Pamela Moberg

Solor; by all means read all books on Nijinsky that you can lay your hands on. His own diary is also published. Romola's book you have to take it for what it is - dont start with that one! My own personal preference would be "A leap into madness" by Dr. Peter Ostwald. Now Dr. Ostwald is a professor of psychiatry at the University of California and not a dance historian, yet, he is very interested in the performing arts. Hence, you get more about the insanity than about dance. To date, I think that this is the best book of all and one cant but feel desperately sorry for Nijinsky. Dancewise he was a genius, but he must have suffered from the beginning from some kind of mental syndrome, his mental abilities cannot have been much and he was savagely taken advantage of by a lot of unscrupulous people who ought to have known better than to exploit a halfwit in such a crude manner.

It is indeed Platon Karsavin and the lady is Vera Zhukova in Sleeping Beauty. "Theatre Street" p. 41.

I think that we have to agree that a perfect fifth is exceedingly rare. During my life time experience - quite a few years - I can only remember one single perfect fifth. I saw it as a child (and have never seen it again) and must admit that I was most horribly envious and started an almost religious program of strenous exercises that I equally religiously performed every single night before going to bed. Did I get a better fifth? Nope, it did of course improve very much, but it never got to the point of my class mate's absolutely pure fifth. We were then only beginners and only required to do third, but this girl did a perfect fifth! My exercises progressed and I could in due course do a very nice- but not perfect - fifth with right foot front - left foot front did not work very well, ever. And the girl with the perfect body and the perfect fifth - as far as I know she gave up dancing when she was about thirteen and was never heard of again. Pity... Somehow I think that we are born with a bone structure that allows us to make a perfect fifth and no amount of training or extra exercises will make it perfect, although there is always some room for improvement.

I am really glad to learn that Sebastian Michanek has made it to the Royal Danish Ballet. Just spoke on the phone to my daughter and she sends her congratulations. We spoke of all the other children at the Swedish Ballet School in Gothenburg and we arrived at the fact that only Sebastian (or Sebbe as he was called) has really made it. Of all her former classmates (and he was also a neighbour of ours), the other ones have either given up ballet, gone into "writhing on the floor" (DD's term) or are pursuing some other artistic profession. Anyway, we both feel very proud and happy for him. Another reflection here - this would not have been possible say fifty years ago. In those days pupils were supposed to have attended the theater school from the beginning. It was like that with the ballet school at Det Kongelige and the same thing in Stockholm. If I dont remember wrong, Elsa-Marianne von Rosen was the very first dancer to be admitted to the corps at the opera in Stockholm without having attended the school first.

No problem at all. Karakterdansere means character dancers. Solodansere means soloists, Korpsdansere means corps de ballet, Aspiranter means apprentices.

Yes, Jane, I agree with you one hundred per cent. There never was a finer Giselle than Beriosova - she was wonderful in both acts. Some other dancers I have seen have been good in act I and then indifferent in act II or vice versa. But to this day, I do cherish my memory of Beriosova. It is a few years ago now... Will I ever in my lifetime see anyone as wonderful? Doubt it very much.

Amen, Bart, Yes, there is much ignorance about, sad to say. You ask what can be done. Nothing, I am afraid, says one who has tried to educate people on the subject. What is even worse, to my mind, is when people boast of their ignorance. When they ought to feel ashamed.

A few years ago, I found the women's skating rather dull, but something must have happened. Watching the finals tonight I found them glorious. In turn: Shizuka Arakawa - just beautiful. Sasha Cohen - that girl really makes me happy, and she looks so joyful herself like she enjoys being there and doing it for fun. Slutskaya had got out of her pants and was in red and gold, that's fine, but I had really expected more from her. There were, though, two real highlights of the night for me. Kimmie Meissner I found delightful - just hope she will be lucky enough not to suffer any injuries in the future - because a great future she has. And finally my own personal favorite: Elena Gedevanishvili - same as above. In a few years... She badly needs experience, big venues, traveling, but I definitely see great promise there. The gala should have been broadcast here tomorrow evening (great excuse for that champagne), but then there will be hockey in stead , gala will be on Saturday morning. So one tapes and has both gala and champagne on Saturday night! What an enjoyable time this has been, never mind about bad program planning, I have seen just about what I wanted to see!

Bobbi, have you taken into account that there are people (actually, there are masses of people) who suffer from a very poor vocabulary? Maybe they just thought that was the word to use. Myself, I would never use it to a balletomane or ballet fan. The word belongs strictly to pop music. But I heard somewhere, from a rather reliable source that when one famous classical orchestra (wont say which) went on tour in a bus, there followed another busload of just "groupies". Choice of word was not appreciated by anybody. So, just shrug it off, it just wasnt an educated thing to say.

Hockey all evening and then came the magic midnight hour. And what an hour! What ladies! The original sourpuss is rolling on the floor here with joy. What high standard throughout I wish I had had some champagne at home because this was something to celebrate. Sasha Cohen is divine and that was very well deserved. My congratulations to her. And I got to see my two Finnish girls as well, Susanna Pöykiö and Kira Korpi, though unfortunately they didnt make it to medals. But they were good! It is really weird that no other northern country can achieve anything at all. But to me, there was a revelation: that young Georgian girl, Gedevanishvili, very promising I thought. By the way, have you noticed that many Russians (Georgia is a former Soviet republic) choose Spanish style and Spanish music. And they generally manage to carry it off as well. There must be some, probably unrequited, love affair with Spain. When I was in Russia I met masses of people learning Spanish. Sorry, that was off topic. A truly wonderful evening, and I thought that the standard was the best I have ever seen. More like that!

Re Helene's post above, I dont have to write the names again. Just seen it, Swedish TV did broadcast it - in the middle of the night - and glory be All the couples were wonderful - this discipline has really developped over the years, presumably thanks to Torville-Dean. Had I been a judge I would have wanted to give them all a gold medal and I was sorry Stavisky-Denkova didnt make it. Belbin-Agosto were superb, it is so hard to choose, but I think you cannot get any better than the gold couple. She seemed to be pretty taken with it, mopping tears, for sheer joy, one presumes. Now I promise I wont gripe more over Swedish TV, but why in the middle of the night? I am sure many young kids would have loved it. There will be a repeat tomorrow, but that will be during school hours. If they want skaters here they must inspire youngsters! OK, from 16 hours until 11.30 there was hockey solid, and never ending analysis and interviews with the hockey girls - deduction: inspire to more hockey. Anyway, a night to die for, absolutely perfect! :huepfen024: :hyper:

Thanks for the replies about the Finnish girls - nothing but hockey on Swedish TV tonight so I gave up Well, folks, I hate to reveal my age, but here goes. I actually saw Sonia Henie! Yes, it is true... I was a small kid, there was a venue in Gothenburg then (caught fire later) called the "Circus". A very tiny round arena, no larger than a fairly large sitting room, and they had an "Ice revue". Star spot Sonia Henie! She was then of a considerable age, married to a Norwegian ship owner and a multi millionaress. Yet, she did this show and I vividly remember it to this day. She ran madly and then launched into some multiple pirouettes, stopped, bowed and skated out. Well, at least I have seen Hitler's absolute darling live.

Thankyou so much, Helene! So you have been to Malmö -one of my favorite places in Sweden. While you were there I do hope you had a meal at "Petri Pumpa" - a truly wonderful restaurant. If not, maybe next time... Thanks for the links, though my ancient equipment is not quite up to it. Got the Finnish one - though Finland is a neighbor, that is one language where I cant even make out a single word. And speaking of Finland, we do have some Finnish posters here who could throw some light on the subject, I hope. Judging by others, not only Swedish TV broadcasts very little skating, but I have yet to see a single lady skater. A couple of years back, I saw a lovely Finnish girl, black hair, very graceful, actually it was truly ballet on ice. Her name was Susanna Pöykinen (apologies to Finns if I have butchered her name). Are there any Finnish girls at all taking part? There was also a very good blonde Finnish girl. Finns, please answer, it would make me glad. Norway does not seem to be much of a skating nation these days - in the olden days they had Sonia Henie who won I think that infamous 1936 Olympics.

Now, really, Helene, how on earth do you know all these people? Have you been here? All these guys are household names to me, as my best friend's daughters train at the same club. Here, we believe quite a bit in Stiller, but I must say that Berntsson has improved immensely lately. Another name to watch is Pylkina, I have actually spoken to her mother who is a trainer - but I believe she is back in St. Petersburg now but left her daughter here. The real reason why the Swedes are not so good at skating is the lack of training facilities. Ice halls are occupied by kids playing ice hockey (boys, that is) and when they finish, figure skaters are allowed in. Kids attending school then wont be able to start practising until quite late when they are already tired. I will certainly mention to them that their names are known in the US as well - that will cheer them up!

Thankyou so much, all of you who have written in great detail and so vividly about the ice skating! At least you have been lucky enough to have seen something. Unfortunately, I have hardly seen anything and it is my favorite sport. Swedish TV seems to prefer broadcasting, in turn, ice hockey (very popular here), skiing and some weird stuff, where a lot of Swedes participate, curling (!!!). Maybe fun to do, but hardly a spectator sport and not worth hours of valuable viewing time. Then, late at night comes a little bit of skating - OK, no national interest here, the only Swedish skater finished as 23 or something like that so he is out. Yet, skating is a popular sport here, that is to say, it is popular with women and we just dont count. eh? Thanks again for your knowledgable commentaries, they are appreciated!

To start with - the Chinese dance in Nutcracker. No, I never really liked it either, not because I thought it was insulting to Chinese. But, I am not a great fan of Nuts to start with -then I think that the "Chinese" music is rather poor and so is the choreography. Purely an artistic sentiment on my part. Then I have never understood why one so seldom sees the "Kingdom of Snow" part of Nuts. Many years ago I saw Toni Lander doing that, just wonderful! Coming back to what would be insulting ethically speaking - hard nut to crack. Maybe, today we are all getting much too sensitive to things ethical, why not just accept old fairy tales as old fairy tales - many of them terribly cruel. But there are other cruelties today. Maybe I should quote the late Swedish author Fritiof "The Pirate" Nilsson. He said: "If I write about a needle there will always be some one-eyed bastard who will want to sue me". What bothers me more is that in some productions Giselle's mother is made to look more like she is Giselle's great grandmother than anything else. For crying out loud, Giselle is in her late teens, her mother ought to be in her early forties at the most, hardly an age to be decrepit.

The director of Dansens Hus (House of Dance) in Stockholm, Sweden, Mr. Jan Zetterberg has passed away after an illness, only 63 years old. Mr. Zetterberg's own career as a dancer was very short, and an injury put a stop to further dancing. In stead he got involved with Dansens Hus and worked tirelessly as an administrator, teacher, director and mentor. He invited the great international choreographers and companies. European posters might remember him as the tall man with glasses who used to preside over the jury when the European Broadcasting Union's bi-annual ballet competition was held. A great loss to the dance scene, both modern and classical, in Sweden and it will not be easy to find another person of such quality and integrity.

Thanks, Mel, for that lovely piece of rememberance, it made me giggle. And Leonid, thank you so much. Are you Russian by any chance? Madame Nordi was half Finnish, half Russian, she used to carry on multilingual lessons - you really had to keep on your toes, both balletically and linguistically. For me it was not such a problem, but I do pity the poor pupils from say Australia or somewhere in Africa. In the course of one lesson, she used to speak in English, French, Russian, Finnish, Swedish (rather badly). It was great fun - those were the days!!! She was born in Kronstadt which is now in Russia, not very far from St. Petersburg. But when Cleo Nordi was born I think that belonged to Finland, which in turn was a part of Russia. On my last visit there I asked if it would be possible to go to Kronstadt, I just felt like seeing where she came from. No go, Kronstadt is supposed to be a kind of military secret zone and really no go area. Finally, Leonid, did you ever meet her? Did any other BalletAlerters meet her? Or do I have the sole privilege in this respect? :rolleyes:

Poor Moira Shearer might have had difficulties with her career at Covent Garden after her film, but just think of how she spread the word of ballet round the globe. That she wouldnt have done dancing only at Covent Garden. Those myriads of little girls who wanted to take up ballet after seeing the film; there must have been a great ballerina or two emanating from that - and all those others, who did not become ballerinas, but all the same enjoyed learning ballet and finding great benefit from ballet tuition. Here sits one of those who had to quit at a too early age, but now enjoys ballet in other forms, namely studying dance history. I think I can thank Moira Shearer for sitting here in front of my computer. She inspired me. And I thank her for that!

Solor, isnt this a truly wonderful book? I think it is great. Well, in those days, ballerinas had very free hands, it seems, to insert the solos they liked in whatever ballet they liked. If it was appropriate or not did not matter. It seemed that they could repeat their bravura stuff whereever they wanted, if it fitted in with the rest was not so important. Weird indeed, if a ballerina was good at fouettees she could squeeze them into any performance - thankfully it couldnt be done today.

Cant find my program, though I know I have kept it, but I think it must have been Antal Dorati's version.Long ago I saw Graduation Ball with Festival Ballet in London. Flemming Flindt did the Drummer, he was out of this world - people who saw the original one, Nicholas Orloff, said he was wonderful. I find it hard to believe, Flindt to me was the real cat's pajama - he was just stunning! And Flindt was just a kid in those days and so was I. Sorry to harp on old memories, but I had an old fountain pen that leaked lilac ink horribly. So, asking Flindt to sign my program (the one I cannot find right now) I asked him to use my leaky old pen. "Oh, you prefer that pen" he said in English to me although I had addressed him in Danish. "Yeah" I swooned (sounds about the same in Danish). Well, am I forgiven, I think I was fifteen at the time. What do you think, folks?

In my youth - not exactly yesterday - I used to do class with Madame Cleo Nordi. When there was the Pavlova anniversary, all pupils were told to go along - no, we didnt have to if we didnt want - to the Russian Church in Ennismore Gardens for the memorial service. It was a long time ago, maybe I have got the address wrong, but in my memory I can see the church. Class was held as usual, but you could sense that it was a kind of very special day.

Indeed I have a memory. At fifteen, my first appearance as an adult dancer, I took part in the beginning of the third act of Marriage of Figaro. It was a little fandango. Pehr Christian Johansson also made his debut on the stage in that fandango. Talk of coincidences - now he is the object of my research.

I just learnt that there will be a Pavlova exhibition in London to open in a few days time. Apparently her old home in North London, Ivy House, is now some kind of Jewish Center and that is where the exhibition will be held. Might be worth popping across the North Sea to visit. I will find out more about it. Does any London posters know anything? If so, please post details!

Thank you drb, for posting a link to that fine article in New York Times. I also heard that Swedish TV will broadcast a memorial programme next Friday. Something to look forward to.