Drew

21 minutes ago, California said:

Yes! Partnering Sarah Lane? Boylston?

Or Copeland. That’s a role I would be quite interested in seeing her dance. But though I’m unlikely to make a special trip just to see Manon next year (assuming it gets revived) still, in principle, I would be interested in seeing Cornejo take on Des Grieux with anyone...

7 hours ago, California said:

"Pre-professional" is an advanced training level at the JKO school and others around the country: https://www.abt.org/faq/jko-school-pre-professional-division/

The Studio Company (formerly ABT II) is listed under "training" but seems to be a notch above that: https://www.abt.org/training/dancer-training/abt-studio-company/

They receive full scholarships, stipends, and do not pay a fee to participate.

Thank you. Scholarships and stipends are not exactly the same as salaries—so this is actually a little different than I thought.

14 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

I just noticed that Le Jeune, by Lovette for the Studio Company, is being performed twice - once at the gala, which I could understand, and at the matinee on Oct 27. I don't think they've ever had their second company perform a piece on their own during any of the main company's seasons besides the gala. And, those matinee tickets aren't any cheaper despite a third of the program being danced by pre-professionals.

This is separate from your point about appropriate ticket prices, organization of the season etc. but I wonder whether the dancers of ABT II should be considered pre-professionals?   I think of ABT II as a "junior" company of relatively inexperienced dancers just beginning their professional careers--but still professionals that have contracts and get paid even if they are in a sense apprentices... 

What great experience for Brandt....

A sad story. May she rest in peace....

4 hours ago, Mashinka said:

Actually she's in love with Tahor and resisting an arranged marriage.  On the other hand Radames rejects an Egyptian princess for a Nubian slave,   They are just theatrical plots no matter how bizarre.

Thanks—don’t know why I misremembered that. 

I do believe that even silly or odd theatrical plots can’t help but let loose meanings....and if I were wrong about that, then I could still wish this ballet didn’t feature blackface dancing.

15 minutes ago, Buddy said:

Hope that you're feeling much better as soon as possible.

 

Thank you....

14 hours ago, MRR said:

Drew, I believe it was Ramze's Act II variation with the four children that was restored from the notations, which Canbelto linked to above.

Thank you for the information. Not feeling at all well today or I would have tried to go in search myself.

I suppose I should forbear comment on the make-up (or choreography) of the children which seems to me anything but an "innocent" attempt at nineteenth-century multiculturalism in the absence of actual black dancers.  There are obviously all kinds of racialized codes in play EVEN in Russia whatever the historical/contextual differences.

I appreciate Fraildove's comments and appreciate her sharing her husband's experiences; we have had related conversations on Balletalert in the past on these issues. But both Lacotte (who is, as both Canbelto and myself have underlined, French, as was Petipa) and the current Bolshoi leadership are in a position to know the problematic history of these kinds of images. The Russian context may be different, but that doesn't mean that "blackface" has some entirely other meaning there especially in the context of a ballet that reflects enthusiasm for things Egyptian during the time of the building of the Suez canal and showcases various other orientalist fantasies -- the aristocratic English explorer, the opium dream etc. Are we to think all of those ethnic/racial codes are in play -- as they obviously are -- but not those associated with blackface? In a ballet in which the Englishman dreams of an Egyptian princess who would rather drown than marry a Nubian, and falls in love instead with an embodied Egyptian God who just happens to look exactly like an English aristocrat? That's a hard one for me. (Quinten and cubanmiamiboy just posted as I was typing this...Edited to add: Mashinka corrects me on one element of plot in a post below.)

I don't question Russia's very different history--different from that of the United States or France or England--but that doesn't mean that the Bolshoi and Lacotte live in a different galaxy when it comes to the symbolic freight of these images.

All of the above also doesn't mean I want to ditch every nineteenth-century convention that I wouldn't like or expect to see in a contemporary ballet. And I know contemporary ballets will themselves date in some respects. I'll even admit that, though it's against my better judgment, I enjoy much of what Lacotte has done. I find it to be the occasion of delightful dancing and rich scenic effects even if I don't take it very seriously as ballet history --  and certainly not as Petipa "reconstruction."  But ballet is a performing art, which means it lives and dies in the "now" of performance so that, especially in a more or less pastiche attempt at recreating Pharaoh's Daughter that premiered in 2000, some tweaks can reasonably be made. 

Whether Pharaoh's Daughter might not in fact benefit from EITHER a more historically strict attempt at reconstruction OR, on the contrary, a looser adaptation with a new libretto along the lines of the Smekalov Paquita is hard for me to say.  I do like the idea of a suite of dances based on the notations -- and it would be great to see that done by a major company.

I had read Lacotte did not use the notations except for one variation in the entire ballet. I can’t remember which is the one, but others probably do. He also gave an interview where he says he found the notations less valuable than for other ballets —he felt they were missing too much information and decided instead to create a ballet in the “spirit” of Petipa. This was his procedure for the first two acts of his Paquita as well. 

2 hours ago, Quinten said:

I have to say I really don't see the relevance of American issues regarding ethnicity to a performance in a foreign city.  It would be one thing if the Bolshoi brought Daughter of the Pharaoh here, or even if it were broadcast here -- we might expect them to be sensitive to our issues and modify costumes/makeup that might be offensive.  But I see no reason why a Russian ballet company should have to pay any deference to us or our values when they are putting on a performance in their own theatre.  

I don't share the view that race and depictions of race are a non-issue in Russia or that Franco-Russian culture (Petipa and Lacotte -- both French) bears no relation to issues that cross the globe or that the use of black-face in nineteenth-century Russian ballets stands in no relation to histories of colonialism and slavery. So, I do see it as a question of their values in their theater.  But I don't think that means no-one  who isn't Russian can have a reaction--especially given the company's importance to the ballet world as a whole.  You may remember the discussion that followed the postponement of the premier of Nureyev and the house arrest--still ongoing--of Serebrennikov. I must admit I found it upsetting; I didn't just think "well, it's their theater reflecting their values"--though I suppose I could have reacted that way.

(The Lacotte Pharaoh's daughter has been toured internationally by the Bolshoi including at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York--also broadcast internationally some years ago. Honestly, if I had an opportunity to see it live, then I would go for the chance to see the dancing, but as I said above I find the blackface as I have seen it, for example, in Kretova's photo--and in some older video--unworthy of the company and just kind of unnecessary.)

Edited to add: I found this rather interesting (short) article about the intertwining of anti-racism and racism in depictions of blacks in Soviet film and books--including use of blackface in theatrical productions--

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-08-31/how-red-russia-broke-new-ground-portrayal-black-americans

12 minutes ago, Buddy said:

Not to minimize your concern for doing the right thing, but you skipped my anecdote, Drew.  😊  By the way, I hope to be back there in a two months. I love the place.

Here's an anecdote: About 10 years ago a stranger asked an African-American acquaintance of mine if she could touch his hair for luck. To recall your earlier words, I am pretty sure she didn't "[do] it as an insult." But it was.

I can't write as someone who has never made ethical/political mistakes or misjudgments--or is pure of all wrongdoing. But I experience the Bolshoi's repeated boorishness on this issue as unworthy of its artistic greatness and not something that merits special pleading.

(Oh...and you will be missed while you are away!) 

1 hour ago, Buddy said:

A bit more added comment. I don't have any reason to believe that Lacotte or the Bolshoi have done this as an insult.

Say you are right: the lack of "intent" would itself be rather revealing--this revival doesn't date back to the mid-20th century. One would have to infer that it didn't occur to Lacotte or the Bolshoi in the year 2000 when the ballet premiered--or even now--that there could be anything problematic in how one made-up the Nubian character--that it didn't require tact at the least. Certain kinds of unawareness are themselves the product of a kind of willed ignorance and/or indifference that itself seems to me rather insulting. And I should think Lacotte and Vaziev are both, in different ways, gifted and sophisticated men...and they are self-evidently fine with blackface in this ballet.

I also don't think leaders of the Bolshoi can claim to be simply unaware of the potential issues even if they themselves don't take those issues seriously. About a decade ago, I noticed that when the Bolshoi first brought the Ratmansky/Burlaka Corsaire to London they quietly (with no fanfare or announcement) revised its horrendous portrait of the "black" member of the harem, presumably aware that it would not be acceptable to London audiences. (Though one can still see that character today in Russia or, indeed, on youtube.) That production could at least claim that it was trying to reproduce the nineteenth-century production with exactitude -- Lacotte's Pharaoh's Daughter takes a freer approach to begin with.

People interested in the history of racism against blacks in Russia are welcome to research the matter. There is such a history.

Regarding the explanation that since the character is "Nubian" the make-up is acceptable... I don't agree. Other nineteenth-century ballets have characters of different ethnicities without (or, in some cases without) the ludicrous make-up--Do Nikiya and Solor wear body make-up in Bayadere? Does the high priest? They aren't black it's true, but presumably not as white as most of the dancers who dance them. In some productions other "black" or racialized characters do wear body make up--sometimes in a highly caricatured form as well (big red lips etc.)  I'm glad Makarova's production got rid of that. (I was under the impression many major opera houses likewise have moved away from this kind of make up ...but opera lovers can weigh in on that...) Kretova may not be going for caricature, but she doesn't seem to be going for subtle suggestiveness in her make-up either.

Nineteenth-century ballets aren't realist works and there is no reason why Lacotte, in a version of Pharaoh's Daughter that is not a strict reconstruction of what the ballet looked like in the nineteenth century or of how it was danced in the nineteenth century, should feel he needs to use the convention of blackface with seemingly no modification. (I assume he is aware of the history of racism against blacks in France and slavery in its empire etc.  It's not just Americans who have ugly histories even if ours--I am American--is very ugly.)

I have seen Pharaoh's Daughter on video and as a silly piece of Orientalism that doesn't need to be taken too seriously it holds many pleasures--though I can understand if some people are put off by it even on those grounds--but for me, it is somewhat spoiled by the way it uses black face....

Welcome FPF--happy to have read some of your impressions of NYCB at SPAC (including your remarks about the new tutus in Symphony in C). Looking forward to reading your thoughts on Jacob's Pillow performances as well as/if you wish to weigh in!

Sad news. May he rest in peace.

On Facebook and Twitter company recently announced that Robert Barnett is staging Tchaikovsky pas de deux for its Return to Fall program -- this was not originally announced as part of the program and I still can't find it on their website.  Very pleased though. I don't expect Atlanta Ballet will ever look like New York City Ballet, but am very much in favor of the company remaining in touch with this part of its history! 

4 hours ago, minervaave said:

I saw her as one of the shades in La Bayadere, and she took my breath away.  I'm so glad to hear this, and I hope they bring her to NY the next time they tour.  I would love to see her again.

I also remember her dancing exceptionally as the third shade in one of the October Mariinsky Bayaderes in D.C.; the audience started to applaud spontaneously after the very first first few phrases.  (She was also very good, but--I thought--less remarkable the next night I saw her dance it -- and there was no spontaneous applause early in the variation that time, though warm applause at the end.) She also danced a very charming Manu during that same tour.

Vogue Russia did a public event/interview with David Hallberg and it's now up online:

https://www.vogue.ru/video/public-talk-devida-kholberga-v-sankt-peterburge/

Welcome to Balletalert KathyKat.

(Semenyaka was one of my favorite Bolshoi ballerinas! Lovely that you got to see her in Romeo and Juliet....)

1 hour ago, dirac said:

Five dancers and their felines:

3. New York City Ballet principal Lauren Lovette and Boon

Lovette rescued her adorable feline friend last year, and has since urged others to do the same. From snuggles with tutu boxes to snuggles with pointe shoes, Boon now lives vicariously through Lovette and her incredible dance career.

 

 

"He likes my new sugarplum tutu but likes the box it came in more."

Definitely a cat.

Thanks to Fathom Events/Pathé Live having Encore presentations this July, I finally got to see the Bolshoi perform the Ratmansky Romeo and Juliet on the "big screen" as opposed to my computer screen -- and it was well worth it. One really does see more, and however inadequate compared to a live performance, a big screen broadcast still carries more of the excitement of a live performance than the same on a computer screen (or even on a television-screen ).  Krysanova and Lantratov led very vivid and compelling performance from the whole company. I'd enjoy a chance to see this live -- at least in a comparable performance.

5 hours ago, naomikage said:

And Ould Braham, Heymann will also be dancing full length Don Quixote on July 27th in Tokyo as part of the World Ballet Festival.  I have tickets for them. 

Would love to read about that performance if/as you have the time. 

I wondered about Tereshkina as well. Also , in a different vein, Cojocaru, who seems to me to bring wonderful harmony to the nineteenth-century repertory and indeed everything she dances. And while she dances with great purity, she certainly infuses her dancing with character and feeling.

Among male dancers today, I think about Chudin perhaps and one or two others, but it is a harder call for me

However, of the three I just named Cojocaru is the only one I have seen multiple times and in a range of roles.

I enjoy many elements of the Grigorovich Nutcracker, but even if I didn’t I would recommend the DVD with Maximova and V. Vasiliev for the sake of their amazing performances.

Congratulations to all the dancers on their promotions. (I am especially hoping to see more of Kaneko in the future.)