leonid17

For the sake of the ENB I regret all the attending publicity, but how was it to be avoided ? Your reviews Bart, well at least two of them. The Guardian: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1989520,00.html Independent: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre...icle2149728.ece

I do not know the film in question but presumably it was a character who was part of the plot especially as there is a ballet sequence with well-known dancers including George Balanchine who is uncredited. Fortunio Bonanova who was in the film, was a Spanish film actor who appeared in many well-known American films including 'For whom the Bell Tolls.' Is there a joke involved?

Firstly I was pleased to see Fleming Halby's name mentioned as I remember him as dancer coming from deep and long ballet tradition of a repertoire with plenty of character roles. My personal choice is based on the following artists being able to fill roles without false actions, or lapses of staying entirely in character. All of those performances remain memorable for me in contrast to now when so much detail of character roles is often given in a sketchy manner as if it doesn't matter. For me, this can dispel the atmosphere of a ballet completely and I start watching dancing instead of appreciating a fully integrated art form of acting and dancing. In no particular order: Niels Bjorn Larsen as Madge Alexander Grant, Stanley Holden and Anatole Gridin as Carabosse Stanley Holden as Widow Simone Alexander Grant and Gary Grant as Alain Vladimir Levashev, Rudolf Nureyev as Drosselmeyer Stanley Holden as Katschei Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann as Ugly Sisters Leslie Edwards as Prince of Verona in Romeo Juliet and Thomas in La Fille… Wayne Sleep as the Notary’s clerk in La Fille… Gerd Larsen as Berthe

It's very exciting for any dancer to have a talented choreographer create choreography on them. That doesn't necessarily mean the stars are wishing for different movement vocabulary, like say something from the modern dance world. Is that what you meant? I wonder how often a year the typical principal gets brand new choreography to perform. I think Hans van Manen's works would be a challenge for some academic classical dancers. Although his latest piece for the Royal was in a way a challenge(not as much as Chroma) Christopher Wheeldon does know how their bodies function. This I think is probably important if dancers are to go from a disparate style to their usual repertoire in a short period of time I can think of a number of dancers who were fulfilled without the experience of a regular diet of "... brand new choreography to perform." To put it bluntly, they are servants of their art not owners of companies and it is very rare for dancers to walk away from a company because they are not performing enough new works.

The Royal Ballet's staging of Sleeping Beauty during Nov/Dec 2006 showed six Auroras including the unknown Lauren Cuthbertson whose dancing apparently was unrecognisable having blossomed since her tutelage by Galina Panova, who prepared her for the Varna Ballet Competition where she gained a silver medal. This is an example of where a classical ballet company can cast in depth with excellent performers, which is what the RB was once able to do over a long period of years. As regards people complaining about their favourite dancers not getting opportunities I would say if dancers think they deserve major roles ask for them and if performances are not forthcoming, go to another company and see if first you can get employed at the rank you want. It is a fact that many companies apart from the Russians and the POB, take fully (or almost) formed dancers into their schools and companies the RB is an example and they then promote them swiftly. I do not know the ABT experience. I long for the days of ballerina's and not merely principal dancers, yes, there is a difference. I do not expect any dancer to now get star status as companies see such dancers as much of a liability as a blessing. Also in classical ballet companies, there are no 'muses' for choreographers or choreographers for muses in quite the same way as there were in the past. In the case of the ROH, their marketing is that they provide a product of excellence at all times and this includes the casting of the RB. One ballet cast is therefore considered fully equal to another. To state otherwise would mean that they would not be able to charge the same prices for all performances which is undoubtedly a financial necessity. When Dame Margot was queen of the RB and appearing with Rudolf Nureyev, the seat prices were at a premium and it was generally accepted by audiences as these were 'must see' performances. Are there potential star performers around? Certainly the RB has four. It is whether the company allows them to become so and that they are able to fulfil that role with the right repertory and new roles. Stars are manufactured by opportunities given to them, not merely born.

If the names so far mentioned as potentially joining Morphoses are true, it will be a chamber company of high profile dancers. When they are together they might be called an ensemble, but each it would seem will have other companies to go back to. Given that the dancers mentioned come from a classical and neo-classical background, it would seem that they wish to develop other aspects of dance which their current casting does not enable them to explore as widely as they would wish. Why else would they take leave from their safe haven? Are we moving into an era of dancer power as opposed to company power? What it will do, is to allow the dancers so called 'parent' company to give opportunities to develop young dancers in the major roles whilst their senior colleagues are absent. I see potential conflicts in commitment, as major companies will want to take their 'stars' on foreign tours and so the relationship between dancers, Christopher Wheeldon and major companies would have to be finely tuned to avoid conflict. I am sure this has been taken this into consideration and I doubt that 'press releases' of such a full nature would not have been given out, if discussions/negotiations between interested parties had not taken place. Many of the RB senior dancers will already have commitments to ‘guest star’ in the next few years. Surely contracts will change and perhaps dancer’s status as full company members of the RB and NYCB will also? Financial rewards will also undoubtedly change. Personally I am concerned about the impact these will have on the classical ballet repertoire of the Royal Ballet if they are not always given with casts of a quality that audiences paying high prices are entitled to expect. I had hoped that Christopher Wheeldon would have developed into a major classical/neo-classical choreographer and perhaps this may still happen as he does after all have an appetite for hard work.

Torvill and Dean were heroine and hero in the UK after their Olympic success. Here is an archive article about them which I hope will interest some of you: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1981915,00.html

Robert Weiss is quoted in today's NYT article as saying that there tends to be a lot of money and enthusiasm at the start - but things become more difficult over the long haul. I imagine that will be true even for someone commanding as much attention as Wheeldon. Yet more on Mr. Wheeldon in yesterdays UK Guardian newspaper: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/feature/0,,1985101,00.html

I have always assumed when the RB decided to allow Kenneth Macmillan to stage Romeo and Juliet that consideration was made who would dance the first night in New York because it had to be a high profile event to attract ticket sales. When Sol Hurok agreed to take a high risk new production of Romeo and Juliet as part of the NY season. the decision was made at least some months before the London premiere and as history tells us he wanted Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev to dance the first night. This couple had been working on rehearsals for some six weeks before the premiere not a week or to as one might be led to believe. Even MacMillan would have understood the financial implications of this major production. Although Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable most definitely met MacMillan's idea of the portrayal of the leading characters, one should not however forget that Dame Margot and Rudolf Nureyev also gave extraordinary performances in this ballet, which incidentally the film does not, or can ever, catch what takes place in a live performance even when it is a film of a live performance. The decision for Dame Margot to dance the frst Aurora by the Sadlers Wells ballet in New York is the opposite story. She was unknown whilst Moira Shearer was a film star of whom I have never heard it said that she was a greater Aurora than Dame Margot. From every description I have read or heard of from witnesses Dame Margot simply triumphed in the role and her performance led to the companies international standing. It does not matter what audiences or critics want, they are not in the position of responsibility that Artistic Director or Impresarios are in, which is simply to keep companies alive and well and to make money through the creation and presentation of an art. As a postscript I would add, keep hold of you Fonteyn/Nureyev film version as the current RB production is a disgrace even though Kenneth MacMillan worked on it and beware of mythology created by interested parties that becomes a historical record some years later. Ballet books have been full of such myths.

In the meantime he is creating a one act ballet for the Bolshoi based on Hamlet with Tsiskiridze, Lunkina, Alexandrova and Klevtsov to music from Arvo Paart's 3rd Symphony which will be seen in London in the summer.

I listened in London to the radio broadcast. Mr. Cutler did not cut the mustard and he pales in comparison with either Gedda or Pavarotti. I enjoyed Nebtrenko very much but did not appear to be vocally perfectly cast lacking a real coloratura voice singing some of the music transposed to that which I heard Sutherland sing. Why, I don't know because the voice goes above top C securely, perhaps the tessitura of the fast passages are just outside her technique. I would have very much liked to have seen the performance live because thats the only way to judge an artist in a role and she did convey pathos extremely well.

The Bolshoi Ballet will be at the London Coliseum Theatre(London's best ballet stage) from 31 July to 18 August 2007. The repertoire will include a new production of Le Corsaire, The Bright Stream and Hamlet a one act ballet choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon using music from Arvo Paart's Symphony No 3 with a cast expected to include Tsiskaridze, Lunkina. Alexandrova and Yuri Klevtsov.

I am not sure that Diana Vishneva was created a star by the Kirov in the same way that Yulia Makhalina or Svetlana Zakharova were or Uliana Lopatkina has been. Diana Vishneva was given first nights on occasions, but she did not exactly fit the ‘mould’ that is desired by the Kirov’s ’marketing’ of leading dancers, nor was she seen as an example of what seemed to be the prevailing, preferred, Vaganova Academy product type. Vishneva has become probably the most interesting performer, with a successful wide repertoire, to emerge from the Kirov in a long time. It seems to me that she has fulfilled her talent by dint of hard work, her collaboration with Malakhov, an understanding of what is best for herself, the recognition of her abilities and opportunities given to her by ABT etc. Please no one assume I am a ‘fan’ of Vishneva, but I do admire her achievements. "An American tendency toward egalitarianism prevents the audience from getting to know its own favorites, and the dancers from receiving the recognition they deserve." To cast only three dancers as suggested (not sure about the use of the word 'ballerinas') so as to give them more performances in an era when many large companies have four, five or six contenders, is obviously problematical and has always been so. I am sure that there are many of our fellow contributors who can think of dancers who one thought should have had a different career or a bigger one. Egalitarianism has never existed completely in any society and there is no such thing as true equal opportunity. Real life teaches us (if we can fairly objectively observe it) that not everyone is equal, but as far as is realistically possible we should all concur that they should be treated as such, but not on the stage and not in front of me when I am paying 160US dollars for a performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden..

Has anyone visited the exhibition of Nijinsky's art works that I read about on the following link. I would like to hear your appreciations. http://www.newyorkblade.com/2007/1-5/arts/thearts/najart.cfm The author of the article loosely implies Nijinsky was influenced by Kazimir Malevich," Nijinsky’s works are notable historically, intentionally or not, for their adherence to Suprematism, the Russian abstract art movement of the day, founded by Kazimir Malevich and famous for simple geometric compositions. Following Malevich’s example, Nijinsky’s pieces straddle the figurative and the abstract, though the impetus for Nijinsky’s work is presumably more personal than conceptual." I am not sure that Nijinsky ever saw Malevich's work as the only probable opportunity would have been a St.Petersburg exhibition in 1911 and Nijinsky was abroad for 11 months of that year. Was Nijinsky a 'conceptual artist'? What does one think about his ballets, did his concepts or ideas they take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns? I think so.

Are you not the lucky ones. The seat prices for the short London season the ABT is giving at the Sadlers Wells Theatre, the best seats are 70 British pounds each or approximately US 130 dollars.

How curious that your post should be headed "Moderator's note". It seems rather heavy handed considering that no one has suggested a conspiracy when merely a question of good manners was raised in two posts. The examples you give is what in the UK would normally be headline questions in the 'tabloid' press or a piece of 'puff' in those lazy summer days when nothing news worthy is happening in politics. Is Mr. Martin's succession such a reasonable question to be asked at all, given his comparative young age amongst ADs/BMs/? Anything else would certainly suggest at least a prod. Yours in good humour. Leonid

I have to agree that the topic has an element of undermining Mr. Martin's status and I can say I have no particular admiration for his Directorship as Mr. B was the AD when I last saw NYCB. There has to be some civilised standard of behaviour in discussing in public, what is after all at the present it would appear, someones personal and private life decision. Criticise his choreography and decision making in specific terms and I would be happy to read such comments.

The Gorsky/Pugni-et-al version of the ballet was a staple of the Vaganova Academy until the early 1990s but hasn't been performed in its entirety in ages, although isolated pieces (such as the Frescoes Quartet or the Lizst Hungarian Dance) pop up in school performances every now and then. Kurgapkina staged a one-hour condensed version for Soviet television around 1988. Also, a ballet troupe in Japan staged the Enchanted Island scene in the year 2000. Maybe one of these days Pierre Lacotte will be inspired to revive the full ballet. Igor Belsky staged a version at the Maly Theatre in 1963 using the Schedrin score which to my ears hardly sounds like a mid 1950's composition as the themes sound traditional and emanating from the past. As much as I enjoyed La Fille du Pharoan as a romp, it was not an authentic re-construction and I would therefore be pleased if Lacotte's hands were 'kept off' the Saint-Leon/Petipa original 'Konyek Gorbunok'.

Details of the draw for tickets can be found on: http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/

click here for more I have been watching these broadcast since they started. The dance content has not aways been very special but Vladimir Malakhov's appearance on a number of occasions made it an almost 'must watch' occasion for ballet enthusiasts. I personally find the music as uplifting as a glass of very good champagne and wondering why more of the music is not choreographed, at least for a 'piece d'occasion' We were told in the BBCTV broadcast that the concert reached a world wide audience of a billion. What a marvellous thought.

Not as vicious as being confronted by an entire company, like Panov, but in the same spirit.Then there is institutional pressure, which has been described about Balanchine. In her recent book In Balanchine's Company Barbara Milberg Fisher describes how, as a young dancer, she wore a button for Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace during the 1948 Presidential election, and how Balanchine urged her to take it off, figuring she was a naif being taken in, and not understanding that she had grown up as what is generally known as a Red Diaper baby, where left politics were as much part of the meal as food. (Was it ViolinConcerto who gave us this description?) Suzanne Farrell describes how Balanchine told her to vote for Hubert Humphrey in 1968, which surprised her, because all of his other counsel had been to vote straight Republican. (He disliked Nixon immensely.) In a company where dancers were known to hide their suntans from Balanchine's scrutiny, and who lived for his approval, they were unlikely, as Milberg did, to make a blatant political stand that countered his. Are we not lucky that we are able to discuss this matter so freely. In the McCarthy era, criticism of membership of the BNP or even public discussion of the matter would I suspect have been seen as more than suspicious. I take the view that anyone has the right to have views different to mine, but quite frankly if they contravene ideas of living in a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-political society where opportunity for all exists, I go deaf and say I am really only interested in dance, I work because I want to, I am happy because I want to be, anything that contradicts that is not my interest. Goodbye I am going to listen to Harold Arlen songs.

The original composer of the score for the 1864 production by Arthur Saint- Leon was Cesare Pugni and was premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre (some sources say Maryinsky Theatre), St. Petersburg. Two years later Saint-Leon staged the ballet at Moscow's Bolshoi theatre with new costumes and sets. In 1901 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Alexander Gorsky staged a version of this ballet (after Saint-Leon) which included music by, Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Anton Yulievich Simon (1850-1916) a conductor and composer who assisted Gorsky in other production of ballets at the Bolshoi Theatre. This production was staged at the Maryinsky on the 16th December 1912 which Feodor Lopukhov later revived(after Gorsky) in 1945 The Gorsky version was revived in 1928 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow and at the same theatre a revised version was given in 1948 (after Gorsky). It is assumed given the style of the music, but I can find no confirmation, that the composer Schedrin had revised and re-orchestrated at least some of the earliest score rather than creating an entirely original score. The direct attribution of Rodion Konstantinovich Schedrin (b 16th December 1932) as composer arose from the production staged on 4th March 1960 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in which his wife Maya Plisetskaya played the leading role which she shared with Rimma Karelskaya during its early performances that were conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Schedrin's Opus 7A is "The Little Humpbacked Horse", First suite from the ballet for symphony orchestra (1955) and his Opus 7 is "The Little Humpbacked Horse", ballet in four acts (1956). There are two audio recordings of the score conducted by Georgi Zhemchuzhin and Yevgeni Svetlanov. The full score was written by Schedrin two years before his marriage to Plisetskaya. Was it a proposal?

And of course rheumatologists. There are academic rheumatological studies regarding hyperextension on various websites.

I am sure in the past, in Russia at least, students that exhibited so called hyper extension were considered unsuitable for academic classical ballet and were directed as other unsuitable students undoubtedly were who also did not make the required technical and aesthetic grade, to circus studies and gymnastics. Now we are seeing the reverse and the perverse. Gymnastic students are being admitted into academic classical ballet schools. Save the art stop it now. No more 5 to six moments when 10 past six will do. It is a vulgar exhibition that is nothing to do with art but only to do with a physical peculiarity which goes beyond the accepted norm for academic classical ballet. Academic classical ballet teachers should stop accepting such students and Artistic Directors need a lesson in balletic aestheticism and stop encouraging personal physical prowess as a substitute for an integrated technique in which artistic expression is the aim. If anyone wants to make a case for a new norm. I am okay. But not in 19th century classical ballet.