Alexandra

I'm sorry to read this. I saw Goh dance every season she appeared with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet and admired her dancing very much. But she seemed to be dancing less and less the past few years, so this is not unexpected. A side note that might amuse some. I had my 9th and 10th grade students read Goh's autobiography, thinking it a good guide to what backstage life is really like. They liked it, and her, but were VERY disappointed about one thing. "She's not on youtube! There's not even ONE clip!!!" I hope this situation will soon be rectified

A principal with the California Ballet in San Diego had a side job teaching body builders how to pose. I've always thought that was a very clever use of ballet training!

So THAT'S why some companies have such noisy toe shoes!!!

Interesting topic (and interesting quote, dirac). No, although I don't read nearly as much fiction as I did between 4 and 30. I read much more nonficiton, nearly all dance-related. But when I do read, I devour, and it's pure pleasure. My students, now, if you mention a book to them the first question is, "Is there a movie out on that one?"

I think the thread started very innocently as a, "Look! The NYTimes quoted an artistic director in a political context" and that's fine to discuss (and to mention the reasons) but we'll need to keep the discussion to that topic and not romp off to "I wonder how many other dance people have had affairs with major political figures?"

It's a wonderful article (by Sarah Kaufman) and there's a photo gallery of past Jameses on line.

Sad news, indeed. I grew up near Reading, Pennsylvania, and my Latin teacher, a formidable woman who taught nearly everything at one time or another, had taught "Johnny Updike" English, which she told us constantly. I always felt he was a kind of cousin and would read his books when I was in high school simply because I liked trying to figure out the places

I hope people have/will read this interview. Silja Schandorff is one of the great ballerinas of our age, for me. I was lucky to see her when she was very young and unlucky not to have been able to follow her career except from afar. It's an interesting interview -- thank you, Gunild.

I've copied this over from Links: Eva Kistrup posted a review of the Royal Danish Ballet (and a few films) in her blog: The Generation Game Big news for RDB fans is that Mette-Ida Kirk has returned to dance the Nurse in Neumeier's Romeo and Juliet. Lots of debuts, more. Read!

Good question! I'm told by Danish friends that he has answered this there. He wants to make new productions, and could not do so this season. The one new production is "La Sylphide," new about four years ago. I'm guessing that this was in repertory the past two seasons, and so is rested this season because that's the custom, in this house and many others because the repertory has to be varied for subscribers.

Thank you for posting this, Gunild (and for doing the interview). Hubbe is a very interesting man, and a very intelligent one. If anyone can figure out a way to make ballet "cool," it is he. He's a dynamic speaker -- I hope he will do preperformance talks -- and I think he'll be able to make the ballet exciting to Copenhagen again. I especially liked what he said at the end, that ballet is both artificial and primal. He's right -- he usually is

If DanceView had a teensy tinesy little grant of about $25,000 we could do much better photos Seriously, this is a great topic. I'd like a Festival of New Ballet -- where choreographers were invited to create a ballet USING THE VOCABULARY OF THE DANSE D'ECOLE, I.E., A BALLET on the company of their choice, and there would be a whole week of these ballets. No crossover, no hybrids. Tweak it, of course, but real ballets. With all respect ot the revivals, ballet needs new work.

Happy New Year to you, rg (and to all Ballet Talkers!) I love the gnomish santa -- he really could have a workshop in those woods.

I didn't see it, but Horst Koegler posted a review of it for us on www.danceviewtimes.com: There's a lot of background information about the company, and some photos. Dresden Bayadere

There will be a memorial at the school, but I don't have details. I'll post them when I do. I've also heard that there will be a memorial later next year (perhaps in the spring?) at Wolf Trap. Again, I'll post details when I have them.

Former dancer, lighting designer/stage manager for the late, still lamented National Ballet, chief of productions at Wolf Trap for years, and artistic administrator at the Kirov Academy of Ballet has died. Dirac posted an obit on Links, but I wanted to put it here, too. An obituary for Ralph Hoffman, who has died at age 74.

Phaedra, maybe if you give up, put a sign in your book case that says, "No longer reserved for the nonexistence Croce book," it will appear I first heard about it a few years before Balanchine died, and that's a year or two ago! I think why it keeps appearing as a book available for sale is that it is on the publishers' spring, summer, fall, winter, list. Everyone's prepared for it, then it doesn't happen, and the "book not available at this time" sign goes up. (I don't know what's happening with this one, but what I've written applies generally.)

The photos are absolutely gorgeous (as always ), Marc. I want to see it!

Very well put. The Danes once did this very well, and this is what I learned from watching Kronstam work, and hearing many stories about Hans Brenaa, who brought Bournonville back from the dead. Trust what is there. Some change will happen -- line has changed totally since the 19th century, and so both Bournonville and Petipa ballets look totally different and would probably repulse their audiences. But the bones are still there. Plays and operas don't have the same problem -- we don't have to recreate how Burbage moved in Hamlet, nor the exact intonation of his voice. I will that I say that I would love to see an opera or a Shakespeare play that leaves the work alone, that's set in its own time, and planet, and is without Freudian/popculture/contemporaryhistory overtones and undertones. But this "Faust" was done for the new medium of live HD broadcast, and in that context, I think it worked.

Thanks for the links, bart! Helene, I also liked the dancing a lot (and the dancers). If they had been wearing unitards, it would have been vague torso-twisting fusion moves on pointe. BUT they wore Romantic-era-like white dresses, and their hair was down. The torso twisting was appropriately "Romantic" -- and they were convincing, too, as "pretty little minstrels from hell." I've never read about the dancing in the original production, but there is a lot of ballet music in it, and it's at the height of the Jockey Club era.

I loved this production too. As a matter of fact, I'll go so far as to say this is the best NEW thing I've seen in the past 10 years. LePage understands Romanticism! I think Berlioz would have loved it. That age was all about special effects and excess, too, and all the visuals were organic -- not someone's brilliant idea plunked down next to something else. That said, when I was leaving the theater, I heard two women say that they hated the spectacle, that it interfered with the singing. Our fairly large theater was sold out, by the way, and the transmission was flawless.

And she's in her mid-40s and dancing wearing several layers of clothing, and in a corset :blush:

Leonid, I wasn't there, but (especially after having read the reviews) THANK YOU I do hope that other Londoners will post. We get a lot of new registrations from London, but few new posters from London. What did you think?

Thank you, kfw (we do not pay him to do this ) Some issues have not yet been out, but everything (including overseas copies) should be in the mail by Monday, November 17.

Hi cxlighy and welcome to Ballet Talk! You've asked some good questions. I hope Hans will see this one -- he can give you more technical detail than I can on the differences between Imperial and Vaganova styles. (Some might say that Imperial ports de bra are more subtle, but I'll be you the Vaganova people would take umbrage.) Vaganova style coincides with the Soviet era -- "Soviet" is more a political than a technical term, and refers to the period in Russian Ballet history during the Soviet era. The mid-20th century heyday of the Bolshoi was certainly during the Soviet Era, but so were Kirov ballets such as the Lavrovsky "Romeo and Juliet", or "The Fountain of Baksischirai."