Hans

I would just about kill to see Larissa Lezhnina in this role. On a completely different note, does anyone know whether Oksana Kucheruk is related to Anatoly Kucheruk?

How about a Trockadero cast...or would that go in the other thread?

Yes, it is recorded that Petipa wished for the courtiers in "Sleeping Beauty" to evoke those of Louis XIV.

Facebook Fairy...but this seems to be turning into another "Fairies for this Modern Era" thread.

Klingsor, that's exactly the combination that came into my mind when I saw this thread.

Here's an interesting one: Natalia Makarova, Margot Fonteyn, Suzanne Farrell, and Sylvie Guillem.

Veronika Part, Larissa Lezhnina, Maya Dumchenko, and Michele Wiles are the ones I'd most like to see together. They're all so different, but united by style and training. I can't do any era-mixing because I'd never be able to choose just four!

Are these supposed to be famous ballerinas or the ones we think are the best dancers, regardless of notoriety?

My vote is for the Kirov-Mariinsky as well. Terekhova is both a dynamite Kitri and an elegant Dulcinea, and the production includes elements that others don't, such as the puppet show and a rarely-seen variation in the last act. They are also the only company besides POB that can really fill out the corps in the dream sequence.

I've seen the Ashton on video and the Balanchine live several times (with, I think, Rachel Rutherford as the principal woman) so this may be comparing apples to oranges, but I find Balanchine's treatment heavy-handed and overly literal, with its Death character and onstage costume change. It comes across to me as a 19C lesson about "morality." Ashton's version is more what I would have expected from Balanchine--it conveys the desperation and sense of "dancing on the edge of a volcano" with delicacy and refinement--and without resorting to characters and a plot.

Haha, I don't really notice traveling that much either. If it does happen, I usually just feel sympathy for the ballerina.

Musicality has been impossible to ignore since the 17th century and before. Just because Balanchine may have introduced the idea to the US doesn't mean it hasn't always been an important concept in ballet. I actually don't count fouettés, which is surprising for someone as analytically minded as I am. As long as they're musical, any multiples just come as a nice surprise.

I must admit I'm with drb on this....

As the acting head of the school that gave the ballet world people such as Michele Wiles, Hee Seo, Sascha Radetsky, Melanie Hamrick, Karen and Kimberly Uphoff, Maria Bystrova, Rory Hohenstein, Vanessa Zahorian, Melissa Hough, Danny Tidwell, Adrienne and Ashley Canterna, Mathias Dingman, Elizabeth Mason, Rasta Thomas, and many others, it is clear that Mme. V has had an important influence on ballet in the US (and to a lesser extent overseas) today. For such a small school to produce so many wonderfully proficient dancers is nearly a miracle, but I know that it is due not only to the talent the dancers bring in but also to the incredibly hard work and careful attention to detail to which Mme. V and the faculty at KAB inspire their students.

From Michael Beard at the Kirov Academy:

I have both the Semenyaka and Kolpakova discs, and I think the Kolpakova version is more coherent, but to be honest I am not entirely convinced that this ballet ever made much sense. Maybe I have grown too used to 19C plot devices, or maybe it's the mix of fantasy and reality that throws me off, or maybe it's the lack of mime connecting events, but it seems as if things happen solely as an excuse for divertissements. Start with a court scene, dance a waltz, variations, and coda. Continue with a dream scene with more for the corps and an adagio. Bring back Abderakham for a pas de deux à trois, then splice in a deus ex machina ending so that you can have--surprise!--a wedding celebration with divertissements. The dancing is all very well choreographed, so the ballet is a delight to watch regardless, but dramatically...well, it's no Sleeping Beauty or Giselle.

Paul--as far as current Vaganova technique goes, as far as I know the dancers are taught both ways of getting to/from pointe--both rolling and springing, as in this day and age one really needs to be able to do both. Your description of the Balanchine style sounds correct to me, but I did not actually dance en pointe, of course.

Another vote for Kolpakova here.

I have noticed that shoes seem to be louder on video than in real life--for example when watching a performance at the Kirov Academy in person, shoe noise was minimal, but on the video it is quite loud.

3rd shade is Olga Likhovskaya. I also wonder where she is now. In case you are interested, there is a video of her online from 1986 dancing Le Papillon with Sergei Berezhnoi at a gala at Wolf Trap in Virginia.

Hans, given that SAB does have a syllabus and that there is such a thing as Balanchine technique, I don't understand what you mean when you say his style isn't codified. Yes Balanchine is "neo-classical," but then there is his retort upon first returning to Russia that "the home of classic ballet is now America." If SAB has a syllabus, this is the first I've heard of it, and I was an advanced student there. As far as Balanchine's style being a technique, I'm afraid I do not agree with that. The teachers on BTfD have had several discussions about it, and I as well as others feel that while the Balanchine style is fine for professionals to learn, it is not a method (such as the Vaganova method, Cecchetti method, &c) to be used for training children.

Well, the dancers can't exactly saunter back onstage with a bored expression when all our lives we've been told how lucky we are and how grateful we ought to be for every penny and tiny crumb or encouraging glance that happens to be tossed in our general direction. I do have to mention though that I am rather tired of the plot convention of the Beautiful White Lady (Sylvia, Medora, Nikiya, Raymonda) menaced by a male dressed in a cliché middle eastern manner (usually complete with an entourage of people who dance with flexed feet and splayed fingers).

I wonder if Kirstein actually had Balanchine in mind when he expressed that opinion, given that Balanchine's style is very personal and not at all codified. It has an extremely thick "accent," to use his expression.

I don't know if anyone has seen the film yet, but there is a thread discussing it here.

Just wanted to add that the Asylmuratova "Swan Lake" on Youtube is well worth watching. Not only is she a beautiful, poetic Odette but also an excellent Odile, both technically strong and with vivid, detailed characterization--perhaps my new favorite O/O, in fact!