am now going to read the article a second time as I thought it informative first time round.

Dennis and Anastasia Matvienko stars of the Mikhailovsky appear to be no longer listed as members of the ballet on the company website. These two dancer had a big success in London last year.

I think that "fabulous" has changed its usage from its teen fanzine days and has been co-opted by adults. I'm afraid that today's teen-speak is text-speak, and no word has a more than the maximum of four letters, u c. I had an easier time reading the French surtitles to "Lady Macbeth in Msensk" at Paris Opera Ballet. than a text message I received from a 15-year-old friend of the family. (And I still don't know how the "Kos" in "Daily Kos" is supposed to be pronounced.) Thank you Helene you have just made me feeeel my age. However I would say in England only people on television use the word extravagantly or those of course who think themselves as being 'fabulous'. It is a word I learnt at school when discussions on the Ottoman Empire took place. Does that sound snobbish enough?

I also admire both these recordings but I lean to the reality of the Zhuraitis recordings as I heard him conduct Giselle in the theatre on a good number of occasions and he was as distinguished off stage as he was on the podium.

For that hugely talented legendary dancer without a peer in his own time(and even until today in his best roles) in highly technical demi-character roles to be described as " a diminutive pale-blonde lad a-la Vladimir Vasiliev" indicates I do not know what, as it appears you have quite clearly dismissed him as inferior type to Schklyarov. In Radunsky's production Vasiliev was perfect casting. Ivanushka as the name quite clearly suggests is a peasant type who in the telling of the original tale would not depicted as a type to be characterised in a ballet as a tall danseur noble and prince like. I would just add that it is a long time since I last saw any younger female or male dancers of the Maryinsky Ballet that I would describe as "fabulous" which in any case with respect, is a term more suitable to a teen fanzine than in an arena where serious discussion takes place.

Your statement seems to me to contain a huge leap of imagination when you say, “must have read...” The thought that any choreographer would cast dancers due to a likeness to an illustration is I think highly unlikely and it would seem to me that perhaps you have not judged Ratmansky’s considerable talent to characterise roles from his own obviously talented imagination and knowledge. There are many other sources to inspire Ratmansky including the music. The Little Humpbacked Horse is very well known in Russia through books, a famous cartoon film, a feature film and the ballet performance by the Bolshoi Ballet staged by Radunsky that was captured on film (I was fortunate to see this ballet on stage in 1963) which in all probability was known to Ratmansky from his school days when such films were shown to students. I think anyone would have had to seen both Tereshkina and Shklyarov in a wide number of roles on stage to make a judgement as to their abilities to characterise these roles?

Helene, what a really proper and interesting review. I could see it all before my eyes. Thank you so much.

It may have been earlier than that, but I keep coming up against broad statements such as the following. The first is from Arnold Haskell in his Penguin Ballet book first written in 1938 and revised in 1948: At the end of Balletmaster: A Dancer's View of George Balanchine (1987), Moira Shearer's says this, Anyway all of the background of Balanchine's (and NYCB's) standing in the world is very complicated. In the early days Balanchine was choreographing for both Ballet Theater and Ballet Society (the predecessor of City Ballet). He choreographed Theme and Variations for Alicia Alonso, and she took Apollo on tour with her Alicia Alonso Ballet to Havana and South America in 1948. The two companies (ABT & BS) may almost have merged, dancers went back and forth. Balanchine took over for Lifar as a guest choreographer at Paris Opera Ballet in 1947 when Lifar had been dismissed for being a collaborator. (Shearer has a good account of this and how Lifar was eventually reinstated because "Opera dancers, accustomed to the flattery of Lifar, thought Balanchine a cold fish...any praise given was perfuntory to the point of curtness." She calls Lifar's long standing betrayals typical 'Lifaresqiana.') It's a messy kettle of fish of influences--and Balanchine the cold fish in the kettle. And I've gone astray. Haskell was not writing an actual history of ballet in his works, he was in my opinion creating the history of ballet according to Arnold Haskell as he thought it should be remembered. For me his self importance in his writings makes him an unreliable witness and commentator. Those dancers and choreographer he got to know personally he most frequently admires and those he did not get to know he almost dismisses with faint praise. I do not have to defend Clive Barnes on Balanchine as he often wrote enthusiastically about Balanchines ballet and the performances by NYCB. Balanchine's standing in the world as a creator of neo-classical works is unique as he is admired not only by his followers but by those that favour academic classical ballet and the growth of theBalanchine repertoire in most academic classical ballet companies confirms his international status. St.Petersburg, Paris and London audiences in my opinion love many Balanchine ballets as do other cities.

According to their website the Wadsworth exhibit starts FEBRUARY 19 and continues to MAY 24. A good exhibit and only 30 minutes away from me, hooray! Thanks. I have corrected the date. Please give a report or an impression of the event if you are able to attend. It is all history after all.