Hans

I think it would work. Would you have children play the dwarves?

I wouldn't mind seeing Giselle paired with The Magic Flute, which would be a pleasant contrast.

What a wonderful opportunity! Thank you Ms. Holmes and Helene! I would like to ask whether the production was modified from the Bolshoi's version to suit ABT. I'm sure I'll have others...is it all right to edit my post to add them or should I make separate posts? Edit: Who choreographed the "bedroom" pas de deux between Conrad and Medora (the one Giselle05 refers to)?

The Royal Danish Ballet and the Paris Opéra Ballet.

Bart, it sounds as if you have all the required attributes for a full-tuition, room and board scholarship to certain pre-professional summer intensives in the US! :rolleyes:

I hope Doug sees this thread. Could any of our French posters explain what "Delire" means? Is it perhaps related to the English word "delirium?" If so, I suppose the title would mean something like, "The Vision/Hallucination of a Painter"...?

Well, I'd leave Lacotte out of the equation, but I think it's a very exciting possibility. I wonder if any scene/costume sketches survive.

Another fun topic I missed while I was away. I have always wanted to do: James in La Sylphide Albrecht in Giselle (I've done the Paysan pdd and the music still makes me grit my teeth) Prince Désiré in Sleeping Beauty The Spirit in Le Spectre de la Rose (lots of jumping, no lifts!) To each of the roles, I would bring grace, nobility, restraint, and killer petit batterie. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much unsuited for all of them.

Now try coming up with two or three more casts for each program--the same dancers don't generally do their parts all week!

What an adorable picture! One question, though: it appears that there are strings attached to her hat and wig...do you know what those are and why they might have been there?

After considering it today, I wonder what it would be like to see NYCB do "real" Petipa--that is, the Sergeyev Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake, not a production that Peter Martins has pre-Balanchinized for the dancers' consumption.

To answer Cliff, if there are only one or two boys in a ballet school, they are often ostracized socially by the girls.

But La Sonnambula doesn't require Romantic port de bras. If we can mix and match, I'm importing Wiles, Bystrova, Hamrick, Uphoff, and Tidwell to the Kirov. Just thinking about Wiles as Odette surrounded by that perfect corps makes me dizzy.

Thank you for the warning, Jane! The way I look at it, I'd rather spend the money on ballet than anything else--which is what I'll tell myself when I see the gaping hole in my bank account.

Whelan as Giselle?! Well, to each his own.... I choose the Kirov (of course). My first order of business would be to get Larissa Lezhnina to come back. I don't know if all the following heights work, and keep in mind, I haven't seen everyone at the Kirov. Program 1 "The Little Humpbacked Horse" (reconstructed by Doug, if possible) Zhelonkina/Korsakov Program 2 "Giselle" coached by Asylmuratova Ayupova, Fadeyev, Lopatkina, Osmolkina/Sarafanov (Paysan PDD) Program 3 "Le Pavilion d'Armide" Lezhnina/Merkuriev or Fadeyev "Petrouchka" Sarafanov/Ayupova/Korsakov Program 4 "Jewels" Emeralds: Ayupova Rubies: Vishneva Diamonds: Pavlenko or Lopatkina Program 5 "Gaité Parisienne" (is it evening-length or a one-act?) Vishneva Assuming GP is a one-act ballet, or even two, I'm going to add La Sylphide with Ayupova, alternating with Lezhnina, as well as Fadeyev and Merkuriev. Program 6 "Raymonda" Maya Dumchenko, Igor Zelensky Oh...what a long list. I guess that's enough for one season.

Thank you Natalia--that's a huge help. I'll email them as soon as I get home. (I'm going to have NO money left after this week. :rolleyes: )

Do you know if that set is available commercially?

Well, this will vary from one person to another, but I find those slow cabrioles at the beginning of the pas de deux in Chopiniana/Les Sylphides quite difficult. One thing I will never forget seeing--when the Kirov brought Le Corsaire to the Kennedy Center, in Act II Anton Korsakov and Viktoria Terioskina performed the climactic "press lift" during the adagio of the "Slave" pas de trois. Korsakov lifted her above his head in arabesque, walked upstage with her, stepped onto demi-pointe in 5th, and raised his left leg into a 45-degree arabesque! I've never done the one-arm lift, so I don't know how difficult it is, although I suspect that getting the balance right could be tricky--and Kitri's costume had better not be made of something slippery!

Another quick technical note from the Obsessive-Compulsive Ballet Terminology Fairy :rolleyes: --It's "sur le cou de pied." "Cou" = "neck" as opposed to "coup," which is a conjugation of the verb "couper" (to cut). Don't even get me started on confusing "pas coupé" with "cou de pied!" Oh--and the step described as "Russian" pas de chat does not exist, as far as I know, in the Vaganova syllabus. I like carbro's term "pas de chat volé," but it would probably have to be "pas de chat devant volé" because you can do pas de chat derrière too!

One thing to keep in mind is that dancers don't count the same way musicians do. For example, during a march in 2/4 time, a dancer would count each quarter note for an entire phrase: "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight" instead of "one, two" each measure. Breaking the music into phrases instead of measures (choreography generally follows phrases) makes it easier to keep track of. The answer to the rest of your questions is: Lots and LOTS of rehearsal. :blush: You just do it over and over and over again until you know your part and the music by heart and could sing/perform it backward in your sleep, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind your back!

Quick technical note regarding lifts: If the woman does a big jump, it is helpful to her partner, but it makes her look heavy. If she just does a plié and makes her partner lift her, it's tougher for the man, but she ends up looking weightless.

Thank you Natalia--I just ordered it from Amazon! I see that Kunakova is the Lilac Fairy, and I'm looking forward to that too. I knew about the Lezhnina performance (I own the DVD) and I agree, that slow-motion film is ridiculous.

I got a ballet history question right!!! :blush:

My favorite to do is entrechat-six. To watch--saut de l'ange, when done properly.

Is anyone able to confirm that the Kolpakova dvd does indeed include the panorama?