Alexandra

That's one part of the interview I agree with (the idea that Tudor is half-modern dance and half-ballet, I do not!) Tudor was the last expressionist, and that movement did die in the 1950s (really, the 1940s, but it clung). I've read other things from McKenzie that make me believe he really does believe what he says. The repertory doesn't reflect it -- is that your confusion, BW? Or something else?

I wanted to put up Links to the reviews of ABT we're running on DanceView Times. I've tried to get writers with different perspectives to provide a diversity of opinions, so you may find, as the season goes on, that they'll be disagreeing with each other. Eric Taub reviewed opening nighit: A Taste of the Sublime, A Dollop of Kitsch: ABT Opens at City Center Mindy Aloff reviewed Thursday night (Master Works program): An Elusive Pillar of Fire, a Divine Symphonic: ABT's Master Works Program Forsythe's Stunning workwithinwork Lights a Spark on ABT's Innovative Works Program Eric Taub will review two of the weekend programs (cast changes). Gia Kourlas will review the Contemporary Works program next week, and Eric Taub will review two weekend programs next week as well. Stay tuned.

The Nutcracker/Radio City Musical Hall problem is going to koeep cropping up, I think. The entertainment industry has discovered there's a Holiday Market and are programming "family friendly" entertainments during the Christmas season. I've heard/read reports ini several cities where an ice show, or Cirque du Soleil, or the Rockettes, or a Christmas play with big name stars has come in and really cut into Nutcracker ticket sales.

Hi, bbwatcher. Welcome to Ballet Alert! and thanks for your comments. Koshka and Dale -- and anyone else who may be going -- please report in!

Hockeyfan, you might be interested in this review by Tobi Tobias, on Arts Journal: The Danes at Home Several posters here did not like Bojesen and Lund, thinking them too light; Tobias did, and writes why. I think the difference between the Sylph and Effy is that one is of the air and the other is of the earth. (And your comment that Bojesen has beautiful feet -- that is considered one of the prime technical qualifications, because the legs are hidden by the full skirt, and the feet are the primary means of expression.) There have been changes, too, in Gurn over the years. For much of the 20th century, he was a middle-aged man, comic, with red hair. To many, that seemed incongruous, and there was a push in the '60s and '70s to change this. (I don't know what the 19th century tradition was for Gurn.) "James is a Romantic boy, and Gurn is a happy boy," as Kronstam put it, and that's the way he cast it. To me, James and Gurn must be different, too -- one a dreamer, the other more grounded -- and I worry that, like Hilarion, Gurn is becoming more sympathetic. As for James, there have been two performance traditions for him (at least; again, I'm only writing of the 20th century). Some have insisted that James be a peasant (that's the Realist Party speaking). Others that he is a dreamer; a hunter, yes, but also a dreamer. As for "Etudes," I think the Sylphide section is supposed to be soft, but with a (then) contemporary softness (?) Perhaps not originally, when Margot Lander did the role -- she wasn't a Sylph. But in the revision with Toni Lander (which I've only seen on video) it seems as though Lander is not only moving her out of the classroom and onto the stage, but turning the Sylph into a Swan.

I saw the Lifar Icare, and can't remember much at all. This was a version redesigned in the 1960s (Paris Opera Ballet brought it to DC about a decade ago) and the corps girls all looked like Audrey Hepburn, wearing slinky dresses and long, fuschia gloves.

You saw Queen Margrethe -- who lives right up the street, and comes to the ballet because she actually likes it. (Her lady in waiting sits in the box at the other side of the house. A lonely way to attend the ballet.) Helene, I think you have a good eye. Much of what you wrote makes sense to me (although I haven't seen this production or these performances). The Bournonville Divertissements are very NYCB-Bournonville, except for Ib Andersen and Helgi Tomasson. The body is bent forward in Bournonville -- he liked a curly, curvy line. I don't know whether it looked odd to you because you weren't used to it or because the dancer wasn't used to it; it could be either "Etudes" is in a different style -- the version they do now is the French one, not the one Lander made for the RDB, but in either one he is aiming at a more international (i.e., a la Russe, at that time) style. Americans often expect the Sylph to be a kind of junior second-act Giselle, all pious and ephemeral. I don't think the Sylph is that in Denmark -- although I think there's a different performance tradition here. Originally it was a neoclassical (as opposed to demicaractere) role, and Bojesen has that body: long legs, short torso. The earliest film that we have of a Sylphide, though, is a very merry, rather round ballerina. There is a playfulness to her, though. She's a life force, not a ghost. I'm glad Tina Hojlund is back -- of the dancers I saw three years ago, she was the best Bournonville dancer among the women, and I think she's a wonderful Effy.

And how many times a year does THAT happen! Thank you for that, atm. What's sad is that all of the things you mention could be done, and done well, by those dancers. Coaching? Rehearsal time? And the fact that a ballet like Pillar wanders in and out of the repertory so the current generation of dancers hasn't grown up watching it. I saw a production of "Lilac Garden" (not at ABT) that had been redesigned. It placed the ballet squarely in Lilac, Indiana. biggest Lilacs you ever saw -- I expected the Lilac Fairy to swoosh in any moment and take them away.

ABT has kept its "Theme" and not modified it. As Dale wrote: "AD Kevin McKenzie made a point of saying this was Balanchine's original production."

I was struck the first time I saw the Kirov dance "Sleeping Beauty" how classical Florine was -- because I'd seen the fluttery British one first. I've read that Florine IS a Princess, not a bird. (So the Russian would be the more correct.) I don't know whether the Royal Ballet is a misreading, a performance tradition, or a conscious change -- and would like to, so if anyone does, please tell us. I'd never heard what Andre wrote (about the Princess being changed into a bird) and wonder if that's come from dancers who are trying very hard to make sense of yet another human who has a thing for a bird in Ballet Land. (Surely the possible subject of a dissertation?)

perky, the video is "An Evening with the Royal Ballet" and it is available (I just checked; it's on Amazon). Also on the tape are Ashton's "La Valse," "Les Sylplhides" (with Fonteyn and Nureyev), "Le Corsaire" (also with F&N) and "Aurora's Wedding" with Fonteyn and David Blair. Anthony Dowell is in the corps in this - he's a courtier. dido, I think what you wrote about your second thoughts is very interesting, and often happens. We see one thing that jars -- and we generalize from that particular, and remember the whole picture that way. It's hard not to do! The urante "Sleeping Beauty" is several generations away from the "Fonteyn" one, and the things that you all are noticing are things that those who complain about changes in company style often talk about. The classical dancing doesn't "sing" any more -- it often isn't, as Paul wrote, " brilliant and astonishing and feathery." Why? One theory -- a company dances in the language of its choreographer, moves the way that choreographer wants to move, and what became known as Royal Ballet style was Ashton style. They danced the 19th century classics very much the way they danced his contemporary neoclassical works. But he hasn't been around in awhile, and later choreographers, even those who, like MacMillan used the classical vocabulary, didn't revel in that vocabulary for its own sake, and it's, if not a foreign language, at least a special, company-manners-accent now for the dancers.

These are all so much fun to read -- thank you, all. It looks as though we'll have a terrific posting season!!!! I wasn't there, of course, but wanted to comment on the comments about "Symphonic Variations." I'd had the same feeling that some of you posted about the ballerina role when the Royal Ballet danced this work in DC a few seasons ago. It really needs a seasoned ballerina, a queen ballerina, the kind of quiet, take-charge ballerina that Fonteyn was. I didn't see her, either live or on video (sob) in that role, but one can still sense her presence at the end, when the center ballerina, who's been quietly on the side, begins to take over, and the music begins its rather happy finale. Goodness has triiumphed. (I would love to see this follow "Dante Sonata," the ambiguous -- who's going to win? -- wartime ballet. Dale, I loved your "flat stone skipping lightly over a very calm lake without stirring the water." Carbro, I think the original version of "Theme" is the standard/familiar version.

Sandi, I fixed your post. You had Royal B -- immediately followed by a ) and then a . Unfortunately, this turns into a smile with shades B + ) + . or : = B). Re quoting -- find the post you want to quote, even if it's ten posts up, and click the quote button (all the way over on the right). That will give you a message box, just like the usual one, with the quotation in a second box below the box in which you write. You can edit -- delete material that you don't want to quote (hopefully not change the quote!) -- and then write your message, and the quoted material will appear in your message. And now to something more interesting..what you wrote above. I'll have to rewatch that video. I remember the Fracci/ABT one vividly (and agree with what you wrote, and loved your point about the clumsiness) and the Markova one less so, but my vague memory of the corps is that it's in the same mode as the ABT one -- that each person is acting as an individual and, as a friend once put it, "is in the ballet." I had thought that's because each company, at the time, was closer to the Ballet Russe tradition, that kind of realistic acting. Then I realized we should define "expressionistic" and "realistic". They're different, yet both removed from the old-style declamatory mime.

There's certainly a knack to being NOT false and superficial in the classics. One of the Danish dancers (Erling Eliasson, one of their finest mimes) mimed an example of this for me. I'd asked him (as I had everyone) for examples of Kronstam's coaching, and he gave me this one. It was in a rehearsal for "A Folk Tale." Eliasson was Junker Ove. In the last scene, Ove and Hilda are married. Eliasson mimed how he had stood and looked at her -- and it was what you would recognize as Ballet Prince behavior, a stance and look would be acceptable for a Siegfried or Florimund anywhere today. Kronstam came to him and said, "No, no one will believe that you love her" and (as mimed by Eliasson) gave him an immediate, direct, extremely warm and loving Prince -- without changing the demeanor or making it too realistic, just making it ALIVE and individual. The Before and After was astounding and it was an example of how to make the Cardboard Prince into flesh. To Andrei's point above -- HELLO ANDRE!!!! Glad to read you again -- it made me think of the very different approaches to the 19th century ballets in Russia and in England (and, sort of, America). The Royal looked at those ballets as Petipa (Petipa/Ivanov) ballets, a text, and presented it, with amendments suited to their style and approach to classicism, but always a derivation of the text, and part of that text was a certain way of acting. The Kirov has treated the ballet as a score and an idea, to be realized differently by each generation and each choreographer. That can accommodate a different style of acting. Mixing the two -- putting Kirov acting into the Royal's tradition, or vice versa, makes for a muddle.

Welcome to Ballet Alert!, djb, and thank you for getting us back on topic (as gracefully as imaginable, too!) When you've rewatched "Mozartiana," I hope you'll come back with some more insights.

Mme. Hermine -- I answered this question on your other post, on the About This Site thread, so I'm going to close this one.

I doubt your imagining it -- it's probably a matter of perception. What is "stiff" to one person is beautifully, classically correct to another. What is free movement, or an easy style to one is undisciplined or sloppy to another.

Welcome, Memo -- thanks for posting that. Why there isn't a big, classical company in L.A. is one of the great conundrums. Lots of money there, surely ("not enough rich people to form a donor/audience base" is the usual culprit). There should be a great after-DeMille classical company to do Humongous Spectacles, and a great after-Film Noire contemporary company to save our souls from Spectacles, and yet there is neither. As you point out, though, there is a lot of ballet in Orange County (we have other Orangeans here) and I hope you'll post about what you see -- and join in our other discussions as well.

Ismene Brown has a particularly interesting review of the Royal Ballet's "La Bayadere" in today's Telegraph: Excising the exotic She makes several general points worth talking about. Ari highlighted one of them on Links -- that the three principals (Rojo, Acosta, Nunez) dance in a different style than the corps. And another one, that's long been of concern to me, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to disuss it She points to the production as much as to the dancing/coaching: I think that realism is inappropriate to classical ballet, and have seen, both at the Royal (the little I've had the opportunity to watch it) and at ABT a use of dramatic realism in classical and neoclassical work. My guess is that it comes from MacMillan ballets, in which dramatic realism is appropriate. But what works for one style -- does Juliet gag when she swallows the sleeping potient? -- doesn't work for another (Aurora shouldn't act as though she's been stung by a scorpion when pricked by the spindle, and Titania shouldn't have an orgasm at the crest of a lift in Ashton's "The Dream," as I saw happen in one RB performance.) Does anyone else have any observations or comments?

From the names listed on movie.com, it looks fairly recent: Maurice Bejart - Brigitte LaFevre - Elisabeth Platel - Marie-Agnes Gillot - Aurelle DuPont - Peggy Grelat - Manuel LeGris - Nicolas Le Riche - Erwan LeRoux - Gilles Mondolo - Eve Grinsztajn - Miteki Kudo - Amelie Lamoureux - Agnes Letestu - Jose Martinez - Laure Muret - ClaireMarie Osta - Noella Pontois - Wilfired Romoli - Ghislaine Thesmar - Carole Arbo - Isabelle Ciara Vola - Patrice Bart - Keder Belar -

And this is its official (commercial) description on a site called WebWab (?)

It turned up on Rotten Tomatoes!!! http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/EtoilesDan...Ballet-1118289/ atm, this doesn't give the specific information you wanted, just some blurbs from reviews. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/etoiles/ gives the links to reviews as well as blurbs and ratings

Do you think their big company is the Royal Ballet of Heck or the National Ballet of Heck? Whichever, it has about a dozen different "Swan Lakes" that it trots out from time to time. It would be hard to pick a favorite......

I'd like to second Marc's welcome to KBfan. Thank you so much for taking the time to write that long review. (Short comments always welcome too, of course, but it's lovely to read a full report of a performance.)

From today's Links, two more reviews: Two more reviews of the National Ballet of Cuba at City Center: Sylviane Gold in Newsday Robert Johnson in the Star-Ledger Thank you nysusan, thank you very much for taking the time to write that. One thing you wrote particularly struck me: I had the same experience (often do, actually!). One DOES have to adjust one's eye, I think, to appreciate a style that's different from what one is accustomed to. But as you found, this has its rewards! Please keep posting about what you're seeing!!!