Alexandra

I think (emphasize the "think") that this is a company that was trying to have a "ballet company" -- in the sense of a company of dancers with a repertory -- but using Spanish dance vocabulary. I did not see it, but some friends did and found it very interesting. In other words, there may be a story, but it's told through Spanish dancing. I don't know whether they have "abstract" works or not, but it would be the same thing -- the steps, aesthetic, etc. is Spanish. There's a tango group trying this too -- Tangokinesis. There are dances, ballets, whatever, but the language is tango. I thought they were fascinating. The program started with something we'd all recognize as a traditional tango, and then each piece got more abstract, until the last was a Balanchinesque concerto -- but the language was tango! If anyone sees this, I hope you'll report.

Ellen Price de Plane created the title role in Beck's ballet "The Little Mermaid" and apparently that inspired the sculptor. (The statue is naked. Whether there was an actual model and EPdP was more the inspiration, or whether the sculptor had a really good imagination is lost in the tides.) The reel in "Kings Volunteers" looks like a hornpipe to me, but they call ilt a reel. It's a center man and two side boys (once always danced by princpals) and four women, so it's quite different from La S. Sorry! Back to La Cerrito who ALWAYS gets short shrift compared to Taglioni, Elssler and Grisi, so she should have her thread!

Ellen Price de Plane created the title role in Beck's ballet "The Little Mermaid" and apparently that inspired the sculptor. (The statue is naked. Whether there was an actual model and EPdP was more the inspiration, or whether the sculptor had a really good imagination is lost in the tides.) The reel in "Kings Volunteers" looks like a hornpipe to me, but they call ilt a reel. It's a center man and two side boys (once always danced by princpals) and four women, so it's quite different from La S. Sorry! Back to La Cerrito who ALWAYS gets short shrift compared to Taglioni, Elssler and Grisi, so she should have her thread!

Old as in, probably, turn of the (20th century)? Then it would be Ellen Price de Plane (the model for The Little Mermaid, although, of course, she didn't pose for it). There is a film called "The Elfeldt Films" taken around 1906 that have two dances from La S, several from Napoli, the reel from Kings Volunteers on Amager, and some opera diverts. Hr. Elgeldt was the royal photographer and had a new camera, and you know how it goes.... The film lay in a drawer in the library for decades. The dancers knew it was there, and maybe somebody even ran it through a projector, but it wasn't until the 1980s (I think) that John Mueller put them together and got someone to add sound. They're in a tiny room, and they're all in their mid-40s -- Hans Beck and Valborg Borchsenius, in addition to de Plane. Also two children in the children's dance from Elverhoj.

Old as in, probably, turn of the (20th century)? Then it would be Ellen Price de Plane (the model for The Little Mermaid, although, of course, she didn't pose for it). There is a film called "The Elfeldt Films" taken around 1906 that have two dances from La S, several from Napoli, the reel from Kings Volunteers on Amager, and some opera diverts. Hr. Elgeldt was the royal photographer and had a new camera, and you know how it goes.... The film lay in a drawer in the library for decades. The dancers knew it was there, and maybe somebody even ran it through a projector, but it wasn't until the 1980s (I think) that John Mueller put them together and got someone to add sound. They're in a tiny room, and they're all in their mid-40s -- Hans Beck and Valborg Borchsenius, in addition to de Plane. Also two children in the children's dance from Elverhoj.

I'm having a wonderful time reading this thread -- what treasures you all have. Glebb wrote: "I realized the other night that Nicholas Romanov's mother Dagmar (Maria Feodorovna), who was Danish, must have seen Lucille Grahn perform." Once when I was in Copenhagen, a friend was showing me things, including an old graveyard, a covered building, really, from the 18th century and earlier, when people were buried above ground and their images were on the coffin. He took me over and introduced me to his great-great-great-whatever grandparents and then said, "They saw Galleotti ballets." Of course they did -- and their likenesses were so real, I just wanted to shake them awake and make them tell me what they were like There's a lovely little theater museum in Copenhagen with costumes, make up boxes, things like that. It's in the old court theater, which really wasn't much used after the 18th century (and had been a stable before that). Bournonville used it as a rehearsal studio. The dressing rooms are separated from the stage by only a curtain -- red velvet, but still, a curtain -- and it really brought home to me how intimate it all was back then. When you were backstage, it was like being in someone's house. Going on stage was as simple as walking from the kitchen into the living room, dancing for people whose features you could probably see, the space is so small.

I'm having a wonderful time reading this thread -- what treasures you all have. Glebb wrote: "I realized the other night that Nicholas Romanov's mother Dagmar (Maria Feodorovna), who was Danish, must have seen Lucille Grahn perform." Once when I was in Copenhagen, a friend was showing me things, including an old graveyard, a covered building, really, from the 18th century and earlier, when people were buried above ground and their images were on the coffin. He took me over and introduced me to his great-great-great-whatever grandparents and then said, "They saw Galleotti ballets." Of course they did -- and their likenesses were so real, I just wanted to shake them awake and make them tell me what they were like There's a lovely little theater museum in Copenhagen with costumes, make up boxes, things like that. It's in the old court theater, which really wasn't much used after the 18th century (and had been a stable before that). Bournonville used it as a rehearsal studio. The dressing rooms are separated from the stage by only a curtain -- red velvet, but still, a curtain -- and it really brought home to me how intimate it all was back then. When you were backstage, it was like being in someone's house. Going on stage was as simple as walking from the kitchen into the living room, dancing for people whose features you could probably see, the space is so small.

a seat mate tale: My second year as a subscriber at the Kennedy Center, the people behind me were Senator and Mrs. Fulbright. I was, of course, thrilled to be in such august company. Every time I saw them, at one point in the evening -- maybe after the first ballet, maybe after the second -- he'd say to her, "Now, that was real purty, honey." [i'm sure he did it with a pat on the hand.] I was fond of the Senator for his international affairs policies, but I loved him for that line

I think that a lot of it may have to do with the people we meet when we first discover ballet. If I fall in with Group A, who calls dancers by their last name, and you become friendly with Group B, who uses first names, we'll both probably just naturally do what the others are doing.

I think that a lot of it may have to do with the people we meet when we first discover ballet. If I fall in with Group A, who calls dancers by their last name, and you become friendly with Group B, who uses first names, we'll both probably just naturally do what the others are doing.

Yes. Me, too, Estelle. Partly because it isn't sport or rock and roll, and mostly because like several others I think it's rude to call people I don't know by their first names. Or to refer to dancers I do know by first name by their first name when speaking to people who don't know them by their first name.

Yes. Me, too, Estelle. Partly because it isn't sport or rock and roll, and mostly because like several others I think it's rude to call people I don't know by their first names. Or to refer to dancers I do know by first name by their first name when speaking to people who don't know them by their first name.

Good for Linda Kent! I wish she'd go on the lecture circuit I think one of the problems is the difference between "a ballet" and "ballet". In the "a ballet" sense -- you have to call a dance work something, so unless you really want to be a purist, like Taylor and Cunningham, who call their work "dances," most people will use "ballet" in talking about something they saw. ""Esplanade" is not my favorite Paul Taylor ballet," for example. Also, as Glebb mentions, since ballet companies so often do modern dance works, it's quite natural to assume that "Kingdom of the Shades," "The Four Temperaments" and "Esplanade" are all ballets. I think Victoria's explanation is a very fine one. In a sentence, I'd say that a ballet is constructed from the ballet vocabulary (classical or character) and created from within the aesthetic of ballet. I just did an interview with a young choreographer -- it's in the next Ballet Alert! -- and was rather surprised that he had no trouble distinguishing modern from ballet. "Push Comes to Shove" is modern dance to him. Why? Because Tharp has a modern dance sensibility and uses ballet technique and puts it into what is basically a modern dance. Modern dance is her broth, if you will, and ballet steps are the things she puts in the soup. While a ballet choreographer has ballet as the base, the broth, and can put in jazzy hips, folk dance steps, walking, whatever, because the base is ballet. When this came up on alt.arts.ballet a few years ago someone wrote: You can call roller skates ear muffs, if you want to, but they won't keep your ears warm! BTW, Farrell Fan, the subscriber who wrote was a Balanchine person.

You know, Ballet Nut, I was going to post that question some day and never got around to it. I have two meanings. The first (and what I always thought it meant) was a dancer whose technique was so pure that only other dancers got it -- no flash, just perfect placement, going for the ideal, quality not quantity. (This came up a lot when I was doing my book. The NYTimes called Kronstam "a dancer's dancer" in his obituary and defined that as "a classical stylist.") BUT in reading some interviews with dancers, I've heard the term used another way entirely. That it's a term that dancers use to indicate someone who is "only" a technician. The meanings are close -- both are someone whom dancers might appreciate more than the general public -- but the second definition implies that perhaps they're not known as actors, while the first does not. I'd be curious to know what others think this term means.

Thanks very much for posting that, cerky. It's wonderful to have a dancer's insight -- the inside view of a role (Hope the showcase goes well!)

They danced this in Washington a couple of years ago and I missed it, to my sorrow. A colleague of mine saw it and reviewed it for DanceView. He liked it very much -- and hadn't expected to, having seen other ballets by Vasiliev. He also mentioned the intimacy of it, and how the interaction betwen dancers and musicians perhaps shouldn't have been effective -- but was. He also liked the dancers. Thanks for telling us about it, Gloria. It's very nice to be able to keep up with what's going on around the world.

Good point, fiafour! It's easy to reach advertisers by email, too Check out who takes out the big ads in your paper's arts section (for lack of a better word) and let them know you are a reader who wants to read about dance (or ballet, or the arts).

Good point, fiafour! It's easy to reach advertisers by email, too Check out who takes out the big ads in your paper's arts section (for lack of a better word) and let them know you are a reader who wants to read about dance (or ballet, or the arts).

BW, I think this is one of the many things that many people will never be troubled by -- and that's fine. And most of us will just assume that the first "Swan Lake" we see is the "authentic" one and be upset when the production is replaced, or something is changed. I think I was always aware of the differences among productions because we don't have a resident company that does "the classics," and each visiting company had a different version. So I'd see what I assumed was "authentic" (the Royal Ballet, 1976) and then go to New York and see Erik Bruhn's for the National Ballet of Canada and wonder where the heck that Bad Queen came from. And I started reading. But then, I've always been interested in the "where did it come from?" question. You can certainly enjoy ballet without every asking it! If you're interested, you can start reading and follow various trails, like a detective! One of the reasons I started Ballet Alert! was to provide a place for people to ask questions like these ronny -- you post great questions! Keep 'em coming

Did anyone else see this? (I know at least one Ballet Alertnik was there opening night! Speak up!) I reviewed it for the Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...0-2002Apr5.html I won't comment further until someone else does The audience seemed to love it. It got a very, very warm reception. I thought it was a mess. Great music, dancers giving it their all, but no depth and no consistency. What did you think?

Hi Gloria! Welcome to Ballet Alert! I hope you'll post often and tell us what you're seeing. I think the Kirov is entering its Globalization phase, the down side of glasnost

ronny, I"m not sure I'd call it a promotional thing -- although that's an interesting concept! "Sleeping Beauty" and "Raymonda" are still considered Petipa's ballets, even though they've been changed a great deal. Some productions will say "New Choreographer X after Petipa" which lets you know that he's diddled a bit. And some will be very detailed. The Royal Ballet, for example, would tell you exactly which dances had been changed: Garland Waltz by Frederick Ashton, etc. And then there's "Total Concept Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Maestro X" and then you know you're going to get something a little different

Thank you, MN, for your very gracious post. I hope no one found it petty or vindictive, but we've found we get along better if we don't correct each other. I've heard frightening tales of the opera and skating boards, and I know that there are many sites where much of the fun is in the well-placed barb and the resultant riposte, but we try to do things differently. Sorry for the administrative intrusion, everyone -- back to this interesting topic

Thank you, MN, for your very gracious post. I hope no one found it petty or vindictive, but we've found we get along better if we don't correct each other. I've heard frightening tales of the opera and skating boards, and I know that there are many sites where much of the fun is in the well-placed barb and the resultant riposte, but we try to do things differently. Sorry for the administrative intrusion, everyone -- back to this interesting topic

Yes, Clara Webster was an English ballerina who died because her costume caught fire. I didn't remember her as a Victorian dancer, though, but one of John Weaver's dancers -- but I may very well be wrong on that. Ivor Guest is never wrong!!! Are you going to reinvent the Romantic era for us, Glebb? You seem fascinated by that period lately