Mailied

Thank you so much for your detailed reports. Ever since I discovered ballet the Royal Ballet has been my favourite company (along with NYCB) and videos of RB dancers from the 50s, 60s and 70s have shaped my tastes and opinions. Unfortunately I have never been able to actually see the company live, so it makes me very happy to at least read this kind of posts. 

I have never seen this beautiful video of Fonteyn and Nureyev in the White Swan pas de deux. She's such an incredible dancer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MGYgDkoHQs

I don't know how to post a video unfortunately.

I may be in the minority here but I think the sets for LHH are pretty neat. Same goes for costumes (especially the one for the Tsar Maiden). I've only seen it on video with Somova and I liked her a lot, which surprised me because she's not the ballerina type I tend to like and I've never liked her in other videos.

Well I haven't seen Ratmansky's reconstruction, but I also haven't seen many modern Swan Lakes that really work... just my opinion.

Thanks! I'll check that out.

I know there are some on DVD, but I find it frustrating that there are so many beautiful works by Ashton that I can never get a chance to see because they aren't on DVD, Symphonic Variations and Cinderella being the best examples. Birthday Offering is another work that I would looove to watch in its entirety.

Crossing my fingers that this broadcast gets on DVD.

Wow, I wish I could see this. Hope it makes it to DVD. I really don't understand why the Royal doesn't release more dvd's of Ashton's work.

How lovely!

Ovcharenko was good but I found the dialogues in the reconstructed scenes a bit lame. "I love trains" is my favourite line.

I wish they had included more footage of the real Nureyev though. I liked the interviews with Lacotte. Overall, a nice watch but I wouldn't say I know a lot more about Nureyev after watching it.

I think it looks gorgeous despite the funeral tempi. The men's costumes in the Flower Waltz are hilarious.

To be perfectly honest I am glad that Nureyev didn't do the last act. I think it's perfect to end the ballet with the Shades and I find Makarova's reconstruction quite cheesy.

Unfortunately I can't find anything about her in english or french and even the romanian articles don't contain much information...

Absolutely agree about the sentimentalizing, especially because it's a real temptation for me. I do think that Cunningham got closer to what I think Satie might have wanted, but I do love the English restraint in Monotones.

"Who would not wanted to be there?" indeed! Some spectacular costumes. I don't know the dancer at all -- anyone here have any knowledge?

Lizica Codreanu was by all accounts a wonderful romanian avantgarde dancer. She was born in 1901 and as far as I know she studied ballet in Paris (I heard that she studied also under Nijinska) but she didn't like the constraint and the order of classical ballet. Constantin Brancusi appreciated her a lot and loved her innovative approach to dancing so he made some costumes for her like the one above. He called her "Tiganca" (which means "the gipsy"). She married some journalist at the end of the '20s, divorced and opened a Hatha Yoga school in Paris. She died in the '90s.

No idea who the dancers are, but I was very surprised to hear romanian. The dancing looks amazing!

I think her Giselle is a very powerful thing and I'm glad I have it on dvd but her arms frustrate me even though I love everything else about it. But I can't imagine her doing Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty, and the short videos I've seen really didn't paint the greatest picture. Sometimes I feel like a dancer can be too strong.

Well I think they make quite a lovely pair. I love Osipova's Giselle but her port de bras annoys me so much.

That would be lovely. I'd really love to see some unreleased video footage of him and Fonteyn (maybe inserted in the film). I'm sure there is more than what is availible.

Good points, Mailied. And welcome to the board.

Thank you.

I agree that Duff is a good actress, it's just didn't think she was a good choice for the role. I liked the guy playing Nureyev quite a bit. Definitely not a great actor but he did have some of the aura I associate with Nureyev.

Now my problem with the project. It woudln't be hard to make a fascinating film about Nureyev as his life really was like a movie (rise from poverty, spectacular defection, partnership with prima ballerina, fame and prestige, lots of money and quite spectacular downfall too). But this is a movie about a dancer and I want to see more than 5 seconds of dance in it, which I don't see how they will manage.

I have some reservations about this project but hopefully it will turn out fine.

I can easily imagine Malakhov as Nureyev however, he's too old now to portray young defection-era Nureyev. Obviously finding a dancer who can act would be ideal, but that's a rare thing (Moira Shearer was one in a million imo) so I would settle with a good actor and a dance double plus good editing. This combination might be rather hard to find also when I think about it.

Also, I suppose a film about Nureyev will necessarily include his partnership with Fonteyn and I really can't imagine someone who would fit that role and who could dance in a similar fashion. Anne Marie Duff who played her in that terrible "Margot" film was really a poor choice...

I've heard so many peoeple describe Guillem as the root of all evil and the mother of ugly hyperextension but in this video she strikes me as almost demure compared to the current generations. I think her balances are quite lovely but she's not an Aurora in my book. She has a certain hardness and strenght (not physical srenght but something from inside, like a really steely determination) that aren't ideal for Aurora in my opinion.

I voted 'no'. I think the crowns make the balances much more beautiful but I'd rather have a simple and secure balance rather than see the dancer struggle and wobble trying to get her hands up.

She was so ladylike yet she seems so approachable and fun. I love the story about Nureyev and his nostrils!

I don't really get why low arabesques and smaller dancing in general looks bad on small dancers.It's fair to assume that ballerinas in Petipa's time were shorter than today's ballerinas and I'm sure thy looked fine doing the low arabesques and everything. Making even small movements and steps register doesn't have that much to do with the height of the dancer, but with his or her skill and talent, I think.

From what I have read about this production I think I would love it and I hope they keep it. This has probably been discussed before but will they film it? That would be absolutely wonderful.

I have a question regarding grand jetes. If this has been discussed before or if this isn't the right place for my question, feel free to move it where it belongs.

I've watched some videos of older ballet performances and compared them to newer ones and I have noticed that a lot of dancers nowadays seem to do the jetes in a rather weird way, where instead of forming an arc and going up they seem to jut forward and create a straight line with their body without getting much elevation. (Excuse my rather poor explanation.) They also seem to have a strange flappy and jerky quality in their jumps (I have especially noticed this when watching Zakharova). I'm obviously not talking about dancers like Osipova who have a stunning jump, but I have seen this in many videos and I'm curious why this happens. I was under the impression that ballerinas have greater physical ease nowadays so I would have supposed that their jumps would be better than those of a dancer from say the 60s or 70s.

Are they being trained differently? Is it because most dancers are taller and leaner and more flexible? Does that make it harder for them to jump?

I only have a very basic understanding of ballet technique so sorry if the answer to my question is obvious.

My name is Alexandra and I live in Romania. I've been reading this blog regularly for quite a while now, but have only recently decided to maybe start posting. I got into ballet a few years ago but I can't really attend a lot of live performances as I don't live in a big city. I've only ever seen the great ballets on video and in a couple of performances by a very amateurish company, but i try to keep up with what is happening in the ballet world by reading this forum and as many reviews as I can, as I don't have the chance to see the major companies. This blog has been very helpful for me when I first started watching ballet- I've definitely learned a lot from reading everyone's posts.