leonid17

Maximova the wittiest and technically brilliant with beautiful feet, with Vasiliev extraordinary clean in execution and fabulous ronde jambes en l'air alternating legs and with as fast piriouettes a la seconde as Nureyev in his youth. Plisetskaya a breathtaking, thunderous gale, sweeping all before her reducing the rest of the Bolshoi cast on stage to midgets such was the size of her personality and partnered by the elegant supreme actor Maris Liepa. Nina Aniashvilli such a warm personality beautifully danced and partnered by the stylishly elegant Alexei Fadeyechev.

You can go to this link http://www.youngdancers.tv/former_winners/index.htm which is the official site of the competion. click on home, then dancers and you will see four photographs per page of contestants. If perhaps you are interested in Zherlin Ndudi, I would be pleased to hear what company he is now with.

It is a difficult situation for copyright owners of choreography who wish to preserve both the authentic recreation and performing standard of dance works that they hold in trust and they are of course, entitled to set fees as they wish. I was sorry to hear about the Lester Horton situation as he was an important choreographer from whom a number of important dancers gained inspiration. I was fortunate to see two of his works in the early 1960's when Alvin Ailey's company brought them to London. In the case of one legendary choreographer of the 20th century, it not only costs a small fortune to acquire from the copyright owners a very second rate version of the original (because only the copyright holder can stage them), there are other fairly hefty fees tagged on to the companies performing the works, on top of the original fee. Tragically, there are excellent versions that could be staged of such 20th century works, but we shall only be able to see versions that are generally considered very inferior copies produced by certain copyright owners. Future generations may then wonder why particular works were ever held in such esteem. In the case of Roland Petit, I have seen several very famous dancers in revivals of his ballets who to my mind remained famously themselves and gave rather loose or weak characterisations of Petit's dramatic roles.

I forgot a quote that I had read in a 1995 paper by Cara Murphy on George Balanchine, "Vera Kostrovitskaya (known as a pedagogue and author of a well known book on ballet technique), a fellow student, said that "He could never pass with indifference any musical instrument. The minute he came down to our floor of the school the sounds of a piano would be heard...Sometimes, in the evening, we would secretly climb the stairs to listen to Balanchivadze playing Liszt, Chopin or Beethoven in the boy's quarters..."

Of all the triticum varieties, how clever and witty of you to come up with Polish Wheat given the setting for Coppelia

Autobiographical and biographical statements without authentication from a number of verifiable sources and where expert knowledge is not exhibited, do not constitute historical fact. When dealing with any legend the power of the legend can push writers to make extreme to statements that are difficult for later researchers to fully substantiate. In books on ballet history there are very few that do not contain infelicitious statements of downright errors. The legend has always been in my lifetime that Mr. Balanchine(G.B) as a good pianist having studied music at the Petrograd Conservatoire. He came from a family where his father Meliton Balanchivadze studied under Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire and would become to be considered as a distinguished Georgian opera composer and G.B 's mother was a pianist. Both G.B and his sister Tamar were given piano lessons by Alice Kuntsel. The year following his graduation from the former Imperial Theatre Ballet School he entered the Petrograd Conservatoire where he studied for almost four years until 1923. G.B's brother Andrei (d 1983) was a noted Georgian composer who composed a ballet in which his son Tsiskara danced. Another of Andrei's son's Jarji is a pianist. It has been recorded that the Balanchivadze family were descended from medieval troubadors so perhaps music in the family was genetic, if that is possible. (Edited for brevity and spelling of name)

I think Kathleen is exactly right. When Americans talks about "wheat" and Britons talk about "corn" they're actually referring to the same thing. Folk traditions tend to be very old, so it's unlikely that a ritual such as shaking the stalk would have incorporated a plant that had been introduced to the European continent just a few centuries earlier. However, if any choreographer got it into his or her head to reset the ballet in, say, Mexico, then it's conceivable that the heroine might even use an ear of maize instead In England we ascribe the fidelity test as being undertaken with an 'ear of corn'(see Mary Clarke & Clement Crisp- The Ballet Goer's Guide).

There are according to Russian ethnological studies superstitious prohibitions connected with a spindle and to receive one could lead to misfortune (and death of cattle).

Welcome. I for one would like to hear about performances at the National Theatre especially the upcoming Natalya Makarova production of "La Bayadere." Regards

You can find information about Christian Spuck at http://www.christianspuck.com/ and http://www.artkroells.net/contentechothechildren.html and http://www.ny-ci.com/sessions_fall00_spuck.html and http://www.ny-ci.com/nyci_spuckbio.html and http://www.goethe.de/kue/tut/cho/cho/sz/spu/enindex.htm . Reinhard and Ina posted reviews of Spuck’s ballet ‘Lulu’ on Ballet talk in December 2003 see “Lulu premiere’.

POSTSCRIPT: Mikhail Gabovich senior was the principal teacher of Vladimir Vasiliev. Mikhail Gabovich junior was a casualty of the fall-out when Grigorovich was dismissed from his post as Director of the Bolshoi. Mikhail Gabovich was the brother in law of Grigorovich's wife Natalya Bessmertnova.

Jack Carter staged Swan Lake in the mid 1960's for London Festival Ballet(which became ENB) using the music in the order composed for the 1877 Bolshoi production. Makarova's version was originally staged for ABT. There is a studio performance on video of the ENB in Makarova's production with Peter Schaufuss and Evelyn Hart.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Gabovich on the video who was third cast as Crassus in Grigorovich's Spartacus after Maris Liepa and Boris Akimov was born in 1948 and was the son of Mikhail Markovich Gabovich(1905-1965) a premier danseur with the Bolshoi ballet 1924-1952. Apologies for the duplication.

Mikhail Markovich Gabovich(senior) 1905-1965 was a premier danseur dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet 1924- 52. His son Mikhailovich Gabovich born 1948 also danced leading dances with the Bolshoi and is the dancer you saw.

Thank you for the interesting information Tatiana and welcome to Ballet talk. As ever Doug we recognise your endeavour and expert contributions. Leonid

This may have been in Matthew Bourne's production which I never saw. But Charles Jude's production for the Bordeaux Ballet had cars and was set in New York.

Automata was a source of interest for the French from the 18th century and were still in vogue at the time Coppelia was produced. The placing of this ballet in Galicia is commonplace. Though Polish in culture in the west and Ruthenian(Rusyn speaking) in the east, Galicia at the time of the ballet's premiere, had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where German was the official language. The names Frantz and Swanhilda are German in origin. The name Coppelius like the basis of the ballet’s story is derived from the German author E.T.A. Hoffman’s “The Sandman” a rather dark tale if you want to read it which in turn finds resonance in the Pygmalion Galatea Greek Myth. Delibes music includes a Polish mazurka and a Hungarian czardas. But like many other 19th century ballets we must not take their supposed location too seriously. After all Coppelia includes music whose origins are far from Galicia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One thing has always puzzled me, is that such a sopisticated maker of automatons should be found in a rural farming community that much of historical Galicia was at the time of the premiere and before? If we we take any of the story seriously, with Coppellius dragging out the life blood and spirit of Frantz to animate Swanhilda perhaps it was a good place for a maker of dark deeds to hide among simple country folk? In the Hoffman story the character Coppelius relocates and .....now read the original story.

The current Royal Ballet production, staged by Anthony Dowell, includes these Drigo-orchestrated pieces in the fourth act. Dowell staged the production with the consultation of scholar Roland John Wiley (who's book, Tchaikovsky's Ballets, is very detailed and informative) - and this production is considered to be one of the most musically close to the 1895 production. It includes, in Act 1, the switch of the pas de trois to occur before the waltz and these interpolated piano pieces in Act IV. The Drigo pieces were used in Ashton's production in which Anthony Dowell performed often.

Interestingly, whilst Doug Fullington has been working on the reconstruction of Le Corsair for the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich to be premiered in the new year, he aslo staged choreography for a special performance, two variants of the Lilac Fairy variations and other period variations using the Sergeyev notation .

Giving an interview to a reporter. is, when you have a new work being premiered, a marketing opportunity. Any performing or creative artist of stature should via their press officer/agent etc set the ground rules for interviews. If they are not met and you are not happy, you have the opportunity to leave. Miss Tharp may or may not observe the dictum (we don't know), " that there is no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name right." In the end, reporters will always write according to the editorial style that their editors require. It was after all only printed in a newspaper.

How about excoriating? But I do like scathing. I like reviews to say what they mean and reviewers to really mean what they say.

Hate is too strong a word. What stops every MacMillan full length ballet being fully successful, is the emptiness of creative staging and movement of his crowd scenes. Also, (Sotto voce) there are other things

Miss Bonham Carter and Mr Burton are partners, not married.

I am glad you have found this website as it is always friendly and informative and a place to have a serious exchange of knowledge and views. I look forward to hearing your impressiions of ballet in Moscow. Regards Leonid In London

At the age of 88, Mona Inglesby founder and Ballerina of the International Ballet that toured the UK from 1940 to 1953 has died in a nursing home. Mona Inglesby was born into a wealthy family and studied ballet in England with Margaret Craske (noted Cecchetti teacher), Nikolai Legat and Marie Rambert (whom she disliked) and left her ballet company to study with Mathilde Kschessinskaya. Her first appearances were with Ballet Club, then Rambert Ballet and Victor Dandre's Russian Ballet in 1939 where she worked with Lubov Egorova her first link with the Imperial Ballet legacy. Having driven ambulances at the beginning of World War II, she asked her father if he would loan her the money to start a ballet company. She employed the help of Nikolai Sergeyev to stage ballets from the Imperial Ballet repertoire and began to choreograph herself. Among the dancers who appeared in her company were, Harold Turner, Moira Shearer, Sonia Arova, Maurice Bejart, Nina Tarakanova, Ernest Hewitt and Gerd Larsen and I understand that Stanislav Idzikovski taught for her at the beginning of the company's history. The International Ballet repertoire included, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Coppelia, Prince Igor and a number of her own works and others. Inglesby's acquisition of the Sergeyev Notation of the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet repertoire now housed in the Harvard Library, has been discussed in posts elsewhere. I never met Mona Inglesby but was always interested in her achievement as she was frequently discussed by older balletomanes that I met. I did meet Errol Addison (a favourite pupil of Cecchetti, Diaghilev dancer, well-known dancer and better known teacher) from her company who would regale his audience of stories about his time with the International Ballet. More recently I have met Herida May who was Lilac Fairy to Inglesby's Aurora when the reconstruction of The Sleeping Beauty by the Kirov was shown in London.