Alexandra

The second sailor (John Kriza) did the pas de deux. The third sailor (Jerome Robbins) did what's often called the Carmen Miranda sailor and was the leader. Robbins made the change, I believe, for Baryshnikov at NYCB. I never saw this change at ABT until the last revival. It's a change I think is exceedingly ill-advised. During the early scenes of the ballet, the Third Sailor is the leader -- his is a dominant personality; the Second Sailor is the rather naive, sweet one. Mixing them is lke having Melancholic bop out to do Sanguinic -- it doesn't work.

I took it to mean variation, or classical steps (as opposed to character) but that was just a guess from context. Pamela doesn't check this site every day, but when she comes again, I'm sure she'll see the thread and can tell us.

Yes, I think I'd agree with that, Thalictum -- and so she could be beautiful or hideous, or just plain ordinary. What about Kathy Moore? Did anyone see her Hagar? (I did, and she was a dancer I admired profuselyl, but, as with Wilson, I couldn't FEEL what I'd read I was supposed to feel.)

the Autumn issue of DanceView is out! About two-thirds of subscribers' copies were mailed in the past two weeks, the last batch went out today. In this issue: Energy Boost Gia Kourlas reviews NYCB's Spring Season A Conversation with Daria Pavlenko by Marc Haegeman Balanchine Rehearsing: A Photo Gallery by Costas The Metropolitan Opera Ballet Story by Elaine Machleder The San Francisco Ballet's 2002-2003 Season reviewed by Rita Felciano Accent on Youth A review of the Paris Opera Ballet's spring programs by Carol Pardo London Report by Jane Simpson Carlos Acosta, Adam Cooper and Johan Kobborg's summer shows; the Ballet Boyz; Trisha Brown's Die Winterreise; and an exhausted Kirov Ballet Bay Area Report by Rita Felciano Summerfest/Dance, Mark Morris, Ink Boat, Michael Sakamoto, Terre O'Connor, and the Oakland Ballet

SandiK, did you go?

We have a new photo of Ms. Fang up on DanceView Times. There are now two, a head shot, which appears in the text, and then a dancing shot, which, since it's not from Synphonic Variations, the ballet reviewed in the article, appears at the bottom. McKerrow's Powerful Hagar, and an Extraordinary Debut

We have two reviews on DanceViewTimes, actually, and since mine is no longer on the front page, here's a link to it: A New Wind from Britain Jane Simpson had reviewed them for DVT from London: The Ballet Boyz Thanks for your amplification. Andre Yew. I'm glad they're trying for another Wheeldon work -- he's busy, but they're persistent Several critics have written that the pieces were too alike -- that's true, I think, but that's why the filmed interludes are so brilliant. They break up the program in the same way that putting a fluffy or pop ballet would -- but the films have a totally different feel. I don't think they're trying to scream "We're Cutting Edge! We're doing everything new!" -- that's been a criticism too. The interview I read that made me interested in them was that they said, Right, we're ballet dancers, we love ballet, there used to be great classical choreographers, there aren't now, we want to dance, we're doing work that interests us. Fair enough. Has anyone seen the group in NY?

Hagar's beauty -- an interesting point. (I don't think it's a sexist one at all, Paul.) I could argue this both ways. Remember Polanski's "Repulsion"? A girl who's desperately lonely and so afraid of men she freezes at kindness and kills when the very nice young man, sensing her loneliness, tries to reach out for her. The girl was Catherine Deneuve, and her astonishing beauty made the character more interesting. What had happened to that child? What if Hagar IS a beauty? The poor Older Sister (both parents gone, run off or dead, the sister is responsible for the moral upbringing of those two girls....one troubled with an all too active fantasy life, the other a minx in the making). Nora Kaye was a striking woman, from photos. I agree with atm -- I thought I was the only perosn alive who didn't find Wilson definitive in this role. I never saw Kaye, but I always thought Wilson's Hagar made the ballet about a woman who was ugly. She was repulsed by the Man from the House Opposite and his nocturnal activities -- I never got the idea that she was also attracted to him, or sexually curious.

It's a very long article -- could you give the context? Maybe Pamela will see it and can answer.

From what I've read, I'd agree that the Younger Sister sounds overdone. (I had liked McKerrow in this role very much; I didn't think she was malevolent.) I've thought of the Younger Sister as being barely adolescent, just discovering her sexuality -- or her effect on men, that she had some power over men. And not yet mature enough to realize that her actions had consequences. I think it's more interesting that way.

My curiosity was piqued enough that if they flew this way, I'd definitely see it. Rita Felciano seemed to be both interested and impatient with them -- but the dancers do look glorious. You're getting a lot to look at out there! No fair. (We're having a slow autumn season; things will pick up in the spring.)

Two reviews of the Kirov's new/old production of The Sleeping Beauty (New York) from 1999. Mary Cargill's is quite detailed: Welcome Back, Petipa and George Jackson has some historical information about earlier revivals, as well as this production: Sleeping Beauty, An Experiment

Another recent upload to the Danceview archive: A Glimpse of Massine A Danish review from 1948: the design, music, drama, audience reaction, historical and political background of Massine’s Symphonie Fantastique. Review by Henry Helissen Translated by Bjarne Hecht [Editor’s note: I discovered this review while researching a biography of the Danish dancer and balletmaster, Henning Kronstam, and found it so unusual that I decided to print it. It’s not only one of the most exciting reviews of a Massine work that I’ve read—Helissen’s writing has such a pulse and is so vivid, that he makes you think you saw the performance too—but the brief mentions of early performances of dancers known to American audiences, such as Erik Bruhn, Stanley Williams and Fredbjørn Bjørnsson in addition to Kronstam, are interesting. This review is quite different from anything we would read today. I was told that Helissen was not primarily a dance critic, nor even a writer about the arts, but a political writer. His knowledge of art and history is testament to the broad awareness of cultural and artistic matters once expected of the now-scorned “elites.” Helissen writes about design as though it is an integral part of the performance, not merely decoration, and he obviously sees the action through the music, not as choreography—both indications that the Bournonville aesthetic was still very much alive in 1948, nearly 70 years after that choreographer’s death.] A Glimpse of Massine

As I noted on another thread, I've uploaded articles from the 1999 issues of DanceView. Three in particular might be of interest to ballet history buffs and I wanted to link to them here, one on each thread, on the off-chance that there's some discussion The first are Pamela Moberg's translations of some early letters by Christian Johansson to his teacher, August Bournonville: Pehr Christian Johansson; Portrait of the Master as a Young Dancer A selection of letters from Pehr Christian Johansson to his teacher, August Bournonville, and a picture of ballet during the transition from neoclassicism to romanticism. Translated by Pamela Moberg copyright 1999 by Pamela Moberg [Editor’s note: Christian Johansson is well-known to many balletomanes as a great teacher in St. Petersburg during Petipa’s reign at the Maryinsky Theater. He taught the men’s classes, and Petipa is said to have watched those classes and borrowed enchainements from them for use in his ballets. He also taught the “class de perfection,” the class that turned girls into young ballerinas. Karsavina was one of his pupils, and writes about these classes in Theatre Street. And so we think of Johansson as a crusy old man. In this article, Pamela Moberg gives us, through her translations of Johansson’s letters written when he was a young dancer, a fascinating glimpse of the young man: opinionated, passionate about his art, bursting with ambition, and not above a bit of backstage politics. Scattered through these letters are portraits of Jenny Lind; (not to mention Johansson’s glowing accounts of his own dancing, including his double air tours!); Johansson’s dislike of teaching (!); a very unflattering description of Lucile Grahn (Bournonville’s pupil and the first Sylphide in Copenhagen) from a Swedish critic; complaints about a balletmaster the young dancer detested, calling him “shamless and tasteless” (and whose ballet Bachan, which Johansson describes, sounds very close to Le Corsaire), and who had the temerity to dance Fanny Elssler’s famous La Cachucha in drag. Johansson's Letters Pamela has a site with some very interesting historical articles: Classical ballet - past and present

Thank you for that review, Helene! I haven't seen the company, but we had a review (by Rita Felciano, in San Francisco) of it in DanceView Times this week, with some photos. Kvanstrom & Company Has anyone else seen this company?

In the west, it's been done both ways. I would think that vulgarity would depend not only on the eye of the beholder, but on how it's done.

A couple of people have mentioned Sallie Wilson as Hagar -- I thought I'd start a thread for a discussion of Hagar in general.

I've started a thread to discuss other Hagars (who did not dance with ABT this season) here .

Sure These are the three Hagars on view in New York at the moment, and, as I wrote above, there's been some controversy over them. That's why the poll was limited -- it wasn't intended as a Hagars of All Time. Sometimes people won't write comments about someone they like, if the previous poster had just said, "The worst Hagar I've ever seen!" but they'll vote in an anonymous poll, and that's why I put this up.

No, no. The loser gets to dance all performances save two, one each for the winners.

There's a wide range of opinions this season on a lot of things (and congratulations and pats on backs to everyone, because I don't think we've ever had such civil disagreements!). I'd like to know who liked which Hagar -- I've heard totally conflicting opinions on each. (Meaning, I know at least one person who loved and one person who loathed each one.) So this is a poll -- but please please please discuss, give your reasons, etc.

Thanks for that, rojo fan -- I'm afraid that critics sometimes do get tired of seeing the same thing again and it's hard to keep that tiredness out of a review. But they should try!!! I thought some of the comments were a bit harsh, too, but I also see the point of matching dancers and providing a ballerina with a suitable partner. WELCOME REBEKAH!!!!! Thanks for posting -- we love it when people jump right in. If you're not used to ballets like Bayadere I can see how they'd be confusing -- one does have to read the program notes to figure out what's going on. When you've seen one or two -- or three -- it begins to make more sense, although some people never like them. I'm not in London, so can't comment on the performances -- just like to read aobut them But I did want to welcome you.

I have several friends who were first generation Russian emigres in the 1930s or 40s and, as you wrote, going to the theater -- ballet, plays, concerts, whatever -- and museums was what everyone did on Sunday afternoon, whether the family was that of a bus driver or a physicist. May this tradition continue!

You're probably safe. Since Russians already know how to pronounce everything, they don't seem to be checking this thread! :grinning:

That's an interesting point! Russians are good for the arts, if I may be permitted an ethnic stereotype Look at all the great Russian musicians and dancers from the early part of the 20th century! There's a lot of hope that the New Russian Wave will wash over ballet and revive it. I didn't realize that there was a large Russian community in Boston as well. Thanks!