Hans

I would go for Vishneva, but a lot of people seem to like Tereshkina, so she is probably a decent option, too. Obraztsova does not seem like a Kitri to me.

I love Graham's choreography and would be thrilled if her part of Episodes could be revived.

One thing that is clear is that the classical writer's musical education gave her something to hold on to at the pop concerts--she could analyse the music, relate it to what she had previously experienced, &c., in a way that Laura Barton could not--she could only say that it was boring.

Or Washington Ballet.

Here is a direct link to the entire fact sheet.

One thing that bothers me when I go to nightclubs where there is dancing is how inelegant everyone looks! I also found that after I started ballet training, I had to be very careful to avoid the ugly 'duck walk' that so many dancers have--not only is it unattractive, it is actually bad for the knees and ankles. I also notice how slouchy people are--rounded shoulders, heads and stomachs poking forward, and if they have what are commonly called hyperextended knees, they usually sit back into them, which isn't the greatest idea. As a former dancer, I can also relate to having perpetually stood in 4th position, and there is something else dancers and former dancers sometimes do, or rather don't do--they often don't move their arms when they walk because they are taught from an early age to keep their arms still or move them in a particular way when their legs are doing something else.

In my own dancing, I have not had an emotional response to a particular step, although I do enjoy grand allegro for the feeling of flying. Often one encounters steps in some roles that are used in others, and one must bring the appropriate emotion to the step rather than the other way round. I am curious to hear what experiences other dancers have had.

Vaganova method and the Imperial style are not incompatible, to my mind--after all, the goal of the Vaganova method, and any training method, is to produce the best dancers possible. The Mariinsky's dancers have already been trained, but to dance in the Imperial style (such as we know of it) does not require going backward in terms of technique. Let's not confuse a teaching method with a style--they are two different things.

I believe there is a Stepanov notation of Swan Lake, so it should be possible to reconstruct it. Aesthetically, I imagine it would be similar in style to Sleeping Beauty, as it was choreographed a few years afterward. (I am speaking of the general Petipa/Ivanov style--obviously there are stylistic differences between the two ballets.) Unfortunately, the Mariinsky would probably dance it in its current overstretched, floppy manner, so it would be a mixed blessing.

They don't seem to have been too happy with the reconstructed 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'La Bayadère'.

Leonid, I love Yelena Yevteyeva based on what I've seen of her on video--I've thought she would do an excellent Swan Lake, and I'm glad to hear that it was indeed the case.

Choreographically, the Royal Ballet has a lot going for it. A few things don't really ring true for me--Prince Siegfried partying with peasants, for example. The Mariinsky has also preserved the Valse Bluette (how original the choreography is I cannot say, but the music is there) which, like it or not, was part of the Petipa/Ivanov version. Importantly, though, the Royal Ballet has mime, no jester, and the 'suicide' ending.

Paul, I noticed the same thing both times I saw the Mariinsky do this live, but I didn't think it had always been this way...and sure enough on the 1977 DVD with Terekhova and Komleva, the shades do not pose in the way you describe. It is too dark to see whether the first shade does, but the rest definitely do not. Perhaps it is something they found in the notation when they went to do the reconstruction?

I plan to attend all of them. I am pretty shy in person, but I will try to work up the nerve to introduce myself next time.

Great job today, Alexandra--fascinating presentation! Did any other Ballet Talkers attend?

Well, in the case of Carabosse's curse or something similar, such as Giselle's mad scene or Aurora with the needle, a lot of miming is not really necessary from the corps--just the appropriate facial expressions and a few simple gestures and body language. They're there more to help create the mood and emotion than specific mime 'words'. During divertissements, you don't really want a lot of distraction during the dancing, but the courtiers should at least look interested, and mime gestures should be kept relatively small. The Mariinsky has its courtiers do things such as bow whenever the prince or other nobility dances by them in a variation, for example, but they can also have restrained conversations with each other. The most important time to mime conversations is during the party scene in the Nutcracker. There isn't a lot of classical dancing going on, and everyone has to look animated as people would be at a party, not sitting there watching a performance. Then you can have more elaborate 'conversations' in the background, but either mouthing words or just plain whispering to one's partner does not come across well to the audience. Unfortunately I can't be terribly specific as I have no formal mime training, so I can't do it very well myself, but I know what it's supposed to look like. Once during a Sleeping Beauty rehearsal, Peter Martins gave an off-the-cuff demonstration of how to mime a conversation to a courtier, and it was surprising to see how much can be conveyed via mime. But you have to be trained.

Rackon, if the courtiers are doing their jobs correctly (and they usually aren't because they don't have the training) their conversations should be mimed, thus allowing you to know what they are saying. What usually happens is that the dancers just chatter to each other under their breaths, giving the effect that you're watching a silent film. I agree, it's annoying.

I think I have finally, at long last, got my students to begin to understand turnout and how the legs move to the side. It has taken a while, but last class I used some ideas from the Teachers forum on BTfD to help them understand. A yardstick was very helpful. First, I repeated something I've done before: have the student stand in 1st position, place the yardstick on the floor in front of him/her so it forms a horizontal line just touching his/her toes, and have the student tendu side along the line formed by the stick. This gets them to understand that the leg needs to move directly to the side. Otherwise, when they go from 1st to 2nd position, the legs will not be in line, glissades will move slightly forward, échappés will be a problem, &c. Also, it forces the student to use the appropriate muscles. A tendu that moves along the line of the foot will, in many cases, end up somewhat forward of 2nd, and it will not improve turnout, just reinforce what the student already has. Second, once the student had established pointe tendue à la seconde, I held the yardstick vertically at his/her working toe and had him/her raise the leg as high as possible without moving the leg forward and without losing the turnout of either leg. To do this, they had to keep using their turnout muscles (which often get relaxed when the leg is held too far forward). For a few weeks now, I have had my less advanced class do the following exercise: Beat 1: Plié in 5th Beat 2: Relevé to pirouette position Beat 3: Hold the position Beat 4: Close 5th on demi-pointe Last class (after having them practice battement tendu and rond de jambe par terre en tournant) I modified the last two parts so that it went like this: Beat 1: Plié in 5th Beat 2: Relevé to pirouette position Beat 3: Remaining on demi-pointe, turn 1/8 en dehors Beat 4: Hold the position, or if necessary, close 5th on demi-pointe It was not perfect, but they made a good start. Once they get stronger at that exercise, I can have them learn pirouettes, but I will continue to have them work on learning tour lent on demi-pointe. Having that control is very good for pirouettes, especially as the study of tour lent on demi-pointe will instill muscle memory of correct position.

I just watched Sizova again, and you are right about the progression--and what's more, she does it during both sets of balances. Now that is technical security! And of course her entrance is unparalleled.

But then they all get danced to death and thrown into Lake Pontchartrain by the wilis from 'Creole Giselle'....

I don't mean to say that Lopatkina's technique is bad--she does many things well--but distorting a step simply for the purpose of raising one's leg higher is a technical mistake, in my opinion. It just isn't rond de jambe en l'air the way she does it, any more than if she put her foot next to her head and fluttered it about, it wouldn't be petit battement. Of course, textbook perfection is not required on the stage; one may sacrifice many things for the sake of expression, but what is she expressing when putting herself in such an awkward physical position other than that higher is better, full stop? I do agree with you regarding Somova, and to be fair, Lopatkina is not at all alone in thinking the higher leg, the better the step. It seems many of the current Mariinsky ballerinas I've seen also feel this way, judging by the way they dance. I also went ahead and watched some more interpretations--Svetlana Zakharova, Lucia Lacarra, and Tamara Rojo. Zakharova and Lacarra also treat the rond de jambe as an unwelcome interruption on their legs' skyward journeys, and Rojo makes it look like some sort of ornamented developpé. I think that in the case of this particular step in this variation, I like the three 'Moiseyeva Maidens' best. They put the step first, and any extension beyond that is icing on the cake. I will say, though, that I do admire much of what Lopatkina does as Odette.

I can forgive some bird-like movements at Odette's entrance because some ballerinas like to use that moment to show us her transformation from swan to human. (Although to be nitpicky, the transformation occurs offstage--that's what Siegfried is seeing before he runs away, so by the time Odette has entered, she is already human.) I went to watch Lopatkina's double ronds de jambe en l'air in the variation, and her technique is ok, but it does annoy me that she feels the need to do the ronds de jambe with her knee in her armpit. From a technical standpoint, while it is very difficult to do en pointe, what the dancer should be striving for is to do a full rond de jambe each time, and that cannot really occur if the leg is raised above 90º (because the working foot is too far away from the supporting leg to come anywhere near the supporting knee at that speed) although there is nothing wrong with extending it higher once the ronds are completed. For comparison, I watched Asylmuratova, Makhalina, and Mezentseva, and they all do the ronds at 90º and then raise the leg. Makarova does a single rond de jambe en l'air (on the video I watched) and that was a nice effect as well--her foot makes a big swirl in the air on the way up. Lopatkina's version seems to me another example of technique sacrificed to extension that is all too common these days--the thinking that higher=better.

I'm having trouble visualising that...do you mean that when she does the rond de jambe en l'air, she doesn't fully extend her leg before doing the rond?

They're doing his Romeo & Juliet?! Thank you ABT!!!

I can't explain that--I've never seen the second set done without a promenade, and I've watched a lot of performances of SB.