Alexandra

Thank you for posting that, Lidewij, but, to me, the character dancing is so lightweight, it's a real disappointment.

They're Danes More seriously, this is the old old French style. Beck is the man who preserved Bourononville's ballets, and his classes -- the famous Bournonville Schools.

Great! perhaps someone is putting up every piece. The camera was stationary, so they had to dance in a teeny tiny space and the dancers in Napoli are in their mid-40s, but still.....

Thanks! These are two of the famous Elfelt films. He was the court photographer who was looking for something to film and, legend has it, these films lay in a desk drawer for decades until they were edited and music was added. These two bits are not the starriest There are two of La Sylphide and a bit from the tarantella of Napoli with Hans Beck and Valborg Borchsenius, as well as Beck in the Reel from The King's Volunteers on Amager, but maybe they'll come soon.

SARA MEARNS PROMOTED TO PRINCIPAL DANCER AT NEW YORK CITY BALLET New York City Ballet announced today that Sara Mearns has been promoted to Principal Dancer. Peter Martins, NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief, made the promotion on Saturday, June 28, following Mearns’ performance in Balanchine’s La Sonnambula. During the 2008 season, Mearns made debuts in a number of works including; George Balanchine’s Diamonds from Jewels, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Sugarplum Fairy), Robert Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze,” and La Sonnambula; Jerome Robbins’ Brahms/Handel, The Four Seasons, The Goldberg Variations, I’m Old Fashioned, In G Major, In the Night, Ives, Songs, and Piano Pieces; Peter Martins’ Beethoven Romance and Thou Swell; and Susan Stroman’s Double Feature. Mearns also originated a role in Christopher Wheeldon’s Rococo Variations. Mearns was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and began her dance training at the age of three with Ann Brodie at the Calvert-Brodie School of Dance. At the age of 13, Mearns began training with Patricia McBride at Dance Place, the school of the North Carolina Dance Theatre, and she continued her studies at age 14 with Stanislav Issaev at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Mearns entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in the fall of 2001. In the fall of 2003 she became an apprentice with NYCB. In June 2004, Mearns joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet, and was promoted to the rank of soloist in March 2006. In addition to debuts made during the 2008 season, Mearns has performed featured roles in George Balanchine’s Apollo, Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, Episodes, Firebird, Jewels, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Orpheus, Raymonda Variations, Serenade, Symphony in C, Vienna Waltzes, Walpurgisnacht Ballet, and Western Symphony; Jerome Robbins’ Antique Epigraphs and Dances at a Gathering; Peter Martins’ Octet, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake; and Christopher Wheeldon’s An American in Paris. Mearns has also originated featured roles in Martins’ The Red Violin and Wheeldon’s The Nightingale and the Rose. Mearns was a recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award in 2003 and a nominee for the Princess Grace Award that same year. New York City Ballet’s 2008 season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Centers begins on Tuesday, July 8, and runs through Saturday, July 26. For more information about NYCB visit nycballet.com.

I think in the interests of keeping things on track we need to close this thread (for the reasons Giannina wrote above.) Please keep posting -- start topics on the appropriate forum. We don't have a "chat" forum here. We hope people will become friends and email or PM each other, but we like to keep the forum for discussion of ballet.

Tokyo-Birmingham. Now THAT's a commute! Thanks for this JMcN

I think all artists -- painters, poets, dancers, singers, actors -- need as much education as possible in the arts so that they have a frame of reference for their own art, and what they are doing. I have read so many interviews with dancers who obviously have no idea of the music, or the story, or the context for a ballet they are dancing -- and it shows. They don't need to become scholars, but they need to conjure up a sound when you say the word Mozart before attempting "Divertimento No. 15," and an idea of "Victorian social mores" before they dance "The Dream." Reading literature is good, too.

bart, I'd rather see them at home (small, intimate house) than the Met, but the mime registered to me at the Kennedy Center from standing room, which is along the back of the house. They had a success in Russia -- at least the critics saw it I think, again, it's what you're used to. There are balletomanes who notice if the ballerina's ribbons are tied in an unusual way, or if there is a run in someone's tights, from the Family Circle. I know from talking to them that the Danes are deliberately more presentational -- "bigger" -- in a big house than at home. Facial expressions are important, but so is body language. Note, back to that tape of "Napoli", the way Villumsen shows that Gennaro is a man of action and emotion rather than intellect. Every major decision he makes is prompted by an external impetus -- she hits him on his ring finger, he remembers he's wearing a ring and asks her to marry him. He kneels to the Madonna -- the body goes down first, then the head bows. I think the "dead times" you saw were probably real mime but you weren't looking for it, and so didn't see it.

Gary, I think you're right -- mime IS usually executed poorly. Our dancers today aren't used to it, they're not trained in it, and it's not something you can learn on the last day of rehearsal. Watch Arne Villumsen -- an excellent mime, and a very subtle mime -- in Napoli. Watch the way he interacts with people, not only his fiancee, but his rivals, and the way you can tell what he's thinking in the Blue Grotto scene. Writing the word "subtle" reminded me of something. When I first became interested in Bournonville, I often found I liked performers whom my Danish friends did not especially admire. One told me, "Americans aren't used to subtlety, and the best Danish art is very subtle." I found I had to wean myself away from the idea that someone jumping up and down and gesticulating was a "better" mime than someone who looked away at just the right time. There is one moment in "Napoli" that I think is brilliant storytelling as well as acting. The mother comes out of her house, not yet knowing that her daughter did not come back and is feared drowned. Two middle-aged women, obviously her friends, see her and don't knkow what to say. they look uncomfortable. When the mother sees them, she knows something is wrong. She asks "What is it?" and they look away. It's so subtle and so beautiful -- and how much more effective than going through a long mime sequence that spells out what happened.

Re audiences, when "A Folk Tale" came to DC in 1992, there were several area modern dancers in the audience I spoke to who loved it -- it had meaning, it wasn't empty display. I think many artistic directors are making the assumption that "story ballets" are "kiddie ballets" (why "adult" has come to mean "sexually depraved" could be another interesting topic ) "A Folk Tale" is the story of two little girls who were switched at birth, and explores the question of "nature versus nurture" (if you're born a troll, you're a troll, no matter how many etiquette classes you have to attend), what does it mean to be human (if you're human, even if you're raised by nasty little half-men, you will keep your humanity, a subject Bournonville explored in other ballets, including 'Napoli"). The RDB's current production of "A Folk Tale" is very cartoonish, unfortunately, which added to the "bring the kiddies" idea, and probably drove away others. Bournonville has proven hard to kill off, although they've trid to through neglect and bad productions over the decades I think he'll make it until his next birthday. He's become an Issue now. If they really kill him, people will be cross. It's like burning the "Mona Lisa." You might be sick of her, and there might be films of her, but it just won't look right if she's taken out and burned.

The ballet that made me fall in love with Bournonville was "The King's Volunteers on Amager" which is practically all mime. Bournonville considered mime dancing (as did other choreographers, the dancers and the audience in 19th century Europe). He called pantomime "dance with the turned in feet" (not pigeontoed, but not turned out). He also believed that the hero could only dance when he was not in conflict with himself or others -- "dancing could express only joy" (a change from the 18th century choreographers, such as Noverre, who believed that dancing could express nothing concrete, and that all emotions must be conveyed through mime. There were ballets -- Arthur St. Leon's "La Vivandiere," for example -- which were criticized because there was too much dancing in them! After St. Leon died, the Paris Opera chopped off the third act of Coppelia, which is all divertissements. Why audiences do not like mime remains a mystery to me My advice, on any dance, is to WATCH WHAT IS THERE. If you watch Folk Tale thinking it's just mime and there's no "real" dancing until the pas de sept, you'll miss the ballet. I think adding classical pieces to these old works is as misguided as would (will?) be adding mime passages to Balanchine's "Agon" or "Concerto Barocco". As to why more Bournonville is not on video, the company was very reluctant to release any ballets (I was told by the artistic staff at the time) because it was afraid people would take the videos and stage the works from them -- changing them, of course. (This has begun to happen. Let's jazz up the reel with more "dancing," or add a pas de deux or trois to the first act, which destroys the story.)

The old Hans Brenaa version (staged by Kirstein Ralov) was televised in 1977 (Sorella Englund and Henning Kronstam as Hilda and Junker Ove, Linda Hindberg as Birthe, and Fredbjorn Bjornsson and Johnny Eliasson as the trolls). The "Queen's version" (Queen Margrethe II designed the costumes) was televised twice in 1992 and 1993 (I think). None of these are available on video/DVD, even in Denmark, as far as I know, and, unfortunately, I doubt that they will be. It is one of the pillars of the repertory. Both Fokine and Balanchine, who worked in Copenhagen, are said to have admired it.

I saw ABT do it a lot and never much liked it (but this was very early in my ballet going). I don't remember those performances clearly enough to answer your questions. But then I saw Carla Fracci, at about 55 (!!!) do it and....a ballerina does wonders She looked very Italian (I figured she was adopted, which added to the domestic tensions) and the moment she looked at that hatchet and realized what she could do with it is something I'll never forget. ("She took my Mama! She took my Mama's chair! She took my Mama's SHAWL!!! She's not going to take my man!!!") I saw DTH dance this as well and my clearest memory is of the juice they put into the church service. That was electric. Perhaps in the '40s, the ballet had that edge. I never saw a "Pillar of Fire" that lived up to what I read about it, either.

I'm jealous! I hope you go and report regularly! And thank you for your memories of "Two Pigeons," hankies and all

Thank you! The last time I checked, you had to rent this for $600. !!!! There are some wonderful shots of "Symphonic Variations", and some very interesting ones of Ross Stretton, then the company's Assistant AD, very, very kindly talking to young dancers who are auditioning.

Ballet Sarasota (in Florida) danced this last season and will be performing it again next season. I hope people will post from Birmingham and Sarasota -- it IS a lovely ballet.

I will say, for what it's worth, that Stretton's account is consistent with the back story that dance writers were getting, off the record (not by Stretton) at the time. This doesn't mean that Lady MacMillan and the others don't have a side, of course, nor that there were not other issues involved. One thing I will say from trying to piece together a life story starting from interviews is that written evidence trumped oral history every time. NOT that people were lying. There were three dancers who told me one "fact" and could have passed any lie detector test. They absolutely believed what they were saying and had no angle and no evil intent -- but they turned out to be wrong.

Thank you for that news, Lynette and congratulations to Dame Monica.

Thanks for the background information, Helene. I have to say that I heard this question asked many, many times. (There are a lot of critics here for the festival, as Dance Critics Association is meeting here this weekend.) PNB brought "Jardi Tancat" here before, I believe, and it had not been adored then

Sol Hurok wanted to change its name to "The Farmer's Daughter." There was always a problem with name recognition in that sense, but when the Royal did it, it played to sold out houses (I was in several).

Patricia McBride was an allegro dancer -- small, light and quick. I'd second perky's phrase "plushness and expansiveness." Adagio dancers may have speed, but they also the quality of stillness and beautiful lines.

I'll add my thanks! A very interesting interview indeed. Gergiev's assessment of the talent worldwide is especially interesting -- and, I believe, quite apt. Who indeed is there today, except perhaps for Ratmansky, who is so far above the rest that s/he should be leader? (Wait! That is a rhetorical question, not intended to invite nominations and divert the thread to other companies )

Thank you for posting that, Jane! That article is a wonderful answer to "whatever happened to Kathy Healy?"

Good points, Dale! She spoke about working with Ashton at an Ashton conference in England several years ago. I did not attend, but published, and read, articles about it, and everyone who mentioned her spoke of her highly -- very intelligent, very poised, had obviously understood the ballet and how Ashton worked.