Drew
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Posts posted by Drew
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On 11/15/2022 at 4:12 PM, Buddy said:
If I really wanted to imagine one possibility for the future, not based on any current facts, I could see a company of essentially equally outstanding artists, with Xander Parish being the guiding person and highly acknowledged artist. I could see a company that could be a balance of purely classical and variations of this. I could see someone like Olga Smirnova interacting and contributing. And further off in the future, someone like the Mariinsky’s Kimin Kim, who in addition to his remarkable dance prowess is also developing an impressively artistic stage presence.
I think that there’s a great deal of hope and promise here.
Kim? I think he is one of the most fabulous male dancers I have ever seen and I date back to Bruhn (just barely), Nureyev, and Baryshnikov. But I can't agree that he belongs in this company. Or, rather, I find it a hard suggestion to swallow at this moment however hopeful one wants to be about the future.
Even as the dancers' at the Segerstrom have found their lives upended by the war, Kimin Kim has chosen to continue his career in Russia. I can understand his choice: he has lived there for at least a decade--he has even spoken of his Russian coaches as surrogate parents. When the war is over, when/if the Mariinsky resumes touring I will not refuse to see him dance again. But I still question whether, even in this hypothetical future, Kim should be brought in to guest star in a company made up of dancers who have EITHER been forced by the war to scramble to have a ballet career at all--in some cases watching their homes and families suffer unspeakable violence OR, if not forced to do anything, have nonetheless made very different choices than Kim has made even though they do not have the same opportunities he would have were he to leave Russia. I'm not inclined to condemn Kimin Kim for reasons already given, but I'm not inclined to imagine him as an appropriate headliner for the war's ballet-exiles either.
Of couse, it's not up to me! If the Segerstrom company becomes a permanent entity, then maybe the company's ecumenicism will extend to Kimin Kim and others like him. (Heck, they can invite Polunin if they like 🙃.) But I'd be mildly surprised and, I think, mildly disconcerted. -
Thank you for sharing all this material...sounds like a very enjoyable and moving evening.
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Thanks for reporting ...would be happy to hear about the performances...
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Sounds like a fantastic program..."well balanced" in a way that long ago was, I think, more common....
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4 hours ago, Buddy said:
Several days ago Olga Smirnova celebrated her 31st Birthday. Congratulations !
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cko9YaWo085/?hl=en
I think that this quick glance is rather nice.
Thank you @yagp for this wonderful idea to give masterclass to these beautiful Ukrainian girls. It was a pleasure to share my experience with you, little ballerinas! I wish you all to find many fulfilling moments within our beloved profession. The best of luck for all of you!💛💙💛💙
Click to right to view video clip.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce1Z5BQILXR/?hl=en
Lovely to read about this master class ...
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Graham Watts--specifically looking at the funding of dance companies by Arts Council England:
https://bachtrack.com/news-arts-council-england-funding-dance-winners-and-losers-november-2022
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On 11/1/2022 at 3:48 PM, atm711 said:
I was fortunate to see Jean Babilee --LIVE. He literally skimmed the floor in those Brise Voles! I seem to remember a clip of him out there in Bl;uebird.
How wonderful--I remember first READING about his bluebird. It's very high on my list of time-travel desiderata!!!
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I enjoyed what I was able to see of World Ballet Day--I am always happy when Melissa Hamilton is featured in offerings from the ROH as she was today in the Mayerling rehearsal with Hirano. I find her quite a special dancer and would love to see her dance Mary Vetsera in the theater. Another highlight for me was the one company class I watched which was the Australian Ballet's class led by David Hallberg--"no circus" was one of his instructions--"don't muscle through" one of his repeated instructions. His own demonstrations were gorgeous and the company looked great.
Other thoughts from the few selections I watched: Though the Royal's Nunez is a terrific ballerina, I didn't expect to enjoy her in Diamonds, but I did. She danced a joyful woman-in-love Diamonds. I guess maybe a bit too brightly smiling in spots, and she is not a dancer who goes "off balance" or conjures Farrellesque mysteries, but the sheer ease and boldness of her technique combined with the ease and boldness of her personality....it worked for me. (I do remember watching footage of Farrell coaching someone in the role when she was asked back to NYCB and hearing her say explicitly the ballerina doesn't have to be "aloof." Nunes is definitely NOT aloof.)
I also watched some POB footage and, from the Dutch National Ballet, Larissa Lezhnina, a favorite Aurora of my youth, rehearsing Smirnova/Caixeta in Sleeping Beauty. In a short interview after the rehearsal, both of the latter dancers spoke in glowing terms of their welcome at the Dutch National Ballet.
I did break down and watch a very few minutes of the Bolshoi counter programming which had been streamed the day before: a stage rehearsal of Don Q w. costume and sets, though not quite a dress rehearsal. It was shot sort of oddly, as if to give the audience a feel of being among the working dancers on stage--at least that was my best guess at what they were going for. And the dominating sight and sound in the parts of Act I saw, was Vaziev on stage, looking seemingly at every one in the crowd and calling out corrections in his trademark martinet style (I don't know Russian--I assume it was corrections.).. As bad luck would have it, the section I watched included a dancer getting injured, one of Kitri's two friends. Everything on stage just stopped. The camera kept some distance but one could see that Vaziev had rushed over to the dancer and looked plenty concerned. Then they actually interrupted the broadcast and returned a few minutes later with Kitri having been reduced to one friend. I watched a minute or two of another section with the leads (Kretova and Rodkin) and gave up. It was a little too much the Vaziev show ...
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Jivoy --whose wife as Buddy notes is Ukrainian--was one of the first to leave Russia/the Mariinsky after the invasion and issued a statement. I continue to be baffled by the speculative suggestion that amidst an absolutely brutal invasion initiated by Russia, dancers who have had steady and even prominent work at the leading companies in Russia may have just coincidentally and merely for "artistic" reasons decided to spread their wings and depart. But we don't have to speculate with Jivoy--here is another article that quotes him: https://ph.news.yahoo.com/ballet-stars-fled-russias-ukraine-012750796.html
Ballet of a certain kind flourished under the Bolsheviks and it might have seemed for a while after the Soviet Union fell that Russian Ballet could give us an interesting blend of both worlds--their traditions more or less intact but inflected and extended by exposure to ballet in the rest of the world. That project is at an end for the foreseeable future. I still don't doubt that even as the country is being walked off a cliff, Russia will continue to train and produce ravishing dancers who, in the limited repertory they have, will accomplish great things. But the institutions that enable them to do that are nothing that Parish or other emigres can reproduce in the West. That doesn't mean he can't do good things (though hardly unique ones--there are plenty of ex-Soviet/Russian teachers in the West in addition to non-Russian artists who studied in Russia and have absorbed those traditions. ABT has KOLPAKOVA no less). I hope Parish does good things--heck, if he successfully founds a classical company in Southern California, then he can legitimately claim to be something of a miracle worker.
I make no apology for caring about the future of ballet, including Russian traditions I love, even amidst war--but none of this is comfort to Russians being sent to prison or to the front lines (whatever they think of the war) and even less to Ukrainians being bombed in their own homes etc.
Edited to add: I know very well that I, too, live in a country experiencing crises.
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I knew some of this but not all--thanks for the information.
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On 10/17/2022 at 1:22 PM, Buddy said:
Another name has caught my attention on the list of artists that suggests the high quality of performances that might be seen. She’s Lizi Avsajanishvili who left the Mariinsky after about two years, probably last June. Although she’s from Georgia, I haven’t seen any reason to think that it was political.
I could not say that "I haven't seen any reason" to think that Avsajanishvili's decisions have been impacted by the war. I don't know what her reasons are...sure.
Speaking generally, to me it does not seem to be a compliment to a dancer to say she or he is giving no thought to the war. As far as Avsajanishvili goes, whatever her reasons, it may well have been wrenching to leave the Mariinsky. I hope she has a great ballet career wherever she goes.
I do believe Parish's way of talking about his project in terms of "healing" etc. suggests that he does seek to find as "apolitical" a language as possible to frame what he is doing even though what he is doing is necessitated by the war. He is not, for example, presenting this event as a performance in solidarity with Ukraine. I have thoughts about this but there is no way to express them without indeed being very political.
An interesting short piece on what is happening in Russia that, in its final paragraphs, addresses Russian literary and cultural responses to the war outside of official institutions (such as the Bolshoi or Mariinsky) appeared in the New Yorker this past week.
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Not sure when I will make to NY but Of Love and Rage will definitely be a draw.
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Always glad to hear news of Chebykina--she posted an emotional Instagram when the war broke out that I found quite moving just because it seemed such an immediate expression of her fears and frustrations. I also have especially fond memories of a beautiful Clemence in D.C. some years ago. Right before she began dancing in the "lyre" scene (as Raymonda plays), she looked up as if slowly being swept away by the sound of the music. I guess it's there in the mime-staging, but other dancers I've seen in the same scene have not been as effective at that moment.
I cannot deny that I enjoy her "supermodel" looks too....
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Goodness...this is tempting....
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I've been very curious about this...likely will watch it when it's available to watch at home. Thanks for the review--had read reviews but not realized how prominent dance was in the movie.
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19 hours ago, cobweb said:
Wondering about all the replacements and casting changes. I'm kind of assuming that this may be driven by COVID and the performers (and backstage too, probably) being tested regularly. I'm not an epidemiologist, obviously, but I do wonder at what point should symptoms, rather than just a positive COVID test for someone who may be asymptomatic, dictate that someone cannot do their job.
Someone asymptomatic is still contagious for some portion of time. And anyone who catches Covid from that person will not necessarily also be asymptomatic ...
Of course all kinds of things could be driving the casting changes.
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Big news--and shows, too, Boal is thinking about the future--congratulations to Kiyon Ross.
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If one is waiting for “clean hands” money to support the performing arts, then one will be waiting a loooooong time. And State funding doesn’t solve the problem. Some private patrons, like some governments, may be worse or even much worse than others but the sources of that kind of wealth are all pretty bad, and many of them horrible....and going back millenia. I am not saying one can’t make distinctions, but I find many of those distinctions to be artificial. I may SAY “New York State Theater” on this website where almost everyone knows what I am talking about....but like it or not that theater (renamed the David Koch Theater) is now a monument to a man I loathe whose influence on the U.S. (and world) has been pernicious. As for where the money goes for some of these galas that are not attached to any company or high profile institutions, rumors abound and....nothing edifying. (To be clear: I have never heard rumors about the Nureyev gala specifically.)
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Thank you for links. Marina Harss's NYTimes article also spoke about the important role of Igone de Jongh, and I thought it was one of the better pieces on this company and its efforts. In Harss's article, I liked the bit about Ratmansky trying to work with dancers in Ukrainian and having to switch to Russian because he was making so many mistakes the dancers were laughing. (I can't imagine there is ordinarily much laughing at Ratmansky going on during rehearsals!)
Maybe once live performances are done, they might consider streaming a recording as some kind of fundraiser. I would pay for that....with whatever cast.
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I had read a few days ago that Xander Parish would be dancing Albrecht with Norwegian National Ballet, but now it's official that he is joining the company:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch2vNBep7eZ/
Edited to add: I posted this but had not realized that @naomikagealready mentioned it in a longer discussion of the current Mariinsky season. I'll leave my post in case anyone else missed that discussion and because Parish's Instagram video announcing the move is rather touching. I'm also happy to celebrate the Norwegian National Ballet on its own thread.
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12 hours ago, volcanohunter said:
Dance producer Paul Godfrey, currently working on bringing the United Ukrainian Ballet and Ratmansky's Giselle to London, has a more inside view than most:
"By the mid 1990s Godfrey was working with the Kirov and Bolshoi, managing their tours to the Coliseum and the Opera House, overseeing both technical production and management.
During a period of 10 years or so Godfrey brought many Russian and Eastern European ballet companies to the UK and produced around 150 performances a year.
When the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, Godfrey knew it would be the end of an era for his work. 'Like everyone else I tried to persuade myself that the war wasn’t going to happen. I was due to be working with the Bolshoi and had a tour lined up which was cancelled.
'Simply put, on 24 February 2022, it was goodbye to 35 years of my life. I knew I would never get to work with the Bolshoi again. There was no time for sadness, regret or doubt.
'Those relationships would change. A huge number of people left Russia, but many are there still there keeping quiet and unable to speak.'
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Godfrey is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with and for the [UUB] dance company. 'Of course the long-term goal is to disband, we don’t want to keep everyone as refugees, but at least these dancers will go back home having worked with some of the world’s top coaches and choreographers.'"
https://www.thejc.com/life-and-culture/all/dancing-for-ukraine-ballet-company-made-up-of-refugees-from-the-war-to-perform-giselle-at-the-london-coliseum-2LFZGizpPIgPZ9mz9zza9nThank you for the information about the article and link....
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This article on Kretzschmar appeared a couple of months ago--it mentions in passing a number of foot and toe injuries and talks a lot about her dance-related projects in outreach, teaching, and choreography. I hope she goes on to a great future:
https://christiansforsocialaction.org/resource/waymakers-claire-k/
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Very sorry to read this....
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7 hours ago, Buddy said:
And then there's the possibility that what most ballet dancers (and most Russians in general) do, has little or nothing to do with Putin.
For me, the gala in Crimea is hard to see as no more than ballet-business as usual. As anyone reading this website likely knows, Crimea was annexed by Putin's regime just 8 years ago. Dancers can't participate there in a gala without de facto supporting his policies toward Ukraine--policies which include concrete plans for the arts in Crimea; they can't do so especially when Russia is in the middle of a war (or, if you prefer, "special Military operation") against the rest of Ukraine. To dance there is actively to help support Putin's plans whatever one's personal feelings about the matter. I don't know the pressures the dancers are under -- and anyway I do NOT expect most Russian artists either to see Putin as a villain OR to fall on their swords if they do. (All over the world most people live out some ideological contradictions in their lives.) But dancing at a gala in Crimea at the present time can't help but be bound up with Putin's policies these days.
(And Taras Bulba? an excerpt from a ballet based on a Russian novel about Cossack warriors for Ukrainian freedom? That's some choice whoever picked it.)
United in Dance: Segerstrom - November 11, 2022
in Heads up!
Posted
Love the shots of Shevshenko and Parish in Swan Lake....