cyclingmartin

I gather that Yulia Stepanova has been out of action for some months. On her Instagram page she reported that this was because of injury; that was some time around last March. So I was glad to see her given main billing in several of the ballets advertised by the Bolshoi in October, November and December of 2020, including Carmen Suite, A Hero of Our Time and Symphony in C. Was anyone from BalletAlert at any of these performances? Or has anyone seen reviews of them? I'm just wondering if YS is back to her usual form as a dancer and actress. I do hope so.

Yes, same here. That's a good story about Andras Schiff. Thanks.

I think I know what you mean, Helene. However, I wonder if this issue — one's annoyance at an audience coughing — might be connected as much to what we are aware of, as it is to the frequency of volume of coughing. I speak for myself, of course. I have always preferred live music, theatre or whatever, over recordings; and it might be significant that a very high proportion of the recordings that I have bought are of live concerts. (I don't have a large library by any means.) When listening to them at home or wherever — away from the live performance in any event, I tend to be more aware of coughing than I am when I'm in the hall. In the hall, I often listen with my eyes closed — though not usually in the theatre for ballet or opera! But even so, I wonder if that awareness of coughing when outside the hall has something to do with my own levels of concentration on the sound, or with being less aware of the physical presence of the performers which, even when I'm listening with enormous concentration, is always part of the experience. I don't know. These are just wondering thoughts.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this; but here goes. POB is also putting up videos that concentrate on individual dancers, and parts of which (at least) appear to have been made before the Covid-19 crisis. Here's a lovely one about Héloïse Bourdon, dancing Balanchine and talking about his work. It looks as if the dance passages were filmed earlier; but the talk by Mlle Bourdon might have been done recently. If I'm wrong about any of this, please correct me. I've long thought she was a great artist. Her explanations of style, of Balanchine and so forth are entirely consistent with that. And as usual, she looks the part — beautiful dancing, beautiful woman.

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In the UK you can sign up to an account that gives you access to one or two articles a month (or is it a week?). That's how I got in. I don't know if that's available in the USA. Pherank is right; and from my memories of trying to read without subscribing, I'm pretty certain that they do track your IP address.

Thank you, YouOverThere, for posting that link to the Washington Post article. I was about to do it, a couple of hours after you. The way the article is organised into discrete sections is interesting, and raises some profound questions — all the more striking because most of them come from the Russian dancers interviewed for the article. The comments section after the article is good too.

Hear hear! to the last posts from volcanohunter and pherank about sound. As someone whose serious interest in ballet was preceded by many years as a professional musician, the sound problems in so many video recordings of ballet can be deeply frustrating.

Yes, volcanohunter's announcement earlier today (2nd April) is consistent with the published plans of Perm Opera Ballet Theatre. The company's Facebook page is listing a wide range of events just held and about to be held — streaming of recordings of ballet, opera, concerts, lectures, plus a few "private" events such as interviews that can maintain the required social distancing. I've found it hard to find a full list, for the main website does not have one. However, the Facebook page seems to present most things, with at least a few days' notice (you might have to put the URL through Google Translate): https://www.facebook.com/PermOpera

Thank you, @Kathleen O'Connell. That's a lovely clip that you posted, which captures so well the musical, choreographic and dramatic characteristics of the production. Now, here's a lovely example of the UK and the USA being countries divided by their common language — I had to look up what "grok" means. It's so appropriate for things such as your "getting" (a VERY inadequate word) the Lilac Fairy, and for so many things to do with artistic insight. I wonder how many folks this side of the pond would know what it means . . .

It feels odd (and perhaps it's futile) to be contributing to a thread some 15 years after the last contribution. But this DVD of the Dutch National Ballet's 2003 recording of Sleeping Beauty is still for sale and still selling. I'm not surprised, because I've just seen it and love it. I sympathise with Susanne and any others who generally find Peter Wright's productions too dark; but where I find him a consistent winner is in the way that dance and movement combine as drama. I also agree with those who are especially impressed by the Vision Scene, which surely is one of the great production challenges of this ballet. So some of the merits (NOT an exhaustive list): 1) Strong characterful performances from all the principals and from the movement and gestures of the extras in the scenes at court. The latter participate, and communicate with one another. 2) Some excellent ensemble numbers. I especially liked the Friends Dance in Act I, for its lively pacing and strong dancing from the small group. 3) The Vision Scene. This is FAR more dramatically convincing and cohesive than in the Sergeyev version made famous by the Kirov/Mariinsky and other Russian companies. I find that Wright's interpretation compares favourably with the historical reconstructions of recent years by Ratmansky and Vikharev. 4) A large part of the mime scenes and roles restored. This is especially beneficial to the dramatic function and character of the Lilac Fairy; but it gives the entire ballet a much stronger sense of being dramatic theatre without words than do any of the Soviet-era productions that are still common in Russian companies. 5) The encounter between the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse in the enchanted wood is superb! Economy as a virtue, even in this most spectacular of ballets. 6) The orchestra is strong and characterful. It's nowhere near as accomplished as the Mariinsky Ballet orchestra (which one is?); but it's better than Paris. 7) The general pacing of action and music moves things along in a way that always focuses on drama and characters, largely because it has such a sure sense of direction and purpose. Some demerits (a more exhaustive list, for I don't find there are many of these): 1) The cuts. With nearly three hours of music, the complete score makes for a very long evening. But cuts almost always produce loss. To me, the ones that made loss a little too obvious included the mime scene at the beginning of Act I (where the three women with spindles are found), the Finale of Act II, the opening March in Act III, some of the character dances in Act III, and — sadly and as usual — a truncated Apotheosis (i.e. just the introductory and concluding statements of that old melody, so superbly scored by Tchaikovsky). The cut at the end of Act II is interesting in that it seems designed to deal with what can be a bit of a problem with the original — the bursting into life of the entire court when Desiré kisses Aurora, accompanied by a short outburst of joy from the orchestra — and that's it. So, this production replaces that with the Entracte for solo violin and orchestra, which is rarely played, but which on this occasion gives Desiré and Aurora time together, before they get married in the final act. Sounds like a good (even morally healthy) idea! But I'm not convinced by the result. That said, the cuts do not show the level of anti-dramatic thinking that one can see in quite a few heavily cut performances by Russian companies. (I'm thinking especially of the Bolshoi's film of around 2017.) 2) In some of the faster music the sound gets a bit tangled. This has nothing to do with the competence of the players, but is almost always because things are driven too hard. I especially found that towards the end of the Prologue, when Carabosse is in full flight and then when the Lilac Fairy comes on. In the few minutes before Carabosse leaves, it's all too hasty. This matters, because Tchaikovsky carefully weaves distinct details which tell you in music that, although the Lilac Fairy is in charge, Carabosse's evil has not entirely gone away. But overall, this DVD is a winner — one of my favourites among several films of SB that I have seen. And as many commentating here have remarked, the extras are well worthwhile.

I'm coming late to this discussion. The comparisons some of us have made with "best" opera singers (or pianists, or organists, or cellists etc. etc.?) are apt; and there seems to be a general agreement that it is an impossible question to answer. It depends on what you are looking for. I'm insufficiently knowledgeable about ballet to make authoritative claims for any dancer. But I think there are revealing comparisons with music. So, as a musician I have often asked myself comparable questions, but posed slightly differently: e.g. "If you had to take one composer and leave all the rest, who would it be?" (My unequivocal answer would be Bach.) And there are umpteen variations on that, such as "If you had to take the symphonies of one composer from the twentieth century and leave all the rest, who would it be?" (Sibelius); "One composer from the last half of the twentieth century?" (Ligeti) etc. etc. Asking oneself such questions makes one think harder about justifying the answer. Personal preferences are central of course, but the validity of an answer beyond such preference depends on defence; and that's where it gets especially interesting, because it makes one think critically of one's own responses, and helps identify values. In that respect what stands out from this discussion is that versatility is an especially prized quality in a dancer; but also there is the expressive power epitomised in the quote (November 24) by Mashinka, when writing about Elena Glurdjidze in Giselle: Nothing she did was technically extraordinary, nothing was showy, her legs hardly ever rose above the horizontal. But such was her transparency, so profound was her identification with the role, that you couldn’t really see the dancing. All was character, all was emotion, all was story. Glurdjidze stopped time, and that is what great dancing can do" Others in this forum have said comparable things about other dancers; but this comment seems to capture an essential quality of any performing artist who rules -- or at least, who rules on any level primarily concerned with art.

A revealing new video about YS's forthcoming leading role in Raymonda. I'm not in much of a position to offer a critique about what she says, even though it's subtitled into English. But what does strike me is that this is the thinking of a dancer-actress; and that's what communicates to me about her dancing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm6L5AHVU3g I'd be interested to know what experienced members of this forum have to say about it, because — and as seems often to be the case with YS — the number of upticks and downticks on this video suggests that opinion varies.

I just found this YouTube channel, which appears to be new. I think I'm right that one of the two videos is new, and the other is a year or 18 months old. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ITNMKKfCAvKR4BsAeS76g That points towards this site, which also seems to be new and to be very professionally done. http://www.yuliastepanova.com/ I cannot find either of these on this dancer's discussion forum; so I hope this is the right place to post.

Thank you, Helene. As a new member of Ballet Alert, I want to thank you and everyone else here for such stimulating, informative and helpful answers to questions. A bit belated, but -- Happy New Year!

All my instinct as a musician says "Amen" to that. However, bending tempo in this way is so widespread, even with such great ballet musicians as Victor Fedotov and many others, that I feel I should reconsider, taking into account issues such as those mentioned by Quiggin and Nanushka.

Thanks for your input, Quiggin. I'm sure you're right. So I accept that there is a justification for that slowing. But the issue I'm grappling with -- not in the sense that it's wrong, but in that it's outside my experience as a musician -- is getting used to something being done with the music that comes from outside the music. A good instance of what I'm talking about can be heard by comparing recordings of the music alone with recordings of that music done by the same orchestra and conductor in the context of a ballet performance. For example, this recording made in 1992 by the Mariinsky Orchestra under the great Victor Fedotov has no slowing at all at that point: https://youtu.be/wG0fUnomgYw?t=721 (I presume it was a studio recording or done in the theatre with no dancing.) In this case Fedotov's decisions are shaped entirely by the music's internal structure. (Tchaikovsky marks this variation as Allegro Vivace, and no tempo changes are indicated, even though there are many other places in SL where he does mark in a change of tempo, or an accelerando, or a slowing.) However, in the following film of a ballet performance by the same orchestra and conductor just two years earlier, there is a marked slowing (more than in the ABT performance) for the male solo in the final variation. https://youtu.be/9rJoB7y6Ncs?t=1223 In this case it seems clear that Igor Zelensky's Apollonian dancing requires that. (What dancing!) Of course, you're right that But their senses of time were shaped by purely musical factors. (In that respect it's interesting that Furtwängler studied and worked for many years with the theorist and analyst, Heinrich Schenker, whose whole life was devoted to demonstrating the internal workings of music.) So, as a comparative newbie to ballet, and especially to how it works in its relationship between orchestra/conductor and the dancers, I'm struggling a bit to get used to the idea of choreography impinging on the musical flow. I daresay this is something I need to learn to get used to. One of the things I definitely appreciate about the ABT performance is that the accelerando towards the end is impeccably timed to compensate for the lost time of the male solo. Moreover, I do accept that one cannot be doctrinaire about this. For example, some ballet performances of the Pas de Trois that have no slowing leave me dissatisfied because I find the choreography unconvincing. This performance at La Scala is one such instance: https://youtu.be/UHbM58HMXZ4?t=1492 I'd be interested to know what you think of the Royal Ballet performance I've linked above, in which there's hardly any slowing and the choreography is pretty much the same as in ABT. As I say above, Michael Coleman's "go for it" jumps are a lot less tidy than Herman Corejo's at that point; but it seems to me that this performance has a lot going for it nonetheless. Thanks again. That's a nice story about Danilova and Barbirolli.

These are some really interesting replies to further questions that have arisen from my original question. Thank you all. I think that gets pretty close to what I've been sensing for a long time, without understanding the technical aspects involved -- and because I don't really understand the technical aspects it's hard to talk about it with any precision. After all, the only precise language we have for talking about music (my field) is technical; and even then we are always translating on the assumption that those sharing the technical language have a common understanding of what the language means in terms of sound, structure etc. So, putting all this together, I'm wondering if those dancers whom many watchers declare to be "musical" are those who can make their moves serve expression in a focussed way that communicates -- and expression often is defined by context. (Canbelto's point about "you don't even have to be much of a dancer to be a musical dancer" is relevant here.) It seems to me that the following extract is a pretty good example of what I'm thinking of. It's the Pas de Trois from Swan Lake, done by ABT in 2005, with Erica Cornejo, Xiomara Reyes, and Herman Cornejo. So much could be said; but here are just three points, two pro my suggestion that this is a good example of musicality serving expression, and one slight reservation. The full extract: 1) The way these dancers fill the temporal space, from downbeat to downbeat, and even across the phrase, strikes me as so natural, without being at all fixed -- it feels so responsive to the sound in that it is almost always pretty much in time with the sound, though without being precise in a "beaty" way. 2) A slight reservation -- it bothers me, as a musician, that this performance and so many other slow down for the male solo in the final variation just after 7.35. Many performances do this, but not all, by any means. 3) And then -- this is brilliant. The orchestra quickens back towards the original tempo for the final female solo, and when Erika Cornejo (it is her, isn't it?) starts she presses the tempo even harder so that when she's finishing the solo with those jumps (sorry, but I don't know the technical terms) she's well ahead. The whole point of that acceleration by the dancer seems beautifully to fit the expressive purpose. After all, they are trying to cheer up Siegfried -- "Come on!!", she seems to say. Watching this performance always cheers me up! Another account, in which the male solo in the final variation is hardly slowed at all, is from the Royal Ballet. with Rosalyn Whitton, Sandra Conley and Michael Coleman. Here, Michael Coleman just goes for it; and while the result is less tidy than Herman Cornejo's dancing, his reckless abandon has a similar effect. Lovely jumps at the end. In both these cases the musicality of the dancing seems to come not from precise patterning between the two mediums (music and dance), but from the tension between them. First one of them leads, then the other. I'd be interested to know what those experienced in ballet think of these points. Tell me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

Ha! Food for thought there. Thanks.

Thank you! I think I see what you mean about the boy in the red hoodie etc. One of the most interesting things about what he does here is that, while the energy is all a bit raw, and the moves even more raw, there's an underlying sense for metre -- as if he's not just counting pulses, but is very aware of the moves from one bar to the next, and even in groups of bars. That was one of the issues I raised in my original question. When I was teaching compositional techniques -- and I was blessed by having some of the brightest and best which that country (Ireland) had to offer -- I was always especially fascinated by abilities of that kind. Raw, sometimes eccentric, often opinionated about their own ideas -- they might be all those things and more. But that inherent ability meant there was always something with which they and you can work. I have a strong suspicion that many of these issues to do with "musicality" in a dancer must have some kind of innate aspect. They can be taught, they can be honed; but I suspect they are there from a very early age -- a bit like a discerning ear in a musician. I read somewhere that Riccardo Drigo said a conductor's worst nightmare was a dancer without an ear -- or words to that effect. Sorry, I know I shouldn't post unattributable things; but I'm certain that it was he, and that this was the substance of his comment. Maybe I read it in a book?. Perhaps someone here knows where it is recorded in an authoritative source.

Ha! Thanks everyone! I'm learning a so much from things I never expected to encounter when I asked the question. (I know we're answering one another, not necessarily me; but such discourse is a benefit of an informed forum like this.) That includes those very-accomplished mash-ups of Beyoncé and Stravinsky, that very thought-provoking clip of Yulia Stepanova "dancing" to a single piece of Chopin — especially thought-provoking because this was very the dancer who induced me to ask this question. Of all the others, I'm as struck by some of your comments as I am by a priceless line-up of video clips. Canbelto's point about Gelsey Kirkland is an especially interesting one because it raises issues about the interaction of acting, dancing and musicality. Yes! A point all the more striking because the Wilis are such ambiguous characters -- beautiful on one level, sinister on another. I'd never thought of the cross-act connection before. But what you say feels right. And as for that point about Lopatkina -- I've just watched the whole of that act in this performance, Mariinsky in 2006(?), with the ways of thought everyone's raised in mind. Oh my goodness. Everything about it is at such a high level -- from that orchestra (surely, along with the Met in NY, one of the two best theatre orchestras in the world), to Lopatkina's frappés which, unless you'd mentioned them, canbelto, I don't think I would have noticed. Finally, and in the light of all that, I'm left with a sense that volcanohunter has hit right on the head a very important nail about musicality in a dancer. Thanks!

Fraildove. Thank you so much for the recommendations. I've ordered both these books. Your suggestion about going to classes is worth thinking through. I don't know why I didn't think of this myself, because when I taught compositional techniques I several times allowed folks who were curious to sit in on my classes, which were small-group. (You can't really teach it any other way.) It would not be possible for me to take the ballet class myself, being nearly 70 and with quite bad arthritis all over the place; but I'm sure I could still learn a lot. I'll seek suggestions from a friend who works in theatre and is fairly knowledgeable about all kinds of dance. Thanks again!

Thank you for these replies. They are all very helpful. I found the clips that showed different dancers doing the same passage in the same production especially valuable. So thanks for those to volcanohunter, and to Quinten for the example of Italian fouettés. Fraildove, your use of proper ballet terms inspires me to look for a decent online dictionary of those terms. Would you or anyone else in the forum find this one reliable? Or how about this from American Ballet Theatre? I ask for that advice because, as a musician I find so many online discussions and definitions of compositional techniques very deficient or just wrong. Thanks.

Thank you everyone for all the posts of the last ten days. As I had hoped, they are helping a musician understand more about ballet, especially about relationships between balletic technique, artistic expression and music. Also, I've found that when one person replies to another, rather than directly to my original question, all kinds of unexpected avenues open up helpfully. I can't respond to every point; but here are some of the ones that have made the strongest impression in answering my questions. 1) Quinten. Thank you SO much for that analysis of Ulyana Lopatkina rehearsing. As a newbie, it's fascinating to see the choreography "dismantled" in tht way, analogous to the way musicians might dismantle a score when practicing. I've learned a lot by looking closely, with your point in mind that "the melody is in the upper body, lyrical and continuous." It's amazing to see how it all comes together in the live performance. And WOW! I've played that performance over several times, especially that extraordinarily expressive passage from 1.26 onwards. I can now see something of what you say about the relationship between upper and lower body. And I think that's the first time I've understood this point -- as distinct from just finding the general effect beautiful. Thank you! 2) Drew. Your response to that Lopatkina posting expresses so much of what I would have liked to say, but didn't have the words or the technical know-how to do so. Thanks. Also, your point about the dangers of video and synching is well made. Since you and a couple of others mentioned NYCB I've looked up some of those dancers with your points in mind. Having done that, I'm beginning to see what you mean about dancers such as Tiler Peck. I was struck by her commentary on this page, about the Act III pas de deux in Sleeping Beauty (sixth video down on that page). I was VERY confused -- until I realised that the partners were Tiler and Tyler! HeeHee! (It's not a common name in my part of the world.) Of her you say "Meeting the music at crucial times but playing with and against it at others". It seems to me that her dancing of the Ratmansky "Pictures at an Exhibition" linked on that NVCB page I've just mentioned is a good example of just that. Also, the excerpts on the NYCB page of Pictures https://www.nycballet.com/Ballets/P/Pictures-at-an-Exhibition-New-Ratmansky.aspx make your point about the character of a company. 3) pherank. I find your comments about Balanchine especially interesting, because so much of his work was involved with what some have called abstract ballet. I'm not sure that's an entirely appropriate word because, as Helene said, "They can look quite musical as stand-alones, until you realize that the choreography was meant to do and show something else," and there is always some kind of concept behind them, even if the dancer is freer than in classical ballet to put their own interpretation onto the concept. But that musical emphasis comes across very strongly in just about every piece of Balanchine choreography I've come across, including classics such as The Nutcracker and more recent pieces such as Agon. When watching Agon, I always experience the most extreme tension between musical interests and visual interests. Even more than in Tchaikovsky, the music nails itself into my brain in the experience of the moment. So music always wins! But that's my problem. Thanks for the link to this Tiler Peck Pas de Deux. As with Drew, who suggested her as an epitome of a specific kind of musicality in dance, your last comment nails so many of the challenges of the question we're discussing. That's why we need, as best as we can, to spell out the meaning of terms -- AND to acknowledge that viewing something as valid or invalid can have authority only if it is measured against a defined baseline. Elsewhere there's a thread discussing classicism in dance, and "musicality" crops up quite a bit there. I don't want to open up that subject here; but here's someone else who is musical in the sense I'm wrote about in the initial question. Aurélie Dupont and Hervé Moreau do Pas de Deux in a way that strikes me as more "classical" than the NYCB -- not better, just different. Yet even within that, Dupont takes risks -- of a different kind and perhaps a bit more targeted for the moment than Peck. (Again, different but not necessarily better.) For some reason I find this both quite exhilarating and amusing -- pressing at the margins, but musical. I'm sure that if she could have gone round again, she would have. So, it seems to me that I need to learn to LOOK differently. That's not as easy as it sounds, because seeing something happen is merely the surface, and I generally don't have a very strong visual awareness. It's a bit analogous to a challenge with which a former composition pupil presented me. She had a superb ear for pitch. But she had never learned properly to sift out instrumental timbre, such as exactly what instruments are playing if, say, a violin line is doubled at the unison by flute and clarinet. Eventually she learned to do it well -- after quite a bit of prodding and suggestion from me. Essentially it meant she had to listen and to think differently, with a different part of her mind's excellent ear fully engaged. But it didn't come easily for either of us. Thank you all. So, as James Taylor has sung — "That's why I'm here". Thanks everyone.

As a musician who joined this forum to gain a better understanding of ballet, can someone please help by answering a couple of questions for me? They seems connected to fouéttes, so I hope this is the best thread for my purpose. What is this movement, that Yulia Stepanova is doing in Le Corsaire? It looks a bit like a fouétte, but it's very different from these ones, which she did in Swan Lake in London a few weeks ago. [I saw her performance (with Alexander Volchkov) in this production (St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, at the Coliseum) two days prior to when this clip was recorded.] I've heard the Swan Lake ones described as "standard fouéttes". I've also heard of "Italian fouéttes"; but none of the descriptions of them I've found are quite what YS does here. One aesthetic point that interests me is that she times the double turns so that they immediately precede the strongest downbeat in the phrase and therefore seem to drive into that downbeat. Is that something that Petipa(?) would have written into the choreography, or is it her own ornamentation/addition or whatever. Many Thanks.