Pamela Moberg

It is not often that I get to see a classical ballet live. The local company is modern and one has to rely on guesting companies. Well, here we were treated to Giselle with the Dutch National Ballet. Thank God, in the traditional style, and we are thanking God again, no canned music, the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra played, just a thing like that makes one's eyes full of tears.

Giselle - Maia Makhateli

Albrecht - Jozef Varga

Myrtha - Sasha Mukhamedov, and to judge from the names, the corps was very international indeed.

A very beautiful performance, here it must be admitted that I have seen better performances in my life, but this was surprisingly good. This is the only work I have seen with Dutch National Ballet, but I would certainly like to see them in other works, they do have a limited classical repertoire.

Yesterday the Maryinskij guested the Stockholm Opera with "Little Humpbacked Horse" - I have read the reviews and I just wish I had been there!

In October there will be guest performances of Swan Lake by something called, wait for it: The Crown Ballet from Moscow Theater. No, I am not making this up, but I have never heard of this company. Anyway, I have no plans of going to Stockholm for this. Has anybody heard of "Crown Ballet of Moscow"? Will I be missing something?

Thank you RG, for that lovely portrait! She will always be my absolute favourite, just wish I had seen her in the Kingdom of Snow. Saw Toni Lander doing it though, she was magnificent.

Do agree with Leonid 100%. Have seen much better.

There is a useful little book by Leo Kersley -please see obituaries - with ballet terms in French explained. It is called "A dictionary of ballet terms". Might be out of print now, but might be available second hand. Then there is Anna Paskevska's "Both sides of the mirror". but that is a more scientific approach, nevertheless splendid at explaining movement. Not actually a dictionary, more a series of lectures and not aimed specifically at the spectator.

I am very sad to hear this - Dr. Koegler was one of the great European ballet historians. His service to ballet and dance was totally invaluable, his "Concise Oxford Dictionnary of Ballet" is always handy for me and there is hardly a day when I dont consult it. May he rest in peace, or maybe he will be dancing with Taglioni somewhere in the Elysian fields...

Slightly off topic in the current circumstances, but I would like to mention that I had some letter exchange with Dr. Koegler. Naturally I have preserved his letters carefully. The other day, I was made aware that the correspondence I had with a former chief librarian of the Royal Library in Stockholm had been donated to a collection. Six of my letters to him ( all about Pehr Christian Johansson) are in the collection for, I dont know about the public, but at any rate for scholars to read. So, if you have any letters or documents, they might be valuable for research, dont throw anything away before making sure they might be valuable to some collection.

Marga, it is possible you talk about a pirate edition of Rolf de Mare, but I find it hard to believe that people go to that length for this type of book. There is simply not enough money in it for criminal activity. The very book I am talking about was published in 2008 in Sweden and there is no pocket version either. You probably mean some other book about de Mare, I know that there are some old pamphlets about him, after all he belonged to one of the most important families in Sweden, so that way there must have been an interest.

Yes, I sympathise with all of you thinking of disposing of your collections when the day comes. The horror of it, pulped as waste paper. In my own case, I think one of my two daughters would be happy to be the custodian of my collection. But I agree, it is a problem. Or if one can find some kind of institution, in my case the Dance Museum is out, I figure they already have what I have got.

In the interest of ballet books I have just spent some hours browsing various sites in various countries. The results almost made me cry, both with sorrow at the actual situation, but also with joy looking at my book shelves. Will give you a couple of

examples: That great big tome I have talked about before "Rolf de Mare, art collector, head of ballet company, creator of Dance Museum in Stockholm". Books measures 10½ by 8½ inches, 616 pages, extremely richly illustrated, hard cover in pink linen cloth. A

really beautifully produced volume.

Dance Books UK has it for 50 English pounds. Fair enough! Then I came across it at the Swedish e-bay for 9 SEK... That works out at less than two (2) US dollars. Well?! I myself paid 100 SEK for it, on auction site. Even that dirt cheap.

My greatest find to date is Benois' Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet. I had gone to an antiquarian shop with a lot of old rubbish, cheap novels, some kiddies stuff and absolutely nothing of any value and I was able to exchange my bag of junk with Benois which they wanted 100 SEK for! Look up a list, and find that it is out of print and madly expensive! You see, it helps to keep your eyes wide open!

Someone once remarked that I probably have the finest private collection of ballet books in this country. A bit of flattery, OK,

but there is certainly some truth in it. And I will continue browsing sites for incredible bargains!

LiLing, How interesting that you knew Molly Lake - if mem. serves she established a ballet school in Ankara, Turkey, in the fifties. I myself danced for Cleo Nordi, who was also one of Pavlova's dancers. Pavlova was rather like Elvis Presley, she surrounded herself with nonentities as dancers, but many of those dancers became formidable teachers.

Anyway, now we have strayed from the topic - a World Heritage can be anything, a person, a building, a natural scenery etc. But it must be unique and of great interest and value to mankind. If that person in particular was a nasty type is probably not taken into consideration, as long as the person has done something really substantial in his/her field. And anyway, IMO it is great that ballet gets a distinction, after all there are a lot of people out there who think that ballet is nothing but: silly/awful/laughable/idiotic/nothing for serious people etc.etc.

Look up the World Heritage website, it is quite illuminating!

LiLing,

Thanks for your suggestions, they are OK, except for Kirkland. She is still with us and there is a requirement that you must be dead to be honored! But I can think of others who would be equally worthy. Pavlova really spred ballet to the masses, but what about Beauchamp who is credited with the five positions. without which there would be no classical ballet at all? Or for that matter Taglioni, who was not really the first dancer on pointe, masses of dancers tried it in those days, but she was the one who popularized it. Oh well, I think I could sit here for the rest of the day thinking of people who have contributed to the art form.

Thanks for your interest, folks!

Well, I must say I am rather fond of this Unesco thing. They do a lot of interesting things and spend money on upkeep. From ballet to telecommunications. My husband. who is an OAP (this is English, dont know if you know what it means in American). Well, he is a pensioner and works parttime at maintenance at a Unesco site called Grimeton. It is now obsolete but was used for communications between the US and the immigrants from Europe who sent cables to their families. Grimeton is now a World Heritage, I have been there and it is quite interesting. I find this absolutely wonderful. Unesco keep tabs on everything from old ballet masters to old radio stations.

I hope that you have all celebrated World Dance Day 29 April. It is the commemoration of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre, born in Paris 29 April 1727.

Swedish TV did their bit by broadcasting a couple of Jiri Kylian works. IMO, not much of an effort.

I have no idea who started this World Dance Day, possibly Unesco?

Getting curiouser and curiouser here - you neednt bother with that Bokus.com - I have just spoken to them. They do not send books to the US any more as their experience is that the American customs open the parcels and return them to Sweden promptly. In that case, the only option that remains is to write directly to the Danish publishers.

Actually I was quite willing to buy 20 copies and then re-sell them to you, but if there is going to be trouble with US customs, it is hardly worth my effort.

Very sorry to have to post such negative news - I so wanted to be of help to all of you.

OMG - just spoken to Adlibris, they DO NOT ship overseas. I told them that they are losing a flourishing market that way. The only thing we can do is that I buy at least 20 copies, then I would get 4% price reduction so I could ship to all who are interested. Sorry about this debacle.

OK, I will try another of those companies, www.bokus.com and see if they are more amenable. But in my own experience, it has never failed to write and order directly from the publisher, the name and full address is in Alexandra's post. At least, I have now managed to establish that there is an English version as well. And a great pity, because they only wanted 299 SEK which is quite reasonable for a photo book. Well, at least I did try... and will keep trying.

Dont worry Helene, I will try to figure out. I think I might phone them, it is always better to talk to a living human being.

Folks, I have some good news for you! I checked Adlibris today and they will have the book 16 May. In English! The price is 299 SEK, which is about 42 dollars. Postage depends naturally on where it is going to. So, if you are interested, and this might be the easiest way - but you could also write directly to Gad Publishers (wouldnt be any cheaper there). Their mail adress is as follows: info@adlibris.com. It is called: "Dance in the mirror - The balletphotography of John R. Johnsen"

Thanks a lot for those lovely portraits of Nadia Nerina. It is strange to see that stage make up can totally transform some people. I have been in class with an unmadeup Nerina and the transformation is absolutely 100%. Some people always look like themselves in stage makeup, others look completely different. She was a wonderful dancer and I remember her with great gratitude for the pleasure and joy she gave me.

Oh dear, , in my first post I now see there was, not a misspelling on my part, but a typo- Well, the man is called August Strindberg and nothing else. He is also known as the man who hated women - all his portraits of women are not flattering in the least.

I have never seen Cynthia Gregory live, only on TV, but I imagine she would have made a good Miss Julie. What I had against the Ek-Panova was that it didnt quite come across as the spoilt brat daughter of the count was teasing the valet - it seemed more like the maid having a fling with a valet.

Thanks for that information, Alexandra! It will probably take ages before it gets on Amazon, I fear. There is a Swedish on-line book store called "Adlibris", they are reasonably good at ballet books. But the best bet would probably be to contact the publishers and order from them directly.

That would be about 50 US dollars (might be wrong, maths is not my strong side) plus p&p which to the States would be rather hefty. However, I will check with Adlibris and see what they can offer, if they will have it, which is not sure.

This year is the centenary of the playwright August Strundberg's death. To commemorate this, the ballet Miss Juliet was shown on TV. It was originally choreographed on Elsa Marianne von Rosen and Julius Mengarelli in 1950 - to my knowledge it was not documented on film, In 1980 a revival was made and it was this version shown on TV. Danced by Galina Panova and Niclas Ek (brother of Mats and son of Birgit Cullberg). It was good and competently danced, but I personally feel that Panova was not quite right for the role. She is too small and compact, lacks the haughtiness and grandeur. It would be very interesting to compare the original - E.M. von Rosen was actually born into the nobility and I suppose she only had to be herself!

American Ballet Theater did a version, was it Lupe Serrano who danced Julie?

Anyway, if you can get hold of it, it is well worth seeing.

It has been a fine World Championship, what I have seen of it - American Ashley Wagner was just great. The final show was actually being shown on TV today, but I took it on DVD and will save it for when DD visits during Easter so we can watch together. Like ballet, skating really has evolved, as a tiny tot I remember seeing Sonja Henie, but she really made no impression. And what a sad life she had, after having made movies in Hollywood, she returned to her native Norway where she was not particularly welcome. To remedy this she gave her vast art collection to the state. Reason for her lack of popularity in Norway was that she had been too friendly with the nazis during that infamous 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Whereas her rival, the Swedish Vivi-Anne Hulten, refused to shake hands with the nazi ministers. Off topic really, but my second name is Vivi-Anne, my two elder brothers thought Hulten was just wonderful and they figured it would be a suitable name for their new born sister. But I never skated, actually we were strictly forbidden in ballet school, it was supposed to be bad for the feet.

World Championships are now going on in Nice. Are you there, Helene? The TV coverage here is not particularly good, as usual, sports have generally been tranferred from the state TV channels to special sports channels. I do find it a bit much having to pay for a whole year when I only watch the European and World skating. However, there has been a couple of hours, not entire competions, but a lot of highlights shown. Americans and Canadians doing wonderfully, so far, Russians not really up to scratch, Chinese, Japanese and Coreans have not made me scream with joy. This must be televised in the US as well, watch and enjoy!

It is madly late in the night now and I almost have square eyes from so much TV watching, but I will post some additional stuff which you might find interesting.

Dont know if this will count as a variation, but as it is four dancers all doing the same thing - rather like a revue line up - I think it might qualify.

I just cant stand the pas de quatre of the little swans. Jumpy music, dismal choreography, everything is awful. Probably a lot of people think it is kinda cute, but I close both ears and eyes.

Now - abuse - act II. Today the headmaster of the entire school handed in his resignation. There appear to be a lot of problems, not just abusive teachers. There are several levels of problems: one is that the school is situated in a, shall we say, deprived neighbourhood. The ordinary pupils yell things like "ballet whores" and "gays" (another word actually, but I will refrain from writing it here) at the dance class pupils. DD told me that when she went there, her best friend was spat in the face by one of the non-dancing pupils. So, there was bullying then as well, but not to the extent of what is is like today. Now the PTA is demanding a move of the school, it has been suggested that the ballet school will go into partnership with the music school (also situated in a deprived area) and they will jointly move to new premises in the center of the city. Good idea, basically, but to find good premises for ballet is not easy - or cheap.

I hope you have all read about Royal Ballet School in London - you will find it in Links. I would also urge you to read the commentaries and responses to the articles, there are literally hundreds of them.

I will also make it clear, the ballet school here is absolutely free of charge, practise clothes and shoes are subsidised or entirely free of charge.

The situation looks grave, but let us hope for the best.

Thanks. Mme. Hermine for posting that Matz Skoog clip. I am not trying to be patriotic here because Matz is a Swede (he started his training at the Stockholm Opera ballet school), but because his Drummer was real good, second best to Flemming Flindt I would think. I am not sure but I think Skoog moved to New Zealand. Come to think of it, I will have another look at that clip now before turning in for the night. That is what I call a fine end to another cold and windy day here...

Hamorah, then you must have seen Flemming Flindt as the Drummer. He was just wonderful, I have not seen many versions of Graduation Ball, but Flindt was the best, superb. Nobody can get even near his performance. Then of course there were the original Nicholas Orloff and Lichine (who created the ballet) who were supposed to be good, but that was before my time. Like atm711, I have never forgotten Flindt's Drummer so I must have found that stunning.