Alexandra

Thanks for posting it, Helene. The clip gives you a good sense of the dancers -- I wish I could get out there and see it. (I hope you will and report for us. ?)

The idea was to have this as an iPhone app that you could view at anytime or place... handy right in your pocket. Of course, this is available in diverse places, books, web sites and so forth. Consolidating it all into an iPhone would make it the mother of all ballet references with stills, videos etc.

That's the way I look at it. It's not trying to be THE definitive dictionary. You can read books on the iPhone -- they have their uses I think this could be a useful App to many people -- and my students think it's cool

Thanks to Ray for posting and bart for fixing -- very interesting piece. Of course, he's right. More dance! European television has so much arts coverage, not just big "specials" but a 10-minute segment on the evening news, or a small feature. My cable service now has France 24/7 and they have a "cultural" feature every single day -- painting, dance (both modern and ballet), music. it's wonderful.

With someone as important as Kaiser making an issue of this, maybe something will change.

Moderator check in:

Yet another reminder that we are here to discuss classical ballet, not to attack each other nor to dscuss the discussion. Any further posts that do discuss the discussion or insult people by name will be moved to hold without notification. Posters who continually have to be reminded of this rule and continually break it will be moved to Moderated status.

Alexandra

I wondered where Lucy had gone -- this was her first post, and it's just a link to an article. If you're around, Lucy, please give us your take on it!

bart, I thought Mel had brought us back to the original question, which is, "Did William Forsythe Invent the Modern Ballerina?" and offered another candidate

Interesting point, Helene, and again goes to definitions -- everything Balanchine made for Farrell was after "Agon." Did "Diamonds" or "Vienna Waltzes" or "Mozartiana" extend the "modern ballerina"? Or do we define "modern ballerina" very narrowly to mean a female wearing minimal clothing and stretching and twisting the limbs? (There are some choreographers who do se "Agon" as the beginning of contemporary ballet and toss out everything else. I've heard NYCB fans say that everything else Balanchine did was merely to please the fans. I do not agree with that; just sayin'....)

I'm not sure it was Nijinska. As I posted at the beginning of the thread, Doubrovska is often described as either the first modern ballerina, or the first neoclassical ballerina (at any rate, the first unitard ballerina) and Nijinska used her, but so did Massine and Balanchine. I do think that Nijinska was an extremely important choreographer, who made ballets (real ballets) on then-contemporary themes. I wish we had more of her works.

(There's a very nice DVD about Doubrovska by Virginia Brooks, available from her web site.  http://www.brooksdancefilms.com/Doubrovska.asp )

There have been at least two DVDs about Sylvie Guillem released in England, yet not here, as far as I know. Odd, for such a big star and such an influential dancer.

I missed this post, checkwriter -- thank you!

Here's a review of Dances at a Gathering and West Side Story Suite by Eva Kistrup in her danceviewtimes blog:

At Last!

Thank you, Jane, for checking.

Pamela, there is an excellent translation of all three volumes of MTL in English by Patricia McAndrews. I have Danish friends who read it instead of the original, three separate volumes of the book (in Danish).

Forgot something. There is a huge difference between "classicism" and "formalism." Classicism isn't limited to principles of organization or straight lines.

I agree that "classical" changes over time -- and there are dozens of subsets here, as in music. "classical" meaning genre, and "classical" meaning a certain time period are but two. But ballet is a philosophy, and saying that everything is ballet (classicism), or that something that is "good" is "classical," or that something I make is "classical" -- no.

What is the modern ballerina? When do you count "modern"? Used to be Doubrovska (Prodigal) was the modern ballerina. (modern. neoclassical. contemporary. very different terms.)

This is one I don't know, Alymer. Bournonville writes about it in "My Theatre Life," of course, but he's not one to reveal his sources (And I haven't read this section of MTL in years, and can't check it now as I'm getting out DanceView this weekend.)

Bournonville staged Wagner's operas in Copenhagen -- while expressing exasperation for The Music of the Future.

There's not a scrap of "Siberia to Moscow" left, as far as I know, except for the Jockey Dance (to represent the Thames. Bournonville had seen Petipa's "Pharoah's Daughter" and liked the idea of having different dances for different rivers. His were character dances, of course. He didn't have six or seven ballerinas.

Gail Grant's book is The Bible, but I just got an iPhone and like having the terms on it. It will come in handy at school.

Not there, alas, but I'm very grateful for your review. Who was Albrecht?

(There's a DVD of this production. It's very cold, at least on TV, but very, very perfect and completely thought out.)

Thanks for letting us know about this, Tom. This sounds like a useful tool. We don't allow product promotion on the site (it's not a bulletin board, and if we did allow ads, we'd be overwhelmed by them) but do like it when someone puts up a book, a film, or something like an iPhone app, so thank you.

You may get more responses on our sister forum -- http://www.dancers.invisionzone.com/ -- which is for dancers, teachers, and other professionals (as well as dance students), but there are quite a few dance professionals here who might have some comments, so thanks again.

In this country, 13 is a child.

I felt uncomfortable paying so much for a book "about" Nureyev with lots of phtographs of Nureyev and finding there was so little of Nureyev in the book and nearly all of the photos of him that are in the book are also on line.

Like Innopac, I also found it odd that someone who is a friend -- and really was -- airs every grudge he has against the friend. (I don't object to the airing of grudges -- that happens to any public figure -- but it was an odd context. But, as I wrote earlier, I took the book to be about van Dantzig and his dancer rather than about Nureyev, and I fault the publishers for that. I'm sure in Holland it's perfectly appropriate (van Dantzig is a very well-known and respected person there, and there's ample justification for him to write a memoir.)

Ballet fan, you've posed an interesting question.

So the question I'm raising is: can anyone, such as a legendary dancer, be so perfect in a role that any other performances can be seen as inferior or is there always something new that a dancer can bring to a role even if it's centuries old?

I'd say yes and no. I remember a performance of MacMillan's "Romeo and Juliet" danced by Ferri and Bocca in DC in the 90s, I guess, that literally had the house screaming. Curtain call after curtain call. Three of the older critics here looked rather sad. They felt it did not come near to the standard of emotional depth -- similar to what you wrote asbout your two "Giselles" -- as Fonteyn and Nureyev in those roles. It wasn't nostalgia, and it wasn't "they're my faves and nobody else can do it better" (as is the usual accusation; sometimes that's true, but not always). It was a sadness that something was gone, and that, for that performance, a new "standard" was being formed that, they felt, was far below the old. (I never saw F&N do R&J live, but I took their point. The performance that night had certainly been exciting, but not more.)

On the other hand, the first "Swan Lake" I ever saw was Nureyev's (with Monica Mason, whom I admired in other roles ). I thought it perfection. It was everything I'd read about the ballet, and everything I'd read about Nureyev. And the next night was Anthony Dowell with Makarova, and although Dowell was totally different, I thought him equal in every way. It was a good lesson to learn one's first season in ballet.

And then there are created roles. There have been roles so identified with performers that the audience won't stand an interloper -- Baryshnikov in "Push Comes to Shove" for years, Farrell in many roles. (I'm using past examples because I can't think of a ballet created in the past 25 years with iconic roles.) Modern dance, the same. Every time a dancer left "Esplanade" he or she took something, and I still miss Ruth Andrien, Carolyn Adams, Nicholas Gunn and Eli Chaib. Each had one particular quality -- force, lightness, anger -- that their successors haven't.

There's an obituary in today's NY Times (by Alastair Macaulay) of Francis Mason, who died Thursday at 88. He was, among many other things, the editor of Ballet Review for the last 30 years, as well as the author of "I Remember Balanchine" and co-author of Balanchine's Complete book of Ballets.

Francis Mason, Voice for Dance Over 5 Decades, Dies at 88

Thanks for posting that, Carmeia. There are a lot of RB fans here who love to be able to keep up with the company.

What are you (and others) looking forward to most?

Washington Ballet sent out this press release today. Ms. Valdes's Kitri is on DVD with her home company, and I, for one, am really looking forward to seeing her dance!

CUBAN NATIONAL BALLET PRIMA BALLERINA

JOINS TWB FOR SEASON OPENING PRODUCTION

Viengsay Valdés featured in Don Quixote on First Solo Visit to United States

Production runs October 14-18 at the Kennedy Center

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Washington Ballet is pleased to announce that Cuban ballerina Viengsay Valdés will appear as a guest artist in the company’s 09.10 Season opening performance, Don Quixote, running October 14-18 in the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. Ms. Valdes will be dancing the lead role of Kitri in a new staging of the the classic ballet by internationally recognized choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes.

“I am delighted to welcome Ms. Valdés to Washington,” said TWB Artistic Director Septime Webre. “She will add a great spark to TWB’s fantastic ensemble.”

Mr. Webre, who is of Cuban descent, also said that it brings him personal satisfaction to showcase such an important cultural treasure from his native country. “My own Cuban heritage has played a significant role in repertoire I’ve selected at The Washington Ballet,” he said. “To be able to welcome Viengsay is personally very meaningful to me. I am proud that TWB will be her first solo visit in this country.”

Born in Havana, Ms. Valdés began her ballet studies at age nine at the Alejo Carpentier Provincial Ballet School. At age 15, she continued her course of study at the Escuela Nacional de Arte with Ramona de Sáa and Mirtha Hermida. When she was 17, legendary director Alicia Alonso invited Ms. Valdés to join the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. In 2001, Ms. Valdés became a principal dancer and primera bailarina. She has won numerous dance awards and prizes, and has performed the role of Kitri in various productions of Don Quixote and at dance competitions. Most recently, in April 2008, Ms. Valdés performed as Kitri at the Theatre of Light and Sound amid the Giza Pyramids, in Egypt.

The last time Ms. Valdés was in the United States was in 2003 with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. This will be her first solo visit to the nation. TWB is thrilled that an O-1 visa for Ms. Valdés was secured, and that DC audiences will have the chance to experience this internationally-renowned dancer. She arrives on September 22, and will begin rehearsing with the company on September 23, 2009.

I wanted to add that although Swayze did not make his living as a ballet dancer, he was ballet trained and retained his ties to his teachers. A few years ago, when Ballet Arizona was having severe financial problems, he helped them in their fundraising drive -- was very generous with his time, and very supportive not only of the company and school, but of the art form.