Hans

A weighty quality is most important to me. Next come acting ability, line (Baranov has wonderful line), and technique. All this presumes that he can also dance.

I considered both of them, too, but couldn't decide, though of course I have a strong personal bias in favor of Wiles .

They probably would, too :green: It would increase ticket sales, no doubt....

Grisi, that was it! The multitalented one . Then I'd put Kent as Cerrito, Ferri as Taglioni...maybe Ananiashvili as Grisi...but who could do Grahn ? Come to think of it, I'll bet Ms. Leigh could stage it ;). Or maybe Evdokimova should be given the job, given what's happened at Boston Ballet.

You're right, Alexandra--my list probably would look better on the Kirov! But I do think it would be fun to see Dvorovenko or Ananiashvili in Esmeralda, not to mention Ferri in Pas de Quatre. I wonder if Jeux would look as athletic to us as it perhaps did to audiences at its premiere, considering the general athleticism of ballet these days.

I'd like to see it staged by Kunakova, though I don't think she'd know the Dolin version. Alessandra Ferri would make a beautiful Taglioni, and imagine Kent in the 3rd variation (that ends with a saut de l'ange--is that Cerrito or Elssler?).

Maybe she had to adjust her balance at the moment the picture was taken.

Actually, my video does include the 8 corps members, but I called it a pas de deux anyway because they are not integral to the dance (at least that's how it appears on my tape)--they seemed to me less like the four girls in La Vivandiere or Esmeralda than Aurora's friends and violinists in the Rose Adagio, or the corps de ballet during the White Swan adagio. It could be done just as easily without them, whereas you really need six people to perform La Vivandiere. [Editing to add: not trying to lay down a hard and fast rule here about what is and is not a pas de x, just explaining my interpretation ] Can anyone explain the ending pose of the two principals, in which the woman is in 5th en pointe and the man has one hand on her knee? It's done at the end of the adagio and the coda.

As a general note on the pronunciation of French words, the accent is almost always on the last syllable. "Sucre" is an exception (but not "sucré"), and I'm sure there are others, but in general, it's ball-AY, pee-KAY, bat-MANH, &c.

Do these have to be from ABT's old rep? In no particular order: Pavilion d'Armide Ashton's R&J (imagine ABT having three productions of that ballet) Galatea Esmeralda Nijinsky's Rite of Spring (Yes, I know Joffrey's already done it), and also his "tennis" ballet--I forget the title Pas de Quatre

My Russian teachers pronounced Petipa the same way Americans do, as I recall. Another commonly mispronounced name is Julia Makhalina. It's "YOO-lee-ah Ma-KHA-lina." Now, say "Asylmuratova" five times fast !

Oddly enough, Grace, I'm actually speechless ! [Editing to add: Though considering what she did to be fired, I'm not sure such a protest would help her get her job back <_< .]

Sergei Legat

I thought you would come through with an answer . I guess I shouldn't read too much into the mime in the adagio, then. Do you know whether or not it really was choreographed by Petipa? It looks to me as if Ivanov might have had a hand in it.

Ok, now I understand what you mean . No, I don't think we have to have ballets about stereotypical American subjects. We have some, and for me, it's enough. Of course, the Russians and Danes have ballets based on their folklore, like The Firebird and The Little Humpbacked Horse, but of the greatest "Russian" classics, two take place in Germany and one in Louis XIV France. Likewise, Americans have "Rodeo" and "Stars and Stripes" and "Western Symphony," but that type of ballet isn't the foundation of any company's repertoire. IMO, the best ballets don't need an obvious cultural basis, though a setting adds flavor, interest, and local color to the most timeless choreography--just consider the variations on very similar fairy tales found around the world. In other words, if US choreographers make dances for US dancers, and if their choreography is any good, they won't need to put everyone in cowboy hats or sunbonnets to get their points across. Good choreography is good choreography, wherever it is performed. The cowboy hats can help attract a local audience, but if they were to be removed, the work shouldn't fall apart. Even historical events don't have to be unerstandable only to the people of the nation in which they occurred. In Excelsior, though it's set in Italy, with Italian historical figures, it wasn't difficult to understand the discovery of electricity, the steam engine, &c.

I have some questions about this ballet, having recently acquired a video of the pas de deux. Does the libretto survive, and if so, what is the story? There seems to be a little mime in the pas de deux, but it doesn't make much sense without knowing the story. Also, the male variation on my tape looks suspiciously like the second male variation from the Peasant Pas de Deux. Any comments on this? And finally, does anyone (say, the Kirov) perform the full-length ballet anymore, or has it suffered the same fate as La Vivandiere?

I wouldn't say that a national American company has to be ethnically diverse (though it would be appropriate), but I would like it to have its very own classical style and to be able to perform a range of styles of choreography. This is not the same thing has having a corps de ballet that is so stylistically diverse as to be distracting. My own criteria would include performing solid versions of the classics as well as Balanchine and newer choreographers, and I think ABT could do this right now if it wanted to. Alexandra, I like this paragraph: That makes perfect sense to me, though presumably a country's culture will influence its idea of what ballet is. Also, in terms of being either the best or the most representative, I think the Kirov and Bolshoi might provide an example of this. The Kirov is usually regarded as the best Russian company, but it could perhaps be said that the Bolshoi is more representative--less aristocratic, &c--geared more toward "the people." Can the same be said of companies in other countries--say, the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet? I hope Russia knows how lucky it is to be the only nation in the world with TWO world-class ballet institutions! This is not to say that the best company cannot be the most representative, or vice versa, of course, and some companies do a very good job of combining the two.

I know you didn't ascribe this view to me, justafan, but I'd just like to make it clear that I don't view ABT as our national company, either. As far as I know, we don't have one. If we were choosing a national company from the existing US ballet companies, I'd probably vote for ABT, as I find its mix of nationalities to be appropriate in terms of the US and its culture, but right now, I can't think of a company that for me really fulfills the role of a national company in the sense of being an institution, &c.

Terry, is NYCB really our 'national' company? Its name certainly makes it sound regional, and I do not believe it truly represents American ballet, which does not consist of one style, but is a mix of many styles. I believe ABT better represents this mix, whether it has the institutional structure or not. Alexandra, please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, SAB does not have a written syllabus the way the Vaganova Academy and Royal Ballet School do. In my experience, the teachers contradicted each other on matters of technique and style, which makes sense, as those matters are easily debatable according to who worked with Balanchine when and on what ballet. We've had discussions about this in the Teachers forum, and there are people both 'for' and 'against', but I have yet to see proof that there is a teaching method or syllabus underlying the Balanchine style. I don't think a school needs its own syllabus to be a world-class institution (but it helps), but its style should at least be consistent.

You're right, Alexandra--the Kirov and POB do still seem to be concerned with company style:). I think that the Kirov's style is perhaps linked more directly to Vaganova than Petipa--maybe you could say they get their Petipa through a Vaganova filter, though of course she did work directly with Petipa. I think the point about company styles having more to do with the choreographer than the nation is right on. Kathleen, considering the many different ballet training methods (& therefore styles) there are around the country, I still don't see how a universal style could be applied to all of them, and I think Alexandra/Kisselgoff's point is relevant here--it has more to do with the choreographer than the nation. Americans don't all move a certain way, just as French people don't all move a certain way. An Americans can be trained Vaganova and he will have a totally different look from another American (even in the same state or city) who has been trained in another style.

If anyone would like to try to define the American male dancer's style, they can go right ahead. Good luck ;). I sure couldn't! I don't think there is one American style. We certainly don't have a national ballet school/company unit. I'd take more issue with lines like "The Danes can do everything better than almost everyone else"--what's that supposed to mean? Alexandra, I think there is still style, but I don't think you'll find much of it outside the major companies--or even in the major companies. To find style, I'd look at their schools, and it seems to me that places like the POBS and Vaganova Academy still have style, though not as pure as it once was. From my point of view, schools are more concerned with style than companies are.

I've noticed that too, and with other dancers as well, esp. Sylvie Guillem in classical roles. I find that it gets very tiresome after a while and I start to wonder what their point is.

Leigh, that is interesting. What did he do wrong stylistically? (feel free to pm me if you feel it would be OT in terms of this thread)

Glad to hear it, zerbinetta:). She has the most wonderful eyes.

Alymer, as I recall, George Jackson said the film was from the 80's.