Mel Johnson

Congratulations, Leigh, I'm happy for you, and very proud.

And now for the unexpected ballet or section of a ballet lagniappe for this thread; Kate/sneds' "Unanswered Question". The big "flying" leaps in the male variation in the Bluebird pas de deux are called "temps de poisson". When the dancer elects to do them with slightly bent knees, they become "temps de l'ange".

"Spanish Classical Dance" other than flamenco is yet alive and well, but mostly (surprise) in Spain. I've never understood why it has remained so localized, as the few examples I've seen of it look perfectly exportable to me. An odd thing about ballets like Don Quixote, or even Napoli is that it often reflects a lot of the choreographer's expression of "Where I went on my winter vacation".

I think you've hit the source with London Festival Ballet. There were plenty of "Festival Ballets" around in the later 50s and throughout the 60s with no Festival to support them, so I think that the ur-Festival must have been the Festival of Britain, at least in this usage.

I don't think Titania was originally aimed for Diana Adams, unless there was a whole other Oberon in mind. The casting already had a "short/tall mismatch" joke in it with Francisco Moncion as Duke Theseus partnering Gloria Govrin as Queen Hippolyta.

US Copyright law has changed considerably in the last 10 years. The former copyright law, written in 1909, was so full of amendment that it was cumbersome and practically unusable. Even the method of employing common-law copyright has changed. So we can all expect to hear of many many cases in many many disciplines being argued over the issue of copyright, just to establish new case law.

I recall a film of Ulanova dancing the work, which may be available on video. She looked to be the greatest of modern Dying Swans, but I asked Muriel Stuart just about this same question once. She said, "NO ONE can even touch Pavlova!" (But then, again, she worked for her)

Nothing to apologize for there. The "mannerist" silhouette for a dancer has been fashionable even before Balanchine.

Take a look at the video An Evening with the Royal Ballet to see some vintage Fonteyn. She's in three of the four selections. "Les Sylphides" "Corsaire pas de deux" (both with Nureyev) and "Sleeping Beauty, Act III" (with David Blair).

Those of us who saw her dance would be happy to see her WALKING these days, but alas, she's dancing in the big theater up in the sky now, with Pavlova, and Taglioni and Camargo and the rest of the gang!

Anybody remember "Giselle's Revenge" by Myra Kinch in the 1960s?

Anybody remember "Giselle's Revenge" by Myra Kinch in the 1960s?

You're right about many of the film clips of Pavlova having a herky-jerkyness to them - it's because they were originally filmed on old-time cellulose nitrate film and the stuff has a nasty tendency to break down, so to save whatever they could, film archivists had to cut out the bad film and rephotograph what was left on modern safety film. That and the fact that the film was cranked more slowly in the early days of movies, so if the films are shown on a modern projector, they will tend to be in high-speed.

There are some film clips of Pavlova that survive. And while Fonteyn is well-represented on video, Tallchief and LeClercq are still confined to film in library collections. In fact, Tallchief introduced Rudolf Nureyev to American TV audiences (Bell Telephone Hour) in "Flower Festival in Genzano" pas de deux, Nureyev replacing an ill Erik Bruhn.

Just a note on one of my favorite misquoted lines. Mr. Justice Holmes did not write that "crying 'fire' in a crowded theater is not protected speech", but rather something more along the lines that "FALSELY crying 'fire' in a crowded theater" was not protected. Indeed, not to so alert the crowd should the subject be actually aware of real fire could be criminal negligence. Hizzoner may be falsely crying "fire".

Alexandra, remember that Peggy Wood was knighted by the King of Norway, for services to Norwegians by promoting a positive image of them in the old TV program I Remember Mama, and Ted Shawn was made a Knight of the Dannebrog (Denmark) for services to dance to the world. Royal Favor is a funny thing, and entirely anachronistic in the modern world, but I'm glad that it's still around!

There really were only two dancers ever officially created prima ballerina assoluta, Pierina Legnani and Mathilde Kshessinskaya. A movement also to name Olga Preobrajenska to the title was made in about 1912, but nothing officially came of it. Today, the assoluta title is more a journalistic property, bestowed, especially by Dance Magazine, in a way that makes you wonder if it doesn't mean "good ole gal who should have hung up the red shoes a long time ago". Not a very good thing to happen to a title.

Pretty good definition by my standards! Describing what an all-encompassing concept like placement is in a sentence or short paragraph would be a daunting task for the very best of us! As for an example, one used to say something akin to: Good placement=Margot Fonteyn.

One of the reasons they built Orly was to avoid the FOD (foreign object damage) planes experienced at Le Bourget from running into pigeons and such. For some reason, the birds found Orly just as much to their liking and some of them went over there! Now they've built Charles de Gaulle....

I wouldn't sell the NTSB short; their investigations are very thorough, and if necessary, they will airlift the crashed aircraft out piece by piece and reassemble it in order to determine the cause of accident. My original advice still holds - if you're flying with a private pilot, check his log!

Good to know, pookey. While I'll save the happy memories for your thread, I can't help thinking about the air safety issues involved in this case. The National Transportation Safety Board will have to investigate, of course, but this one looked to me like another "continued aerial flight into terrain" accident, with a possible "pilot error, owing to inexperience or lack of currency in procedures" as a contributing factor. As a (non-current) private pilot, I still get some of the flight safety publications, and have noted over the years the inordinate number of doctors and lawyers who are involved in air accidents. These professions allow the pilot to have his/her own plane, but the time involved in the profession does not allow for sufficient practice time behind the controls, especially when the pilot wishes to proceed into marginal weather conditions (think John Kennedy) or navigate in unfamiliar or hostile terrain, and closer to the Arctic Circle is always hostile, when it comes to navigation. While flying with an airliner is one of the safest modes of transport, private plane accidents have always been less so. If you have a friend who wants to take you somewhere in his plane, ask about how current his logbook is. I have an awful feeling this accident could have been avoided.

While this thread is not intended to discuss the fine detail of Laurel Foster's death, owing to a request from the family to refrain from discussing same publicly - a form of self-censorship I think we can all live with - I wonder what the thoughts of the members are regarding accidents and misadventures that follow dancers and dance companies? After all, Emma Livry died of complications arising from severe burns suffered onstage in a rehearsal of Le Papillion, and the American Ballet was left defunct in Scranton, Pennsylvania when the company treasurer absconded with what little money the company had. Not exactly as bad as Livry's fate, but bad enough. What thoughts?

Let's face it - the ballet audience is discriminated against. Movies that attempt to show dancers as Normal Human Beings don't fly with the distributors, unless they're driven by starpower, as in The Turning Point. Unfortunately, Jamie Bell isn't a star...yet.

You're probably in the same boat I am, Rachel. The local distributors around here (who actually choose what goes in the cineplexes, not the owner so much) have decided in their wisdom that a movie about a boy ballet dancer will not sell well in this market. The closest theater playing it is thirty miles away, and has it booked for three nights only - a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! Some way to sell tickets!

Actually, I've done a bit of nosing around the Web and found that the movie is still in "limited release", which was initially only 10 theaters in the US, and now is in "pre-general release previews" at a larger, but still-limited number of theaters. It looks like it could be a contender for some awards besides the ones it's already taken in Europe. Regarding the Rating system, the US ratings are variable. The Hollywood rating system calls it "R", under 17 not admitted without parent or adult guardian. However, some local jurisdictions have their own ratings systems which may be more stringent or less stringent than the national one.