Mel Johnson

Well, one of my favorite former partners, Anne Beretta Morsilli, danced with them for twelve years or so, and is currently on faculty as a teacher, and company wardrobe mistress, so that serves as a plus in my account book.

Another practical point of witchery - the popular image is reinforced by the identification with earth-worship religions with great antiquity. Madge is definitely a creature of the Real World of Time and Space. The Sylph is a creature who inhabits the air but defies commonplace considerations with which the rest of us have to fumble. Also, it's difficult to ask a possibly attractive senior woman dancer to "ugly herself up" to play a character part of great age. Most men are halfway there already and make pretty homely women before they even start!

Sleeping Beauty is good. After all, it was premiered as a Christmas season ballet, and we can easily find things to talk about in it through New Year's Day!

Ah, a good thought, but it isn't just the coal mines and whatever that the men go to work in! Bear in mind that a great number of these ballet villages seem to be in or adjoining the Holy Roman Empire somewhere, so there's always a war on someplace. There are so few men in town because they've mostly been drafted!

Is it too soon for the dreaded Nutcracker? There's already a thread started on it in Aesthetic Issues.

I think it may be time to quote one of my balletic apothegms: "If it dates before Freudian theory was widespread, no Freud!" One of the greatest dangers in staging this seemingly harmless Christmas fable is coming up with a bland, or worse, a sour version.

However, the closer one gets to the E.T.A. Hoffman originals, the darker the story becomes, as befits a writer from the Gothic period in European literature. The story used by Petipa and Ivanov to formulate the original libretto of the ballet was based on versions of the tales as retold by Alexandre Dumas, Pêre, and softened considerably. In production, the story got even warmer and fuzzier, and ended up a paean to Russian consumerism/capitalism! Balanchine took this model and whether by accident or design, arranged a Nutcracker that was perfect for the mood of the post WWII-generation of Americans, who had a similar point of view when it came to conspicuous consumption. His new version for the New York State Theater made it a bit more sophisticated, but still celebratory of prosperity.

Internationally, I'd say that the most common form of ballet is the Russo/Italian/French patois that is mostly recognizable as Cecchetti-based, but full of other nomenclature. Balanchine, which did not revise the ballet lexicon, uses this form, but has its own stylistic takes on method of execution. For want of a better term, let's refer to it as the "international" style. A beginner watching a beginning class would probably not discern much difference between a Vaganova class, say, and one done on the Paris Opéra syllabus. And stylistic differences are learnable by more advanced students and finished dancers. Bournonville is elusive, and it's debatable whether anybody even in the present Royal Danish Ballet school is teaching it any more! At a certain level, though, school-figure style marks cease to be a distinctive feature and can even be considered affectation, drawing attention away from the art and calling attention to itself. [ October 24, 2001: Message edited by: Mel Johnson ]

The one in NY isn't that far from me. It's near Liberty in Sullivan County. In fact, one Civil War reenactment I used to attend was held on Swan Lake Road.

Look right up at the top of this page, and click on the Amazon.com banner! Presto! ;)

And a second memory floats to the surface - when the Joffrey used to do Scotch Symphony, the movement was very definitely a toss, then, too. A similar "La Peri" kind of catch with a much different impression occurs in the pas de deux in Ruthanna Boris' "Cakewalk" when Hortense, Queen of the Swamp Lilies mounts the upstage platform, and leaps, bottomfirst, into the arms of a waiting Harold, The Dying Poet. Harold gives a rather audible "oof!" At least Max Zomosa used to.

I find it a rather useful work, and besides, Ballet Talkers can enjoy the pictures of Andrei (and partners) in the illustrations section. ;)

I first saw "Scotch Symph" back in the City Center days, with Melissa Hayden and Conrad Ludlow doing the pas de deux. It was definitely a toss, then.

In America, this tendency toward accomplishment in social graces was also noted by Mrs. Child (Maria, not Julia), who wrote a great many books for women about how to "work smarter, not harder" and thus free up more time for self-improvement. Not everyone was impressed with this quest for the genteel, as John Adams once wrote his wife, Abigail, "I see that Mr. Cranch (his brother-in-law and Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) and family have retained the services of a dancing-master. This is to be much regretted, as I have never known a really good dancer who was ever good for anything else(!)" Tell THAT to the people at Dancer Career Transition! ;)

Q: What are we dancing tonight? A: Don Q. Q: Don't mention it, but what are we dancing tonight? [ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: Mel Johnson ]

Did you check the "Dancers" forum in the General discussion? And there was a post not all that long ago on Adult Ballet Students. As to knowing Mr. Danton, I have not had the honor.

Henry Danton was a Principal Dancer of the Sadler's Wells Ballet, and one of the originators of "Symphonic Variations". His name comes up from time to time on Ballet History and Dancers. Run a search using his name.

Now that the initial horror has shaken off for most of us, sustained effort is going to have to be brought to bear, and kept going! To see what else needs to be done, and how you can help out, click: www.redcross.org Remember the Towers.

Not too long ago, I saw Kevin McKenzie driving down from Kaatsbaan! What's that? Oh, the OTHER Orange County! Never mind.

Don't fret for SAB or NYCB. Lincoln Center is quite a ways from the WTC. Now, the Joffrey School is going to have some problems tomorrow, as the Mayor has closed the streets from 14th south! (The school is on 6th Ave. at 10th St.)

Not to worry, Xena, we're fine here in Orange County, but I've seen a number of New Jersey ambulances making for our local hospitals with all speed. The state has been placed on an emergency status, and I've been told to "stand by" for further orders now that the National Guard has been called out.

Lemme get this straight - there's something WRONG with elitism? "My tastes are very simple; I like only the best." - Sir Winston Churchill

But why not the other way round? If British Airways can use the duet from Lakme to sell their airline, what's wrong with the Entry of the Shades? Oop, ghosts, oh well...

The original Nutcracker had product placement all over the place. Mother Ginger was a recognizable brand of candy, the Tea was evidently Ty-Phoo, and the Candy Canes, because they don't travel well, had to be Russian!

Back to "Daphnis" for a short observation: Ravel's score seems to have been influenced by the same sort of "motor" theory of composition that was championed in the 1920s by the great theoretician/teacher Nadia Boulanger, who influenced Prokofiev and Copland into using it. The individual "numbers" in the score have a tendency to go on and on, sometimes passing from one to the next apparently without pause. It can (but it doesn't have to) make a musical work difficult to choreograph.