canbelto

I DID NOT SAY THAT. I said that blondes seem "favored" to be cast in certain roles: Titania, Apollo, Diamonds. I know you love Tiler Peck and I do too but stop misquoting people and making offensive comments about Aboriginals.

Ramasar had some trouble partnering Peck in that backwards gliding sequence too. The key to doing that I think is to do tiny little backwards steps much like the Balanchine angels in Nutcracker. Ramasar stepped too wide and couldn't complete the menage. He also came to grief in the Act One series of cabrioles and brises. But overall he was much better than La Cour.

Well I went to three separate casts of the La Sylphide/Ballet Imperial program. Best Sylph: Sterling Hyltin (Indiana Woodward was close behind her) Best James: Anthony Huxley Best Madge: Gretchen Smith Best Gurn: Joseph Gordon Best leading female in TPC2: Tess and Tiler (tied -- they were both great) Best male leading role: Tyler Angle Best female soloist: eh, a close one but I'll give it to Lauren King Best demi-soloist: Harrison Coll More thoughts on my La Sylphide/TPC2 marathon here and comparisons of casts: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/02/winter-season-diaries-continued.html

Ok now I'm just peppering you with Q's but were the cygnets allowed to do that head rolling/bobbing/tilting gesture? The 1950's CG film with Fonteyn/Somes has that gesture from the cygnets but I always wondered if it was notated or it just became something dancers did over time.

Hmm I found this beautiful picture from 1909 with Pavlova and Nicholas Legat. One thing that is cool about this photo is that this is a mere 14 years after the premiere, but you can already see how much aesthetics had changed. Pavlova is much thinner, has her arms in the tapered "swan" position and a swan feather head-piece. Legat looks way more like the contemporary dancers than the original Siegfried, Pavel Gerdt. Also: where are the "modesty" shorts? It doesn't really look like Legat is wearing one. It looks like his coat is just added a few inches but otherwise he's wearing modern tights. ETA: wow at the muscle tone of Pavel Gerdt!

Oh well, I'd like to be a fly on the wall when this production travels to La Scala. When Ratmansky tells Zakharova that she can't flap her arms in Swan Lake ... ETA: it seems as if the earliest document we have of flapping Swan arms is Anna Pavlova's video of Dying Swan. Pavlova already had the boneless rippling arms.

There's a complete POB Raymonda on youtube with Gillot Martinez and LeRiche. Type in "Nureyev Raymonda" and it will come up.

Natalia thanks for the great reports. A question: do the swans and Odette do the now iconic "flapping" motions with their arms? When I look at the 1895 photos I don't see Legnani as someone who would have the soft boneless rippling arms a la Plisetskaya or Lopatkina to really do that "flapping" motion.

Today's matinee performance had a lovely performance from Hyltin (really love the way she uses her arms and hands), but Andrew Veyette looked very tired and constantly slumped his soldiers. As for PC#2, Ask and Sara had the kind of fall no dancer ever wants to have in the studio not to mention onstage. It was in that backwards gliding/dragging circle sequence. All of a sudden Ask just fell over and Sara fell on top of him. It took several seconds for them to get up, and I was really relieved they weren't injured.

I was there for the premiere last night. I didn't really like it. Opolais's voice just doesn't do it for me in this role. http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/02/manon-lescaut.html

There's always been a Taglioni vs. Elssler strain in ballet. To this day it exists -- Taglioni-type ballerinas being light, long-limbed, lyrical, and specializing in adagio work and having great elevation. Elssler ballerinas are usually smaller, more compact, excelling at terre a terre dancing. Fast footwork, great turns. To me Tiler Peck is a classic Fanny Elssler type ballerina. Her shape, musculature, and proportions make her perfect for terre a terre work. You can look at a picture of Fanny Elssler and easily see Tiler Peck striking the same pose and doing the same dance. NYCB also has some classic Marie Taglioni type dancers. Somogyi was/is a Taglioni type dancer. You can picture Marie Taglioni in this outfit dancing this part.

Well, erm, I do think in terms of preserving the classical tradition Balanchine would have been better for the company than Lifar works, which have fallen out of the repertory almost completely (and NOT because of Millepied).

I guess I'll point out the elephant in the room: WHAT French tradition in classical ballet? It started with Marie Taglioni but the POB performs a vague reconstruction by Lacotte. Their Giselle is heavily based on the standard Petipa version that ... pretty much every company performs. Their Coppelia ... do they even perform that anymore? Their Fille mal gardee is by Ashton. The rest of their "classics" are by Nureyev, who was hardly French in training, background, or aesthetics. The works created on the POB in the 20th century include a lot by Bejart and Petit. They are hardly classical. In fact I wouldn't even call Bejart "ballet" in terms of the fifth position standard. George Balanchine created one notable work on the POB, which was the Palais de Cristal (later Symphony in C). Serge Lifar's ballets are certainly not what you'd consider 5th position classical, either. The only thing about French ballet that's special is their training and their famous company hierarchy. Their upright backs and necks, their straight 90 degree arabesques, their aristocratic and slightly stiff port de bras. But that is their training, their school. Their company repertoire has no great founding father, it's a mishmash of different choreographers.

I'm not saying only blondes should be cast in certain roles, it's just that Peter Martins seems to favor a leggy, blond type dancer in many roles. This goes for the guys as well as the girls: I often wonder if Chase Finlay would have been so fast-tracked to stardom (and then beset with injuries) if he didn't have that look that Martins favors for Apollos. A look at the current NYCB Titanias: Maria Kowroski (tall blonde), Sara Mearns (tall blonde), Tess Reichlen (tall blonde), Miriam Miller (tall blonde) The original Titania, Melissa Hayden, NOT a tall blonde:

I think it's not just Peck's height (she's medium height, not short) but also her physique/looks. NYCB has some rather rigid typecasting -- Apollos are usually blond, Terpischores are also usually blond, Titanias HAVE to be blond, and (I have no idea why this is) Mozartiana, Symphony in C adagio, and Diamonds dancers are also almost always blond. Tiler has a compact build and is definitely an intense-looking brunette.

Sounds like Parisians were going to hate him no matter what.

It's weird how Nureyev versions are now considered "the grand classics" because when they premiered there was vociferous protest that they were replacing superior versions. I believe there was even an official protest about his Swan Lake.

Here are some more public condolences: J. de Luz: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBiyN_UIxVR/?taken-by=jdeluz23 Aurelie Dupont: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBiuRAwsqca/?taken-by=aurelie__dupont Harrison Ball: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBisUIvF5CB/?taken-by=__harrisonball__ Isabel Guerin: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBihM01i1Us/?taken-by=isaguerin Wendy: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBibERYRg-j/?taken-by=wendyw

Well I actually liked the Fairchild/Garcia pairing in Sonatine more than the Peck/de Luz pairing. With Tiler and de Luz I felt it was like two dancers dancing without much relation to each other. With Fairchild and Garcia I saw this piece as more of a conversation between two people.

Did Benno perform in the White Swan pdd? As late as 1960 at the Royal Ballet Benno was still part of the lake scene pdd.

FYI, there's tickets for the Feb 14 evening perf. of La Sylphide available on Goldstar for $20. If I didn't already have two tickets that weekend I'd snatch it up.

That Mostel performance is amazing. I know Mostel didn't get along with Robbins and was not picked to do the film. A shame.

I'll put my bets on Gordon. Unity Phelan and Indiana Woodward seem fast-tracked as well.

Well I know on the surface Dupont seems like a great pick but in the past she herself has been vocal about the training/coaching at the POB school and the company. She and Claude Bessy had some harsh words to say about each other, as Dupont accused the teachers and Bessy of being cruel and demoralizing, and Bessy responded with some choice words of her own. I have no idea if the policies and teaching have changed under Elisabeth Platel. But my point is Dupont is someone who has been vocal in the past about criticizing certain traditions as well.

From the Jennings article: Is this true? If it is true it's rather horrifying.