Hans

If I understand properly, the step Dido describes isn't really a true ballet step and won't be in any ballet dictionary.

Kirovboy, vrsfanatic was trained to teach the Vaganova method at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, so her credentials are not in question. And fille'smom, there are good and bad teachers in every method, as Simon G has pointed out. When Vaganova is taught properly, its characteristics will not be exaggerated. Please do not judge the entire method by one bad teacher. And nowhere is it written in the Vaganova syllabus that the teachers must demoralize or abuse the students. Finally, "Russian" is not necessarily synonymous with "Vaganova," just as "American" is not necessarily synonymous with "Balanchine." I don't mean to snap or be offensive, but please everyone keep these distinctions in mind when speaking about ballet methods and teachers.

I have the Australian Ballet. It seems serviceable, but if you can get the Royal Ballet, I'd imagine that would be best.

What a timely thread . This very day, I was seated in front of a child who sang along with the chorus, off-key, during the snow scene. I thought about giving him/her my Death Glare, and would have had the principals been dancing, but it wasn't a pro production, so I decided to just be happy that such a small child knew the music (and prayed that it wasn't because of the Barbie Nutcracker!)

Vaganova dancers are not told that their ribs should protrude. They do, however, use their backs in a different way than other methods that affects the look of the upper body. I'm not really sure what you mean about the legs...can you explain further? If you are referring to the curves produced by hyperextended knees, that is not a question of training but rather a characteristic of pre-selected body types.

The photos certainly look interesting, although it's not quite what one pictures when reading the book

::tries to picture a bobblehead Patricia Barker Sugar Plum Fairy::

As long as it isn't "gaseuse" Sorry, it's been one of those days....

Kind of ironic that a "balance" can be taken too far, isn't it?

The fairy tales the classics are based on are not as superficial and silly as they seem at first--they are layered with symbolism and their renditions in another artistic form, be it ballet, opera, &c add another layer to that if done by a skilled artist. Petipa's Sleeping Beauty easily fills three acts and a prologue without dragging because he knew what he wanted to put in each act and how to pace the story as told through dance, and he had a clear vision of a complex but harmonious and balanced composition. I feel that such a sense of the entire composition is lacking today. Choreographers put in elements ("villager dance," "pas de deux") because they're in the classics, but they don't seem to have an idea of the larger picture; they seem to see a ballet more as a sequence of events or dances. A "general dance" in the classics wasn't just thrown in as a time-filler to let the principals rest or because there's one in every ballet of a certain length and it has to go somewhere or because Act II isn't taking long enough; it was part of an orderly sequence of dance and mime that had a beginning, middle, and end, all of which related to each other. And about ballet dancers trying to do modern, I agree. They just don't have the technique for it.

djb, Sizova is my favorite, too . I think everyone who has posted so far has captured what Aurora should be perfectly. Also, going back to Paul's first sentence, I heard on the board that Aurora's Act III variation is meant to display the qualities bestowed on her by the fairies during the Prologue.

I got "Dancing Cats and Neglected Murderesses"

Andris and Ilse Liepa are brother and sister. Their father was a well-known dancer, too, although his first name escapes me at the moment.

I know Baryshnikov wasn't with the company long, but he would have made a great Bluebird. Did he ever dance that part?

Marga, where can I get Ulanova's Swan Lake? I MUST see it!

Balletmom, "Essential Ballet" is available on DVD through Amazon. It features the Kirov in a gala performance of various classics attended by Princess Diana in London and a gala of various Kirov, Bolshoi, and Paris Opéra dancers in an outdoor theater set up in Red Square, Moscow. Some very nice performances of classic excerpts, including some that are not seen that much--a bit of Aniuta, a pas de deux from Fokine's "Firebird," and Maya Plissetskaya's "Dying Swan." It also features Olga Chenchikova in "Paquita," Larissa Lezhnina in "Diana and Actaeon," and Altynai Asylmuratova in "The Leaves are Fading" pas de deux.

Wow, 60+ videos! I am incredibly envious right now...and I thought I had a large collection at 25. My 10 Desert Island videos/DVDs would be: 1. The Erik Bruhn/Nureyev Bell Telephone Hour performances 2. Swan Lake with Makhalina 3. Le Corsaire with Asylmuratova 4. Don Quixote with Terekhova 5. "Essential Ballet" 6. "Kirov Classics" 7. Sleeping Beauty with Sizova 8. Sleeping Beauty with Asylmuratova 9. Sleeping Beauty with Kolpakova 10. Sleeping Beauty with Lezhnina Not exactly the most balanced list, but I love it .

I agree with that. And there are many plotless ballets that do NOT look arbitrary, particularly those of Balanchine. I also agree that the exact concept a choreographer has in mind doesn't have to be implicit in each particular step, but that the composition as a whole should convey something coherent--in other words, there has to be a point. But part of the point of an abstract ballet is that one can interpret it for oneself. Just as bad as arbitrary plotless ballets are story ballets with meaningless extra movement and dances. There are plenty of charming divertissements in the classics, but these usually have at least a thin connection to the story. Some more recently choroegraphed story ballets seem to have "generic villager" dances thrown in to give the principals a chance to rest or to take up time/music, not because they're part of a larger scheme of composition.

For more information, you might contact the Russian Ballet Society, which regulates the Legat syllabus.

I saw BTM for the first time recently. It is a very, very tiny company that performs in a converted middle school. Not the greatest dancers in the world, but there are some talented people, I am happy to support just about any ballet company in Maryland--we don't have enough!

/Points to title of thread: Story Ballets, A Thread For Those Who Like Them There's another saying: "Going to the ballet for the plot is like going to the opera for the recitative." I agree, but the story adds something, makes it more human and (for me) interesting. Also, it helps give the movement a purpose and forces the choreographer to think about what he/she is trying to portray or express. Some "plotless" choreography today looks more arbitrary than abstract.

Marga, I definitely agree with you about Bystrova. She was one of the Kirov Academy's most promising students, so it's hard to believe that she's really fit for nothing but corps work.

This is going to sound really vague, but as a dancer, I think musicality is dancing with the music as opposed to dancing to the music. Let us not forget that the musician needs to be involved here too, which is why taped music is so unsatisfying.

I will be at that performance, too, Nora! I am so excited; the Kirov is my favorite company

Don't give in, perky!!! We are relying on you to maintain artistic standards for the next generation!!! :rolleyes: