Hans

My answer to whether to acquire the 1989 SB with Larissa Lezhnina and the 1964 with Sizova and Soloviev is an unqualified yes. Sizova is THE Aurora, along with Kolpakova, and Lezhnina is a worthy successor. Along with Lezhnina, you also get Yulia Makhalina as the Lilac Fairy and Tatiana Terekhova as Princess Florina. The Sizova tape also has a very young Natalia Makarova as Princess Florina and, I believe, Valery Panov as the Bluebird. Natalia Dudinskaya is the Carabosse on pointe with Sizova--not a great artistic decision, but Dudinskaya pulls it off well.

I don't think it's really possible to know that sort of thing beyond the shadow of a doubt; however, if I saw, for example, someone toss a wrapper onto the floor in what seemed to be an intentional manner, I would simply say to them, in a polite tone, "Excuse me, I believe you dropped this," and pick it up and hand it to them.

"...less than cataclysmic subject"--yes. However, kfw is also right; littering ought to be discouraged. Once the ladies returned, before the lights dimmed, I think the polite thing to do would be to kindly assist them in picking up the wrappers, under the assumption that they were unable to see that they had fallen to the floor in the darkened theater.

I wonder if the dancers were in fact students, as I can't imagine a NYCB dancer littering his/her own theater. (SAB students receive free tickets to NYCB performances.) I agree with papeetepatrick, to an extent. Ballet dancers are not required to be good people, as nice as it would be if they all were, but at the same time, an artist must be aware of the impression s/he makes on the public even when not onstage. An especially appropriate time for polite behavior is when sitting in the audience of a ballet performance, even if one does not dance with the company.

Doesn't ABT have the Jackie O. School now? Not that it can really be compared with RBS, &c., yet.

I might try to see if I can get a student ticket to see Obraztsova on Saturday--can't afford full-price, but I really want to see her. Maybe I could even sit a little closer than the very last row of the theater. I'm glad you'll be at each performance, Natalia; it is so nice to read your reviews as you know the company so well.

That is interesting information--I had been told that the other variation (the one Terekhova does) was the original Kitri variation, so it is nice to know the truth! I cannot really imagine Somova dancing that solo, with its numerous jumps (not her specialty) and final diagonal of double piqué turns, but we must wait and see. I really look forward to reading reports from tonight and the rest of the week.

To answer Memo's question, from what I can gather from the NYCB website it appears that approximately 13 of NYCB's 101 dancers either began their training at SAB or enrolled there before age 13, without attending the summer program. Ages are not always given on the site, but if a dancer started training at SAB in, say, 2003 and was made an apprentice in 2004, it is a pretty safe bet that s/he was not eleven years old at the time.

There is one thing I forgot to mention: in the grand pas de deux, Vishneva did the 'easier' interpolated variation--the one that starts with the harp solo--instead of the longer variation performed by Terekhova on the 1988 tape. I'd be interested in hearing whether other Kitris do the same.

I noticed the changes in the men's and women's villager costumes as well--they look very nice, more in keeping with the period. Loved the sets. I appreciate the desire to revive the older costumes, but they are out of scale with the rest of the production. Also, with tutus that wide, are they supposed to be so stiff? I think it would look better if they were allowed to hang down more, thus reducing the 'Victorian flying saucer' effect. Maybe the Mariinsky has caught on to the Steampunk aesthetic.

Viola Davis plays Donald's mother in the film.

Generally, a very good performance. Vishneva is an excellent Kitri, able to pull out all the technical stops but also funny, charming, and spirited, with a big smile that reads right up to the last row of the second tier (where I was sitting). Ivanchenko is not the Basilio 'type', but he has a long, strong, beautiful line, and he complemented Vishneva well. The real highlights of this ballet (Dream Sequence and classical principals aside) are the character dances, and those were all performed excellently. Some of the classical dancing felt a bit perfunctory, for example the Flower Sellers and Street dancer in Act I, and unfortunately, the audience around me did not seem to respond to Vishneva or to the comedy and silliness of this beautifully detailed production. Admittedly, it seems a good 3/4 of the mime has been removed, so the dancers are left only with rather vague gestures at times, which to their credit they perform beautifully.

It was unfortunate that the gypsy camp scene had to be cut short because there were no children--it would have been nice if the synopsis had been edited so that the audience did not expect a play and a giant spider, &c. Instead, Don Quixote just runs to the windmill and attaches a hilariously fake-looking mannequin to it.

In the Dream Sequence, the corps looked pretty rough by Mariinsky standards. Their famous precision was just not there at all, but individually, they all looked beautiful. Amor was light and fleet-footed, although with a very loose quality in the legs and ankles, and Kondaurova as Dryad Queen was lovely and grand, but her plié was extremely brittle, which meant that each jump in her variation landed with a thud. Still, I'm glad to see someone at the Mariinsky can still do entrechat-six de volé; I really miss the beats when Dryad Queen just does assemblé simple. Vishneva grinned out at us at the beginning of this scene, but her variation was delicate and ethereal, with very smooth ballonnés on pointe across the stage (not ronds de jambe for some reason), a light jump, and some lovely balances. However, her grands jetés in the coda were upstaged by those of Kondaurova, who just floated into the air effortlessly (I guess she took a moment to go and get her plié out of her dance bag ).

The entrée to the grand pas de deux was performed by dancers wearing incredibly huge tutus in clashing colors--it was like nothing else in the production, but it was well danced. Nikitina, in the bridesmaid solo, has nice port de bras and was not overly stretched in this performance, but unfortunately she does not have secure placement, and this caused problems with her pirouettes.

In the pas de deux itself, everything was there. 'Spanish' fire to spare, along with all the expected lifts, jumps, and pirouettes. Vishneva, as Natalia wrote, overcame a slight stumble during her fouettés, and did the last sixteen with her open fan raised over her head--a triumphant finish.

He mentions the possibility of an American tour in the future--yes, please! And bring Bournonville.

It's official--I'll be attending Tuesday night.

There is a live performance of the Esmeralda pas de six with Asylmuratova from 1986 online. I recommend watching it.

Part I

Part II

I have the tape rg mentions, and Yevteyeva's performance is outstanding.

So did I. That would have been perfect.

I'm forever asking my students, "Who knows what ballet this music/combination is from?" And if they don't know, I tell them about the entire ballet, including the choreographer, dances, any trivia I know, &c. I'm also fortunate in that I teach a variations class, so I can show them videos of ballets, teach them the plots, various dances, and encourage them to see that ballet at the Kennedy Center, where a company just so happens to be performing it.

Kirov Academy of Ballet. However, if Joffrey Ballet School teaches history, that is good news!

SAB does indeed offer music classes, but my experience was that many students did not pay much attention to them, viewing them as an inconvenience and a chore, and consequently not learning much, if anything. Music was not offered at the advanced levels when I was there.

I have heard of only one ballet school in the US that explicitly teaches ballet history. It's quite unfortunate.

Oh, fish dives are easy. The only problem I've heard about is the final one in the Sleeping Beauty Act III pas de deux, where female dancers have broken ribs because of having to fall into that 'arched' position after being lifted up high. Otherwise, they are a piece of cake. The only thing that annoys me is when the man holds the woman's leg from underneath when it isn't necessary. It's easier but uglier.

Hauling the woman around? In my pdd classes, the lady was always the center of attention, and heaven help you if you got in her way or made her look bad!

I went to the website, but the article does not appear to be available online. I will have to get the print edition.

You know, I don't remember how Day had Clara get a shoe to distract the mouse king--maybe one of her dolls surreptitiously handed her one--but she didn't remove her pointe shoe. I'll have to ask around.

For me, that clip illustrates exactly why it is not advisable to have adults pretending to be children: they look like adults whose minds have failed to mature. Mary Day's version had, I think, the best of both worlds--girls and boys of varying ages, very well rehearsed, with Clara danced on pointe by a girl young enough to look like a child but with clean, strong technique so that she could execute steps such as double pirouettes, have attractive extensions, &c. While the other girls were not on pointe, they still had plenty of ballet steps to do, for example during the march, and as they were all well trained at WSB, the effect was lovely.

I mostly like the way the dancers in the above clip mime, though.

That's what I always found--that it depended on the partner rather than the school or company. And Leigh is entirely correct about allowing the man to do his job. Communication is extremely important, which is why pas de deux classes and rehearsals can often get rather chatty--it's necessary to say, "Do you need to be more forward here?" or "Is it easier if I hold your hand like this?" &c.