Steve Keeley

I must be very lucky; I've never heard a cell phone ring during a live performance or a movie. I have been disturbed by talkers and cooing couples, however. Oddly, this happens much more in the theater than in the movies. Not being a shy person, I usually can put a stop to it fairly quickly. ~Steve

OK, I'll be the stickler here. If you can't do 32 fouettes, you don't dance Odile. If you can't hold a balance in attitude without falling off pointe, you don't dance Aurora. And so on... ~Steve

Makarova for me. Her Odette reached right inside me and made me FEEL what she was feeling. No performer in any medium has ever touched me that way. And her Odile was downright sexy. I haven't seen any ballerina who could be as sexy as Makarova could be when that was her intention. (Although Viviana Durante can come pretty close.) ~Steve

I've owned a copy of "101 Stories of the Great Ballets," the 1975 update, for several years but I've never read it cover-to-cover. I refer to parts of it quite often, however. There are sections that I've looked over many times and many I've never even glanced at. Consider it a reference book, like a dictionary or enyclopedia, where you look something up as needed. ~Steve

My recurring goosebump moment: every time the curtain raises on "Serenade" to reveal those seventeen dancers posed in that dreamy light. The real world goes away and I join the dream. ~Steve

I happened to be thinking along these lines myself, having just watched 2 videos of "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux," one with Patricia McBride and one with Darcey Bussell. The steps were the same, but the effect was so different. Darcey has an almost incomparable sense of classical line and placement in everything she does. While she looked beautiful in this work, it didn't work for me. She gave it a serenity that took away it's edge. McBride's spikier performance was not as pretty but much more alive. Still, I'd love to see what Darcey would do with "Ballo della Regina." (Just out of curiousity.) She has the speed, jump, and precision for it, but would her natural poise blunt its excitement? ~Steve

I thought I'd bounce this back up; I'm curious if anyone was able to dig up more info on Madame. ~Steve

Ah, how I miss the days of the ballet quiz, when I would stay up late Sunday nights scouring my library for obscure bits of ballet lore! Here's what I could find: Madame Dominique (Caroline Lassiat) was a former Paris Opera dancer. She went on to teach in the POB school. She taught the elementary class from 1860 and succeeded Marie Taglioni as the teacher of the class de perfectionnement in 1872. Some of her students were Emma Livry, Guiseppina Bozzacchi, Leontine Beaugrande and Adele Grantzow. She was quite a famous teacher during the 19th century, and had an international reputation comparable to that of Auguste Vestris. ~Steve [ 06-05-2001: Message edited by: Steve Keeley ]

That casting was unintentional. Darcey Bussell had been scheduled for that performance but was injured and Viviana took her place. ~Steve

In Japanese: Omedeto, Witchel-san! ~Steve

In answer to Leigh's question, an ABT press release states that Black Tuesday was staged by Susan McGuire.

If you're doing a story ballet you ought to include a libretto that describes the general action, and this is usually the case. But in an abstract (storyless, non-narrative, whatever term you prefer) dance I believe the choreography should speak for itself. To the best of my knowledge I have never seen program notes for a Balanchine ballet (beyond "first presented in...") and never needed them. I just looked at the stage, saw people dancing and heard music and it was all quite clear. When watching "Serenade" I don't really know what the part with the fallen girl, the guy and the girl with her hand over his eyes is all about, but I know what I feel when watching it. Whatever one's inspiration for a work, the choreography should not rely on the facts behind that inspiration to be comprehensible. The choreography should be coherent and self-contained, so that even without knowing anything about the person or event that inspired it, the viewer can understand what you are trying to say. Allusions to other works of choreography can either add a humorous touch or deepen the meaning for those who know the work in question; but that reference should be integrated into the work such that those who haven't seen the referenced piece don't wind up scratching their heads wondering "what was THAT all about?" I don't want an explanation. I want to see a comprehensible piece of work that I can enjoy without benefit of a decoder ring. ~Steve

San Diego's CA Ballet just premiered it's full-length "Sleeping Beauty" this weekend. This is an ambitious production for a company of this size and I'm amazed at how well they pulled it off. Performing it meant double-duty for everyone: the prologue fairys turn up in the Garland Waltz and as Maids of Honor in Act I, Nymphs in Act II and in the variations in Act III; Saturday night's Aurora (Denise Dabrowski) was Sunday afternoon's Lilac Fairy and vice-versa (Jennifer Curry as Sunday's Aurora). Such stretching of resources doesn't leave much room for error. The Bluebird pas de deux suffered due to injuries at the performances I saw: on Saturday night a hasty replacement for Bluebird was required so there was only the adagio and Florina's variation; Sunday afternoon's scheduled Florina had to replace the injured dancer who had been scheduled for Aurora, so there was no adagio and only the Bluebird's variation. I had planned to attend, and bought a ticket for, only the Saturday night performance. But I enjoyed it so much I had to come back for the Sunday matinee. This production is billed as "staged after Petipa" by Maxine Mahon, but it has a definite RB pedigree with much of Ashton's flavor. I'm far too lazy to go into details about all the dancers who made special impressions, and all the touches in this performance that made it live for me (and I would no doubt strain the reader's patience). But I just wanted to praise the company and the production as a whole. The dancers had been coached and rehearsed with attention to detail and a feel for classical ballet that seems rare. The entire performance was one gem after another. (I've never enjoyed the Garland Waltz as much as I did in these performances.) There was no showing off or grandstanding; the emphasis was on clean classical style. After seeing so many sloppy and half-hearted performances by world-class companies, it was a pleasure to see classial ballet performed with such commitment not only to dancing but to acting, mime and story-telling. Bravo, CA Ballet! ~Steve [This message has been edited by Steve Keeley (edited April 01, 2001).]

I haven't had an opportunity to notice Carmen's jumps, but she is a turner. I was observing a company class in Costa Mesa, and at the end they had the women doing a "fouette till you drop" exercise. One by one all the company members dropped out, leaving only Carmen turning (with a big, genuine smile on her face). When she finally stopped (cleanly) she got a big hand from the other dancers. ~Steve

Personally, I don't spend a lot of time regretting the dancers who were before my time. I regret the dancers I won't live to see. ~Steve

NYCB included the Third Movement:Scherzo (danced by Stacey Calvert and Benjamin Bowman) when I saw them perform it in January 1997. When they performed it at Costa Mesa in October 1998, the scherzo had disappeared again. ~Steve

A bit off topic, but since we've mentioned reliance on spell checkers, I thought I'd pass this along as a warning. Sorry, I don't know who the original author is. At leased I no bettor then to relay on my spell checker. ~Steve

My answer may seem out of place, since this dancer never even got out of the NYCB corps, but at the moment I am still dearly missing Riolama Lorenzo. I first noticed her in a performance of Robbins' "Brandenburg" and couldn't take my eyes off of her. At every subsequent NYCB performance I attended, the first thing I would look for in the program was her name. Tall and beautiful and actually built like a woman, there was a strength, authority, cleanliness and expressiveness to her movements that enriched even the smallest corps roles. If nothing else interesting was happening onstage, I could always enjoy the performance just by letting my eyes follow Riolama (which they seemed inclined to do on their own). I would look for a mention of her name in every NYCB review I read, anxious to see what roles she was getting. I would watch ballets and pick out parts I hoped to see her dance some day, and generally looking forward to watching her career progress. Then she was gone, and my interest in NYCB as a whole seemed to fade. The loss of Riolama is probably one of the main reasons I haven't considered the expense of a trip to NYC this season or the next. It's not always the stars who define the company. ~Steve

The following insert was in the San Diego Ballet program tonight: ~Steve

Darcey Bussell is as "placed" as they come. ~Steve

Dvorovenko managed to win me over completely the first time I saw her, as Valencienne in "Merry Widow" (an insubstantial piece of fluff that I totally enjoyed). Among her many other qualities, I particularly enjoyed the way she would shamelessly flirt with and tease the audience. It seems like at least once a year I launch into my defense of Minkus. As his entry in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music states, "From musical point of view, had misfortune to be contemporary of Tchaikovsky." Minkus was an extremely competent craftsman who wrote some enjoyable tunes that fulfilled their main purpose: they gave the dancers something to dance to. I'll often put on his music from "La Bayadere" just for the bouncy fun of listening to it. He's certainly no Tchaikovsky, but when I hear Tchaikovsky I want to sit and listen; when I hear Minkus I want to get up and dance. What really bugs me about Minkus-bashers is that so many of them will then turn around and gush about someone like Gorecki, who IMO never wrote anything that was worth listening to for more than 5 minutes, at which point he's used up the musical idea he started with then proceeds to drag it out for another 20. Minkus, at least, was unpretentious. ~Steve

For those who, like myself, tried fruitlessly to look up "ananchreonic," I think the word Jeannie meant may be "Anacreontic," which I did find: Anacreontic (e-nàk´rê-òn´tîk) adjective Of or in the manner of the poems of Anacreon, especially being convivial or amatory in subject. noun A poem written in the style of Anacreon. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. ~Steve (Upset now that Jeannie has joined Leigh and Nanatchka in always using big words that I don't know.)

After that review, *I* got your money's worth, too! Thanks! ~Steve

Juliet sez: You tell 'em! The RB "Bayadere" is my favorite video (tied with the "Balanchine Celebration" I & II). I'm also quite fond of their "Sleeping Beauty," mainly due to Viviana Durante's performance. ~Steve

The english translation of her book (by Arnold L. Haskell) is called "Dancing in St. Petersburg: The Memoirs of Kschessinska" (Or maybe just "Petersburg" without the "St."; my sources differ on this point.) ~Steve