Alexandra

You're right on -- I speak from experience When I was pitching my manuscript to publishers, they all cited Kirkland's biography as the hit. They wanted dirt, er, "intimate revelations." I also think there's something -- whether in American readers, or just editors -- that loves the "Ballet done me wrong!" story. After "Dancing on My Grave" I think the most popular one is the Edward Stierle book, which was sold as "Just because he didn't have the perfect body no ballet company wanted him." Ballet is an alien art form, still. It is off-putting to many in this country, and they prefer to reinforce the stereotypes and ideas they already have. Back to books by dancers, what about Plisetskaya's Memoirs -- I have it but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Everything I've heard is, flawed, but fascinating.

You're right on -- I speak from experience When I was pitching my manuscript to publishers, they all cited Kirkland's biography as the hit. They wanted dirt, er, "intimate revelations." I also think there's something -- whether in American readers, or just editors -- that loves the "Ballet done me wrong!" story. After "Dancing on My Grave" I think the most popular one is the Edward Stierle book, which was sold as "Just because he didn't have the perfect body no ballet company wanted him." Ballet is an alien art form, still. It is off-putting to many in this country, and they prefer to reinforce the stereotypes and ideas they already have. Back to books by dancers, what about Plisetskaya's Memoirs -- I have it but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Everything I've heard is, flawed, but fascinating.

Good to know there are still a few regional/continental divisions, Estelle! But Neumeier and Nacho Duato are making inroads here, especially the latter. (Neumeier short ballets and pas de deux have turned up with ABT. It's only a matter of time....) There is a difference between the National Ballets of Anywhere Else (that the Royal Ballet's rep and ABT's rep, and Canada's, and the Royal Danish, and, on its way, the Kirov's are becoming so similar) and the We Are Not Regional Ballet Companies'! Reps. The latter are stocked with many works by the house choreographer, who is Not Balanchine, Not Tudor, Not Ashton. Nutcracker is the lynchpin, as Ballet Nut pointed out. And the mini-classics and the fauxclassics are important mainstays, too.

Good to know there are still a few regional/continental divisions, Estelle! But Neumeier and Nacho Duato are making inroads here, especially the latter. (Neumeier short ballets and pas de deux have turned up with ABT. It's only a matter of time....) There is a difference between the National Ballets of Anywhere Else (that the Royal Ballet's rep and ABT's rep, and Canada's, and the Royal Danish, and, on its way, the Kirov's are becoming so similar) and the We Are Not Regional Ballet Companies'! Reps. The latter are stocked with many works by the house choreographer, who is Not Balanchine, Not Tudor, Not Ashton. Nutcracker is the lynchpin, as Ballet Nut pointed out. And the mini-classics and the fauxclassics are important mainstays, too.

She retired from Paris Opera Ballet as a regular member (because of the age limitation) although will be appearing occasionally as a guest. She's scheduled to appear on a program at Tivoli (Copenhagen) this summer with a collection of POB dancers. I agree, Glebb -- not all dancers need to retire at 40. I think both Guerin and Platel are still quite capable of dancing beautifully.

Good points, MN. The National Ballet of Anywhere, as does any ballet company, is most Itself at home

Good points, MN. The National Ballet of Anywhere, as does any ballet company, is most Itself at home

Thanks very much for that assessment, Rick, as well as for your honesty. It's very difficult to evaluate peers. Is it sour grapes? Or does one bend the other way, to avoid sour grapes? Or can sour grapes and flawed work exist in the same universe? Other opinions on Wheeldon's choreography?

"Jewels" will be interesting to watch. It's positioned to be this century's "Swan Lake," poor thing. BUT there is a Balanchine Trust. In other words, if someone decides to add a Jester to "Emeralds," there's someone around to shoot him "Jewels" is also becoming the Trophy Ballet signifying "We've arrived! We do Jewels!" that Sleeping Beauty became in the 1980s and 1990s. It's also interesting to watch the token Balanchine rep evolve -- one per year per company now (with notable exceptions, PNB and MCB among them). A decade ago, this rep was Serenade, Concerto Barocco and Four Ts. Today it's as likely to be Divertimento No. 15 and Slaughter! At the Dance Critics Association Conference several years ago, Doris Hering (the Helen Thomas of dance critics) hosted a panel of regional artistic directors, each of whom quite proud of their repertories, which they believed (not having seen the other guys' reps) were unique to their company. They were all very surprised when Doris asked them to list the ballets in rep that year, and more than half of them were on everybody's list.

"Jewels" will be interesting to watch. It's positioned to be this century's "Swan Lake," poor thing. BUT there is a Balanchine Trust. In other words, if someone decides to add a Jester to "Emeralds," there's someone around to shoot him "Jewels" is also becoming the Trophy Ballet signifying "We've arrived! We do Jewels!" that Sleeping Beauty became in the 1980s and 1990s. It's also interesting to watch the token Balanchine rep evolve -- one per year per company now (with notable exceptions, PNB and MCB among them). A decade ago, this rep was Serenade, Concerto Barocco and Four Ts. Today it's as likely to be Divertimento No. 15 and Slaughter! At the Dance Critics Association Conference several years ago, Doris Hering (the Helen Thomas of dance critics) hosted a panel of regional artistic directors, each of whom quite proud of their repertories, which they believed (not having seen the other guys' reps) were unique to their company. They were all very surprised when Doris asked them to list the ballets in rep that year, and more than half of them were on everybody's list.

Ahem. You said something about giving credit where credit is due??? (I used the phrase in 1993, in print, describing the apparent goals of the Royal Danish Ballet as wanting to become "The National Ballet of Anywhere Else." It has done that admirably, too. I've also written that that company "dances in globalglot now" -- something that could be said about many companies. Just to boardtrademark "globalgot" ) I suppose this is globalization, ballet style. Having a Generic Repertory means that today's stars can dance anywhere. There used to be problems with a star from one company "fitting in" another company's repertories. No problem, when neither dancers nor repertories don't have distinctive styles. Paris still remains comparatively distinctive, despite a polyglot repertory, because its school is so strong. It dances everything with a distinctive style. That used to be said of every company, but the ones that travel the most -- i.e., come to New York and London -- like the Kirov and the Bolshoi were constantly knocked in the head for this. They "don't know how" to dance Balanchine (i.e., they dance it in their native language). Both the Kirov and Bolshoi have great traditions, of course, and very distinctive styles -- but how long will that continue; they're moving into the Generic Repertory as I type. I think this is driven by economics -- it's much cheaper not to rehearse things -- by lack of distinctive major choreographers, who MUST create in a specific language and spurn globalglot. And by dancers and audiences. The former want to dance everything -- how dare you put me in a box? -- and the latter want to see their favorite dancers dance everything, and there's no persuasive alternative. I think Leigh has much of the core repertory. Add to that, a Rethought Swan Lake; the ubiquitous "Sleeping Beauty with More Men in It"; the fauxballet repertory -- Merry Widow, Madame Butterfly. The more contemporary choreographers vary year to year. One year, a lot of companies had ballets by Val Caniparoli, the next, Lila York, the next, Kevin O'Day. Estelle -- "Manon" is definitely a part of this trend. Romeo and Julet -- another regional/national distinction, perhaps. Most big companies have MacMillan (a few have the Cranko) while smaller companies have a Romeo and Juliet choreographed by the resident choreographer/artistic director. I remember Clive Barnes complaining in the 1960s that "Swan Lake" was becoming too common. I'm paraphrasing, but "every German ballet company is giving the dancers Swan Lake as it gives them their toe shoes." I didn't understand that when I first read it. How could it be wrong for everyone to dance Swan Lake? Ah, in the immortal words of that great poet, Bob Dylan, "But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that, now."

Ahem. You said something about giving credit where credit is due??? (I used the phrase in 1993, in print, describing the apparent goals of the Royal Danish Ballet as wanting to become "The National Ballet of Anywhere Else." It has done that admirably, too. I've also written that that company "dances in globalglot now" -- something that could be said about many companies. Just to boardtrademark "globalgot" ) I suppose this is globalization, ballet style. Having a Generic Repertory means that today's stars can dance anywhere. There used to be problems with a star from one company "fitting in" another company's repertories. No problem, when neither dancers nor repertories don't have distinctive styles. Paris still remains comparatively distinctive, despite a polyglot repertory, because its school is so strong. It dances everything with a distinctive style. That used to be said of every company, but the ones that travel the most -- i.e., come to New York and London -- like the Kirov and the Bolshoi were constantly knocked in the head for this. They "don't know how" to dance Balanchine (i.e., they dance it in their native language). Both the Kirov and Bolshoi have great traditions, of course, and very distinctive styles -- but how long will that continue; they're moving into the Generic Repertory as I type. I think this is driven by economics -- it's much cheaper not to rehearse things -- by lack of distinctive major choreographers, who MUST create in a specific language and spurn globalglot. And by dancers and audiences. The former want to dance everything -- how dare you put me in a box? -- and the latter want to see their favorite dancers dance everything, and there's no persuasive alternative. I think Leigh has much of the core repertory. Add to that, a Rethought Swan Lake; the ubiquitous "Sleeping Beauty with More Men in It"; the fauxballet repertory -- Merry Widow, Madame Butterfly. The more contemporary choreographers vary year to year. One year, a lot of companies had ballets by Val Caniparoli, the next, Lila York, the next, Kevin O'Day. Estelle -- "Manon" is definitely a part of this trend. Romeo and Julet -- another regional/national distinction, perhaps. Most big companies have MacMillan (a few have the Cranko) while smaller companies have a Romeo and Juliet choreographed by the resident choreographer/artistic director. I remember Clive Barnes complaining in the 1960s that "Swan Lake" was becoming too common. I'm paraphrasing, but "every German ballet company is giving the dancers Swan Lake as it gives them their toe shoes." I didn't understand that when I first read it. How could it be wrong for everyone to dance Swan Lake? Ah, in the immortal words of that great poet, Bob Dylan, "But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that, now."

The fascination with Cavallo fascinates me, as I've never seen anything interesting in her. Yet every director save, I believe, Peter Schaufuss since Frank Andersen (and now, of course, again Frank Andersen) seems to see her as a ballerina. While Schandorff and Rose Gad (a ballerina close to Schandorff in age, and also exquisitely musical) have disappeared at times from the roster, or been given secondary roles (taken off Hilda, in Folk Tale, for example), Cavallo dances leading roles in everything. (I love your phrase "the constant Caroline Cavallo." She did nearly every leading role in the Bournonville Week in 2000 and made absolutely no impact.) She's the ideal 21st century dancer. A good enough technique, and so can "do all the steps," if nothing else, and looks the same in absolutely everything she does. I thought the critics -- at least one of the most important ones, Effy -- also favored Cavallo. Something about her lovely smile.

No apology necessary, Katherine. We've never had a prohibition on, or problem with, people cross posting on several forums.

For those who live in the Washington area, there will be a FREE performance of the recent reconstruction of Tudor's "The Planets" on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. tomorrow night (Monday, May 14). It's part of a college dance festival (A Celebration of College and University Dance) and the other works on the program will be an Isadora Duncan solo, Limon's Choreographic Offering (an excerpt, I think, not the whole thing) and, well, David Parson's The Envelope.

Thank you for that sympathetic assessment, Paul. At the time, she did seem so whiny and bitter that I think people got caught up in that, and not in her side of things. (Sometimes people want to write their own stories so they can put forth their side. Sometimes it would be better not to do that, but to let someone else do it for you. for another self-destructive autobiography, try to find Lynn Seymour's!) Paul's list of Gelsey's real demons is right on, I think. Many dancers have some of the same, of course, to varying degrees, but her striving for perfectionism, her insistence on perfectionism, and the very fine microscope with which she viewed her own dancing must have been intolerable. I think she was, or could have been, a very great artist. The saddest thing about her very sad appearance on LA Law more than a decade ago was that you could still see the genius in the bits of dancing they showed, and that she wanted to be seen dancing Giselle -- off pointe, but Giselle, nonetheless, a magnificent Giselle. It's one of the saddest stories in dance history, I think, right up there with Emma Livry's.

Thank you for that sympathetic assessment, Paul. At the time, she did seem so whiny and bitter that I think people got caught up in that, and not in her side of things. (Sometimes people want to write their own stories so they can put forth their side. Sometimes it would be better not to do that, but to let someone else do it for you. for another self-destructive autobiography, try to find Lynn Seymour's!) Paul's list of Gelsey's real demons is right on, I think. Many dancers have some of the same, of course, to varying degrees, but her striving for perfectionism, her insistence on perfectionism, and the very fine microscope with which she viewed her own dancing must have been intolerable. I think she was, or could have been, a very great artist. The saddest thing about her very sad appearance on LA Law more than a decade ago was that you could still see the genius in the bits of dancing they showed, and that she wanted to be seen dancing Giselle -- off pointe, but Giselle, nonetheless, a magnificent Giselle. It's one of the saddest stories in dance history, I think, right up there with Emma Livry's.

Again, define "strong as" and "dancer." They were different types. (I saw Moncion do Faun very late in his career and I don't remember who I saw him do it with, so perceptions don't necessarily correlate with technique or athleticism. Not that we're talking about baseball. ) The point is that the Prince in the Firebird isn't supposed to "dance a step." This isn't because Balanchine couldn't figure out steps for him to dance -- boring old him -- or that Moncion was so inadequate he couldn't get through the most simplistic of solos, but because this is one of the instances where "dance" is more broadly defined and includes supporting a partner, miming ["the dance of the turned in feet"] and court dance as dancing, noble dancing. The Firebird is a demicaractere role, as are many of the Romantic heroines, and she dances quickly with movements suggestive of a bird -- a bewitched, magical creature who could perform extraordinary movements, which the Prince, according to this aesthetic, could not. FF, I'd argue that the Firebird shouldn't come to the wedding. That's the real world, and she has no place in it. The processions, the stateliness, is in Stravinsky's music, I think. It was written to match the libretto for Fokine's version, but Balanchine would be responding to the music (as would Wheeldon). What bothers me about this approach to writing about ballet is that it's so completely grounded in what's before one's eyes at that moment, and all the assumptions are as though nothing else exists in the world, before, during or after. The Prince doesn't dance -- he's incompetent. There's not a lot of dancing in the finale -- the choreographer couldn't think of any. Or was too hidebound, too stuck to tradition to think out of the box. If someone's bored by the end of Firebird -- or the monster dancers, or the ballerina's solos, or the whatever -- that's fine, that's personal taste. But I think it's worthwhile trying to discover the REAL reasons for it.

I posted this on Links, but thought it might be a good impetus to a discussion on Wheeldon. An interview in the Sunday (London) Times with Christopher Wheeldon

This article got to me. (It's also on today's Links.) A preview piece about Robert Weiss's new "Firebird" that compares it to Balanchine's, relies on a noted Balanchine expert (Francis Mason), who talks about how boring "Firebird" ballets are, because there's no dancing in them. A Prince "can't dance" because he just stands there and supports his partner. A preview of Robert Weiss's new "Firebird" for Carolina Ballet, the premise of which seems to be that if the dancers aren't constantly jumping and turning, they're not dancing. Leaping flames I wonder if most balletgoers also see ballet this way? I think it's one of the great myths of 20th century American ballet -- that some ballets do not have a lot of jumping and turning because the dancers couldn't dance, and that a ballet that doesn't showcase virtuosity is inherently boring. This view, to me, does not acknowledge ballet's history, the fact that there are several different types of ballets, and, most importantly, the fact that there is beauty in quiet moments, and that the linking steps, the small steps, are just as important an element of classical ballet as are the big steps -- and that character dancing has a place in a classical ballet. But what do you all think?

There are two articles in the Sunday NYTimes today about farewells: In Final Twist, Ill Pavarotti Falls Silent for Met Finale Kurt Masur's Bittersweet Goodbye With Might Have Beens

Why is Tudor so well-reverered, yet so little performed? Joseph Carman in the NY Times. I've copied this link to the Choreographers Forum for discussion. The 20th-Century Titan Whose Work Is M.I.A.

This isn't so much an obscure ballet, as an obscure photo, since it's of the corps. Most people probably don't have a scanner at hand -- or, more importantly, a web site to post a photo on so they can link to it -- but it is a nice idea. I had thought of something similar when going through old books -- a photo of a dancer in her chubby youth, for instance, or a dancer quite famous in his or her decade but obscure now -- and see how many people could recognize. Maybe that could be a new Ballet Alert Quiz someday

I'm going to close this thread. There's another one on the NYCB forum. For further preview discussion, questions, etc., please go to: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...=&threadid=4989 (When there are two threads on the same topic, it makes for confusion -- people are asking similar questions in both places.)

Thank you, Alymer. When I saw the photo I thought the women (especially the arms) looked like Les Rendezvous, but not the men. But doesn't the Chappell have a little white picket fence rather than big iron grates? Perhaps it's a different staging. In the Les Rendezvous I saw (with ABT, which was supposedly a revival of the Chappell decor, I thought -- RG will know) I remember the women's dresses as quite different. Estelle, when I saw the taken-off-TV video of "Soir de Fete" it reminded me very much -- in its structure as much as its setting -- of "Les Rendezvous."