Alexandra

Ed Waffle posted this on Links, but I'll put it here in the hopes that some will read it and discuss. I know Martin Bernheimer is regarded by some as a very harsh critic. I've never met him, but I read him for years and always thought him a very brave one--and with good eyes. Here's his take on criticism. I found his discussion of how Critic A and Critic B can see something totally different, yet their reviews are still valid; while Critic C...well..... http://www.andante.com/magazine/article.cfm?id=13951

My comment is directed at all "insiders," including EdNY, Brett, Peggy and Dancer X, et al. Not a name, but "I work for the company," "I'm a dancer with the company," "I'm a friend of a dancer with the company," "I'm a close friend of Spisto" -- or whatever. It's certainly possible that someone can have an opinion without being disgruntled -- and a fired dancer, or a successful dancer can certainly have opinions; I agree. I've seen too many topics like this one, however, turn sour and I'd like to avoid it. There's a danger in uninformed outsider speculation, too, of course. I closed the thread, then came back in and opened it (in case anyone had seen the closure). I'd like to keep the discussion going, but it might be better if the temperature were lowered a bit -- no one is all good or all bad in this, or any instance. It's possible -- and probably helpful -- to question the way a company is managed. Perhaps we could try to stick to that. [ 08-18-2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

I'd like to add a general note of caution re this thread: I very much understand how dancers are reluctant to speak out about their bosses, or issues that affect their company -- this would be the case in any company (ballet or accounting); it's unwise. Whenever we have a thread about a backstage problem, there are people who register under pseudonyms and post very strong opinions, sometimes adding "facts." If you are associated with the company in any way -- are the fired dancer, mother of the fired dancer, are a currently disgruntled dancer, or work for the company in any way, etc. etc. -- it really is unfair not to mention that in the post. I don't want this board to become a place where nameless people hurl charges at each other, and people with axes to grind grind them

No one can think of any ballerinas after Merrill Ashley?????

Thanks for the correction, Manhattnik! Sorry -- I wrote that without checking.

Very interesting, since he was, of course, a Principal at ABT.

From people I know who saw Kolpakova many times, I'd go with the "She's 50 on that video!" answer. I think there are so few classical ballerinas dancing today -- classical in the sense that Kolpakova and Fonteyn were classical, in the sense of employ, not good, bad or indifferent -- that they don't appeal to those who've grown up on Romantic and/or neoclassical ballerinas (the willow trees and the high kickers). I see a bit of Kolpakova in Lezhnina (who's Aurora is available on video, I believe). This may be fanciful, as I didn't see the older ballerina in her prime. But there's the same crystalline purity that, to me, is right for Aurora. I like the little pieces of video I've seen of Sizova as well, but I do not believe it's possible to make a judgment about a dancer based on only seeing them on video.

Jeannie told me before she left that she'd be looking for an internet cafe along the route -- hope there are some there!

Alla, thanks for posting this -- and for the responses. This idea has been beloved in certain university circles for decades now, an unfortunate (to me) byproduct of feminism. It's a position that I find intellectually offensive, and I can't find another way of saying that. To me, it shows lack of imagination, disregard of history and inability to process symbolic ideas -- all of which is fine (and not offensive) in the casual theatregoer; nobody has to like everything. But when it's written by academics and critics, grrrr. To me, one of the most important aspects of education is to examine a work and place it in context -- and teach that context. Not that the people who wrote/choreographed a work were stupid, or evil, and degraded women for fun, but something a bit closer to the way those people -- both women and men -- thought.

I knew it was on, but couldn't watch -- and I missed it the first time, too. Could those who saw it tell us about it? What was the "slant"? Did it seem accurate? Etc.

Films. I was into film before I ever saw a ballet (I'm a late bloomer). I've been so busy the past few years I haven't been able to see many--only about four a year. This year, three so far, were....hmmm. The one about the Cuban Missile crisis-- was it "Seven Days?" (which I liked, and thought some of the acting very fine), "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which I loved and count as a dance film, although I admit that's stretching the definition a bit. And "Artificial Intelligence" which was one of the stupidest, messiest films I've ever seen--despite two great performances--and I don't know how it got out of the cutting room in the shape it did. So there. I like to think that my other past times include reading and listening to (classical) music, but for the past ten years, everything I've read or heard has been ballet related -- not really by choice, but because I have so little time, and I need to keep my attention focused on what I'm working on.

Thanks for that, Mme. Hermine! Vienna Waltzes was my favorite Peter Martins role.

The ones I saw (live, in rehearsal) were canvas, I think, but definitely not dyed. I think you can see that in the Napoli photo -- you can in the real photo, anyway, but you have to see it on the on-line version. The wedge is a bit raised, and you can see a seam.

Juliet, do you know if these shoes are easily available here? I don't know where the Danes get them, but there are no Danish ballet shoemakers, as far as I know.

Thank you for posting this, Jane -- I'm sorry I missed it earlier; it's a lovely idea for a topic. We have taken similar journeys. My first "phase" in ballet was Ballet Russe. I read everything about it I could get my hands on, and 25 years ago I would have answered this question, without hesitation, as Paris, 1908-1914. And then I must have OD'd on the Ballet Russe, because now it would be at the end of my list. (Partly this may be because I've never seen a totally convincing performance of a Ballet Russe ballet.) I didn't get to live through the 1960s in London, and would be quite tempted to pick that one, but I think, if I could straddle decades, I'd take 1955-1965 in New York. That way, I'd get what was arguably Balanchine's most creative period, PLUS regular visits from the Royal and the Royal Danes (and a lot more, to boot). And then you had to go and mention Copenhagen in the 19th century, so I'm going to pick one decade a century. (For the 18th, I'd pick the time when the Gardels were reigning in Paris.) I'd love to see all the grand, serious ballets of Bournonville's that were scuttled in the 1930s. I think that would be the 1860s (he retired in 1874, and probably his last four years weren't his best). An English visitor to Scandinavia, Edward Gosse, wrote of "The Lay of Thrym" that it made all other ballet in Europe look trivial in comparison.

I just happen to have about 2000 photos of Danish male dancers littering my living room floor at the moment (I'm scanning the photos for my book) and 200 of them are on my computer. So I put two up on a page on the main site. You can see the shoes clearly. http://www.balletalert.com/dancers/bshoes.htm (p.s. to Estelle -- I changed your url on the Links page as well)

I think they were used in the 19th century generally. Today in Denmark (or, five years ago in Denmark) the dancers would just say "they are part of the costume," but they're really part of the 19th century ballet aesthetic. In the Romantic era, men wore white stockings to just below the knee--as the men in Napoli Act III still dress--and the white in the shoe carried through the white of the stocking, emphasizing the line of the foot. The Danes wore them in other ballets as well. I've seen photos of it in "Dream Pictures," for example, but it's in every extant Bouornonville ballet except "La Sylphide" (where the men wear kilts).

Napoli was released as a commercial video in the early 1980s, but I don't know if it's still available. There were several Napolis filmed for Danish TV -- I have excerpts from four of them in the late 1970s and '80s! I have to say I've seen that Danish TV "Etudes" and I thought it was awful! Except for Ib Andersen and Niels Kehlet as the male soloists -- but the corps..... well, it's often used as an example of the state of the company's classical dancing in the mid-1970s.

I'm pretty sure it was in 1984. Your local PBS station may have a copy they'd let you see. It wouldn't hurt to ask It's a lovely tape.

Re Giselle, I think most of Act I is Coralli (there are drawings from the 1840s that match what we see today) It was an open secret at the time that Perrot did Grisi's (Giselle's) solos. The only thing that I know of that's Petipa's in Act I is Giselle's final solo (the hops on pointe.) Petipa's big addition was the Grand Pas of the Wilis in Act II. This is the rough overview. I'm sure there are refinements that can be made (I bought "Ballet in the Time of Giselle," but haven't read it yet! Doug??? Back to ABT promotions, I had liked Abrerra very much at the fewe things I saw her do in D.C. this spring. I thought she might be one of the many dancers that are soloists with their home companies but that ABT makes start in the corps.

I'm posting this to follow up on Sonja's and vagansmom's questions on the Biography thread. It took awhile to track down my colleague, George Jackson, who knows more about German ballet and modern dance history than anyone I know, but he sent this brief email, which I'll post. He's out of town and away from his files, but says he'll give us more info when he returns. Yes, there is info but more could be used. Hitler's favorite choreographer was a woman who also became a famous dance historian and may have been leading Allied spy in Berlin during WW2 -- Derra de Moroda. She rescued dancers from the concentration camps and slave factories for her Berlin ballet company.

Sonja and vagansmom, it would be an interesting book. I've emailed an Austrian colleague who's done a lot of research in German ballet and I'll post if he gives me any information. I remember about ten years ago, he told me of a dance historians conference he attended in Germany where questions of dancing during the war (modern dance as well as ballet) arose, and at first there was an uncomfortable silence. But there were many Germans there, and eventually, people began to talk -- about dancing, not politics. Yes, it is a subject that would have to be handled with sensitivity, but it could be done. History that pretends something didn't exist isn't real history. Thanks to both of you for raising the topic. If there's more discussion on it -- information about German dancers during the 1930s and '40s or the problems related to telling their stories -- could I suggest the next person start a new thread? (If I learn anything from my colleague, I'll post that on a new thread.)

Thank you for the question! I think many of us have learned something about a ballerina we've never heard of!

Thanks for posting that, liebs. McKenzie's role in all of this seems rather unclear.

I remember the discussions of Moby Dick on alt.arts.ballet a few Augusts ago. We had a wonderful time with it -- pas de poissons, fish dives, the whole lot. (I imagined Moby as a ballerina role, tutu and all, with a whole corps of little white whales; Juliet costumed them.) And then someone -- quite seriously -- wrote in and said that her daughter's school in Connecticut had danced it last summer. The other side of this coin, is if you propose a really really bad ballet, if it hasn't already been done, it will be next year. But I will offer one. I've always thought that someone (and I once had a choreographer in mind) could do a nice "Cannonade" to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.