Mary J

It is my understanding, though, that Shiva also dances all life out of existence, so he is sometimes considered the god of both creation and destruction. Like a lot of religion, life is seen as cyclical, so it makes sense that both birth and death are governed by the same deity.

I mistakenly posted this in the wrong forum - I am not paying attention!! A reminder that Alexandra will be in NYC tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 25, for a book signing of her book, Henning Kronstam, Portrait of a Danish Dancer. Here are the details: Time: 7:00 pm Place: Barnes & Noble Bookstore, at Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway; New York, New York, right near Lincoln Center

My husband is going to put up a barre for me to practice at home. What is the proper height for a wall-mounted barre, please?

I may be wrong, but I believe the last time I bought theater tickets (for a musical, no less) I was informed by the Ticketmaster agent that tickets are not sold for children under 5. Anyone else have this experience? I took my daughter to Coppelia at the age of five and she was so enchanted that I didn't have to worry. At six we went to Beauty which was a little too long, so she took a nice nap.

I suppose the alternative is an otherwise decent person with a form of mental illness that heightens perception or involves mood swings - Van Gogh comes to mind, or the currently popular Virginia Woolf. The behavior is not the result of a conscious choice to be moral or not, or to conform to society's rules.

One of the best Giselles I have seen was Violette Verdy with Boston Ballet back in the early 70's. Her first act was very muically danced, and her Mad Scene was dramatically intelligent. Her second act was interesting because she was so cold in the beginning (almost like an automaton) and she warmed up and became more human as the act progressed. By the end, she was quite, quite heart-breaking. I regret that I can't remember her Albrecht - but the entire performance was very strong technically so it must have been someone good -

The traveling arabesques in the second act of Giselle - I always picture the members of the corps going into the wings, running around behind the backdrop and going to the back of the line to do it again.

FarrellFan - just to illustrate my problem, whenever Kyra (see I am already on a first name basis with her!) said "Patty" I was thinking Neary but I assume she meant McBride? I guess Neary would be Pat.

I suppose the scheduling problems might excuse an interview for a local PTA group, but this is a NYCB event, organized in advance, and with a $5 admission charge (waived for Guild members). With the amount of money that is currently being spent by the NYCB with glossy brochures to raise money for the future, this was a lost public relations opportunity - something more thoughtfully done would have been impressive, informative and more of a tribute to Ms. Nichols' stature in the company. The proposed questions could have been given to her weeks in advance, by mail, by fax, by e-mail, in person - to give her a chance to think about her answers and make any objections known. She was completely charming, and deserved better. This might have been the equivalent of an "oral history" of Ms. Nichols' experiences. Instead it had the impact of a Donohue re-run.

I attended this interview last night. (The next interview is going to be Feb. 17th, Darcy Kistler and Jock Soto.) There were several hundred people in the audience, which must be quite gratifying for Kyra. Unfortunately I do not know the current NYCB or Ms. Nichols at all so I was attending as part of my "learning curve." With all due respect, the interviewer, Ellen Sorrin, Director of Education at NYCB, was very sweet but not a particularly adept interviewer. If you were intimately familiar with NYCB and its past dancers, it might seem okay to leave answers on a first name basis - "Suzanne, Karin, Patty" - but it would have been a little more professional (and helpful to the likes of me) to stop and clarify - "That's Suzanne Farrell, etc." It would also have been nice (from my perspective) to have a series of well ordered questions, either based on KN's chronological development (training, performance, touring, etc.) or her roles (with dates, please), but instead there was rather a hit-or-miss approach. Some of the more interesting questions came when they opened it up for audience questions. I will give you some of the highlights, and if they seem random, it is pretty much the way things came up. KN's mother had been a corps member at NYCB and danced soloist roles. Mom started a ballet school on the West Coast which is how KN was introduced to ballet, and she knew from the moment she started that she loved it more than anything else she did. KN studied for three summers at SAB before becoming an apprentice in the company (at about age 15). Jacques D'Amboise was her mentor, who helped her by, among other things, choreographing on her for festivals "since I was not one of Mr. B's favorites." KN finds the "fast ballets" like Square Dance and Ballo de Regina the most technically challenging since she naturally prefers the slower choreography. The new Firebird (during the 70's - again it would have been nice to have the details filled in for those of us who don't know them)was the first time she worked with Mr. B - who would just "give me the steps and let me go with it, find my own way to dance them." The costume was a nightmare with a train (tail?) and with wings that would slam shut into a single wing behind her when she turned quickly. "Suzanne" and "Patty" helped coach her. She found Diamonds difficult because of the Farrell "mannerisms" and associations but she managed to try different things, working through the role in the studio, until she was comfortable with it. She has been very lucky with partners, such as Sean Lavery and Adam (I assume Luders, but again no one clarified this...) and she is enjoying dancing with Philip Neal because they now know each other's timing so well that they have a kind of shorthand and don't have to discuss every move ("When I am tired, he knows which way I am going to fall.") She has a great fondness for Jerome Robbins, who was always "respectful and nice to me." He created Spring in Four Seasons for her. She finds that she will sometimes think about him during performance - he taught her the power of where and how you look (glance) during a performance, and she enjoyed traveling to China with him to dance there. Peter Martins' choreography for KN (Poulenc? again, details would really have helped here - dates, other cast members?) tapped into her more emotional, vulnerable side and she has used this in other ballets. Changes in her dancing over time: "I wish I had come to this point sooner, where I am calmer and enjoy dancing without having to worry about rising to a new level. Dancing is fun for me now." Because she has a family ( 2 sons, 15 months and 6 years old), she says she realizes that if she misses a double pirouette, it isn't the end of the world. She would like to encourage younger dancers to have fun with their dancing, that becoming a dancer shouldn't just be a "hardship." She now gets asked for a wish list before each season - of ballets she would like to perform. "It is strange to think that I am now where Suzanne and Patty were when I joined the company." Lots of questions about balancing her work and her family - it helps that her husband is executive director of the American Repertory Ballet in Princeton where they live so she takes class there and doesn't have to commute into NYC every day. How do you keep a ballet fresh when you perform it repeatedly? I listen to the music, and just try to be myself. The body is different with each performance. Would she have liked to do more comedic roles, like Coppelia? She views Swanhilda as a soubrette role for a smaller dancer. Sleeping Beauty - the full length ballet is exciting but the balances in the Rose Adagio are so nerve wracking that you are exhausted by the end of that act and you have two acts to go. Changes at NYCB - "It is Peter Martin's ballet company now, and I admire him for tackling it. Of course he is going to choose ballets and dancers that suit him." Did you miss dancing the classics like Giselle? No. Mr. B's choreography was freer whereas the classic are very "set." Perhaps I would have liked to do Romeo and Juliet because of the beautiful music but who ever saw a tall Juliet? Music sustains the emotional content of ballets for her. The simpler you are with emotions, the more they come through. "If you start to "act," it is just external, put on, and the audience will know that." Doesn't care for modern music - can't dance ballets where you have to count because she wants to feel the music. Are younger dancers just looking for more turns/higher extensions? "Perhaps one day they will look for quality not just quantity." Audition tips - don't try to be anything but yourself. If you are pretending to be something different, you face a very long time of pretending, and you want to be comfortable in the company that accepts you. When you retire will you teach? She recalls Stanley Williams saying that either you pass it along or it gets lost - she definitely wants to teach and preserve what she knows, as one of the last generation of dancers who worked with Mr. B and Robbins.

Nancy Dalva of Dance Insider reviewed the January 18th performance of Davidsbundlertanze, using an anecdote from Alexandra's book. Dalva cites Alexandra's passage describing Kronstam coaching Thomas Lund. Kronstam tells Lund that Ashton didn't like smiling during performance, preferring a polite face, a mild face: "Look at the mirror and try to make happy eyes." Dalva then uses this imagery to describe the particular power of Kyra Nichols' performance. For the full review, http://danceinsider.com/f2003/f0121_1.html

The cabriole photo is remarkable - but I have always focussed on how much Kronstam seems to be enjoying what he is creating. Like a kid on a swing. Not so much "look at me" as "yessss". As someone who saw Kronstam dance and admired him as a person and a truly great dancer, I consider Alexandra's book a pure gift. For those of us who wanted to follow his career from afar, there were the rare RDB tours and very little press (and no Ballet Alert!). The book gave me such a warm and complex picture of his life and his work. The photographs were wonderful, depicting not only his performances and some corners of his personal life but also his teaching and his rehearsal time. For some reason I can't describe, I also love the rehearsal photo of Hoopla with Murray Louis - Kronstam's concentration, even in the random moment captured by the camera, is so evident. The use of Kronstam's own words throughout the book made it almost seem an oral autobiography - especially fun were the times when the dry humor peeks through the darkness. What I find so touching is how the book is reaching people who were not fortunate enough to see Kronstam during his lifetime, even inducing melancholy (a lovely turn of phrase). You see, Alexandra - maybe you were wrong. You told Kronstam that 50 years after death dancers are either a few photographs in a book or a book - but maybe Henning will have a different legacy, reminding future dancers and ballet lovers how to truly bring their life into their art - "this breathlessness" of creation.

I have finished this book, and Alexandra is absolutely right in saying that this is not a book for young people, or even for easily dismayed older people since some of the situations are quite, shall we say, unconventional. Nor is it a book that should be classified as a "biography" since the author himself emphasizes the fictional nature of this "novel." The book is really Nureyev through the eyes of various family members, friends and acquaintances, observing him at various stages of his life from young childhood until late career. As a work of fiction, it has its strengths, but curiously the most endearing characters are the narrators themselves, rather than Nureyev. The form of the narrative suggests strongly that no one person knew, or could have known, him. There is also surprisingly little about dancing. Only once are we given an interior monologue by Nureyev himself while dancing, and it was, for me, the least vivid and genuine part of the book. I enjoyed reading this book, but I can only guardedly recommend it as a "ballet" book.

I saw Chicago this weekend and liked it, although it is not as riveting as the stage version. I liked Zeta-Jones more than I expected and Zellweger slightly less. My two issues with the movie - they cleaned it up too much and made it seem brighter and more glamorous than I recall the play being. The darker seamier side seemed to have been painted over. (The costumes are to die for (no pun intended) - especially Zeta-Jones' fur sleeved dress.) But the thing I found most frustrating is the dancing - please let me see more than one move before you cut to something else - I thought "All that Jazz" was really good - what I could see of it.

I second the toast to Dance and Dancers! I remember it being not only fairly comprehensive but including excellent photos that gave you some sense of the performances.

Nomination of only good use of a chair in a ballet - Flemming Flindt's The Lesson.

I agree that musicality was not one of the primary characteristics I associate with Barishnikov. On my list of musical dancers: Verdy - definitely; I have never seen a more perfect second act of Giselle in terms of musicality than hers Merle Park - gave Fonteyn a run for her money as Juliet Melissa Hayden - some of the most individual phasing anywhere Among the men, I would go with Dowell, Vasiliev and Kronstam. My recollection of Christopher Gable is not as clear as it ought to be, but he did also come to mind.

These phrases confirm my perception that ballet is just another business (or maybe that ballet criticism is just another corporate public relations opportunity). It is a safe bet that even the Enron Annual Report had a phrase similar to "We are poised to take energy trading into the 21st century. We are not a museum company."

I started this book this morning. McCann has a very distinctive style, and is capable of incredibly vivid physical descriptions but I haven't gotten far enough to see if his ballet writing is convincing. I will let you know my reaction.

Kronstam Nureyev Bruhn talk about greedy

My recollection is that they used the actual Mercury Theatre in "Red Shoes" - I think they had 4.35 swans in the Moira Shearer Swan Lake that was excerpted.

My recollection with Gregory was that she was in the corps for about ten minutes. The funny thing is, during that ten minutes, I acquired one of my favorite memories of Gregory, dancing one of the non-ballerina solos in Raymonda Variations. I don't think I ever saw anyone phrase the hand behind the head/attitude as well as she did. But she graduated out of that solo in performance pretty fast.

I guess it depends on what "home grown" means. Did ABT have a conduit school in those days, the way the Royal, Royal Danish and Balanchine did?

Here is my recollection of ABT from mid 1960's to mid-1970's. This is before Makarova and Barishnikov. I remember Bruhn and Fracci as the main guest stars, usually appearing in Sylphide or Giselle. I remember Carmen deLavallade for one season and one particular ballet. But it seemed to me that one of ABT's strengths was its crop of home grown talent. Toni Lander, Lupe Serrano, Eleanor D'Antuono, Cynthia Gregory; Royes Fernandez, Bruce Marks, Ted Kivitt, Paul Sutherland; and solosits who could do just about anything. The repertory was fun - de Mille, Robbins, Tudor, Lander, with works by Enrique Martinez and Eliot Feld, some of which vanished and some (I personally love At Midnight) lurking about in repertory somewhere. People I knew were fiercely loyal to ABT - and some of the best dancing cmae from both non-principals and non-guests.

There is one moment that always takes my breath away. In Kenneth Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet, after Romeo's death, when the music surges, and Juliet starts to waken. Some Juliets take a deep breath; others, the hand flickers. The timing and the incredible Prokofiev music - if the rest of the performance has been at all engaging, I start crying.