Hans

Good for her--but they could really use her at the Mariinsky, whether they know it or not.

For me, this is worth having because of a beautifully radiant Asylmuratova in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire.

I think her dramatic weight loss could certainly have affected her vocal stability as it would have altered her diaphragmatic support. So if the wobble was there early on, it makes sense that the weight loss would exacerbate it. Callas herself said that her vocal cords were perfectly healthy--it was the support that was missing. There is some interesting information, including a quote from Voigt, in the 'Vocal Decline' section of the Maria Callas Wikipedia page.

Fortunately for us, videos of Ms. Behrens' performances as Brunnhilde, Tosca, and Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo are preserved on the Metropolitan Opera's Metplayer. I enjoyed watching these earlier this year. Behrens was an excellent singer and actress, and this is a very sad loss for the opera world.

Here is a longer article with a more complete account of her career: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/arts/mus...rss&emc=rss

The NY Times article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/18...rss&emc=rss

Thongs: these mean something very different in the UK than in Oz. In Australia they are what we call in Britain 'flip-flops' (nee Roman sandals) whereas in Britain they are undergarments of er.....flimsy appearance. Not sure what they are in the US.

Flip-flops here, too.

To answer your question, sejacko, we just had a thread on this very topic over on BT for Dancers. The answer is that it can indeed be a problem for aspiring ballet dancers, frequently due to unreasonable teachers or artistic directors, but that a nontraditional body type does not mean they have no hope of a career. Although the best companies often have the strictest body type requirements (which I understand but find unfortunate, as ballerinas were allowed to have a feminine silhouette through the 1950's at least, so obviously there is no technical or aesthetic reason for being extremely thin aside from fashion) many smaller or regional companies have more relaxed standards in terms of body type.

One point to keep in mind is that a classical tutu looks best on dancers with defined hips, waist, and bust. I recently saw a video of a well-known company and was surprised at how masculine the women's bodies looked in tutus because of their extreme thinness. It was not a pleasing aesthetic. There are supportive garments (that are invisible under leotards or costumes) available for female dancers, so it need not be an issue on the stage.

Another article regarding this subject, but with an interesting suggestion at the end: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/l...icle6792646.ece

Anyone for a Twitter-style update of the Ring Cycle?

It looks very nice!

It is rather difficult to boil down the entire ballet repertoire to just 5! I would say Giselle, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty are essential classics. Serenade, Apollo, Agon, and perhaps Theme & Variations are some good Balanchine works with which to be familiar, but he made many ballets in many styles, so it's difficult to choose just a few. Pillar of Fire, Lilac Garden, and The Leaves Are Fading seem to be the major Tudor works that are still performed. I really love Ashton so my list of his ballets will probably be too long, but I'd say Monotones I & II, Les Deux Pigeons, Sylvia, La Fille Mal Gardée, The Dream, and Les Patineurs are all first-rate. La Sylphide is the most famous Bournonville ballet aside from the pas de deux from Flower Festival in Genzano, and it is worth studying his other ballets, such as Napoli, A Folk Tale, The Kermesse in Bruges, and of course Le Conservatoire.

And of course the additional Petipa ballets Cristian listed are all well worth watching. I would only add Le Corsaire.

I have the Ulanova tape, and I'd say it's certainly no worse, and probably quite a bit better, than the MacMillan version, which people swoon over.

Bart, I would just call it skipping. If one really wanted to, one could probably call it some sort of temps levé in retiré position alternating legs, but really..."skipping" is easier.

Well, Baryshnikov and Edward Villella were considered short. Baryshnikov is about 5'8". I think anyone over 6' would be considered tall. For a woman I'm not as sure, but I recall reading that Julie Kent was one of ABT's tallest ballerinas at 5'7". I know ABT has at least one female corps member who is 5'9". Maybe a female dancer would be considered short at 5'2"?

This will vary somewhat from one company to another, as some prefer taller dancers, and others want shorter. It's a bit difficult to discuss exactly what is 'tall' and 'short' as dancers can appear taller or shorter than they really are due to many variables, including the way they dance, the size of their partners, proportions, &c.

I am a bit confused--it seemed to me that Cristian was praising Spessivtzeva and her final diagonal and instead taking issue with dancers who do a manège of piqué turns en dedans.

I'm with Carbro on this one. When I don't notice (or care) what the steps are, that's a performance worth watching!

Why hasn't this been done before? The Kennedy Center is allowing patrons to create their own subscriptions for the 2009-10 ballet season. We may now choose to see several performances of one ballet, different ballets on different nights, and we are not required to buy tickets for anything we don't want to watch. See for yourself: http://www.kennedy-center.org/tickets/subs...purchase_type=A

I will certainly be taking advantage of this as soon as possible!

That is a pas de chat.

ABT has 89 dancers listed on its website.

I believe the tilt they are referring to occurs at 1:51 and 1:53 of the Bojesen/Blangstrup video. Perhaps my favourite moments of that video are from there through 1:58, when she opens her arms and beams out radiantly at the audience.

Sizova and Soloviev are two of my favourite artists, but it seems to me that Mariinsky and Bolshoi dancers frequently have trouble with Bournonville's style, particularly how soft and understated it is. Taken on its own terms, though, I think the Sizova/Soloviev performance is beautiful, even with the choreographic alterations.

Edited to add: there is a similar step in this video of Evdokimova

3:49 - Fouetté sauté en dedans

4:05 - Pirouette en dedans

5:43 - Double tour en l'air

Thank you, gentlemen.

Any way to describe the particular position of the legs (I imagine several varieties are possible for

each?):

3:49 - Fouetté sauté en dedans: how to say his working leg is fully extended and pretty high from the hip?

4:05 - Pirouette en dedans: how to describe this particular flexion in his working knee, or alternately, the particular position of the working leg?

5:43 - Double tour en l'air: how to describe that the legs are straight, parallel and vertical (are all the tours executed this way? I doubt, but I don't know.)?

Thanks.

In each of these, he is essentially doing the standard form of the step, so I don't really see a need to specify, except perhaps to say that the fouetté sauté en dedans is croisé. He does the pirouette in retiré position, which is standard, and the tour en l'air in 5th position, also standard. One would generally only specify if there were a deviation from these--for example if the fouetté were at 45º instead of 90º, or if the pirouette were to be done in cou-de-pied instead of retiré position.

I just watched the Bojesen/Blangstrup performance that Helene linked to earlier in this thread (Bojesen is delightful--that soft port de bras combined with the speedy legs!) and noticed that Blangstrup does not do pirouette terminé en écarté devant in his 2nd variation but rather, from 4th, he does a quick little turn in plié and then a battement fondu at 90º in écarté devant.

3:43 - Yes, that is a sissonne

3:49 - Fouetté sauté en dedans

4:05 - Pirouette en dedans

5:43 - Double tour en l'air

6:11 - Pirouette terminé en écarté devant

I have just looked at the video on the ABT site, and there is a flaw in the execution! The dancer takes a small step out of 5th before doing the jeté, which is incorrect. If he started in pointe tendue devant, he would be justified in going through 4th. Very good eye, JerryS!

In jeté battu the working leg would be the one that does the initial dégagé. If you start in 5th position with the left leg in front, the right (working) leg does a dégagé to the side, then beats behind, and then in front of, the left (supporting) leg. Then when you land, the right leg becomes the supporting leg with the left leg in cou-de-pied derrière. It does get confusing when talking about a movement like jeté! Normally one speaks of working and supporting legs when one is more stationary. I agree with Paul that Vaganova's book is excellent, and you may also wish to look for Gail Grant's "Technical Manual and Dictionary of Ballet" which has just about every step there is! There is also Gretchen Ward Warren's "Classical Ballet Technique" which is more expensive but extensively illustrated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B31LC_htB4E

> 0:52-54 - Double rond de jambe en l'air sauté

Thanks to you both, Hans and Paul.

One thing I don't understand is where the term "rond" comes from for this one en l'air saute, as I don't see the circular motion which I see in the

Rond de jambe a terre en dedans

at the ABT dictionary.

It is a bit difficult to explain, and I don't have my ballet dictionaries with me at the moment, but basically the dancer raises his/her leg to 45º or 90º and moves the working foot in toward the supporting knee and back out again with the working toe tracing an oval shape in the air. It can be a bit difficult to see the "rond" from directly front sometimes.

>0:41-44 - He does a grande sissonne en avant followed by a quick ballonné with the left leg and then steps into a grand jeté en avant

Did I correctly identify another grande jete en avant at 0:49

in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B31LC_htB4E

?

So, the question for me is:

How does one quickly separate between grand sissonne en avant and grand jete en avant?

A very basic definition is that a sissonne is a jump that starts from two feet and lands on one, while a jeté is a jump that starts on one foot and lands on the other. So when he does sissonne, he starts in 5th position and finishes on his front leg with his back leg raised behind him (although in this case he has to bring it down quickly for the ballonné) and in the grand jeté, he brushes the front leg forward and jumps off the back leg onto the front leg (soaring beautifully through the air in between, of course!). I hope this helps.