leonid17

Gorsky's version was premiered on 27 November 1905 and six weeks later Anna Pavlova appeared at the Bolshoi in the title role on January 15 1906. Vera Karalli did not graduate until later that year. Keith Money's book on Pavlova reproduces 12 photographs of her in this role. Less than two weeks later she made her debut in the Petipa production at the Maryinsky

I have heard that a new production for Birmingham Royal Ballet is scheduled and I assume this is for next season(2006-2007).

Does any one know what colour costume Julie Sedova wore in act 3 when she danced the role in a 4 act version with Mordkin in Washington on November 3, 1911? Does any American contributor know anything about ther Mordkin production in Washington DC as I have so far only found reference to this production on an English website. As I am interested in Mordkin, do American ballet scholars/enthusiasts consider Mordkin's work in the USA an important contribution to American ballet history?

Tamara Karsavina graduated in 1902. In 1894, Enrico Cecchetti wrote the Manual for exercises for theatrical dance for his class of senior girls at the Imperial Theatre Ballet School. Cecchetti was also influential as a teacher later in Karsavina's life. Whilst in Milan during the 1880's he witnessed the classes of Coppinni who had established a regime of classes Monday through to Saturday which Cecchetti would later employ. Another important teacher active in Milan was Caterina Beretta and it is probable to say the least that Cecchetti witnessed her teaching method. Karsavina would visit Caterina Beretta early in her career to gain strength in her technique. I don't think their is any doubt as to the question of Karsavina as an artist and a beautiful young woman of the Imperial stage. The attainment of her strength in technique in her early years was referred to in a negative sense in reviews of her performances on the Imperial Stage. I cannot remember when this footage was made, but many dancers achieve things on stage they cannot always achieve in class and vice a versa.

The Tikhomirov production used the 1899 designs by Anatoli Fedorovich Geltser (1852-1918) with credit for the Panorama to Karl Fedorovich Valtz(1846-1929) the Bolshoi's legendary machinist who was also a 'decorator'. As Geltser shared the same patronymic as Vassili Geltser the Bolshoi dancer/mime (Father of Yekaterina Geltser)and they were born six years apart perhaps they were brothers? The designs appear to be a pastiche of the 1890 originals.

Preobrajenskaya is quite recognisable. the other dancer does not strike me as MK. Thanks for the pictures Solor, there were a number I do not recollect seeing before.

The premiere is scheduled for the 28th June as part of the XIV International Festival Stars of the White Nights and partof the season Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of Dmitry Shostakovich. We know that it is expected to be conducted by Tugan Sokhiev who comes from North Ossetia like the Director of the Maryinsky Theatre Valeri Gergiev and the Kirov Ballet's Artistic Director Makar Vaziev. Still no announcement on the Maryinsky website today as to the choreographer. This young conductor(aged 27) is beginning to make an international name for himself having conducted in the UK, France and at the Maryinsky itself.

I agree Drigo should get credit, but not just for Swan Lake, but for assisting in the realisation of numerous performance scores for choreographers at the Maryinsky Theatre from 1886 to 1926 by which time the name had changed to Petrograd Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

Thank you leonid for the supporting historic facts regarding Balanchine's background in schooling in Petrograd. Although the dates of his graduation from Petrograd and entrance of Vaganova as a teacher at the Petrograd school (1921) have always been available, very few actually comprehend the difference between what is today known as the Vaganova Academy and the Petrograd School. The facts have always been clouded, in the US and perhaps elsewhere, maybe by the the marketing of Balanchine. The two schools did/do share the Rossi St. address however the system developed by Vaganova and others was in an infant stage in 1921 when Balanchine graduated. As for when the Petrograd school actually named the codified method of teaching Vaganova, is not known to me. I have not been able to find an actual date. Since the program has been and remains an evolving method, it is also unclear as to when the Soviet government proclaimed this remarkable system of teaching the method for the Soviet bloc nations. Any additional information you are able to provide will be greatly appreciated. It was named after Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova in 1957 six years after her death. The method was formally established and printed in 1935. Her best pupils were undoubtedly, Semyonova, Ulanova, Dudinskaya, Osipenko and Kolpakova each one complete artists in their own way. Other of her pupils became ballerina's and taught and coached and have seriously impaired the earlier tradition, by introducing or encouraging gymnastic effects in otherwise highly talented dancers, thus adding a vulgarity today comparable only to their performances I witnessed over 40 years ago.

While I'm dying to see Kings of the Dance, I have serious doubts about whether such a performance will really be good for ballet as an art. Won't it turn into a virtuosity competition? Comparisons between the 4 dancers will be inevitable and the result could be very much the same as the "3 Tenor" situation - lots of technique, but not much art. You are quite right to point out the marketing comparison with the 3 tenors and I agree with your evaluation of those performances. I doubt if many seasoned ballet goers would consider any of the four dancers to be 'great' in historical terms. I think 'very fine'. 'exciting'. 'most interesting' would be better. Perhaps only Kobborg might be considered, ' important ' or 'serious artist'. The others dancers, most entertaining in their way and very well received by audiences, but 'Kings of the Dance', surely not. However I have to confess I am more familiar with the work of Kobborg than I am with Corella, Stiefel and Tsiskaridze.

Balanchine graduated the same year that Vaganova was established as senior pedagogue and therefore influential teacher at the Leningrad State Choreographic School. His main teachers were two outstanding 'danseur noble' Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov. Both of these teachers taught in a manner of the 19th century established and developed in Russia from a long line of teachers whose direct influences are to be found in 18th century France, and Italy. Other teachers would have probably been Alexander Shirayev and Nikolai Legat. In Russia, his choreographic influences as far as I can remember could only have been, Petipa, Fokine, Bourman, Lopukov and Leontiev. Chekrygin, Legat and Petroff. The so called Vaganova system which was developed over a number of years was influenced by her teachers who included Lev Ivanov, Yekaterina Vazem, Christian Johannson, Pavel Gerdt and perhaps most importantly by Olga Preobrajenskaya who had (reputedly) developed a method of teaching which was enlarged upon by Vaganova long after Balanchine left Russia and her first important graduating student was Semyonova in 1925.

Thanks a whole lot for letting us know Leonid! Where/how did you find this out by the way? Interesting...... This information came from a biographical study of Nikolai Zubkovsky published in St.Petersburg in 1993. It also contains the choreography for the variation in a written out form. Elsewhere it contains a full written description of the classes he taught. Zubkovsky, I first heard about in relation to his wife Inna Zubkovskaya. She was an absolutely outstanding dancer who appeared with the Kirov in 1961 at the Royal Opera House. She along with perhaps another 7 or 8 dancers from across the world, helped to strike down a defenceless teenage boy with an infection called balletomania.

I have never heard of Balanchine and Vaganova mentioned in one sentence this side of the pond.

Does any one know what colour costume Julie Sedova wore in act 3 when she danced the role in a 4 act version with Mordkin in Washington on November 3, 1911?

The 1948 Sergeyev production was revived at the Kirov on the 23.06.1970 with new designs by Ivan Vassilievich Sevastianov replacing the earlier Virsaladze settings. Having heard of the suggested fondness for making alterations to productions, does anyone know if any changes in the choreography took place?

B B was a graduating pupil of Agrippina Vaganova in Leningrad and joined the Kirgiz State opera and Ballet Theatre in 1941. During 1948/49 she returned to Leningrad to study further with Vaganova.

The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who worked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres. Feldt assisted on the realisation of a number of important ballet scores for Leningrad companies from the 1930's to the 1950's. Ps. Feldt also conducted the first performances of Shostakovich's. 'The Limpid(Bright) Stream' and Khachaturian's, 'Gayane' and 'Spartacus'.

In London we have also heard of the alleged parlous financial state of the Martha Graham Company. Graham’s contribution to the arts is sustained by performances and in the same way that other choreographer’s works are sustained as living entities by companies that mainly sustain the work of particular choreographer. In Europe, major opera and ballet companies are seriously considered to make a significant contribution to a countries cultural stature and are funded from taxes. I personally find it shocking that the USA government has so far failed to recognise the international contribution that the Graham Company has made to world art through both Graham's choreography and dance method. It is not enough to say other companies get no such financial support from government. There should be a first and Graham can be said to be the most important American born choreographer so far to emerge from a country that widely celebrates an interest in dance.

The original reviews for this ballet attribute the score to Cesare Pugni and the first performance was given in 1845. Emile Waldteufel (December 9, 1837 - February 12, 1915) I think would have had to have been precocious in the extreme to have written any piece for Pugni to borrow from. Johan Strauss the elder was born 1804.

The use of sticks in (folk) dancing is generally given to symbolise swords. Sword/stick dances have been a feature of social activities from ancient Egyptian times to the present time and can be found in writings and practice across Europe, Iran and China among other places. Given the French history of 'Fille' and showing no disrespect for our home grown Morris dancing there is in a French town near Briançon, a historical record of a sword(stick) dance which recalls elements of Ashtons stick dance and was recorded as early as 1731. It is performed by unmarried men, and singers (unmarried girls). It starts with the formation of the hilt-and-point chain, each dancer saluting his neighbors; then comes La Lève, where a lock is formed and placed over the shoulders of one of the dancers; the next part is Les Figures, where various different shapes are formed with the swords. I have seen the 'Sabre dance' from 'Gayane', but does any contributor know of other uses of sword/stick dances(not sword-fighting) in ballet? I know that Louis the 14th thought that learning to dance would improve the balance and maneuverability of his soldiers, are their examples of sword/stick dances in French Baroque ballet?

E stands for Eugenio. I wish you luck with your research

Thank you Hans. I have read Doug Fullington's description of the choreography in his, "The Kirov's reconstructed Sleeping Beauty". The point I am trying to make (see earlier posts) is, that I find it difficult to see how any notated version of the Lilac Fairy Variation as danced by Marie Petipa, could either be in existence or completely authentic given the questions I have raised in earlier posts. Doug Fullington also pointed out that the so called Lopukhov(born 1886) choreography for the Lilac Fairy is of doubtful accreditation . Lopukhov had yet to graduate from the Imperial Theatre schools when the notations were made in 1903.

When I wrote that "possibly never danced on point" it was an unanswered question, not an assertion. Marie Petipa was already nearly 33 years of age and was of a full figured stature in 1890, as a photograph of her in the Prologue costume shows(Compare Lubov Egorova photographed in same costume design). There are two extant notated versions of the Lilac Fairy variation the first marked M.Petipa according to Wiley is technically less demanding, "Marie's choreography is based on the plainest of floor plans and requires very little pointe work......" By the time the 'Sergeyev' notation of her(supposed)version was recorded, Marie Petipa was 46 years of age, very plump in the body and had not danced the Lilac Fairy for a good number of years. Is it possible that she collaborated with Sergeyev given her fathers antipathy towards the Stepanov notation? It it has been stated that Petipa re-choreographed his own variations for particular dancers, did this happen when other dancers succeeded to the role of the Lilac Fairy? Perhaps Doug Fullington who knows the Sergeyev notation well, could at some time give an indication how clearly demi-pointe work is shown compared to full pointe work? Is the Marie version in Sergeyev's hand, as Mr. Fullington's earlier writing on the Kirov reconstruction talks about a ' scribe ',rather than directly crediting N.Sergeyev notating the Fairy variations? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Given all the interest shown in postings on the 'Sergeyev Collection post', I had hoped that a contributor might have answered the questions put, as they relate directly to that body of work, the attributions appended and their veracity as a record of Petipa's choreographic productions.

Svetlana Beriosova was born into a family of Lithuanian Dancers. Her father, an uncle and two aunts were professional dancers. As a small child she travelled with her father who was a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Cyril Swinson in his book about the artist wrote, "... she came into contact with many great dancers: Vera Nemchinova, Alexandra Danilova, Alicia Markova, Tamara Toumanova, Igor Youskevich, Andre Eglevsky and Leonid Massine. As a child she sat on Fokine's knee and Miassin allowed her to appear in 'Le Beau Danube as the child with a skipping rope." Her first ballet lessons were given to her by her father Nicholas Beriosov and when the family found a permanent home in New York, she went to study with the former Maryinsky dancers Ludmilla Schollar and Anatole Viltzak. According to Swinson, Beriosova made her debut in the corps de ballet of Marquis de Cuevas company when only fourteen. Other sources say it was with the Ottawa Ballet. Later with her father she joined the Metropolitan Ballet in London becoming its leading dancer by the age of 17. Her colleagues within this company included Erik Bruhn, Frank Schaufuss, Alexandre Kalioujny, Poul Gnatt and Leonid Massine. Beriosva left the Metropolitan ballet and joined the Sadlers Wells Ballet. Among the extraordinary qualities of her dancing were her beautiful line, high extensions, a regal carriage of the head and arms and a flow of movement which was the hallmark of the earlier Russian school. As to her back it had both strength and pliancy which led a control of flowing movement bringing a singing quality to her dancing. Was yearning ever so expressed through the use of the back as by Beriosova in her performances of Odette where the plastique of her arabesque matched the emotional and dramatic soaring qualities of Tchaikovsky’s music. Beriosova was a true ballerina by technique, theatrical expression and was a rare dancer of whom it could be said, that her dancing possessed a spiritual quality.

What a tricky subject to discuss. I have knowledge of extremely famous ballet artists being both rude and abusive yet, extremely decent, kindhearted and generous. I have known other famous ballet artists who were polite and friendly at work, but never showed kindness or real concern for others. I think on the whole the truly famous artists whose behavior has been considered outrageous, have generally been understood and often respected by colleagues who were 'real artists' themselves, but not famous. Personally I have never liked to hear any dancer criticising any other dancer on a personal level. Hans is correct I believe in saying ( above ), "... because dancers are different from the majority of society". I would add and suggest, those who are worthy of the appellation "genius" or "real artists", are even more different.