canbelto

Did anyone see Royal's Apollo yesterday?

A nice profile of Alonso's successor Viengsay Valdes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/arts/dance/ballet-nacional-de-cuba-viensgay-valdes.html

There are other differences in accents too. For instance the moment when the three muses clap and Apollo puts his head in their hands -- in the Cuban version it's a gentle silent clap away from Apollo's face, while in the NYCB versions it's the loud bossy clap right in Apollo's face. And again, I had always thought of that move as really iconic.

I found this CNB version of Apollo. There are some interesting choreographic differences between the version that Balanchine later staged for NYCB. For instance in the Apollo Terpischore pas de deux Terp doesn't dance on her heels but on pointe. I always thought dancing flat-footed on her heels was an iconic part of the choreography. Can anyone shed some insight into the differences in choreography? A comparison:

I'm reviewing this for bachtrack but will say that if you've seen Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz storming through the finale of T&V with the speed of light (as I have) then last night's T&V was just about unwatchable.

I went to Havana in the summer of 2018 and went on one of those tours with a dude in a horse and buggy. He took us past the CNB theatre and spoke about Alicia Alonso. It's obvious how much she meant to the Cuban people. And also ... one of my former co-workers and a friend of mine is actually related to her. They are all painters, so the artistic gene in the Alonso family lives on.

Here is a video of the CNB's Apolo. It might be the closest we'll ever get to the original Ballet Russes production.

So as I spend another Friday at home resting an ankle that somehow is healing on its own time (that is to say, verrry slowly), I decided to find some Edwin Denby and Arlene Croce accounts of her dancing and compare it to Alicia Alonso videos. Hope you guys enjoy it. https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2019/10/alicia-alonso-written-word-vs-video.html

What I have read about lifts is that some ballerinas might be tiny but hard to lift because they refuse to "push off" and hold themselves up with their own core strength. Someone said the tiny wraithlike Alicia Markova used to be very difficult to lift for this reason, as was Gelsey Kirkland. I once saw the very not-tiny Viktoria Tereshkina lift HERSELF higher in a press lift.

I think the issue is when Lane makes a mistake or is "off" everyone can see it. Her body language and facial expressions change. Some dancers can hide an obvious mistake with a big smile and confident body language. I remember a Swan Lake where she fell off pointe towards the very end of her sequence of fouettes. Instead of finishing them and then holding her arms in fifth the way I've seen many ballerinas do when their fouettes also didn't go as planned, Lane looked crestfallen and sort of stood around until the music stopped. It's a shame because when she's on she lights up the entire auditorium.

So ... how was the Twyla Tharp premiere?

Oh ok. I just looked more into the thread and he explains his last name this way: adrianclay @susanbarbash Danchig is inherited from my Jewish maternal side from (roughly) Lithuania. Waring is from the Mayflower-adjacent English folks on my father’s side.

Could it have been a snide referral to Adrian using Danchig-Waring as his surname when I believe his legal name is Adrian Clay?

Adrian Danchig-Waring is not amused by Alastair Macaulay's nickname for him:

I made this spooky compilation of Lady Macbeth sleepwalking scenes and have been watching it. Callas, Gencer, Galvany, Verrett, Sass, Dimitrova, Serjan, Monastyrska, and Netrebko. I actually love all the renditions. Really surprised by Sylvia Sass. She wasn't someone that was ever on my radar but her sleepwalking scene is intense.

Ask La Cour also implies that a retirement is imminent:

Sounds like Ramasar is leaving:

There's a bunch of really heartfelt tributes to Garcia under that post, so maybe spring retirement? Or fall? He was excellent as Brown Boy when I saw him last week too.

Garcia retiring?

Also will add that the amount of upward mobility is greater than it was in the Balanchine years, when certain roles "belonged" to certain dancers and nothing short of injury or leaving the company would make the dancer lose the part. So if Jewels was programmed, you pretty much knew it was always going to be Suzanne as Diamonds, Patty in Rubies, and Violette in Emeralds. If Prodigal Son was programmed, you knew it would be Eddie Villela. And so on. In fact when Suzanne came back to the company one of the first things she was told was that she would have to share her roles, and she accepted it. When she was first in the company, if she was ever indisposed the ballet was simply changed. Mr. B did not want to see an understudy in 'her' role.

I am NOT a fan of these dresses for the muses. Way too summer sundress.

depends on whether you set ballo in sweden or boston

Thanks! Hard lesson learned: do not ever blow off "just an ankle sprain." Now I'll be in a walking boot for a few months. Yay. I really wonder how dancers repeatedly dance with ankle injuries.

Well I havent been to as many NYCB performances as I usually go to because of a bad ankle injury but I did go to some and reviewed for bachtrack and my season wrap-up is here: https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2019/10/nycb-fall-season-wrap-up.html

Didn't Nureyev also wear a hairpiece later in his career? I had read that his hair started thinning fast. Offstage he often wore a turban or hat.