Drew

5 hours ago, Buddy said:

Hi Drew and Happy New Year.

[...] the change of pace is worth noting and perhaps discussing.

 

Happy New Year to you too Buddy and to you @ECat.

Pacing...Hmmm...Stepping aside from Giselle, I've noticed Khoreva's turns along the dialgonal are faster than I'm used to seeing at the Mariinsky; I quite like that as long as she looks relaxed and on axis when doing it and ends securely (all of which she usually does in the video I have seen and as best I remember, too, when I saw her live).  I don't think I would mind at all seeing some more speed in turns from the Mariinsky's featured dancers. In an interview given shortly after she joined the Bolshoi, Stepanova said that was one of the first things she worked on with her coach there.

But you were writing about the corps in the December 19th Giselle excerpts.  I actually thought one dancer looked clearly misaligned at a moment when the corps was standing along the sides of stage framing the action (camera angles play a role here and perhaps it was not as clear from most of the audience). Also, the exact positioning of the dancers' hands/fingers wasn't the same when they were posed along the side of the stage. I won't say I've never seen that at the Mariinsky because I have, but not that often or at least not that obviously, so that was my main concern....

23 hours ago, Buddy said:

Something of a New Year’s Day present. An old friend of ours posted a video of Olga Smirnova’s long awaited performance of  the Alexei Ratmansky interpretation of Giselle that took place December 19. It includes all of her appearance in Act II.

It’s most interesting for what she does and for a view of what Alexei Ratmansky has conceived. It’s as fine a performance as I’ve seen her give. As usual she’s in total command of her dramatic presence and her exceptional dancing. Her theatrically (acting) is as fine as there is on a ballet stage. Her nuancing and her depth of portrayal are exceptional. Within the boundaries set by Alexei Ratmansky (she has stated that he was on top of every detail) she still internalises and makes her character compelling, intricate and personal.

The Ratmansky interpretation is a more dramatic and very animated one. The moves are larger and faster, most noticeable in the Willis who are almost running at times. It’s a definite contrast to the usual Mariinsky dreaminess. I would guess that it’s something that would work very well at the Bolshoi, but would also have a worthwhile place at the Mariinsky, where both versions could be presented. Maria Bulanova, a favorite of mine for her vibrance, does a fine change of direction as a very formidable Myrtha. I didn’t recognise her. I didn’t recognise Igor Kolb either with his fine dramatic approach to Hans.

I, as usual, continue to like the traditional, more dreamlike and lyrical, Mariinsky manner, but the more dramatic one also has a great attraction. This is where the Bolshoi excels. It’s pretty much a matter of personal preference.

One of the artistic elements that I most like is the well defined sculpture.

Vladimir Shklyarov as Albrecht complements Olga Smirnova very well with his physical, yet airy Mariinsky prowess.

 

 

I was a little confused by this. Smirnova made a guest appearance with the Mariinsky, dancing with Shklyarov, and a chunk of that performance got posted on youtube dated December 19--if that is the footage you are discussing, then I agree with you that there is some beautiful dancing--but that was the Mariinsky's production, not Ratmansky's "historically informed" production for the Bolshoi...It's possible Smirnova's dancing was still being influenced by her work with Ratmansky, and perhaps that is what you meant (?) -- but it has, for example, a very different ending to the ballet than the Ratmansky production (which was broadcast). 

I did see the broadcast of the Ratmansky production when it was first done and found it very worthwhile and enjoyable viewing. And quite a bit of that has turned up on youtube as well -- her Albrecht for that production/performance was Belyakov.

Oh dear. That's distressing to read. I suppose there may be personnel issues affecting the new production (including backstage staff) that don't affect Nutcracker but who knows? I certainly hope ticket sales aren't the deciding factor. It's such a great score and, as noted above, I have been very curious how that production turn out as well as how it is received.

In the U.S. it sometimes feels as if any ballet title that isn't ultra-familiar has no chance...

Congratulations to her. I don't know the Boston Ballet dancers and went to look for some footage of Fentroy on youtube. There is very little and all of it of dates way back--but what there is does show her a beautiful dancer. (It would be great to see something more recent.) Here she is in a video posted in 2018 rehearsing Forsythe's Pas/Parts and talking about her work on it.

On 12/14/2021 at 5:55 PM, BalanchineFan said:

Who is the best SPF that you've seen? This year or any year? Balanchine's Nutcracker only. Someone mentioned Jenifer Ringer in another thread. Just wondering... 

I don't remember who danced it when I first came to NYC in the 70's/80's as I wasn't partial to Balanchine's Nutcracker then. I preferred Gelsey Kirkland as Clara in Baryshnikov's version. I think Sterling Hyltin, Lauren Lovette and Sara Mearns have lead the pack in my opinion, but Maria, Megan and Tiler have also been excellent. It's hard for me to pick one, as you see.

...

I'm not a huge Nutcracker fan and the only production I ever went to night after night (the seasons when I could) was Baryshnikov's when ABT performed it in D.C.  And that was almost exclusively because of Kirkland's Clara which remains one of my greatest ballet-going memories. The video, lovely as it is, doesn't begin to capture the wonder of her performance and, in fact, I believe it was shot before she had ever danced the ballet on stage. Moreover her Clara was full of subtle variations from performance to performance even when dancing with the same partner. And she danced it with a few different partners including Dowell and Cragun. But  I don't think of her as dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy--I think of her as dancing Clara.

SPF? I'm the person who wrote that their favorite Sugar Plum Fairy was Jenifer Ringer.  I do have mixed feelings about Balanchine's Nutcracker even now in part because of the placement of the SPF variation at the very beginning of the second act which, to me, undermines some of its magical impact. It's as if Odile came on at the beginning of Swan Lake Act III before the ball was even underway and performed 32 fouettes there and then. (I exaggerate...a little...to explain my feelings.)

I haven't seen any of the current NYCB SPFs -- the one I would most like to see I think is Hyltin, but I doubt it's in the cards. On film/video--I've always loved the footage of Larissa Lezhnina dancing the SPF variation in the Kirov's production. I would LOVE to have seen her dance the role.

What a great photo! May she rest in peace.

May she rest in peace....

2 hours ago, Chballetfan said:

 

- Laracey would be my first choice, but in her absence,

Absence? I'm puzzled...Her posts on Instagram show her dancing in Nutcracker. (Actually I was hoping to read about some of these performances.)

Welcome--and thanks for telling your story. It's great you have been able to choreograph in recent years in addition to everything else! You have probably seen this site has a number of ballet history discussions...

Nice to hear from you again Buddy--hope you have been well.  Some other video of the Illiushkina/Caixeta Bayadere debut has been floating around on Instagram and youtube. Much of what I saw looked lovely--I'm very much looking forward to seeing these dancers develop. (Or, more likely in my case, reading about their development.)

11 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

 

The ballet starts with a prologue to the score’s overture. Alas…I’ve never been a fan of re imagined prologues to overtures.  Choreographers usually get too carried away with them, and this is no exception.  Here we get a glimpse of Herr Drosselmayer and his nephew preparing their visit to the Silberhaus home, and getting all the toys ready.  I would gladly send the prologue to time out in the corner to make company to McKenzie’s Swan Lake one. There the Drosselmayer's Nutcracker toy can make friends with Von Rothbart's stuffed swan.

 

In addition to everything else these prologues undermine the mystery of the characters' actual entrances as traditionally staged...I can't say the Nutcracker prologues irritate me as much as the Swan Lake ones do because...well, I'm not as invested in the Nutcracker, but still....Glad you are seeing a lot of great ballet.

I don't think it's realistic to expect most children to sit for the whole thing without a break.

Sounds like a great performance. Looking forward to reading about the other casts you get to see...

THANK YOU! I am rushing from one work crisis to another but watched the first few minutes and can't wait to see the rest. I hope they leave it up for the rest of the day....

Very cute...But that mouse must be hot...

2 hours ago, pherank said:

Scarlett worked with a number of international dance companies (aside from the RB) and I've yet to hear any corroborative evidence from those organizations.

It wouldn't be extraordinary if someone, as a guest at another company, behaved very differently than at his or her home company. However, as has already been mentioned, in Scarlett's particular case there was a pretty strong statement from the Royal Danish Ballet addressing his behavior when working at their theater. As I have written before, the Danes are not exactly known for their puritanism.

Because so much about the Scarlett case is unknown to the general public one may well feel it unfolded very unfairly to him; it is, unfortunately, just as possible that the silence has protected him. It's an unknown unknown...

I myself don't find it plausible that the Royal Ballet got rid of someone they had anointed (a little prematurely) as a superstar choreographer merely on an "anonymous tip." Obviously there was an investigation and, moreover, one that was kept out of the public eye for some time.  In fact, they had a lot invested in Scarlett as the next-in-succession great British classical choreographer. Despite some caveats about that assessment (and dear God I wish he had not lit his own ballets as if he didn't want people to see them) I had myself rather been hoping that in time Scarlett would get another chance to rebuild his career and reputation--and indeed develop his obvious gifts.

The ballet world as a whole...well...you know, one can quickly fall down the rumor rabbit hole and of course one tries not to do so...but it would be no shocker if, as Jennings' source seems to suggest, someone who was the victim of such abuses were to become their perpetrator. 

On 10/29/2021 at 10:16 AM, bluejean said:

@BalanchineFan, I was wondering if you would clarify what you mean by this?

I hope @BalanchineFandoesn't mind my jumping in about the fight to get gynecologists to wash their hands (see above post)--I'm not a historian, but loosely: in the early to mid 19th-century gynecologists (at that time all men and modern "professionals") started to replace midwives (women) in handling births etc.  It was a shift in terms of increasing male control of women's bodies--the topic being addressed in the earlier post. About mid 19th century, it was discovered that the male doctors had WORSE mortality rates among their patients giving birth than the old-fashioned midwives did. Eventually the difference was determined to involve hygiene -- Doctors were spreading infections to the women. (Unlike midwives they often treated women after treating other diseases or doing autopsies.) Getting the doctors to wash their hands before treating women made a difference but seems not to have happened without a fight. That is, it took a while to convince people this is what needed to be done. Here is a short, non-scholarly article that goes into more detail:

https://theconversation.com/ignaz-semmelweis-the-doctor-who-discovered-the-disease-fighting-power-of-hand-washing-in-1847-135528

Thank you @Barbara--I have been eager to read about Forster's debut.

Congratulations to Misty Copeland!  I hope she will be dancing again soon....

I didn't see the sugarplum gate performance, but when I DID see Ringer in Nutcracker she was, hands down, the best sugarplum fairy I ever saw. In my personal pantheon the best sugarplum fairy ever (allowing that Marilyn Burr in the National Ballet production has a special place since I saw her as a child). I even liked Ringer better than Farrell in that particular role and, come to think of it, better than Zakharova who, unlikely as it sounds, made a guest appearance in the NYCB Nutcracker and, as I remember, was quite charming too. 

Now to return to topic, I always loved Ringer whatever shape she was in, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't greatly prefer her in what I thought of as "ballet" shape. I put that sentence in past tense because "ballet shape" is just what people are rethinking and re-imagining nowadays (or at least, maybe we are) and I feel I should too. But @vipa seems to me to raise honest and important questions. That said, I don't think any slack should be cut whatsoever for someone capable of writing, as Macaulay has in his reflections, the equivalent of "some of my best friends are anorexic." Some passages almost read like deliberate self-parody -- I mean wow! he really answered the door for people who were overweight so they could meet with each other?! Award the guy a sugarplum....

7 minutes ago, Marta said:

You're so right!  Baryshnikov's brises were  beautiful as well as dramatically potent.  I believe I saw Corella do them at his last Giselle with Vishneva.

Completely agree about Baryshnikov. I believe I saw that Vishneva-Corella performance and, for my taste, neither then (nor at one other performance of Giselle that I saw him dance) did his brisés hold a candle to Baryshnikov's....(I usually liked Corella a lot when I saw him dance, but all the same....)

Excited to read about Brandt's debut....

The backdrops seem kind of ravishing as gigantic drawings, and I think I understand what Lacotte said about the characters-emerging-from-book effect he wanted but I did find myself wondering how the black and white look actually worked in the theater.  (I have read some French comments about the production now...not a lot though.)

Well, so far I have watched a big chunk of Australian ballet's World Ballet Day footage, a smaller chunk of the Bolshoi's and smaller still of Royal Ballet's (mostly just the Kaneko and Bracewell R&J balcony scene coached by Edward Watson  and Leslie Collier). Plus all of the shorter POB offering  and some of the Universal Ballet offering. And now I am deeply (and only a little bit ironically) disappointed not to be able to come onto this website and find outraged responses to Vaziev. Some may remember that most years I half-heartedly defend him, but this year I was going to join the chorus of outrage as I think he out-did himself in singling out a new company member for humiliation in footage that he has to have known would be used (and must later have approved) for International transmission. (According to the subtitles "Shameful! ...She should be ashamed! ...I could do a better arabesque than that...." etc.) Indeed the footage of the rehearsal was so brief I almost suspect the company of having included it just to thumb the nose at Vaziev's critics. 

As postscript to Russian Martinet ballet tropes for this World Ballet Day, I'll also mention listening to a young male dancer at the Universal ballet talk about his experiences with a Russian teacher at the Kirov Academy in D.C. -- which included crying through the night as he repeatedly wrote out exercises as a "punishment" and throwing up mid-class--even though he concluded his stories up with remarks to the effect of "it made me a better dancer...it helped me..." and the like.

Happier highlights from what I have seen: definitely the Australian Ballet rehearsal of the Pas Des Alouettes from the Ratmansky-Petipa Harlequinade and their company class led by former company principal and now coach Fiona Tonkin. (I hope I have identified her correctly--because WOW! watching her demonstrate steps was a pleasure). I also very much enjoyed the Royal Ballet R&J rehearsal, for a lot of reasons, but partly because I'm so happy that Fumi Kaneko is coming off a successful debut as Juliet which, whatever I think of the ballet, is a huge landmark for her career.

I hope eventually to watch more of the footage--usually I watch the RB class and I'd like to watch the Mariinsky class that was posted this go round as well. But my paying job is rather in the way....

21 hours ago, silvermash said:

Up to me, it’s a beautiful production with gorgeous set (painted canvases  in trompe l'oeil technic, a very beautiful know-how of the opera house) and great costumes. However the ballet is too long, ill constructed with too much scenes and characters. It needs a stricter editing… I'm not a big fan of the choreography either, it's sometimes too repetitive, presumably to characterize the roles but during 3 hours, it becomes redundant...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It sounds as if  some of the problems might be fixed with judicious editing...but not all...

I'd be grateful to read any reports/reactions to Lacotte's staging of Stendhal's novel at the POB.