Hans

Cristian, there are two sets of balances in the Rose Adagio. One in the beginning, without promenades, and another toward the end with a promenade (a.k.a. 'tour lent') in between each balance. Mel? Were you there? Haha, I ought to have phrased that better. I meant to ask whether it's documented.

I think it's important to keep in mind that even if the ballerina simply transfers her hand from one partner to the other (which, if I have this right, is how Brianza did it originally--can anyone confirm whether that's correct?) she still has to balance, so the balancing is not going anywhere no matter what.

I don't have anything to add regarding the clip, unfortunately--I just wanted to see the rest of Fonteyn's Rose Adagio, and it came up in the search results. The youtube member who posted it might have some information.

I recall reading that Petipa asked Tchaikovsky to insert that harp passage, but I don't know if that is 100% true. I don't really like it, to be honest, although it does give Aurora a moment to express her shyness--she walks to the center of the stage, poses in preparation, then gets nervous and runs over to her mother for encouragement. Different ballerinas do different things with the roses--the original production, I recall reading, had Aurora throw them onto the ground. I like what Sizova does, and Asylmuratova is particularly gracious, actually kneeling (or coming close to it) and carefully spreading the flowers at her mother's feet. Re: tempo, yes, the Mariinsky is never exactly perky at this point, which is why I'm concerned that if it slowed down any more, I'm afraid some of the wind instrument players would faint!

Well, Plisetskaya didn't do the fouettés, and life went on. I don't think anyone's talking about removing the balances (équilibres), just doing them differently. Cygnet and carbro, I was actually thinking it was probably an expression of modesty (as well as being much easier to balance that way). I notice even Fonteyn looks away during the promenades. Papeetepatrick, in my opinion, the ballerina doesn't actually have to lower her arm slowly so much as calmly. One can be both calm and swift, and in addition to the practical concern of staying on pointe, there is also that of the music, which has to be slowed down if she is going to raise her arm to 3rd because it takes more time to get to that position, and also she will need more time to prepare for each balance. If we add to that the prescription that the arm must move slowly up and down, the music would be a dirge! I do think that the ballerina with the calmest, most regal movement in this section is Sizova. Her movements are not really slow, but there is a secure regularity to them. The arm goes up, the arm goes down, without any hint of either insecurity or showing off. It is easy to find her rose adagio by searching "sizova rose". It includes her entrance and variation as well--and she doesn't snatch the roses, which I also can't stand. By the way, to watch a few ballerinas who do not raise the arm all the way, Lezhnina's and Ayupova's performances are online. Certainly no one can say they lack technique, and I definitely prefer their restrained performances to that of some other ballerinas who bite off more than they can chew.

I am guessing the arabesques are in the old French style, with the body leaning forward so as to form a curve instead of the strictly upright back favored by the Italian school. I don't know when/if Astafieva was at the imperial ballet school, but is it possible that she was there before Italians such as Cecchetti started teaching there? If that is the case, I believe she would have learned the old French style of dancing--it's Karsavina, if I recall correctly, who mentions in her book that instruction at the imperial ballet school was largely based on the French method. Then Cecchetti and other Italians brought in their style and method of execution, and later Vaganova took the best of both to form her own teaching method.

And is the rest of Fonteyn's Rose Adagio (apparently later in her career than the video Bart posted), including the balances at the end, which I think she does perfectly. The arm stays in 3rd long enough to tell us that she is perfectly on balance, it moves up and down calmly, without any desperate grasping, and she appears to always be looking at her partners' eyes, although it is a little bit difficult to tell given the film quality.Edit: Ok, I just watched two of my favorite ballerinas (Zhanna Ayupova and a very young Larissa Lezhnina) dance the Rose Adagio, and I would really like to hear from someone who knows more about how this role is generally danced at the Mariinsky because while both ballerinas were extremely courteous with their partners throughout, they both distinctly looked away from them during the balances. Is it just a matter of different characterization?

I don't think it's necessary for ballerinas to raise their arms to 3rd position between partners. The point, for me, is that they are supported by each prince in turn, with a secure, regal (however short the duration) balance in between.

That brings up a question I've had about Kirkland's dancing for some time, as besides the R&J clip, I have only seen the Wolf Trap DVD--what was her jump like? She seems almost totally unable to get off the ground at Wolf Trap, although many other aspects of her technique are surprisingly good given her condition at the time.

Not to push this thread further off topic, but I can't believe ABT is still performing McKenzie's Nutcracker or that people are actually going to see it. I wish they would do Mary Day's charming version, but I guess charm is not what they're going for.

I think that as far as class goes, it depends on the student and the combination. For example, I don't need to mark relatively simple exercises, but I do find it helpful for more complicated ones. The important thing is to never take your eyes off the teacher so you know you are marking the correct steps. For professionals, if there isn't a day of rest between the dress rehearsal and performance of a full-length ballet, it may be absolutely necessary to mark their parts, although I agree that they should generally do as much as possible full-out. The corps would usually always dance full-out, partly because their steps are less taxing and partly because if everyone is marking, it is much more difficult to see whether they are together, in line, &c.

Marking is sort of doing the steps half-way as opposed to "full-out." If a dancer has an injury, is conserving energy, or is just trying to get the steps into his/her muscle memory without actually doing them, s/he will mark them. This could mean substituting a relevé for a pirouette, a low developpé for a higher one, doing steps on demi-pointe instead of pointe, going through the motion of a jump without actually jumping, &c. To my knowledge, it is not codified.

I've never seen this ballet, but...The Legend of Love? The part where Ferkhad dreams he sees the Queen's sister in the river. Or "Blue Expanses" from Hazy Vistas?

It's not The Little Humpbacked Horse (the "new" version, filmed with Plisetskaya) is it?

I can't say I'll be taking the results of that study very seriously. People love to pigeonhole others based on various characteristics, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't serve much of a purpose other than to reinforce the "us vs. them" mentality when the arts should, in my opinion, be working to bring us together rather than push us apart.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find out anything else about them, but I agree with you that the style looks nothing like Jean Charlot's. My prints do appear to be exactly the same as yours. What initially captured my eye is the accurate depiction of technique and the portrayal of a ballet that is not performed very often, although I don't think 4th position sur les pointes occurs in "Les Sylphides," so perhaps some artistic license was taken. I would guess that the originals might be from approximately the 1950's or so, but I'm by no means an art historian so could easily be way off in that regard.

AngieLynn, those are exactly the same pictures that I have! I like your frames better than mine, though.

My ballet teacher told me that in Russia, dancers always have the day off after performing "Giselle," and one famous ballerina (Fonteyn?) mentioned that "Swan Lake" was the only ballet she never felt strong enough to perform twice in one day, but I haven't heard anything similar about "Raymonda," although it does look quite taxing.

As the shades are dead, I would expect them to exude an unearthly calm. The Mariinsky and POB dancers do this very well.

Ray, that does sound unfortunate, to put it politely. Re: the lifts in Giselle, I don't entirely blame Kirkland--the technique for those lifts is similar to that used for the lifts in Les Sylphides. The woman must not jump at all; the man must lift her as "dead weight" because otherwise she ends up looking heavy, and it spoils the illusion of weightlessness. However, it is quite hard on the man.

Naturally one is expected to do one's best with the partner one is given, however skilled. That includes being respectful enough (of the partner, audience, director, and art form) to be sober while working with them. This isn't confined to men--I certainly wouldn't want to have to partner a lady who murders me with her chemically-assisted port de bras or other movement, whether the critics are in raptures or not.

There goes the myth of the nunlike ballet dancer, sacrificing all for art. I'm curious as to how one trusts a partner who is high--pas de deux work can be very tricky and often dangerous.

This is a most interesting point, mel, and one which I hadn't really thought about. It certainly holds true for the period I know best ('57-'85). In fact, it was something I always liked, and I tended to think of it as a legacy of the days when Balanchine had to draw his dancers from so many different kinds of training, stage experience, etc. The SAB, as time went on, tended to produce more striking technique but also to smooth out the personal edges and idiosyncracies that I will always assosciate with NYCB in its first decades. I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on mel's point. The thing about SAB is that it does smooth out the dancers' personal edges while producing idiosyncrasies of its own, which I suppose is what Balanchine had in mind. However, it is the reason that I and many other people prefer to watch Balanchine ballets performed by other companies--you see the choreography, not the mannerisms.

She was an excellent teacher; it is a great loss for SAB.

I don't suppose the leotard ballet was among the genres parodied.