Alexandra

Not directly dance-related, but this article in today's New York Times should get some feathres flying: For a Body That Nobody Ever Had "EXTREME BEAUTY: The Body Transformed" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute may be the ultimate fashion survey. It is at once a celebration and an indictment of fashion. It reveals both the artistry and the perversity of fashion designers. It demonstrates the powerful pull and aesthetic coherence created by ideals of physical beauty. Yet, because these ideals tend to concern the fairer sex, the show also exposes their linkto misogyny and self-loathing." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/arts/design/07SMIT.html

Thanks, Ken, for being such a good drillmaster. POST THOSE NYCB NUTCRACKER REVIEWS, PEOPLE!!!!! I'd argue that "Giselle" is not a negligible score, but to the larger point, Ashton made lots of ballets to less than first rate music -- good balles. As to composing a new score for an old ballet, the Danes tried it with disastrous results in 2000 for "Kermesse en Bruges" -- a very ooom-pah-pah score, although Hans Brenaa could coax, or beat, the orchestra into playing it so that it sounded like music. (Danish stagers had many responsibilities.) The new score had hidden counts, was rather a fantasia on the old one, that might have worked as concert music, but not as stage music (it didn't help that the dancers, musicians AND audience first heard the new score at the premiere). I'd say leave them alone. I hate how everyone cuts up anything done in the 19th century -- choreography, mime, now music? I think, in all cases, the better way to revive old work is not to throw out anything that at first seems outdated, but to look at the work itself, analyze it, understand it, and then play/dance/stage it with new eyes and ears. (Did you read the article I posted on Aesthetic Issues yesterday, about how a modernist pianist plays "old" music? It's the same approach.) I would hate someone to come up with a New! Better Apollo -- but they may, 100 years from now. Luckily, I'll be dead Ken's question is a very good one, I think. Other opinions, please. [ December 06, 2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

I'm not familiar with that biography of Nijinsky, though I'll trust ATM However, the description of child performers sounds correct. There are photos of children in 19th century productions (you can see Fokine, at about 12, in Paquita, and Pavlova did the Danse Manu when she was a child.) I think it was a custom in European theaters generally -- they were paid (very small amounts), they were used in plays and operas and ballets.

I couldn't go, but I hope others could. Please post. (For casting info, check the thread on Anything Goes.)

Thank you for posting that, Alymer. I'd love to hear a more complete review.

This music review that was in the NYTimes this morning is not directly about dance at all, but I think there are analogies that can be drawn to many of our discussions. There is one school of thought (to which, for what it's worth, I subscribe) that the traditional repertory can be renewed through the performers -- not the tinkerings of would-be choreographers or dramaturgs -- and that this renewal often comes after the performer has experience with new repertory. If you only dance James, Albrecht and Siegfried you will get stale. If you dance Apollo, Four Temperaments, Monotones -- or Onegin, or Forsythe, or Neumeier, you will bring something of what you learned with you the next time you dance those classical roles. This review speaks to the same idea, in music, and I found it interesting. A Pianist Gathers the Radicals http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/05/arts/music/05AIMA.html

Got this press release from Dance Books this morning: Dance Books is pleased to announce publication of "Shakespeare and the dance" by Alan Brissenden. TITLE: SHAKESPEARE AND THE DANCE ISBN: 1 85273 083 8 PRICE: GBP12.50 Author: Alan Brissenden PUBLISHER: Dance Books Ltd PUBLICATION DATE: December 2001 CATEGORY: Dance SPECIFICATIONS: Paperback 160 pages 216 x 138mm 2 colour cover DESCRIPTION: Dancing was an essential part of life in Shakespeare's England, and it occurs in almost all of Shakespeare's plays from 1607 onwards. In this reprint of an essential text Dr. Brissenden shows that for Shakespeare it was also an accepted symbol of harmony, and was regularly used by him to express one of his major themes, the attempt to achieve order in a discordant world. The author, who is a dance critic as well as a Shakespearean scholar, has drawn on manuscript sources, a wide range of writings of the period, including dance manuals, and his own experience of dance and theatre to produce a book which is essential reading for students, scholars, theatre directors and all those interested in Renaissance dance and theatre. DR. ALAN BRISSENDEN is a dance and theatre writer and broadcaster. His publications include 'Shakespeare and some others', the Oxford Shakespeare/World's Classics edition of 'As you like it', contributions to several books of reference including 'The International Encyclopaedia of ballet', 'The International Encyclopaedia of Modern Dance' and 'The Companion to Theatre in Australia. He is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of English in the University of Adelaide, from which he retired as Reader in 1994. Details and ordering facilities can be found at: http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/new.shtml [ December 05, 2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

Ed, there aren't too many Sylvias around. Ashton's hasn't been danced for years and I'm pretty sure it's not on video. Neumeier did one for Paris Opera a few years ago. If it was filmed, I'm also reasonably sure it's not commercially available. It is lovely music, isn't it? (If anyone knows of another version, of course, please post.)

I've seen house tapes in the Danish ballet archives, and they're usable. They do have professional cameramen, and use the back-of-the-house wide angle so that every inch of the stage is shown at every minute. They have a few tapes that used two cameras -- one on Teresina, say; the other on Gennaro. Not only does that mean that everything in the back, or other side, is lost, but during the dreadful moments when Gennaro's camera, for whatever reason, didn't work (this was a tape from the 1960s) all you see is Teresina sitting on a stool. (The Danes videoed the entire 1979 Bournonville festival, two tapes per ballet. One in practice clothes, so that the steps would be clear; the other in costume.) Amy Reusch, a videographer, sometimes peruses this site. I'd like to hear her comments -- as well as others. I don't know the current practice in American companies. Does anyone else?

Yes, I knew about the "toe cup" I assumed the "rug pull" used the same technique. Remember the stories of Toumanova and her mother rushing into a new theater and checking out the stage, looking for a "dimple" near center stage where a ballerina's foot would be supported during her "rock solid" fouettes? I've always assumed -- perhaps wrongly -- that this was one of the old ways that, for better or worse, is now gone.

rg, it sure looks hard to me, but then, so does balancing on a flower, or diving from wherever it was that La Peri launched her famous dive. Perhaps so much emphasis was put on balancing that it was less difficult for those ballerinas? (This is a pure guess and should not be taken seriously as history )

Kevin, thank you so much for posting that long report. It's always wonderful to read about performances one can't get to. About the veil moment, I always thought the ballerina stuck her toe into a machine, a slot in the floor, and was then pulled her along? (The veil would be there, of course, but it would be an illusion that the partner was pulling her.) Alonso's "Giselle" has a gliding moment for Myrtha, but she's behind bushes and you can't see how it's done. She glides across the back of the stage before her first entrance. It was so smooth (and she was facing the audience) that it had to be a mechanical effect -- and a very effective one.

Dale, I think you're right -- there were tributes, but not new work specifically reflecting the King assassination, or Pearl Harbor, et al. I think part of the reason for this is that ballet isn't the natural medium for political expression -- at its best, it's abstract, or with hidden meanings. I wasn't watching dance in the 1960s and early '70s, so I don't know how many modern dancers worked Vietnam protests, et al., into their dances, but I think the reaction was more anti-everything, including political awareness.

Thank you very much for taking the time to write that report, Jeannie. Lots of interesting news! I do hope you'll write more on the Napoleon Bonaparte ballet. Perhaps it will become a big international hit, considering the height of the hero Good news on the videos, too. I hope you'll have time to write about the gala, too.

Without researching it, I don't remember reading/hearing about any balletic response to Pearl Harbor or the assassinations and other upheaval of the 1960s. Our World War II ballet was "Fancy Free." (Interesting, on CNN the other night a commentator said that the Hollywood response in the first six months after Pearl Harbor was lots of comedies.) The 1940s was an Americana period, but that may have been coincidental, since it was the formative period of ballet, and formative periods nearly always use local color, history, etc, to forge a national identity.

I think that must have been an error in the ABT program. I don't think Cranko changed that for the ballet, and I've never seen an Olga who was cast as the older sister. [ November 27, 2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

I haven't heard of any new ballets that are September 11th related -- which doesn't mean there aren't any. My guess is that ballet will react to this at a much slower pace than modern dance, and is more likely to memorialize the events with gala programs, such as NYCB did at its opener. In modern dance, Mark Morris did a new piece called "V" which he previewed in San Francisco shortly before taking it to London. Rita Felciano wrote about it for DanceView, and said that the general perception had been that it was September 11th related, and that was why, in fact, Morris said he wanted to do the piece in America first. Friends in London who saw it, however, did not get that impression at all.

Welcome, Anoushka! I hope you enjoy Onegin -- please write and tell us what you thought. I've seen a lot of productions of Onegin and have enjoyed some more than others -- I'd certainly be very interested to see the Royal Ballet one. Often whether you like it or not depends on whether you like the dancers, of course. The ballet is very clear, I think. You won't need Pushkin's poem to understand it, although, of course, you might want to read the poem for its own sake.

I hadn't heard that one, Calliope! What a great image -- especially if they'd drunk the beer first

I've heard that this or that dancer wore wood or steel in their shoes, too. But that doesn't make it so. Bottom line is, Fonteyn's balances were extraordinary. If there were a way to "cheat" to achieve the same effect, there would have been dozens of dancers buying those shoes. Back to heart-stopping balances, every one of the Cuban ballerinas can balance for days -- on normal shoes. This is another aspect of technique that has been downgraded, as it were, in favor of other things, especially high extensions. I thought the Cubans' balancing was quite tasteful. They didn't do it in "Giselle," just in "Coppelia." Rock solid, those balances. "Parked on pointe," as they used to say.

I think I'd have to question that. (Not that Samsova said it, but that Margot had unusual toe shoes.) There's no visual evidence of that that I've ever seen -- there are ballerinas who have super block toe shoes, and you can see it in photos or videos. [ November 26, 2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

Before this thread takes a turn to whether Nutcracker is a good ballet or not -- I really did mean to try to collect headlines. I thought the Times one was a bit....nasty.

Thanks for posting that, Sonja -- I'm always interested in what you're seeing, and I'm sure others are as well.

Yes, Estelle -- I think Buckle began one review with "Ah, one Nutcracker nearer death."

Today's NYTimes is a doozy -- A Rodent Infestation That Soothes the Soul. What's your best Nutracker Headline -- real or imagined? I'll offer three, from early Washington DanceViews: Girl Kills Mouse, Tree Grows The Eternal Fascination of Nutcracker Sugar Plum Fairy Rums Amok, Clones Self on Area Stages and finally, the simple: Sugar Blues (We used to do Nutcracker roundups -- every company in the DC area that does Nuts, and let me tell you there is one within six blocks of your house, no matter where you live.)