Alexandra

Oh, this is a virtual party, so you can come as any age or gender you want. I'd thought of having a special Mardi Gras party for cross-dressing, though, so you might want to save it for that, djb. Mme. Hermine, Madge is perfect -- the seasonal ballet character! And you can have first dibs on the fortune telling concession!!

We haven't had a silly topic in awhile. I did the Hallowe'en Party a few years ago, but I think it's one of the posts that got sucked into the Great Beyond. There's this Virtual Hallowe'en Party. Everyone is invited, and asked to come as a figure -- person, role, character -- from ballet. Who will you be? (Answer with costume possibilities more than merely personal favorites in mind, please )

Thank you, Inga. Akimova, we don't want any disagreements or unpleasantness from another message board to spill over here. Any opinion is welcome here. We discuss, we don't argue.

I don't think Gurn has ever been played as a villain. During the Lander era, he was a buffoon, but never (as far as I know) a villain.

Thank you for your review, Jane D -- it certainly sounds like an interesting company. I need to ask you if you are connected with the company and, if so, what is the connection? When someone posts an announcement about a performance, and then a review that includes box office information, we've found in the past that they're involved with the company in some way. There's no problem if you are, except that we'd ask you to use the announcements forum for company news. But we need the connection to be stated publicly, whether you're the artistic director, relative of a dancer, or box office volunteer. Thank you!

I'd forgotten to post a link to Nancy Dalva's Merce piece in DanceView Times, which covers each night of the season, but now that it's off our front page, I wanted to put the direct link here: Chances Are

Joan Acocella reviews Merce Cunningham's recent BAM season in the New Yorker: DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Hey, come on! 60 people have read this post, as I type this -- none of you saw this program? What did you think?

We're not dealing with history, Mel As for Gautier, as I remember it, he also referred to Hilarion as "Vile knave!" There is the problem that a knave, or a hero, from one era reads differently in another -- is that insurmountable?

Although the New York dates don't show up on the calendar I posted above (which I got from the web site of the outfit presenting GPD), the Ballet Boyz will be at the Joyce November 4-9, so New Yorkers can catch them -- hope you do, and that you'll post about it. http://www.joyce.org/piper03.html

Thanks Andre. In this context, it's fine to post that link. (We have a policy on posting links to other sites that's explained here: http://balletalert.ipbhost.com/index.php?s...?showtopic=6879 But for purposes of discussion, it would be nice to have a brief summary in a post, as I did above.

But Albrecht formed his point of view before Ms. Magazine and consciousness raising! He operated under a pre-Watergate morality! He was, in short, a Man of His Time. Reading that 19th century libretto, it was clear that the audience identified with Albrecht (even the women, at one remove, as -- forgive me for slipping into feminist garb for a moment -- women have had to do with much of literature). One felt sorry for Giselle, but her life was not as important as his. I read a Victorian short story once that made me understand Albrecht a bit more. It was a memoire of a young man who had despoiled a peasant girl. Afterwards, she cried. He was stunned. "I didn't know that they could feel," he said. He was very guilty and felt horrible -- as Albrecht does in the last act. (I must say that the Albrecht who said "it's a flirt that goes bad" would have none of my theory, but I'll stick to my theory.) I think it's dangerous (not the right word, but it will have to do) to try to update these stories too much. To use Robin Hood again, the Sheriff of Nottingham had a very different point of view, and one could, in theory, if one were presenting a drama based on the story to the cadets at a Police Academy, make Robin Hood the bad guy and a crook and have the Good Sheriff and his officers bring the villain to earth -- but that's not Robin Hood. It's another story.

Britain's "Ballet Boyz" are touring the U.S. GEORGE PIPER DANCES: October 3 & 4 – Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA October 10-12 - Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Fl October 23-25 – Dance Affiliates, Philadelphia, PA October 27 & 28 – Washington Performing Arts Society, Washington, D.C. October 30 – Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Performing Arts Center, Albany, NY October 31 – Pittsburgh Dance Council, Pittsburgh, PA I saw them last week in DC and liked them very much (I have a review up on www.danceviewtimes.com ) Very gifted dancers, a contemporary ballet-modern dance program, and the works are solid, by major choreographers, that suit the dances. I had read so much about them -- how they're going to bring ballet to "normal people" (????) meaning those who never saw dance, etc., that at first I expected them to do ballets that were aggressively pop -- light, no substance works, etc. (I then read more and realized this wasn't so.) There are films in between the dances that have been criticized by some for not being up to the standard of other people (like Van Manen, say) who've been doing dance-film work for years, but I don't think they're trying to do that. These films are home movies about dance, and touring -- breaks in between three works that, otherwise, would have made for an interesting evening, but a rather dark one, and not likely to interest people not already interested in dance. The dances seen here were Forsythe's "Steptext," Christopher Wheeldon's "Mesmerics" and Russell Maliphant's "Torsion." "Steptext," like "In the Middle Somewhat Elevated" is a ballet about dancers working. I find this vein of Forsythe irritating -- I like to deconstruct things myself, and don't find watching someone else deconstruct it very interesting, and the "dancing is hard" "let's stop and trick the audience into clapping" shtick gets old, for me. But there was one solo for William Trevitt that was stunning (and beautifully danced). "Torsion" was the most interesting for me -- a slow motion duet for two men (Michael Nunn and Trevitt, the Boyz; there are two women and one other man in the company). Much of it looked like contact improv (weight and balance; I put you on my shoulder, then bend over; now your feet are on the ground and I am on your shoulder; what happens if you kneel), but I found the movement absorbing. The Wheeldon was the most traditional -- in a deliberately unconventional way (it's a post-Diamond Project ballet). Three men, two women, no one would dare form a relationship, it's just not done. But some lovely partnering work all the same. I liked this one too, and admired Wheeldon for not getting sucked in by the repetitiveness of the Philip Glass score (which so many choreographers do). Did anyone else go in DC? Anyone see it in Philadelphia?

I thought I'd post this as a topic, to try to lure people out. Nysusan had posted about it, but wanted to write more after she'd seen it again (hope I'm not misrepresenting you!) Anna Kisselgoff's reviews the piece in the Times this morning. We had a piece by Gia Kourlas on the DanceView Times (it's there now on the front page -- www.danceviewtimes.com And the NY Times link is on today's Links. And I hope everyone realizes that when I post links to reviews it's not to say "this is what it is" but to give those who may not have seen the ballet or program under discussion something to read about it, as well as to help provoke discussion.) So, what did you think?

I saw the first commercial for this tonight -- not of the movie, oh, no. Of all the things you can buy -- a giant pink castle being the biggest, but by no means the only related toy. The commercial's Little Ballerina seemed more interested in the Ken doll, but her little sister liked one of the oh so cute little animals. I could not tell what animal it was supposed to be, but I'm sure it has been focus group tested and approved.

Thank you for that -- it sounds fascinating! Please let us know what they say.

Thank you for letting us know that, Jane. One of the problems with the Net -- you never know whether the information is complete, accurate, or where it came from.

Thank you, atm, that's very helpful. Today, the girls look a bit -- well, that they're not quite nice girls. And the third girl looks like a hooker, in some performances I've seen.

Did anyone go to the Innovative Program? nysusan mentioned it (thank you) but I wondered what people thought, especially of the new Forsythe.

I think perhaps it -- and they, and we -- have all lost our innocence. When that scene was created, I doubt many, if any, people dancing it or watching it even thought the word "rape". It was the kind of teasing that happens on playgrounds. Several people here have mentioned over the years, and I agree, that Herrera dances the role of the pocket book girl in a way that de-emphasizes the danger and comes as close as anyone to recapturing that it's about teasing, not aggression.

In northern Europe, red hair was the sign of a Bad Man. Vikings had red hair, and had not been thoughtful conquerors. In Denmark, the trolls have red hair (perhaps a way of wriggling out of collective guilt for being Vikings). And in Scotland, where La Sylphide is set, of course, red hair was particularly unwanted. I've posted this before, but it's relevant here. A family anecdote: An uncle of mine had red hair and had to be very careful on New Year's Eve, because there was a superstition (in this family with Scots blood) that said if the first person to cross your threshold on New Year's Eve had red hair, you would have bad luck for a year. Gurn isn't a villain, though. He's no saint -- he does lie. (The Danes do this scene especially well -- Gurn, simple and honest and true, finds James's cap and is headed straight to the principal's office, as it were, when Madge stops him and explains that if he doesn't show the cap, he can get Effy. I'll never forget Alexander Kolpin in this -- he only takes about 15 seconds to do it, but the struggle with his conscience is visible; he's really torn by it. And knows he's going to go to hell when he hides the cap, but he wants that girl.) But he's not a villain. I think one has to enter into the spirit of the ballet, and its times. You may think royalty is silly, but just for the night, give the King and Queen in "Sleeping Beauty" a break and enter their world. If you're a corporate executive, you may shudder at the thought of someone riding through the forest robbing the rich to give to the poor, but if you're going to stage Robin Hood for your kids' school, I'm not sure that righting this injustice is fair to literature. One way of entering Albrecht's world is to read "Beauties of the Opera and the Ballet," a mid-19th century collection of libretti which includes "Giselle" and "La Sylphide." "Giselle" is told absolutely from Albrecht's point of view, in the same way "Gone with the Wind" is told from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara. You have no choice but to buy into it. It's HIS story, HIS tragedy. There he is, a nice young man, trapped in this horrible court life, yearning for something Better. He sees innocence, he sees what life could be. "It's a flirt that goes bad," as one Danish Albrecht explained to me. "He doesn't mean to hurt her." Think of it that way. He doesn't propose, doesn't move her in and then cheat on her. It's ONE afternoon. He doesn't understand her fantasies. He could save the situation yet, if it weren't for that Awful, Coarse Hilarion or, as the Bolshoi did him in the Grigorovich production, a nasty little snitch, teacher's pet, whose job it was to turn in poachers, who were probably hanged. Vile little man. Sucks up to Giselle's mother, tries to win the daughter by giving her mother rabbits. Giselle doesn't want him, he can't stand the idea, he's going to ruin her life. Take that, you little bitch. Ha ha, I'll embarrass you in front of the whole village. Bad, bad, bad Hilarion. Does that help? Kronstam's 1990 production of "Giselle" made Hilarion a contemporary villain (in much the same way Tomasson's later production does) by making him coarse and overtly sexual. He can't talk to Giselle, he can only grope her. She recoils. But he is not a bad man, just totally wrong for her. He absolutely thinks -- you can see it -- that all he has to do is unmask Albrecht, she will see the mistake she makes, and come to him. During the mad scene, he's sick with love and fear and grabs her, holds her to him as if to comfort her before she breaks away in horror.

atm, atm..don't go -- how was the pocketbook scene done originally? It is so violent now, more West Side Story than my memories of "Fancy Free" even from the late 1970s.

Thank you, Victoria. That squares with everything I've read or heard from dancers working with Tudor, though of course, memories can differ.

I have a question for those who read or post here who also worked with Tudor. McKenzie said that this was the way he learned the ballets: and that the character came later. I wondered about others' experiences with Tudor.

Watermill, the "Pas de Quatre" was the version of the Romantic divertissement for super-ballerinas as revived by Anton Dolin. Victoria Leigh staged it, so if you have questions about it, I'm sure she can respond! Mike, thank you again for writing such a wonderfully detailed report. I couldn't go to that program and was very glad to read about it.