Mel Johnson

I believe that the original libretto, with a worldview that launched a million teen fangirlzines, is probably the best for the overall spirit of Nutcracker. You don't have to change, you're already perfect, and soon that movie star is going to come right down off the screen and whisk you away to magic. The BRB keeps that, in the main, so it's pretty good. The Balanchine will show you how this theming is exploited to the max without going over the top.

Gorski-based productions make use of several pieces of music not included in the 1895 score, such as the "Dance of the Dwarfs" in the beginning of the ballroom scene. They also tend to include repeats not in the revised version.

Alexandra is correct; if the jump is landed distributing the weight through the foot and ankle in a proportionate manner, and is backed up with the necessary plié, there should be no trouble with a big jump that lands softly. If the dancer relies too heavily on the foot alone, lots of mischief is possible, beginning with the Achilles' tendon! A necessary plié is not always a big, deep, spongy one, although there's nothing wrong with that. See Danish dancers for a great example of using just the right amount of everything to allow many springy jumps, some small, some large.

If you can find a copy of the Yuri Faier recording (ca. 1960), you'll hear that the entire thing proceeds at a rather brisk pace, then makes up for it in the adagios, which are extremely languorous.

Truth to tell, I think it probably could rather easily be made into a ballet. The talkier a film is, the less likely it would work for choreography. My Dinner with André would be a total disaster. Silent movies, if there weren't too many dialogue cards, generally choreograph well.

As to risk-aversion on the part of ballet producers, I used to think that I knew why, but now I'm convinced that I never had the foggiest idea why.

Let's not leave out Ivanov!

That sounds roughly like the variation from the 1884 pas de deux added by Petipa for Maria Gorshenkova. The music is by Minkus, possibly souped up a little by Drigo. Whose choreography it is is a debatable point. I don't think that it's part of the notated score.

Somewhere out there there's a nice photo of Caccialanza and coonskin-coated partner (with porkpie hat) riding double on a bicycle which was used as a publicity still for "Alma Mater".

And come to think of it, Balanchine wasn't shy about trying all sorts of genres for his choreography. Think Barnum and Bailey, think elephants! Remember, he had spent part of his early career as a pianist, accompanying silent movies. He especially liked Max Linder films.

One of Baronova's most important contributions to ballet history, IMO, is her re-introduction of the "ballerina buffa" to a large audience. Many people were locked into the idea of ballet as a rather melancholy, elegiac art form, but Baronova could also be funny, and showed that ballet as a form of expression possessed as much variety as any other theater.

And Pavlova was far from the first to tour, giving solo and whole-ballet performances with pickup "companies".

Fanny Elssler toured famously, as did Paul Taglioni and wife, Marie-Paul. Lola Montez toured notoriously! Dancers who stayed closer to home did "salon concerts" at social events hosted by the well-to-do. Petipa's allegory "The Seasons" was a product of one of these private shows. Come to think of it, Petipa and his whole family toured America when he was just a boy.

I believe that "recital" in this context is related to the nineteenth and earlier century instructional process of lecture-tutorial-recitation, in which a student was given a text and expected to give back, by memory, all of it, and be able to quote illustrative commentary on demand, it having been gained in the other two phases of classtime. It was a deadly process, entirely dependent on rote memory, but that's the way universities and other schools of higher learning were expected to teach.

Not crazy about the bounce out of the grand jete en tournant, but that next step (what is that thing?).... I want to say he hesitates in mid-air but it's an illusion again. What is that thing?

It's only a species of ballonné.

CHristian, what do you thinik of Balanchine's version? or Vainonen's?

Balanchine's...well, as i said before, it lacks what i consider to be the stylistic heart of the work, the "Sugar Plum Fairy PDD". I beg pardon to the majority of this board...but i find this version mutilated.

Vainonen's i have it, and saw it only once, but honestly, i don't have too many memories of it...have to revisit it.

Vainonen? I remember how deeply frustrated I was when I first saw it. There are six people in it. I'm a big fan of the Ivanov, and Balanchine's version frustrated me too, but not as much as the Vainonen. As presentational as pas de deux are, having other partners in there seems to spoil the intimacy of the work. I could never quite figure out why, in the Bonynge recording for "Art of the Prima Ballerina", he took the cut that he did, but it became more obvious to me after reading Wiley. He was working from Markova's performance cuts, and she had cut the music used for the "magic" effect of the little wagon under the chiffon.

I think that at least in the US, the Balanchine has become the production of record. It doesn't reproduce the Ivanov choreography in any significant way, but it certainly keeps the spirit of the original libretto.

Given its film version and video distribution, it's spread fairly widely, and European and Asian students are familiar with it. They're surprised to learn how little motion-picture effect was used in the filming.

Yes, but that's résumé, and the dancer is self-tracking, as you've said. Career details like this are rarely made public by ballet companies, any more than a Fortune 500 firm publishes bioblurbs about its COs. Can you see it? "And after 3 hit years with Slimemold, Fenster and Czolgosz, Mr. Jones actually succeeded in downsizing HIMSELF in a personnel model of his own devising!" "In 5 years at Entropy Partners, Ms. Smith became renowned for her mastery of the financial workings of the company, gaining five hundred million dollars in personal salary while accidentally outsourcing all production to Bhutan."

I do know, however, that Robert Joffrey actually used to check on claims on some CVs. He had me make the calls. Sometimes the results were enlightening.

Remember, anything that passed through Russia may reflect the nation's traditional attitude toward the Ottoman Empire and its constituent suzerainities. They frankly didn't like one another. Once, in the early 18th century, when Peter the Great was campaigning against the Poles, he found himself entirely in the air tactically, but the Sultan in Constantinople, whom I recall as "Sulieman the Silly" rejected a plan for his army to capture Peter, saying, "If I were to capture the Tsar, who would rule Russia?"

Given the realities of today's world, I'm only a little surprised that no one has mounted a Raymonda of massive political incorrectness, with a vile, vile, Abderakhman, and a Virgin Mary-surrogate White Lady restored.

I'm working without notes here, but if I recall correctly, Tchaikovsky was trying all sorts of self-destructive behaviors short of suicide during his marriage to Antonina Miliukova. These more or less ended when he went away to Switzerland for a "rest cure". I really believe that he was trying to figure out ways to keep away from her. The poor woman was already socially difficult before they married, and during their time together, she seemed to get ever more neurotic, but then, we have to remember that most of our documentation of her is from the Tchaikovsky family and circle of friends. He was kind of batty, too, and must not have been any easy sort to be around.

The story of Tchaikovsky's suicide hinges entirely on the testimony of two court insiders years after the event, of conversations with Tsar Alexander III, who allegedly said, "Then he must be sent away." The story continued with the word of the Tsar's order leaking to Tchaikovsky's university fraternity, who allegedly confronted the composer with some rather unpleasant options. At this time, that fraternity was made up largely of lawyers and dentists, so maybe other stereotypes were being played upon as legend-builders. The supposed object of the composer's attention was an officer in the Household Cavalry of Russia, and he was later killed in battle before the Revolution, so not much chance of testimony from that direction. The whole myth hangs on several turns of events which cannot be proved or disproved conclusively. One thing is correct, though: Alexander III harbored quite reactionary attitudes toward all sorts of human rights issues, which were hardened in place by the assassination of his father, Alexander II.

Lots of dancers talk wonderfully, and make great radio talk show guests. The real trick is to DANCE on radio!

I'm with Andrei.

Since this has to be ca. 1900, I'd say that there's a good chance that they were working with the original or near the original costume designs. If I recall correctly, there's a nice photo of Felix and Mathilde Kschessinsky/a in the 1895 costumes, which were rather dark. They were the first couple (down right corner) in the Mazurka. In fact, Kschessinska started popping off the bijoux on the costumes, and went for the real thing! Marussia followed suit, and pretty soon the women were in a geology war to see who could get more rocks onto her costume. I've seen and heard estimates of everything from 100,000 to 1,000,000 Rubles being onstage while this was going on!

It largely has to do with the designer's approach to the costumes in regard to time/place. If they're of the horsy set, cavalry uniforms, including the dolman and shell jacket, then the mustaches would be appropriate. I certainly hope that no designer goes so far as to incorporate the most famous of the Polish cavalry features, the winged lancer. Ten-foot frame wings on the back of a five-foot-tall man. That way, facial hair would hardly be noticed!

On the other hand, it's what keeps some of us alive!

Interesting lighting experiment in that Youskevitch Alonso Black Swan pas de deux! Not sure it worked... I imagine they were trying to make up for TV's flatness... Youskevitch make those supported cabriole's look like so much fun!

Well, they are! Once you learn how to do them, they can be surprisingly easy, and look like a million bucks in the bargain!

I think that she probably made her first deep impression on the audience as the Chosen Maiden in MacMillan's setting of The Rite of Spring. I know that she scared the bejeezus out of me with her intensity.

I think that you see all sorts in any genre of theater. Some just know their own material, others, like Anton Dolin, had seen so many productions of so many ballets that he'd just have to dip into his memory to find the appropriate match for whatever you wanted to do. Of course, he was a quick study, like most old showmen, and could accurately pick up and reproduce original material immediately. Helpmann was like that, too.