leonid17

You have devised an amusing game which could find application to a lot of scenarios concerning ballet and you have gained an enthusiastic response. I was initially reluctant to join the game except to try to explore some actuality and factuality in response to contributions made. Re: Suspect No.2 I do not know anything about the Tudor Trust as ditherers. I do know that in 2004 I was able to see 4 Tudor Ballets with Ballet West staged by people who had worked with Tudor who had pretty sharp memories as far as I remember. So the Tudor Trust does appear to meet its remit at times and not so long ago. It has been my experience that Trusts, Foundations and those that have inherited individual rights to ballets have not gone out and exploited their status for merely a financial reward. (Well not many).The reason for this is that they are aware of a "duty of care" in respect of creators wishes. Part of the problem may be Suspect No 1 [and his attitude(s)] and how he couched his wishes. He is reputed to have been both stern and meticulous and I would not be surprised if he has in writing guided the production of his works for all time. He may have also left directions on the settings. Is there a Eugene Berman estate involved? I can imagine Stravinsky sitting with Berman(born in Moscow) giving his fellow Russian advice on business matters and royalties

Does anyone know how important the sets, costumes, etc., were to this ballet. My assumption while reading this thread has been that the choreography itself is truly worthy of revival. Couldn't it be done more simply, with reduced sets and costumes? I find that that approach often makes you look more closely at what the dancers are actually dancing. Or have ABT audiences come to demand opulence in such things? Would a lot depend not on what ABT want but what the Tudor Trust have to say in this matter? Romeo and Juliet is a Tudor ballet I have not seen. I telephoned a friend (justnow) who had seen the ballet and his opinion was that the costumes would not be so expensive but the architectural setting that Tudor had required might well be very expensive. Everything first of all, depends on the ABT having a real desire to revive the ballet. They say they have looked at the possibility, so it may happen in the future. As everyone is aware, the rules of the ball-game for life changed dramatically in the last few months. Today, the arts, like almost everything else, will probably be subject to financial limitations until worldwide economies stabilise. Until this happens, expensive revivals and likely the number of new ballets produced, may well be curtailed. I live in hope for Tudor revivals in America as his centenary has been ignored in the UK.

Interestingly I watched Ansanelli as the lead in "Serenade" last night. She exhibited nothing to suggest to me personally that she had affinity with this Balanchine ballet. This is not surprising as the RB have no understanding of this work which I have witnessed 3 times in the last few weeks. As I mentioned in the RB topic recently, the performance of "Theme and Variations" that ended the programme again, showed that the company can perform some Balanchine ballets in a way which would not make a New York audience squirm in embarassment.

You missed out Anna Pavlova. Plisetskaya was a true phenomenon of the ballet world and a STAR performer of the first magnitude.I loved her, but only in in the right ballets. As a complete 'one-off', she almost needs a category of her own. Plisetskaya was not however an academic classical ballerina who in general should be highly successful in "Giselle". "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake" performing the leading roles in these and perhaps certain other ballets according to the academic classical ballet canon and should not be compared to the true ballerinas mentioned in this and your post. Amended for clarification. Don't say it, "What clarification?"

From what I read some years ago, the Dance Notation Bureau had an almost complete notated score for Tudor’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Perhaps it is now completed? As to revival, administrations across the world have lost faith in reviving a good number of old ballets for fear of their reception by modern audiences, as alluded to above by Alexandra.

I love this film but loved even more the live performances in 1969 at the Royal Opera House when the roars at the end of each act must surely have equalled any of those at the Rome Coliseum of old. Leonid, Where have you seen footage of the 1969 performance at the Royal Opera House? Sorry if it read as if I had seen a film of the 1969 performances. I had missed out a comma after 'film'. I did of course mean I was in the audience for almost every performance of that legendary season.

I love this film but loved even more the live performances in 1969 at the Royal Opera House when the roars at the end of each act must surely have equalled any of those at the Rome Coliseum of old.

L'espresso the Milanese newspaper on 05.11.08 announced that former artistic Director of the Kirov Ballet Makhar Vaziev is to replace Elizabett Terrabust as AD of La Scala Ballet from January 2009. LINK: http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio-lo...a-Scala/2047624 PS I did use Babel Fish to translate this article but found some of the translation too, too amusing to be used on a serious website.

I am happy to disagree with you that ballet is all about dance. If this was the case story ballets with complex themes of psychological and artistic symbolism and allusion would not exist. Character/dancer/mime artists are integral to19th century academic classical ballet production and the greatest exponents are highly valued by true ballet enthusiasts as opposed to those that want ballet to be an entertainment. I do not know Anin which category you fall into so I cast no personal aspersions. Interestingly the character of Don Quixote in the ballet is with make up and false hair, made to look in a manner not to far away from the Cervantes portrait by Juan de Jauregui y Aguilar with a long face and pointed beard. As regards Cervantes, this is what Wikipedia has to say “The plot is taken from two chapters in Cervantes' novel of the same name. It concerns the unsuccessful attempt by the rich and foppish Gamache (Camacho in Cervantes's novel) to marry the beautiful Kitri (known as Quiteria in the novel), who in turn is in love with Basil (or Basilio), a young barber from her village. Kitri wants to marry Basil, but her father desires that she wed the much older Gamache. Kitri and Basil hatch a plan; he pretends to commit suicide by supposedly stabbing himself at the wedding ceremony. His "dying" wish is that Kitri marry him, thus presumably leaving Gamache free to marry her after Basilio's "death". Of course, after the ceremony is performed, Basil miraculously "revives", and Gamache can do nothing except watch the two lovers happily go off. Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza are only marginally involved in the storyline, although Quixote mistakes Kitri for Dulcinea, and his famous attack on the windmills (from an earlier chapter in the novel) is shoehorned into the main plot.” The history of “Don Quixote” as a ballet began in 1740 and and was first staged in Russia by Charles Didelot, 1808.

As an outsider. I think two gala performances should be given in Washington with ballet (perhaps some dance) performers representing each state company(if they exist) taking part in the celebration. However, the performances would need to be televised to ensure a sense of inclusiive celebration for the whole country.

In MacMillan’s ballet Triad, the three protagonists were not seen as particularly real people of any era, but as symbolic projections of a type, echoing mythological representations of the human condition in particular situations. This is typical of McMillan’s ballets where the human condition is central to his creative impulse. Where on earth Mashinka found her analysis of this ballet as having currency among audiences at Covent Garden in 1972 I can only say, she was not moving in the same circles that I was at that time. “The three young men who rough-up the rejected boy are clearly what were called at the time 'queer bashers'. My friends of 1972 (including critics) never put such an analysis on the characters. In the original costuming, Dowell’s and Eagling’s costumes had veins painted on which was taken to symbolise blood relationship. The action portrays that loss of innocence that takes place between brothers when the elder leaves childhood for maturity and seeks the company of girls. It is a classic depiction of an adolescent rite of passage. Shut out from the relationship of the older brother and the girl, the young brother confused and hurt enters into a rage. The young brother fights because he resent the difference’ in the relationship of yesteryear and this situation is timeless. In 1972 I believe only one critic in London alluded to possible “homosexual” aspects in “Triad”, the rest looked at the ballet through different eyes. I know that male bonding is well understood by most parents, who expect their sons to explore both love, friendship and attempts at physical domination in play as an innocent, normal activity devoid of deviancy. Of course incest is a recorded reality, in this ballet I think it might be interpreted as misandric (i.e. men or women who hate men or boys) to say so. In respect of Zerbinetta's post, we know that MacMillan chooses to portray female subjects from history and literature that are treated badly and have sorry ends, but that is the nature of literature written by both men and women. Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 BC –43 BC) wrote that misogyny was the result of gynophobia and when some one told Sophocles that Euripides was a woman-hater, 'He may be,' said he, 'in his tragedies, but in his bed (not to be taken literally) he is very fond of women.'" Quoted by Athenaeus, 2nd-3rd century. That is to say that the artist is not the art, merely the producer of what they portray, record, and inform. I loved “Triad” at the time. It gave excitingly technical roles for the dancers so much so that no other RB casts have met the original standard. Where did Wayne Eagling get that speed from? Regrettably the new costume for the brothers takes them away from an other-worldly existence and perhaps sexualises in a manner that did not exist before. Even more regrettably I inadvertently deleted my original posting (which I preferred as it was more subtley written) whilst correcting a spelling mistake.

My God. It sounds just like the Royal Opera House ballet matinees. You see people are people wherever they come from. All I say is thank you to them all as b..s on seats is money in the bank and all companies and theatres need that. As someone approaching being an 'older folk', I don't mind being categorised in print or on the web as such just don't say it in earshot. EH! WHAT DID YOU SAY? Yes, I was once a first timer lost in the bewildering maze of stairs and seat numbering. Yes I have felt abandoned when lost in Lincoln Centre. Lets hope the people you categorise as an "odd audience" go to a matinee(or an evening performance) again as without them, you may not have a ballet at all in Washington. In London we see nights when the ballet is not sold out and I fervently wish for a so called "odd audience to" fill seats and I will pay the respect to them that they are due.

If it annoys you it annoys you. I was only referring to one particular review where I thought it legitimate to use the B name. As there are less than a handful of choreographic exemplars available to use, it is inevitable that the repetition of Balanchine or Petipa for instance could appear very, very frequently in reviews dealing with ballet. It is an example device perhaps established upon the assumption of Balanchine’s stellar career being based for a long time in New York and is therefore a commonly known reference point. Macaulay is after all writing for the hard copy New York Times not a national paper or international paper. I know no more than you do why he used Mr. B so often and I only offer a possible explanation. Regards

Wonderful! I can't imagine that there are many American cities with large public sculptures devoted to ballet dancers. (Or, indeed, any small-scale public sculpture.)I've always wondered how a smallish western city like Tulsa managed to acquire an admirable classical ballet company. This story must be part of the reason. I am not very good at getting links to work, but if you go to http://www.gtrnews.com/greater-tulsa-repor...rina-sculptures (type it in if you have to) there is a picture of the sculptor and Rosella Hightower in an exhultant arabesque.

You are correct, she was from a Choctaw family background and according to Wikipedia she is honored in Tulsa, Oklahoma, along with four other Native American ballerinas (Yvonne Chouteau, Moscelyne Larkin. Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief with a larger than life-size bronze statue in the garden of the Tulsa Historical Society.

Dear Farrell Fan I concur. I am extremely jealous that newspaper critics in New York can have so much space devoted to writing about ballet compared to their counterparts in London. I trust Alistair Macaulay reviews because having read them regularly in London and from New York. I trust them because he has revealed his personal taste and expertise, which is what he is paid for. Over time, established critics will reveal themselves and their values and never have I hoped their prejudices. There has always been a problem among some readers of ballet criticism. This is especially so, if they have acquired some preferential ownership of taste, in respect of particular dancers or choreographers. When this happens, the difference between a fan and an honest critic becomes apparent. I am sorry that Mr Macaulay arrived in New York when NYCB is generally considered to be experiencing a decline, when he personally admires Balanchine so much. I am glad however that he has the ability to show enthusiasm for a choreographer when so much time at the ballet is spent in enthusing about dancers. Ballet reviews at best and especially for works that are new or not well known, should talk about the ballet and its production because most readers will not have seen it and thus they become informed about the art and its genre. I think it was legitimate in an article to quote Balanchine when talking about Tudor as Balanchine is entitled to be considered to have an authoritative view whether one personally agrees with it or not. I have not always concurred with Mr Macaulay’s opinions, but I sorely miss him from the London scene where I have only two or three critics, among what has become a plethora, to rely upon for some kind of intelligent and informed writing about ballet when the others appear to be only really interested in 'dance. Writing about ballet and especially classical ballet, should be intelligible as it is discussing what is at its best, a high art, based upon the aesthetics of millennia that may entertain but it should never be produced or performed as an entertainment. In a review, a critic has a “l'œuvre à faire”. The manner in which they go about it varies. Clement Crisp rather jollily is reported to have said that, “No one should write about Swan Lake until they has seen it 500 times.” He meant I believe that they should be informed. I think Macaulay is informed. PS What does one call a group of ballet critics? Is it a ‘howl’ of critics, ‘a screech of critics’ or ‘disappointment’ of critics, or is it as it some time appears to be, ‘a coven’ of critics?

It is is always foolish to envy someone who is older than one but I always wished I had seen Rosella Hightower when she was younger as you did. I was 17 when I saw Miss Hightower dance and she was in her forties by that time. I did however see her close to in several situations later in her life and watching her and listening(eavesdropping) to her, I was impressed by the modulation of her voice and her expression that fascinated me as she projected a kind of goodness that created something special about and around her. As to her dancing, I was too young to fully appreciate her as artist as at that time I was discovering ballet and was intoxicated with its historical figures and the glamour of the Royal Opera House. What is clear, is that she made an important contribution to the art which we all love and the memories of her will not disappear.

"Originally posted 31/11/08 @ 08.59in Royal Ballet Season 2008/09 in Royal Ballet Season 2008/09 in error On October 28th the Royal ballet presented a triple bill of “Serenade”, “L’invitation au voyage” and “Theme and Variations.” The Royal like the Kirov, dance Balanchine in a manner that is their own and some distance from the performing style of New York City Ballet. On this occasion, “Serenade was led by Maninella Nunez, Lauren Cuthbertson, Mara Galeazzi, Rupert Pennyfather and Valeri Hristov. Whilst I felt Nunez gave a performance worthy of a Prinicpal Dancer, for me, it was not quite ballerina quality. I was surprised as of late, friends have waxed lyrical of her “ballerina” performance in “Swan Lake”. The Royal now dance this ballet much closer to the original style and more “a tempo” than when they first danced it in the 1960’s. It did not however lift my spirit in the manner that the best performances of “Serenade” can. I was to often aware that the corps were not unanimous in their angling of their hands and shoulders or in the placing of their legs in poses. There was also an occasional raggedness in ensembles. In other companies where the discipline of precision exists, the dancers appear to ride Tchaikovsky’s music exultantly as the music swells and we the audience ride with them. When the dancers achieve stillness in movement in quieter passages, you are taken on an inward journey to a private place that resonates with the sense of the spiritual. Sadly the conducting was a let down in the first twenty bars or so but fortunately the orchestra took control and the accompaniment improved. With “Serenade”, atmosphere is all and on this occasion it had been diluted. “Theme and Variations” showed that the Royal can do justice to Balanchine and do it very well. Tamara Rojo recently returned to the front rank after injury showed she is among the leading ballerinas of the world. Technically on top form she looked glamorous and sparkled through the treacherous choreography in a way that no previous performer in the Royal Ballet has. Rojo was partnered by Frederico Bonelli. He performed on this occasion, with an insouciance as if from the cradle, he was always meant to dance brilliantly, look handsome, even when executing difficult steps and then, finish them perfectly, double tour after double tour into a perfect 5th. We often see male dancers perform with physical exuberance; Bonelli however, flew around the stage with élan. With no relaxation of tempi, the company as a whole showed how good they can be in a ballet when inspired by the leading performers. Michael Corder is one of two current established British choreographers (Bintley the other) who choreograph in a true classical style. The revival of his “L’Invitation au voyage” was welcome as it has been absent from the repertory for too long. Set to the orchestral version of Henri Duparc songs we hear the words of French Symbolist poets sung from within the mise en scene as the mezzo Harriet Williams is integrated into the visual and moves amongst and with the dancers in a choreographic picture painting. Corder as usual has immersed himself in the music capturing the ambience of late 19th century French artistic life and creates a poetic other world in a striking setting by Yolanda Sonnanbend. With short solos, pas de deux and tight small ensembles he focuses his choreography on the music and the allusions found in the poetry. Corder connects each song seamlessly and in doing so creates a dreamlike procession of relationships and life events that are sophisticated and telling without any sense of the obvious as you might find in a Macmillan ballet. The cast was for “Phydyle”, Marianela Nunez and Sergei Polunin. For “La Vie anterieure”, Federico Bonelli, Leanne Benjamin, Bethany Keating, Johannes Stepanek, Ernst Meisner. For “Le Manoir de Rosamonde”, Federico Bonelli, Erns Meisner, Sergei Polunin, Johannes Stepanek, Cindy Jourdain and Nathalie Harrison. For “au Pays ou se fait la guerre”, Leanne Benjamin, Federico Bonelli, Cindy Jourdain, Nathalie Harrison. For “L’Invitation au Voyage”, Melissa Hamilton, Edward Watson, Leanne Benjamin, Federico Bonelli. This was a stellar performance in an important “art work” and revealed a potential talent in Melissa Hamilton who shone that bright light that is always visible in dancers that have an exciting potential for the future.

I was able to see Dame Margot dance on very many occasions throughout the 1960's and later in her life, I had the good fortune to correspond, telephone and meet with her. I bought the Daneman book when it was first published but it enraged me and I was unable to complete it. There were for me, too many instances of incidents that did not appear to be substantiated. A biography like this can never be a complete picture, as there are many hours, days and years spent in activities that make a persons life, that are never recorded. I was never a very close follower of Dame Margot's every move, except on stage. When someone is writing about any theatrical performer, it is what made them so different on stage in various roles, is what I want to read. You are quite right Bart in saying, "These are the dancers who survive in the imagination of future generations, even those ballet lovers who have only one or two old bits of film, and a biography like this, to go by." As regards her physical beauty, it was real and it was illuminated by something which also came from within. While it is said, that she made foolish decisions in her life, here in London I never heard a bad word about her. As regards her filmed legacy, I am reminded by Pavlova’s comment upon watching rushes, “It doesn’t even capture my dress, how can it capture my performance” (paraphrased). Fonteyn was an exceptional woman and an inimitable artist who could on many occasions exhibit virtuosity in the execution of choreography. More importantly, every second she spent on stage was an exhibition of a true theatricality entirely personal and unlike any other dancer of the 20th century except, that she shared greatness with a very few other ballet icons, I am glad for the revival of this thread and yes weatherwax, I shall attempt to re-read the Daneman.

ROYAL BALLET TRIPLE BILL 29th OCTOBER Transferred to recent ballet performances as more suitable home for a review 01/11/08 http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...st&p=235609

I would be interested to know where Jennifer Penney stated her disappointment of losing the premiere as I cannot recall this as a fact. When she and Wayne Eagling got to perform Manon I it thought a powerful and moving event. Perhaps that is because I had watched their progress from the moment they both joined the company and I had admired their work in a number of roles. In London the story goes that the reason Fonteyn and Nureyev took the premiere of Romeo and Juliet, was because of a forthcoming tour to New York organised by Sol Hurok was to be sold on the stellar stardom of the senior couple for publicity purposes. This meant it was essential that they created the roles and prerssure by Sol Hurok was brought to bear on MacMillan and the board of the Royal Ballet. Nothing to do with seniority per se, just money in the bank marketing which set a precedent.

Frankly, this seems a bit over the top to me. But I do believe it's a good choice for ENB and a better investment (artistically and financially) than many works that Eagling could have chosen. Wow, yes, she does take her appreciation for the Manon pretty far , doesn't she? But then one of the defining characteristics of Sibley is her enthusiasm and her ability to project such joy in her dancing, so I guess that puts her statement in context. As the only full length role she was to create, it is no surprise that she should wax so enthusiastically. The ballet is history and it is her history. At the premier both she and Anthony Dowell were a revelation. Already a most respected and very popular partnership, it was in a way a crowning glory to their career and a personal success only to be compared with their earlier creation of the leading roles in Ashton's "The Dream". For me I only like Manon in parts and would prefer to see a "Scenes from Manon" rather than the full ballet.

I posted a link to a Ratmansky interview you refer to http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle2073183.ece in Ballet Talk on July 28 2007 which the reference to ‘Swan Lake’ and Ratmansky which you responded to knowledgeably as follows (in full), “Perhaps Ratmansky should go to London to see the Royal Ballet's 'Swan Lake,' which is the 1895 Petipa-Ivanov, with the exception of David Bintley's Act I Waltz and Ashton's Act III Neopolitan Dance. It's not as if the Bolshoi would be the only company out there doing the 1895 Swan Lake.

I have seen nothing in Lopatkina's performances to indicate that she might have directorial abilities and as Altinai Asylmuratova(in my opinion a muich more distinguished ballerina) is only 47 years old and has run the Academy brilliantly, I do not see how the Directorship comes into the equation.

We do not know the original dancing style of the Petipa Classics and in the case of Swan Lake perhaps the nearest measure today would be from those who remember the Sadler’s Wells production with Alicia Markova staged by Nicholas Sergeyev. I saw Margot Fonteyn dance Swan Lake on numerous occasions with a variety of partners and with a wide variance in her technical ability. It is my personal opinion, that in all probability Fonteyn at her best, danced Swan Lake in a style not too dissimilar from earlier St. Petersburg exponents of Odette/Odile but perhaps some distance from the style of Legnani. I have in the past had friends who saw both Vera Trefilova and Fonteyn in the role(s) and gave fulsome praise to them both without particularising a gulf in performance style only in personality. I would be quite happy to see Odette/Odile performed in the manner of Fonteyn at her best in a reconstruction, but extremely unhappy to see it danced in such a production in the current manner of either Lopatkina or Zakharova. I am of the opinion that serious followers of the classical ballet tradition would welcome a reconstruction of Swan Lake. For a new audience who had never seen Swan Lake it would become their "reference" version. I however remember balletomanes and fans complaining about Swan Lake and Bayadere reconstructions as they were too long and not as exciting as other productions.