Drew
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Posts posted by Drew
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He had a long, rich life...may he rest in peace.
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How very, very sad. She made a difference in the lives of so many critics, scholars, and fans of ballet. Deeply knowledgeable and caring about ballet history—always very kind to me personally, even when we were debating things!
May her memory be for a blessing.....
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8 hours ago, California said:
I have only seen Kim once in the theater -- partnering Tereshkina in Bayadere at the Kennedy Center in 2017. I saw two other casts and they just blew the others away. Stunning.
I agree with you on the choices he has made. We don't know if he has family in Russia who might be penalized if he defected. (I don't actually know). (I rationalize that explanation for others who have stayed.)
That Bayadere in D.C. was stunning. I felt the same about Kim's Ali in Corsaire which I also saw live. I've seen video of him in Legend of Love that I find pretty jaw dropping too....
It would have been hard for him to leave Russia I imagine since he has a Russian wife and has lived there a long time (over a decade), and he has spoken about his close, quasi-familial relation with his coaches. (Nagahisa's situation was very different.) But other non-Russian dancers in a similar situation--I'm thinking of Parish--did leave. The fine details of Kim's situation, as you say, we can't know. But a dancing career outside of Russia was waiting for him, indeed probably a bigger one than awaited Parish. I can't get inside his head or heart and I'm sorry I won't see him dance again--at least it's unlikely--but, yes, his choices.
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5 hours ago, volcanohunter said:
Looking at the history of Romeo and Juliet at the Bolshoi, there is a sense over the past 40 years that the company wanted its own version of the ballet, distinct from the Mariinsky's, just as every other major production in its repertoire--save Legend of Love and Carmen Suite--differs from the one at the Mariinsky. Russian companies don't regard the choreography of Swan Lake as sacrosanct, much less the choreography for Romeo and Juliet. So for the Bolshoi the Lavrovsky may look like a fallback position rather than a revered classic.
1946-1980 Lavrovsky
1979-1995 Grigorovich
1995-2000 Lavrovsky (i.e., immediately after Grigorovich's ouster)
2003-2005 Poklitaru
2010-2018 Grigorovich
2017-2022 RatmanskyP.S. Naturally I'm aware that you're aware.
Yes, I suppose it must look like a retreat--and likely, too, feel like one on a visceral level. I think the ballet should be a revered classics, but ... uh...fans don't get a vote. Let alone U.S. fans!
(A rather hokey artifact I used to wish the Bolshoi would revive is the Messerer Class Concert. If they lose the rights to Etudes, then I suppose that might happen now. I realize this makes me sound awfully reactionary --but the video record suggests that they were rip-roaring in that ballet.)
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I'm aware that the Mariinsky dances the Lavrosky Romeo and Juliet. I still think it's a ballet that has a place in the Bolshoi repertory--not least because of its history with the company.
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The problems for these companies are serious. But a return to the Lavrosky Romeo and Juliet at the Bolshoi? That's one of the best possible ideas on offer. To clarify: the article @volcanohunter cited above said the Bolshoi was going to return to the Lavrosky Romeo and Juliet now that it won't be dancing Ratmansky's. I saw them do it a little over two decades ago. (I had only just discovered Ballet Alert. Some of my earliest posts here were about attending that performance.) The cast was Stepanenko and Filin with Tsiskaridze as Mercutio. Seeing it in the theater I found it a genuinely great ballet--and, full of a richness of dramatic layering often lacking in Western productions. Stunning designs as well. And it's not as if Socialist Realism gave us a slew of great ballets. Lavrosky's R&J also played a huge role in the company's history and had an influence in the West. I am much happier to see the company to return to that production than to Grigorovich's.
I have only seen Ratmansky's version as a Bolshoi HD broadcast. I more or less enjoyed it as a somewhat fresh, though still fairly recognizable take on the Prokofiev score. But if ever there were a case to be made for the Bolshoi to preserve a Soviet Classic in its repertory, Lavrosky's Romeo and Juliet is it.
Re @California 's question. Well, it's just guessing about, but I tend to think that when the war is over--(assuming it has not turned into a wider conflict in the meanwhile)--and especially if there were to be a peace treaty and not just an armistice, then some western impresarios will think it worth the risk to wrangle some Bolshoi tours. Maybe Mariinsky tours, too, but the Bolshoi is the splashier name for the general public and the Gergiev issue has already been raised above. On the Russian end they will likely want to support having their dancers out in the world shoring up Russian prestige. If the government leadership changes in Russia, then future tours seem especially likely. But I don't think any of these things are likely to happen soon--and I imagine that those performances would face picketers, audience protests, and controversy as well. (As indeed did some tours during the cold war.)
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The dancers know what they need to say (presumably have even been told)--and I don't think anyone here is likely to be able to parse out the details of the actual situation whatever it is.
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19 hours ago, Danielle said:
I love the casting for all three performances, but I was surprised that Masha Bulanova, my favorite young Vaganova grad right now, does not appear to be in any of the casts. She is a great dramatic actress and a powerful dancer, and I think she would have been perfect in this production.
Bulanova has a picture of herself in the ballet on Instagram, so she is cast - just not in a principal role.
I can't deny that I would like to see this but I would not be able to bring myself to send any money the company's way at the present time so I would not be willing to pay for a livestream or broadcast even if one were available. Tereshkina looks like the prima ballerina she is --and Shakirova like the prima she may one day become -- in the bits of video available.
Lacotte's version at the Bolshoi, though splended to look at, and a dancer-showcase, is much of a muchness for my taste: by getting rid of more or less all pantomime and character dancing and choreographing almost every role in a similar style I find that it creates so much uniformity across the episodic multi-act ballet that it starts to dull the impact of all the dance highlights. Or at least so it seems on video which is the only way I have seen it. When the current Mariinsky team talks about adapting to modern audience tastes I hope they have not followed a similar route of slashing Petipa's varieties of stagecraft. I do appreciate that the Mariinsky spares us the black face used by Lacotte and the Bolshoi.
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I wasn't following Duato very closely and was caught by surprise--just my ignorance. I somehow never knew he had gone back. I do view non-Russian artists who choose to work in Russia under these circumstances differently than I view Russian artists. Let's say, less charitably....
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Here is an Instagram post from Macaulay about non-Russian artists choosing to work with Russian Ballet companies today--I learned from this that Duato has returned to the Mikhailovsky:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqHfcXKs2Sd/
More on the same subject and Juan Bockamp also working on Pharaoh's Daughter at the Mariinsky:
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8 hours ago, AB'sMom said:
This is what I was referring to.
Ahhh...I missed your reference--I went through the thread too quickly and missed the Metropolis interview. I understand now what you were saying....
(I still feel some human sympathy for her situation having seen her put together with several male dancers who were very inexperienced at the time...And she may have thought that by saying "weaker partners" without naming anyone she was being sufficiently vague: she danced with Gorak---I even liked them together in The Tempest, but I also later saw him essentially destroy an entire classical pas de deux with the very strong Boylston--and when young, Simkin was no prize partner either. I saw Lane and SImkin in a peasant pas de deux way back when and ....well...no comment except to say, of course he got much better as he developed. But yes, what was quoted was not the most tactful thing for her to say.)
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20 hours ago, AB'sMom said:
The argument could also be made that just because a female dancer is small doesn’t mean she is easy to partner. I know plenty of men who have struggled with particular dancers and it has nothing to do with their size. I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate it if male dancers were publicly saying that she was difficult to partner, so it seems harsh of her to call them out.
To my knowledge, Lane only "called out" Cornejo for not being available to rehearse with her because of his injuries--and his frequent injuries have not been a secret to the public. In nothing I read did she say he was a poor partner or imply he didn't have reasons for not being available to rehearse. Did I miss something? Because in those comments I don't find what she said particularly harsh. It explains why they stopped dancing together and I rather appreciate having some kind of explanation. Of course, from the "outside" it's easy to see that refusing to dance with such a major male star was almost bound to damage her career, but obviously from the "inside" the limited rehearsal time was a situation she was not comfortable with.
I think Cornejo is one of the greatest male dancers I have ever seen (and I date back to Nureyev and Bruhn); I'm not the same kind of fan of Lane, but I liked her dancing--in some roles I liked it a lot--and I could wish, for her own sake, that she had found a way to continue dancing with him. But I don't think she was being particularly harsh about him as a partner--just a little more candid about what she went through than we are used to from ballet dancers....
Edited to say: @AB'sMom does point me to a different interview below which I had missed....
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12 hours ago, Buddy said:
It would seem that credit to Alexei Ratmansky should certainly be given, Christian, but I would also suppose that if the Mariinsky commissioned it, paid for it and and has the contractual rights to it, that it does have the legal (perhaps even moral) right (and perhaps even moral and artistic obligation) to perform it.
Here’s something that I posted elsewhere yesterday, that I hope might have some relevance.
Governments come and go. Swan Lake has been here for over a hundred and fifty years. Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Venus for over 500.
I fully sympathize with the desire of some ballet lovers to see this production come to fruition--to a great extent, I feel it myself--but that is not a reason to sprinkle fairy dust over a painful situation. The company's actions can only be described as "moral" if dishonesty, with a dollop of opportunism (Candeloro), and cynicism play a role in one's notions of morality. And it is dishonest and cynical for the Mariinsky to pretend that the Pharoh's Daughter is not Ratmansky's production and/or for them to hand his work over to another artist to claim as his own tout court and/or to reinterpret (Candeloro). The result may well be a very fine ballet production--not all art is born amidst moral conditions (far from it) --but that doesn't make the conditions of this production other than what they are. Which is very equivocal.
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What sad news--a great, great ballerina.
What I remember best from seeing her -- and I saw her live very little -- was the role Ashton created for her in A Month in the Country. A tremendous performance.
Keith Money's photos of her performances as Juliet and in The Invitation (Macmillan's ballets, also created on her) made huge impression on me years before I saw her in the theater. Her intensity leaped out of those photos....
May she rest in peace.
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5 hours ago, naomikage said:
At least Somova has not been on the Mariinsky Stage for a long time and has been guesting at State Ballet of Georgia joining in Jivoy’s creation Carmina Burana and even joining their tour overseas to Italy in December.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkYd-6WDxVL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
You can see on her instagram that she has a Georgian name. (Her husband is from Georgia)also she was supposed to appear in a benefit gala in Zurich to support Ukrainian people with the dancers that left Russia.
https://www.ballettohnegrenzen.ch/#Cast-2Thank you--I had no idea of any of this. Huge Brava from me! (Oh and the one time I saw her dance live -- in Little Humpbacked Horse--I thought she was delightful!)
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Congratulations to them!
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Are people responding to the book or the article? I read the article and hadn't thought one could tell that much from it as to what the book really has to say or how much actual reporting it includes. But there is no reason why someone who didn't make a success of her time at SAB might not have insights into the culture there. In my own workplace people who, for whatever reason, don't "succeed" sometimes have views distorted by bitterness and sometimes, on the contrary, have views whose accuracy is enriched by their more troubled experiences. And people who do succeed can have their own blind spots.
As for the singular focus on Balanchine at SAB: it was his school for his company, so what else should one expect? But that an appropriately respectful and even appropriately reverential attitude to Balanchine occasionally turned and turns weirdly worshipful in the precincts of SAB and NYCB seems to me kind of self-evident.
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5 hours ago, Josette said:
I find her to be one of the most musical dancers I’ve seen and what a nuanced and profound actress she is! I have a front row ticket for her last Cinderella this spring - dancing with Matthew Ball - a role she should have been given earlier, and I am so grateful that I will see her as Ashton’s Cinderella.
If you are able, then please do write about it.
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Marina Harss tweeted a link to this discussion by Hannah Schmidt --
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17 hours ago, Mashinka said:
The apology reads like victim blaming to me.
Absolutely! It's no apology at all. And I do not give him points for honesty when the honesty amounts to justifying his abusive behavior. He has honestly shown us that he thinks he was provoked by his victim and that despite his actions he deserves a sympathetic hearing.
The reviews? I have been curious. too, just how harsh they were (and they had some stinging lines for sure...) But once he physically assaulted the writer it doesn't matter what her reviews said or how they said it. Oh...and Wendy Whelan put up with just as bad from a powerful reviewer at a major paper through much of her career.
Can reviewers be out of line? Maybe, though I'd be wary of drawing that line too narrowly. But consider, for example, that in the past Alexander Eckmann found some critics pretentious or ridiculous and made a popular ballet about it (Cacti)--which is now performed all over the world. THAT is an artist's response. I don't even like Cacti all that much but I still think it's an artist's response and an artistic one. William Forsythe was ripped to shreds contemptuously by the NYTimes when Boston Ballet brought his works to New York a few years back; HE sent the Boston dancers a supportive and kind message since they had, in effect, gotten ripped for bringing his work to NY. That's a humane response. But I don't blame Goecke for not being a clever enough choreographer or not being saintly under attack. I don't even blame him for WANTING to smear dog feces on someone (though it's not a desire to boast of). I blame him for his violent assault ....and for being sanctimonious and self-important about it afterwards.
And I beg leave to doubt Goecke would have smeared feces in the face of a male critic. Or someone physically bigger than himself.
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What very sad news! I saw him just once or twice--but always memorable. Just a stunningly beautiful dancer--
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Thank you for the update. I hope the new Cinderella production is a big success.....
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I remember quite a few years back seeing what seemed to me a rather wrong-headed performance of Symphony in C at the Royal Ballet. When Morera came out to lead the 3rd movement, I breathed a sigh of relief: 'at last...somebody is moving without looking careful...' From what I have read, it's likely the company's performances in Symphony in C have gotten a lot better since that time, but Morera brought some life to the proceedings when, to my eyes, the rest of the company was still figuring things out.
Hope she continues to pass on her knowledge to future generations at the Royal Ballet and elsewhere...
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Welcome @LupusMelis --it is always great to hear about ballet events in London. I look forward to reading your posts on the London Ballet Circle.
New York City Ballet 2022-2023 season
in New York City Ballet
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Completely on board with the Balanchine/Danilova Coppelia, but the idea of a traditional NYCB Giselle just depresses me. Too much like a final nail in the Balanchine coffin. Maybe the Akram Khan Giselle could be an interesting option.