Drew

I haven't seen Wiles for some years and and then the only major roles I saw her dance were Gamzatti (a debut or second performance) and an early Queen of the Wilis. In those performances, I always thought she looked exactly the way she describes herself as feeling in this interview -- even the words are what I used to say to myself -- as if the technique or, rather, the style were somehow pasted on to her rather than emanating from within. It never occurred to me to attribute this to her training or her relation to her training. I did sometimes attribute it to her height--thinking she had to "grow" into her long limbs. But generally, when I was feeling generous I thought I just did not "get" her as a dancer. When I was feeling grumpy I thought she was mysteriously overrated. If I had had the chance to see her recently, I wonder if I would have started to like her better or still felt the same dissatisfaction? Hope I get the chance to see her dance sometime soon!

I remember many on this site complained bitterly about the "Koch" theater business, something I honestly found a bit puzzling. That is, on a different web site or message board I would be happy to join a chorus of complaints about, say, capitalism -- rather an "off topic" for ballet talk -- but given the way our system works and how the arts are funded in this country, Martins playing (or genuinely being) the grateful artist giving kudos to a generous donor seems par for the course. Indeed, his skill at this sort of thing is presumably one of things that keeps NYCB going with its extraordinary long and choreographically diverse seasons -- revivals, new productions, good contracts for the dancers etc. etc. I certainly would not condemn or blame him for being (or appearing to be) grateful to Koch and wanting to maintain him as a potential donor for the future. (And I assume the Romeo and Juliet was also done with an eye to long term box office...which even under better economic circumstances is not a bad idea ,though I gather the result is viewed as pretty dismal.) The Times story said that the company claims that its "average" of total dancers in the past 20 years has been 93 and these cuts take the company from 101 to 90. It's sad and unfortunate and I'm sure many are wondering if other cuts could have been made instead, but in the current context it's not exactly an outrageous scandal. And though I too think Kistler should have retired a few years ago I can't muster much energy for supporting the idea that Martins should have driven her out before she was ready to go--even to save money in a crisis. Yes, she is his wife, so one can cry "nepotism" but she is also is a great NYCB ballerina whose history is part of the company's history. My own work place is falling about my ears and I'm guessing that must be true of many on this web site. I dread to think what is going to happen even to major arts organizations in this country in the coming years--but Martins does not remotely seem to me to be the villain here. And informing each corps member individually is a heck of a lot classier than letting them know by mail or (as has happened with staff at my work place) a group meeting.

Thank you for this. When the Ballet Nacional de Cuba first came to dance in Washington D. C. Marta Garcia was one of my favorites -- the other was Rosario Suarez. Still, I'm afraid that I only saw Garcia a few times and don't have very vivid memories of her performances. What memories I have don't really correspond to the You Tube excerpts except perhaps a teensy bit to the last one with the fouettes on a diagonal. I remember her as quite tall and as someone whose dancing had a quality of spaciousness and amplitude (I think that's the word) and great technical assurance. I have an image in my head of a series of very confident centered turns in Coppelia... I have to add that I don't entirely trust my memory in its details and youtube (as has happened to me before even with dancers I saw often) unfortunately just confuses me. I had no idea that she had defected. She must have a lot to contribute as a teacher...

Thank you Leigh -- I enjoyed reading your report for Dance View Times. I imagine it helps the company (or at least helps the director with the company board) to get such good coverage--especially a prominently featured piece in the New York Times--it was front page of the arts section. When I was still a child (maybe young teenager--my memory fails me here) I used to mull over a photo-essay about The Two Pigeons in one of Keith Money's books on the Royal Ballet (Seymour/Gable as the lovers). I fell in love with the ballet on that basis alone, and a ballet teacher later told me a bit about the use of the live pigeons in production etc. But I still have never seen it and have always wanted to do so.

Just read the NY Times review of the Sarasota Ballet's Ashton program (Les Patineurs and The Two Pigeons): I can see this forum isn't terribly active, but would love to read more reports on the program. Did anyone see it?

Jane Simpson -- May I ask what role she danced in Month in the Country? I'm very curious about her career at the Royal and would love to see her in Ondine! (not going to happen though)...Thanks, Drew

Leonid -- Just writing to say I really enjoy and appreciate your reporting on the RB performances this season.

Thank you many times over for the link to the R&J pas de deux--I had never seen this bit of video. On the whole, I think video of Kirkland (at least generally available video) does not remotely capture her, but in this little bit I I felt I saw a glimpse at least of what she was like -- that is, a glimpse of one of the most extraordinary and profound dance artists I ever had the joy and privilege of seeing. I never loved a dancer (and doubt I ever will) as I loved Kirkland. I would almost say that when she danced, it was if she were dancing in an entirely different dimension from everyone else on stage, but part of her genius was that she often managed to bring the whole stage picture along with her, communicating her quality to everything around her. I do not mean that others danced better when she was dancing (though that may have happened and certainly I saw partners become inspired by her) but that she radiated a world around her, a world so seemingly real that everything became a part of it. One thing I particularly like about the video of the R&J excerpt is that it gives a hint of the way she simultaneously was all liquid fluidity AND ultra clarity and all while creating a very real emotional portrait--just a hint, but what a pleasure to have it.

Thanks for the wonderful photos. Like Andrei, I would enjoy hearing about the performances, too!

Thank you for reporting on this. It sounds like a terrific evening. When Margot Fonteyn made guest appearances in La Sylphide with the (now defunct) National Ballet in Washington D.C. her partner was Desmond Kelly. I saw them dance it from very close up--first or second row--and have a memory-image in my mind of his emotional collapse at the end of the ballet. Very intense! I can no longer remember if he partnered her in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella which she also danced with the company. Do you know if Kelly has been teaching/coaching in the latter part of his career? I take it to be rather a high compliment that Fonteyn counted on him as a partner, though I know even from my one brief memory that there was more to him as an artist than partnering...

Klavier -- Is it possible Martins insisted the dancers choose work from the NYCB repertory because of the cost of acquiring the right to perform other ballets? That would seem reasonable to me if the goal is to raise money...

The "Character dances" on youtube are just fabulous--I wish they COULD revive that!

I think it has been at least a couple of years since I last posted (as some of you may have at one point gotten tired of reading) that the very first ballet I ever saw was the Kirov film of Sleeping Beauty with Soloviev and Sizova. I was completely awestruck by it -- a very small child, but a ballet fan for life. And though only a fan, I feel ballet has brought a great deal TO my life, so these two dancers, whom I never saw live, have a very special place in my heart and memory. I loved the videos--and, by the by thought Soloviev looked terrific in the 1975 video--in some ways more refined than in the earlier ones. I do wander over to youtube on my own from time to time, but had had not seen these--thanks for posting the link.

If I include last July/August in my 2007-2008 year, then I have seen just six performances all 'season.' None of them go on my list of most memorable or truly great, though many bits and pieces linger pleasantly in memory. I especially enjoyed Wheeldon's "Rococo Variations" at NYCB last week; for me, it was like an exquisite piece of chamber music and slightly under-rated by the early reviews. I got a mere glimpse of Osipova in the Bolshoi's Corsaire last summer, but that little sticks with me along with the fabulous character dancing of the super beautiful Anna Rebetskaya -- she and Merkuriev as dancing pirates were one of the few genuine highlights of my admittedly rather thin dance-going year. Other nice memories include one particularly stunning overhead lift in Act II of Swan Lake with Gomez and Ananiashvili, Part's stunning lines (or, rather, sculptural forms) in Act IV of Swan Lake, Teresa Reichlen's simple, sensual beauty in Martins' River of Light and, last summer, Alexandrova's assurance in the Bolshoi's Corsaire...and a chance to see Ratmansky's version of the Jardin Anime sequence--albeit on a very crowded stage. Lowlights? Well, with the partial exception of the Spanish Dance (which had some life at the two performances I attended), the Act III character dances of ABT's Swan Lake this spring were very, very weak--even allowing for the generic weakness of American dancers in these dances generally. I thought the performances I saw were among the weakest I had seen at ABT. Just one example: the Hungarian dance ending at both performances (both!) with the lead woman turning under the arm of her partner and, despite a far from brisk tempo, seemingly bumping into him as she did so. Fortunately the costumes are very pretty. I was also dismayed by NYCB sloppiness in Interplay--Clive Barnes used words like "shoddy" to describe the same performance I saw and while that's harsh, I'd have to say fair.

I may have had a somewhat different reaction to the Halberg/Part partnership than others on this thread. Without exactly thinking that everything in this past week's particular performance worked--in particular, some of the lifts seemed less than spacious and easy--I still felt that they were physically so gorgeous together, their lines so elegant and refined, that it's a partnership well worth developing for the future. I also thought they generated a lot of emotion in Act IV (more, in my eyes, than Ananiashvili and Gomez who were superb in Act II but seemed to suffer somewhat from lack of preparation time in the final two acts--she was replacing Vishneva as noted above).

I saw the Ratmansky, Concerto Dsch, on Saturday night. It was very frothy and exuberant--the opening movement that introduces the the ensemble and soloists looks more like a grand finale than an opening. It's non-stop speedy brilliance, though the tone remains playful, humane, and lighthearted. Even the slow pas de deux in the middle section, for Whelan and Millepied, was more about gentle pleasures than keen longings. I thought the use of the background ensemble as semi-individualized community during this pas de deux--with the ensemble sometimes distant, sometimes near, and always shaping itself into unexpected images as Whelan and Millepied danced separately--was intriguing, possibly the most interesting thing about the ballet, though too much for my eye to take in on a first viewing. There was lots of playful back and forth for De Luz, Garcia and Bouder in the first and, especially, the third movement. Their interactions were comic/flirtacious/competitive--by the end Bouder had seemingly 'chosen' Garcia but kept glancing over curiously at the hyperactive De Luz. Their dancing was non-stop athletic, exuberant steps--jumps, tosses, turns, turning jumps, jumping tosses, tossing jumps etc. This was my first look at Garcia--would love to see more. Up to a point I understand McCauley's enthusiasm in the Times--and I think the Times critic has a tough if terrific job, so I don't like to pick at him/her--but I almost feel that some of his praise and even some of his description of the ballet's many surprises etc., could be more appropriately applied to Ratmanksy's Russian Seasons. I'd be curious if Concerto Dsch grows richer on multiple viewings, which is very possible since it's full of clever details, or just starts to seem like cutesy fun. I don't feel equipped to say. I enjoyed the rest of the evening--even Martins' River of Light which was led by the wonderful Teresa Reichlen dancing a very exposed, sensual role (including skin tight white costume) to which she brings a wonderful, simple grace that the ballet may or may not deserve, but which certainly made it watchable for me. The composer, Charles Wuorinen, whose music I had not heard before, conducted his own score, which Martins had commissioned. The orchestra sounded great...

I don't get to New York or the ballet very much these days (years) and planned a trip this week (all tickets purchased and reservations made) to see Vishneva Thursday and the new Ratmansky this Saturday--plus performances in between including Part on Saturday. Still, Vishneva/Ratmansky were the factors that determined my choice of this week for my first ballet performances since last summer. I know the 'rules' and the realities about casting -- I used to organize trips for the sole purpose of seeing Gelsey Kirkland dance (oops...) -- but the news is very, very disappointing.

Thanks for these tips--I used ffdshow as well. And I love the clips I have seen.

I only just read of Bessmertnova's death today--here on this site. The news makes me sad, though I only saw her twice. I especially remember and will always treasure her liquid bourrees in Ivan the Terrible. (In my mememory she melts backwards on point with her arms wafting before her in heightened and softened third positions -- alternating arms if that makes sense and rolling them forward through the air as her points carried her backward with a speed that should be blurry but somehow seems completely articulate and altogether at one with the music.) I am very sorry never to have seen her dance Giselle.

In theory I feel as Papeetepatrick does but the Max Brod/Kafka example always keeps me from being altogether comfortable with my own position. There is also a fantasy of authorial control (not necessarily the author's fantasy--it can be the reader's) that wills and posthumous instructions--and the debates about them--seem to elicit. It is a fantasy. Nabakov can't protect his published works from being read or adapted in ways that may distort his intentions at least as badly as the publication of an unfinished fragment. But if I were a great writer's literary executor I imagine I would feel obligated to follow her instructions (and obey the law).

To remain with the twentieth century: Joseph Cornell and Frank O'Hara; one can find traces of their love of ballet in their work (more in the case of Cornell than O'Hara). In the 1970's (I think) I used to see Kissinger at the ballet and around the same time I read an interview with Farrell in which she talked about meeting him and says something along the lines of...'he really knows something about ballet.' I saw Steve Martin at a matinee Coppelia years ago and since he was once married to Baronova's daughter, I vaguely assumed he must have some real interest and/or knowledge of ballet. But I don't really know.

I'm just baffled that Floyd would be doing Dancing with the Stars at the same time as he is training for a fight. (He is a great fighter--with unbelievably quick reflexes. But the greatest fighters have been known to go down when they aren't training seriously.) That said, I never watched Dancing with the Stars until I heard he was on, and then I checked in to see him midway through the show Monday night. I do think he is very talented--though self-conscious as a dancer which he most certainly is NOT as a fighter--and I would enjoy watching him grow as a dancer too. But...uh...I still prefer that he focus on the fight.

I have memories of both Ward and Tippet. I saw them mostly in demi-soloist or solo roles. But I do remember Ward in two principal appearances. In addition to the Coppelia w. Kirkland (mentioned in a post above) I saw him dance the lead in the ABT premier of Neumeier's Baiser de La Fee. The ballet was not kept in repetory, and I think I found the choreography pretty but thin. I did enjoy seeing Ward in the lead. He was tall, and had a slender, refined body type with elegant lines (rather different from, say, Kivitt). He also has a very brief speaking bit in The Turning Point.

We are way off topic here....but...I would add that not all larger male dancers need be 'regular guy' types; Kivitt was--and that style can be appealing especially in certain roles (Frantz, say, in Coppelia). But for example, in Grigorivitch ballets, one tends to need a heroic image (think Mukhamedov) that is easier to convey if one is not a willowy or particularly short dancer. Now, in fact, the new 'star' at the Bolshoi, Ivan Vasiliev is said to be preparing Spartacus and he is definitely a shorter dancer. He may pull it off--but I do not think it is most natural, body-image for that role. In the past on this board we have had discussions of traditional "emploi" -- and of how dancers in the nineteenth-century and earlier twentieth-century were often cast very much according to body type and temperament as well as talent. (No one ever said talent does not matter.) I would guess many of us on this board--myself certainly--are happy enough to see a more flexible vision of casting and type in present day ballet companies, but that does not preclude noticing that 'emploi' can still tell us something about ballet as an art form. And one cannot help noticing that certain 'types' seem more OR less prominent in today's major companies. I also don't think it is the case, that the question of women's body types--including more and less 'regular'--never comes up in discussion. I recently commented (on a thread about the Bolshoi) that I thought it was a "plus" that the Bolshoi, despite having Zakharova as their star ballerina, does not seem to fetishize super-thin, long-limbed, hyper-extended ballerinas. Can I enjoy that kind of ballerina--wow yes! I often enjoy Zakharova and hugely admire Guillem--it does not preclude my wanting to see other types, particularly in certain roles...Apologies though for citing myself! Thanks Miliosr for additional information about Ted Kivitt

To answer Ray's question--I sometimes feel that I simply see "more" with a bigger dancer. Balanchine said something along these lines about his preference for tall dancers though, of course, he was not speaking of male dancers. The lines are bigger and more expansive, the overhead lifts are grander--one can have long, lingering beauties as he lets the ballerina down from those lifts--and there is potential for great effects of contrast--a large male dancer who lands softly from a series of jumps has a different kind of 'flavor' than a smaller one. From a more practical point of view, he can typically partner a wider range of ballerinas. A talented smaller dancer can certainly achieve some comparable effects, but it's not identical. Also, we happen to live in an era when a lot of male talent does seem to be on the slighter, shorter side, so, yes, I wouldn't mind at all seeing some talented male dancers who were taller and broader. As I said at the end of my post, one does of course want to see talented dancers--like the not-at-all big and strapping Cornejo. As for ego--uh...I think that comes in all shapes and sizes. But though it's always charming to learn the dancers one admires are admirable human beings, it's not one of my criteria for what, say, makes a good Siegfried.