Alexandra

Thank you, gentlemen. Andrei, we do have a glove department; we do NOT carry mittens, just gloves with fingers, as you require. Hans, we shall instantly add the products you suggest to your catalogue.

A post on another thread reminded me of the subject of Ballerina Polish and a discussion we had about it on alt.arts.ballet long ago. Someone made a comment that ballerina polish was in short supply these days, I posted a response, and then the thread took off, with people adding to the list of "products". Since we're in the 'tween season doldrums, I thought it might be worth a retread. Here's my original post, responding to someone bemoaning the fact that he didn't see polished ballerinas anymore: Dear Sir or Madam: We understand that you are looking for ballerina polish. VVV Enterprises, Inc., Ltd. have long been fine purveyors of several products which may fill your needs. These polishes are usually quite expensive, but, now that the current state of depletion has been brought to our attention, we just may be able to supply bulk quantities and ease the shortage. Among the products Triple Vee offers are the following: Epaule and Epaule-Plus. Epaule is for the shoulders, while epaule-plus (a slightly more pricey polish) will bring the head and neck into alignment, add expressiveness, AND insure epaulement. DePerk Wipes that silly grin off and replaces it with a serene smile of classical composure. Harmonia Insures that pyrotechnics are harnessed and deployed in service of the choreography and the music. Best used in connection with Armonia Super Causes a tingling in the arms to remind the dancer that he or she possesses arms AND helps harmonize the upper limbs with the rest of the body. Is this what you had in mind? All of our polishes are suitable to both male and female dancers and can be tailor made to match your stylistic preferences. (An a la Russe line is available, for example.) Please note that the polishes do not work on their own. They require application (and a whole lot of elbow grease) on the part of the teacher or coach, and the polished product is best used by an artistic director with two working eyes and a refined taste. (We sell taste pills too, but they don't come cheap.) Do let us know if you're interested, and how much you're willing to pay. Also, if there are any specialty products you'd like, we'll try to oblige. Yours truly, VVV Enterprises, Inc., Ltd. Celestial Towers

Hans, everyone could use more epaulement. We need to order crates and crates of ballerina polish...

Thank you so much for posting this, GWTW. This is a company about which I know nothing, so I'm especially grateful to be able to read about it. It was also terrific to read someone's first reaction to "The Four Temperaments." That, with "Les Noces," are two of the most "modern" ballets I know. I always get a chill, thinking of how it must have struck its original audience. (I have to say that an underpowered Choleric is a frightening thought....) I agree with you on three abstract works on a program -- unless they're first rate -- can leave one wanting something more.

"Torn Curtain," where Paul Newman utters the immortal line, "Keep your mouth shut, baby, and you'll be the next swan queen." I saw this once, long ago, before I was interested in ballet, but I think the swan queen candidate was Toumanova (?).

I think that's true for a lot of opera/ballets (that the opera was based on a book) -- Carmen and Manon would be two more of them. How much the choreographer used the opera, or a movie, or the novel, though, only s/he knows!

I agree, Ari -- I think this one is the best so far! (I wonder how many orders they'll get??)

pudgy = not thin, not quite "chubby" and certainly not "heavy" but not the very trim ballerina she would become.

A positively pudgy young Natalia Makarova!

atm, by "especially imitated," I meant I wondered whether one of those ballerinas (or someone else) was a model for younger dancers and soloists, as happened with ABT when I started watching it with Makarova. Thanks for reminding me that Hightower did Myrtha -- some awareness of emploi, at least. I never saw her dance, but she's on my Most Intriguing list from photos.

Bravo, Hans! There's certainly a difference in style among the ballerinas at the Kirov (judged by the recent performances here); the corps looked although it was dancing in the same language, though. Or did you not think so?

Ruth Page made a career out of doing ballets based on opera.

This just in: NEW PROMOTIONS ANNOUNCED AT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE XIOMARA REYES PROMOTED TO PRINCIPAL DANCER AND ERICA CORNEJO PROMOTED TO SOLOIST Xiomara Reyes was promoted to Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre and Erica Cornejo was promoted to Soloist, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. Both promotions become effective for the 2003 Metropolitan Opera House season. Xiomara Reyes, was born in Cuba and studied at Cuba’s National Ballet School. She was a soloist with La Joven Guardia, the second company of Cuba’s National Ballet. In 1994, she joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium, rising to the rank of First Soloist. With Royal Ballet of Flanders, Reyes’ repertoire included Nikiya in La Bayadère, Kitri in Don Quixote, the title roles in Giselle and Cinderella and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. She also performed principal roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Paolo Bortoluzzi and Christopher D’Amboise. Reyes joined American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in January 2001. Her roles with the Company include the title role and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Lise in La Fille mal gardée, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin and the third movement in Symphony in C. In addition, she created a leading role in Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison. Erica Cornejo was born in Argentina and began her ballet training at the age of nine. In 1994, she joined Ballet Argentino, Julio Bocca’s company, and was promoted to principal ballerina the following year. Cornejo joined ABT’s Studio Company in May 1998 and became a member of ABT’s corps de ballet in January 1999. Her roles with the Company include the Lead Pirate Woman in Le Corsaire, Clara in The Nutcracker, the Debutante in Offenbach in the Underworld, the Cowgirl in Rodeo and leading roles in Paul Taylor’s Black Tuesday and Mark Morris’ Gong. She created leading roles in Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and Lar Lubovitch’s “…smile with my heart.” Erica Cornejo is the sister of ABT Soloist Herman Cornejo.

Check it out! http://www.royalballetgifts.com/

All thoughts welcome. But trust me on this one, Bilbo B -- the market is infinitesimal.

Grace, I'd switch your observations. The traditional European ballet company IS (or has been until recently) a one-choreographer company. Older ballets stayed in repertory, but when a new choreographer/balletmaster came in, he rechoreographed -- sometimes substantially, sometimes just by diddling, and often by patently stealing, in the 19th century -- works from other companies. Denmark, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Paris, as well as smaller companies, had one resident choreographer. There might be assistant choreographers, but they worked under the direction of a choreographer. In the 20th century, Britain's Royal Ballet did take in works of other choreographers (especially the Diaghilev repertory), but the big classical ballets were redone with choreography by the resident balletmaster. Even the Diaghilev Ballet had one choreographer -- at a time. I know that Balanchine is often portrayed as existing solely to smash the bounds of ballet, but I've always seen NYCB as Balanchine's transplantation of his heritage to New York. They didn't do full-length ballets until he had a big enough theater for them, and he didn't have a theater bureaucracy and hierarchy, but he's still within that tradition -- and with a single style and aesthetic. ABT didn't start out imitating anybody -- that came later, in the 1960s, when it began to model itself on the Royal. The blueprint for ABT was to create a museum with different "wings" and, from the beginning, it was a conglomeration of choreographers, and I don't think that had ever been tried before.

Thanks for the idea, but the scope of such a project far exceeds the capabilities of this site.

Beautiful. Thank you. (I'm also a believer in the relationship between art/dancing and architecture. All are ways for a civilization to express itself, its tastes and values.)

ATM, do you think the "no style" style was part of ABT at the beginning? In the 1970s and '80s, it seemed to be a ballerina-derived style -- both Gregory and Makarova were models. I wondered if during the Alonso, Markova and Kaye years one of those ballerinas was especially imitated?

Looks like a Gergiev Festival! (Or, from a balletomane's point of view, that's a lotta opera to sit through to get to the ballets I realize that is an uncouth comment, and it's not intended as a model for the young.) I will be very curious to learn what Russians think about the Royal Ballet's Swan Lake But I'm glad the Royal is bringing Ashton, and NYCB is bringing a lot of Balanchine. I'll be very curious to learn the reactions to those as well. Thanks for posting the link, Marc.

It's also the case that one's eye can become accustomed to changes and diminutions -- constantly "dumbing down" expectations (the converse, during a highwater mark, one's expectaitons are constantly raised, so that performances that were perfectly acceptable at one point seem mediocre in comparison). I don't think that accepting lower standards is "growing." And I think there are still stylistic differences today -- the Kirov's "Kingdom of the Shades" still looks like the Kirov. But I do I think people go to the ballet with different expectations, and going to watch a student's debut, going for fun, going out of curiosity, having a primary interest in choreography, or dancing, or theater, or virtuosity, whatever, all of those are different perspectives that will carry different expectations. None is more or less valid.

I wanted to make a separate post, because I was thinking of putting up a thread on this, but Rachel's excellent question presents the opportunity to raise the question here. There are, I think, two models for companies to follow on the style issue. One is the museum model (my term). When ABT was formed, it WANTED to be a museum. Richard Pleasant set it up to have an English wing, a Russian wing, an American wing -- it was to present all nationalities and all periods. Create new works, too, of course, but preserve the best of the past. Silly boy. And part of what the company tried to do was to dance each work in the style of the work. It seems like such a simple idea, but it's so hard -- but they tried. And often succeeded. Friends of mine who saw the company in its early days said that Les Sylphides looked like Fokine, and Swan Lake looked different (we can't say it looked like Petpa, because we don't know, but it didn't look like Les Sylphides with feathers). The other model is the institutional (again, my term). It's what the great European companies did. We have this company, and we bring in balletmasters, and each one updates the works already in repertory, changing them for each generation, and we dance everything in our style, whatever that is. And each balletmaster/choreographer may have his own style (but if it diverges too much from the company one, he'll probably get the boot). This is what Petipa did -- and Ashton and Balanchine. They took old works, made them suit their company. They also created new, great works, too. Some people expect to see the Museum model, and judge every company by that standard. If the Bolshoi dances Balanchine, then dang, it should look like Balanchine, the way NYCB does it. And if any company (including the Royal) does Ashton, then it should look like Ashton. Others say, no. The Bolshoi has its own style, and it's quite different from Balanchine's, and part of the fun is seeing those differences in a familiar work. Again, my "rule" -- what are they trying to do? -- still works, I think. But I think the way most people react is, if it's my company, I want it to dance in its own style and every work looks best that way, so if another company tries it, I want it to look like that. On the other hand, if my company is dancing an alien ballet, then I think it looks just great. Movies are so much easier. They just stay there. Remakes are too expensive and seldom tried. You will never go to see Gone with the Wind and see Tom Cruise as Rhett Butler, saying, "Shove it, baby" in that last scene. Nor will Clark/Rhett suddenly take it into his head one night to say, "Well, if you put it that way, Scarlett, I guess I should be a kind, caring and considerate New Man and stick around and help you get through this. Care for a sherry?"

Yes, and no. I don't think a company is dancing a ballet and exhibiting its style. It's dancing a ballet in a particular style, and each style is different. I think it's important in judging any work of art -- painting, music, dancing -- to look at what they ARE doing, and taking them on their own terms. As always in these discussions, it's perfectly fine to like what you like. (The old line, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." If you don't like Madonnas, that's fine. But that doesn't mean that Raphael and Michaelangelo were bad painters.) And I don't mean to suggest there's anything wrong with that. Some people will never like the Royal, or the Bolshoi, or NYCB. And that's fine. But if one is trying to appreciate ballet beyond this, then I think it's worth looking at lots of other things than what's just happening that night, in front of your eyes. When I first came to ballet, I spent a lot of time "unlearning" what I thought I'd learned from watching performances, because what I read, or heard, deepened my understanding of ballet -- one has to sort through all of these things, of course, and it's not easy, and, in my opinion, there is no One Truth. So I think it's important to distinguish between TASTE and JUDGMENT. Taste is "I hate broccoli." Judgment is, "I'm not particularly fond of broccoli, but this cream of broccoli soup is excellent. The subtle undertone of cayenne pepper makes the dish." Does that make sense?

Thank you, Estelle I haven't seen either film -- but now want to. ("Far From Heaven" SOUNDS like a Tudor ballet) That's one of the best things about the Oscars for me -- it makes me want to make the effort to see the films I missed. I haven't seen "Gangs of New York," either. I'm not sure I want to -- the clips make it look like it's over the top, both in the amount of violence, and in its scale. But I admire Daniel Day-Lewis and was curious to see him in this. The Guardian had a very cynical article yesterday about the Oscars, all focused on politics and money, nothing on art, and said that next year's nominations for best picture were settled during the Oscar parties because it all depends on how much money the studio puts into it. Partially true, perhaps, but all true? I'm cynical.

Thanks! I'm with you on the "just dance it dear" comment being "matter of fact" rather than aggressively stonefaced. As well as that it is a style of legs. There's a preference in the look of the leg, too -- calves are not overdeveloped. I'd say it's also not a virtuosic style, although it requires a high level of technique. But it's not fllashy, and I've been struck by the difference in audience reaction at ABT -- where there are lots of cheers -- and NYCB, where the reaction is very appreciative, but comparatively muted. Another word often used to describe Balanchine/NYCB style (I think they're still synonymous, although Balanchine isn't being danced today as it was in 1983 or 1963) is that it's "highly articulated." And I take that to mean that you are supposed to see the steps performed clearly.