Drew

4 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Re. Hoven & Forster:  read my (& others’) comments about “spice.” Cory Stearns is a hot tamale in comparison to those two, regardless of Tech capability.

I don’t find Forster bland. Maybe not “spicy” in the way you mean here, but I have always found that his dancing draws my eye in a way that is still charismatic. Nor have I found him uninteresting to watch when cast, as he often is, in character roles. Would it be enough in a principal role? I haven’t seen him in one and can’t say. But I would be happy to find out. From what I read here he is not a particularly young dancer (for classical ballet) and it surprises me he hasn’t been given more chances—but there may be reasons I can’t assess. (I haven’t seen Hoven as much ...)

1 hour ago, Quinten said:

Which is more effective, sanitizing historical or historically-inspired works of art to keep people from having to view racist images that make them uncomfortable/raise their hackles versus using art itself to encourage people to think differently about their racial attitudes? 

I'm not sure I would use the word "sanitizing" and I guess I make a distinction, too, in my expectations of historical works on the one hand and my expectations of historically inspired works on the other. But leaving that aside, I think that engaging with older works of the ballet repertory (whether in pious historical preservation, "in the spirit of" adaptations, tactfully -- or tactlessly -- updated productions etc.) doesn't preclude engaging with new work and vice versa.  Since artists are often in dialogue with the past, the two can even be inter-related.  This thread happened to emerge as part of a discussion of the Bolshoi's revival of Pharaoh's Daughter...so that has been the focus.  I suppose that, as a general matter, I don't think the future changes without a reckoning with the past. (For me, personally, that's always a work in progress--work on myself that is.)

Perhaps it's worth adding that as a ballet fan/observer, I can't help but respond to what choreographers do--those I'm able to see--which is a little different from dictating what I'd like to see them try.  When I do have fantasy ideas about ballets, they are usually inspired by music not themes/issues...But it might be interesting to start a thread on stories/themes one think can and should be engaged by new classical choreography.

5 hours ago, Quinten said:

Are the people on this forum really the problem?  Today racism is resurgent and uglier than ever, in spite of all the attempts over the last 30 or 40 years to sensitize people to racist imagery.  Maybe it's time for art lovers to encourage artists to take a more active role in the fight against racism.  Spike Lee is a great example of how that's done -- I recommend his biting and entertaining film BlackkKlansman.  Where is the ballet "Charlottesville"?  Pressuring American ballet choreographers to address the issue might be a more effective way for ballet lovers to attack racism than criticizing an octogenarian Frenchman or a Russian ballet company, just sayin'.

Speaking for myself only...I care about ballet and ballet history, and I love the Bolshoi, which is not just any Russian company, but a hugely important one to the entire world (the world of ballet fans anyway). Of course what they do attracts attention and debate.

I also love and admire any number of nineteenth-century ballets, including ones that occasionally make me uncomfortable or that raise my hackles. So I feel a certain sense of responsibility in how I discuss them and works, like Lacotte’s, that pay tribute to them. But, yes, you are right—one could discuss other aspects of the issue, and it has several times been done on this website, though usually around opportunities for dancers and their training/hiring, not necessarily discussing what projects choreographers should take on...(From reading about it I would think Akram Khan’s Giselle is an example of a contemporary work that, as it tells a story about migrant workers, also raises issues of race and racism if only implicitly. A lot depends on how one defines those words. Since I haven’t seen it, even on video, I can’t speak to it though.)

For other kinds of anti-racist struggle that are not focused on the arts at all...or discussion boards...well obviously Balletalert isn’t the place to go into those. But it’s not absurd to assume that some of the people concerned about the issue here may be involved elsewhere.

I remember the Gemini sets as quite striking--really helped to "make" the ballet.   May she rest in peace.

51 minutes ago, Mashinka said:

Wasn't the first ever film with spoken dialogue The Jazz Singer with a blacked up Al Jolson?  Will that movie now be air-brushed from history?

 

Not air brushed from history. In a way, quite the contrary: the role of blackface in that film should be (and has been) discussed, acknowledged, critiqued--not treated casually, ignored because the film is important and people like it, and/or defended as having nothing to do with the history of racism.  And not perpetuated unthinkingly in new films either. What seems like air-brushing to me is acting as if the use of blackface is a non-issue.  

But in any case, it's very hard for me to consider Lacotte's Pharaoh's Daughter as a historical classic however charming a tribute to the classics I may find some of it. Do we think his balance of mime, character dance, and classical dance exactly reproduces Petipa's balance? At any rate we know the steps don't...however pleasing one may find several of the enchainements. 

To be honest, I personally am okay with minor revisions to nineteenth-century works in a performing art like ballet given that those works are not tightly unified modernist artifacts and were always subject to revisions and interpolation--and for better or worse, ballet isn't exactly reproducible in the manner of film. But, as I have said above, I better understand the defense of blackface in a strict reconstruction even when I'm not entirely convinced. Still, if people want to defend Lacotte's Pharaoh's Daughter as a crucial historical document then does it really require simply denying what's problematic about blackface? Or about 19th-century orientalism for that matter... ? No genuine work of art is contained by its history and no-one has to give up their love of what is pleasurable and sometimes profound about an art work in becoming sensitive to that history. But ignoring that history or dismissing it seems to me a mistake.

Here is an image of performers appearing in Paris in the later nineteenth century--the Bellonini brothers --  I have read them described as a European blackface act: they were known as "Hottentots à L'oeil Blanc" [sic]. I don't know anything more about them, and others may want to fill me in, but I thought I would share just to notice again that the larger history at issue does not just concern performers/audiences in the United States--though the U.S. of course plays a very big role in it:

https://www.bidsquare.com/online-auctions/potter-potter/folies-bergere-brothers-bellonini-825357

14 minutes ago, bcash said:

To call it "disgusting" is certainly a modern-day American reaction.  I would say the make-up choice is somewhat debatable. 

I mean, it's not just about the history of racism or slavery, it's more about how "black-face" make-up was used in American performance culture in the past, isn't it?    

Not just American. The uses may differ in different countries, but I don’t think the history of blackface in European countries is somehow completely a separate issue. 

And not just the past—though one doesn’t find it nowadays in mainstream American entertainment. 

16 hours ago, CharlieH said:

 

I’m a big fan of all the portions that feature the 12 “Stars Corps” ladies and the four season fairies (and their cavaliers); they’re in every act, in fascinating movements and patterns. To me, they comprise one of Ashton’s finest tributes to Petipa.

I agree and what is especially extraordinary to me in the sequence of variations for the seasons is how the more clear the relation to Petipa, the more distinctively Ashtonesque the choreography looks at the same time. It’s an evocation of Petipa and it’s the creation of a twentieth-century classicism.

Why the Royal Ballet doesn’t schedule more Ashton has long been a puzzle to me, but I have given up on solving it. I think of Ashton as a definitive figure—such as Balanchine. Helene has written elsewhere to the effect that Ashton (and Tudor) works don’t hold up as well as Balanchine to less than ideal performances, and I do suspect that may be part of the problem. But how and why it should have become a problem for the Royal Ballet.....? Presumably Macmillan’s ballets play a role here too—and their great popularity. (By all accounts, though, today’s Royal has some fine Ashton dancers. I would like to see for myself, as I've not been able to see the Royal dance much--barely any--Ashton in recent years. Fortunately I've been able to see some at ABT.)

Regarding Cinderella I have read many complaints about the choreography/gags for the stepsisters not being effective since the departure of the original cast, going on too long etc. When I finally saw the ballet, I was baffled that this had been given as a reason not to revive such a wonderful work.

And what great, varied weekend programing in Boston!

Online service has brought many conveniences to the process of buying tickets. No-one is saying "get rid of the online service"--but still...maybe don't close a box office without clear indications on websites and advertisements; don't make the fees for online service so exorbitant; and, in some cases, please do something about how cumbersome and even arbitrary online service can be.  (Arbitrary?: I have bought my tickets for Atlanta Ballet online for years--then this summer the system developed some glitch and no matter what I did I couldn't get the tickets I wanted when the system said those tickets were available--I kept getting a message that I was missing some "code" of sorts. I ended up emailing the company and they got the tickets for me. But that can't be the usual way of doing business. Many people will just give up.) And, finally, have phone service salespeople trained and willing to do what box office staff do -- selecting particular seats on particular dates etc.  As some theaters surely do: I've never called the Met Box Office or the State Theater and not had phone salespeople who were used to dealing with ballet fans making multiple purchases and mostly very good at their job. I'd like to think that is usually the case with City Center.

Not everyone is comfortable with online purchasing  -- times are a changin', but the fact that there is online service shouldn't be carte blanche for every other method of ticket sales to be crappier. 

2 hours ago, rkoretzky said:

Apologies in advance for the rant, this is also an FYI. If you haven’t yet purchased your tickets, you have two options: citytix by phone or online. The box office is closed until September 3. You will be paying $9.75 per ticket for service fees. 

I take responsibility for the fact that I didn’t jump on tickets as soon as they became available on July 9. My daughter was going to pick them up for us at the box office and she delayed—she’s in the process of moving, busy time at work....

The box office closed on July 29 and will remain so until September 4. No other way to purchase tickets in person. I tried last night to purchase tickets on line, couldn’t navigate the website, called citytix at 8:02 pm to find they closed at 8. Today I called citytix and had a conversation with the agent, confirmed they are not waiving service fees in lieu of a closed box office, couldn’t get across to her what dates I wanted, she kept telling me availability on dates when I cannot go, wouldn’t give specific seat information, finally I just gave up and just spent a frustrating hour trying again to navigate the website, chose three tickets on October 31 and November 1 (the only dates when I can go), tried to log in, forgot my password, had to reset it, my cart of carefully chosen tickets (the best available at a reasonable, at least for my budget, price) disappeared and has not reappeared on the seating map. This is infuriating.

I have been checking the website regularly. Nowhere did I see a notice that the box office was closing. It is certainly not this weekend ticket agent’s fault that she now has to take phone calls from irritated customers over policies that are not her doing, but she wasn’t very courteous or forthcoming with information. I tried to convey to her that I wasn’t holding her personally responsible. I finally gave up because we just weren’t communicating.

i think it’s poor customer service to charge service fees when there is no other way to purchase tickets. However, even at inflated prices, tickets are scarce and I’m going to have to suck it up and get these tickets by phone or online, or take the chance on waiting until September, running the risk of a sell out. The balcony hasn’t been opened yet, but even if they do sell tickets there It’s not a good place to sit for ballet.

like other posters who attend NYCB regularly, I’d prefer to see all the guest companies. However, these are the dates I can attend, and so I will. I’m not throwing away my shot. Just aggravated and annoyed with myself. 

I think you have good reason for annoyance with City Center.  Customers —even avid ballet fans— can’t be expected to suss out in advance box office closings or phone salespersons not having exact information. Especially when these are not clearly publicized. And everyone has days when they can and can’t attend, times when they can’t rush to the box office, too, as your daughter found. This is not on you.

I wasn’t able to see the screening—though did see the production live in June, once from well upstairs.  I didn’t have such a strong reaction to Rothbart’s make-up, but am wondering more generally, if screenings don’t give a distorted idea of stage make-up....?

Work may take me to UK next year in late July —If so, then I will definitely try to see the Bolshoi in London. 

And I love the Bolshoi Coppelia too!

Given their current ballerina roster, I think I would be keen on seeing their Raymonda —which also seems to me one of Grigorovich’s less problematic stagings of a nineteenth-century classic. Bayadere would be exciting to see as well, though I believe they brought that to London during one of their last visits. (If they bring a Grigorovich ballet, then Legend of Love.)

From their newer repertory, I would like to see Hero of Our Time....and of course it would be, at the least, interesting if they were able to bring Nureyev.

My dates, though, if I make it, are likely to be limited—and dictated by work. I will be very lucky if I see as many as two different programs - and whatever they bring.

I thought the Pure Dance program was announced to include a bit of Tudor’s Leaves Are Fading and a new short pas de deux by Ratmansky...though I suppose she might include some of this Isadora as well....or there might be changes to what was announced. But if those appeal to you more, then perhaps wait before offloading? 

(I get to see Osipova so rarely I would be happy to see her in most things, and am curious about this Isadora, but a program with even minimal Tudor and Ratmansky would be especially appealing.)

Like others, I am plenty intrigued about the influx of talent from the Vaganova academy to the Mariinsky this year. And have seen some video of Khoreva I think is "to die for." Also of Bulanova who has been dancing other featured roles at the Mariinsky this summer, though she wasn't cast in Apollo. But in the video excerpts of Apollo that have appeared on youtube, I thought both Khoreva and Nuikina rather overdid the facial expressions; it got a little too 'cutesy' for my taste.  That may be inexperience or it may be the way they were taught. Or it may be a quirk of my own taste not to care for it.

(Ayupova was one of my favorite Mariinsky ballerinas--haven't had a chance to re-watch the Apollo performance with her that Buddy mentioned above. But in Petipa and Fokine!)

On 8/1/2018 at 5:39 PM, ABT Fan said:

Yeah, I'm not crazy about it.

This is pithy and expresses my view especially about a direct exchange with the dancers. But to be less pithy:

If Macaulay is going to review the Balanchine performances at City Center, then it initially, to me, feels like a conflict of interest for him also informally to give coaching tips to dancers appearing there. At the very least I would expect Macaulay's reviews to disclose the exchanges he has had with Parish as well as any others that may not be so publicly track-able. Coaching tips based on a single reheasal photo also seems like a whole other not unimportant issue even if the Sunburst is a posed moment.  I assume there could be a rehearsal photo of Anthony Dowell in a less than ideal arabesque because you know...it's a rehearsal...and a photo of something that isn't static. Parish published it--it's true; does that change things?

Even from a purely coaching angle it's odd: has he seen the video excerpts of the recent Parish performances of Apollo on youtube? will he contact Parish about those? That is, if he is putting himself in the position of giving a dancer advice from a distance then why wouldn't he draw on all the documentation there is? I'm not saying Macaulay should do that--I'm saying his giving advice to Parish, however informally, on the basis of one photo raises all kinds of questions for me. I guess I prefer--or am used to--a more traditional dividing up of roles in the ballet world...

Perhaps Macaulay thinks he has a bigger "duty"--a duty to the quality of dancing--that in his mind transcends conventions and rules about conflict of interest. But again, in that case, he could just have Parish send him a video of the performance....I infer something else is going on here. The fact that Parish "published" the photo may be taken as opening up some other avenue of contact and exchange with critics--that youtube doesn't for example unless its Parish's own channel. We have some professional critics on this site--another question would be: have critics done this sort of thing behind the scenes for years--so that it's not new? That would surprise me, but I'm not a professional critic.

And, also, as a general matter, what exactly is Parish or any other dancer supposed to do if (hypothetically) his coach were to tell him X and the NYTimes critic tell him Y--and he is about to be reviewed in the NYTimes? I assume a professional would listen to their coach; but should a critic put a dancer in that position...even unintentionally? Certainly, a dancer is hardly in a position to start arguing about the pose with a critic on Instagram...nor is that the place for it.

Obviously, social media is breaking down all kinds of barriers and changing all kinds of implicit and explicit rules. Maybe this is the new normal. But for me it's a head scratcher at best...

2 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

That's an old photo, and yes, those two did this piece together years ago. 

Didn’t realize it was an old photo. That makes its predictive value rather less...

Today ABT published this photo on their FB page of Abrera and Murphy in Symphonie Concertante -- have no idea if that's just the two ballerinas who did the photo shoot or an actual planned pairing for Fall performances. But if the latter...that's definitely a cast I look forward to reading about. (Would love to see, but won't be able...)

Paris, London, and St. Petersburg is a pretty wonderful trio!!

Hello Colette--welcome to the forum.  It would be lovely to read more posts about ballet performances in Berlin--right now, a lot of us here are especially eager to read about Ratmansky's staging of Bayadere in the Fall!

Thanks Madame P. for passing this news along. I saw Pavlenko once or twice very early in her career and then, quite by chance, in a beautiful performance of the Ratmansky Cinderella in 2013—she was a replacement for Shirinkina (who had been scheduled) and her Prince was Sergeyev. She made a moving, radiant, beautiful heroine. Very grateful I got to see her in that performance and wishing her the best.

Off anyway it appears with the lingering idea that Lacotte mediates Petipa for today’s audiences transparently, or closely enough, that what he has done derives all of its authority from Petipa and nineteenth-century grand ballet practice. (Though one wants to know a little more about the photograph’s background before drawing too many conclusions —still  thank you Canbelto for posting it.) 

26 minutes ago, Quinten said:

I think the black boys are slaves, actually, provided to Ramse as her own retinue, another indication of her high status. The children are holding their arms in the same position Ali (the Corsair slave) holds his.  The shuffling feet are somewhat reminiscent of American minstrel moves but it may also represent a stylized orientalist indication of slave status.  It's similar to how the Bayadere blackface children move.  Perhaps somebody more familiar than I am with the iconography of "oriental" slavery (as viewed by 19th c. Europeans) could bring some perspective.  

As a modern American I don't like slavery or mockery of ethnicities.  However, I also believe that retaining these old images in art forms is an important way of remembering the past so as not to repeat it.  First, we have to understand the images and to recognize the similarity and differences to our own depictions of enslaved people. Many of the images we see in these old works (and obviously also in reconstructions of old works) are multilayered and freighted with more implications than we may at first recognize.  Prior to this discussion I had not looked closely at the slave characters in Bayadere, Corsaire and Daughter.  Why were they there, just for pageantry or to convey something else.  Were the 19th c. librettists disapproving of slavery and showing it as evidence of "oriental" savagery, or using recognized stereotypes to unapologetically convey a hierarchical world view, or as stock images added without thought?  And finally -- is American blackface descended from these slave images or does it have different origins?

 

Thanks for responding .... To me it makes sense to ask just the kinds of questions you raise here about works of the past even —maybe especially—works we love. (I do know there is a lot of scholarship about the history of blackface in the U.S. and also elsewhere though it is not my specialty.)

8 hours ago, Laurent said:

 

When the "21-th Century" man becomes, literally, a slave of rigid and limited perception, unable to make basic distinctions, then, indeed, much of the premodern culture, with its enormous riches, may be inaccessible to him, and lots of things in it feel "unfortunate".

By “back to Petipa” I just meant back to the ballet he choreographed, not that he wrote the libretto himself. The historical contexts you mention are certainly pertinant. Like  you I mentioned the building of the Suez canal as one of the contexts of the ballet’s creation—this was in an earlier post—but I did draw slightly different conclusions from that.

Rigid? There are different ways of being rigid. What you are calling premodern culture does have many riches and many resonances (as does nineteenth-century culture that I, at least, and the scholars I read would not call premodern). I find many of these profound and profoundly pleasurable, though not all. And they can obviously inspire a whole range of reactions and interpretations.

Putting excerpt programs together is always rather tricky I suppose, but overall this sounds very enjoyable...

It has been seventeen years (!) since I have seen dancers from the RDB perform. (Assuming Lendorf with ABT in Whipped Cream doesn’t count.) 

36 minutes ago, Quinten said:

Reposting MadameP's link.

I'm old enough to have seen a lot of Amercan blackface growing up, and it was quite different from what we see here: the object was to emphasize "negroid" characteristics (big lips, whites of the eyes showing around the pupil, ridiculous kinky hair), to show these were poor people via raggedy costumes and bare feet, to make them look stupid through use of stylized dialect and facial expressions.  Here and in the other acts the Ramse character looks quite beautiful by any standard -- many beautiful costumes, nice hair, lovely ornaments. She dances sophisticated and charming choreography. As a character, she is a servant, but a resourceful and loyal one.  In this scene, her mistress shares the stage with her with obvious affection and regard -- they even mirror each other's steps at times.  (Some of Ramse's dancing is out of frame due to the videographer's primary focus on Stepanova 😊 -- see the Bolshoi's the length DOF (it's on YouTube) if you want a better view,)  Arguably this is not even a secondary role -- indeed, it is frequently danced by principal dancers, as in this case. The dark makeup, in my opinion, simply helps us remember her origin as an African brought probably against her will to the pharaoh's court who has succeeded in making herself invaluable. I don't see how this character conveys any of the damaging racial stereotypes we all decry.  

Do you feel the same way about the make-up worn by the children in blackface? Or their choreography? I think they both very clearly draw on racist stereotypes that I can’t just write off as no different from any other kind of character dancing. (It is true that I also don’t care for Ramze’s make-up in the videos I have seen and I can’t say that the loyal slave figure you describe from the story seems unproblematic to me either—though I have to allow the libretto goes back to Petipa and indeed reflects the kinds of heirarchizations one expects in a Petipa ballet, which are here clearly racialized.)

Anyway....You have explained why you judge the matter of Ramze’s make-up etc.differently than I do, but are you then comfortable with the children? (And without even starting on the history of little black boy pages etc. as signs of “conspicuous consumption” so to speak in the 18th/19th centuries...)

In a production that is a 21st-century reimagining of Pharaoh’s Daughter, Lacotte’s loyalty to all this imagery—and the Bolshoi’s— seems to me unfortunate. 

I am very much hoping Shakirova is cast as Gulnare - a role she has danced - when the Mariinsky brings Corsaire to D.C. in April....oh...and that I am able to get to D.C. as planned to see it. Would love to see her live!