Alexandra

I'm not at all boosting ballet companies dancing the works of "contemporary European choreographers"!!!!!!!! (ABT has danced Kylian.) The whole point of this board is for the discussion of classical and neoclassical ballet, and one of the main reasons it was established was to sound an alarm of what was happening to ballet (and ballet companies) because ballet companies were drifting so far into the realm of modern and crossover dance. There have been many discussions about this topic, in the past, and there's material on the main site -- commentary, interviews. I didn't mean to dredge that one up again, but merely thought it interesting that San Francisco had so much dance, and that it was so varied. I don't think San Francisco dance, at its best, is better than New York dance, at its best, but it's interesting to see the different way the city is developing a distinct identity.

Terry, it's a great question, but I'm going to move it into Aesthetic Issues. I want to keep this forum dedicated to specific ballets, not ballets in general IMO, this pas de deux does not have a specific story, but falls into the category of many of Balanchine's ballets (paraphrase): "You've got a man and a woman. How much story do you want?"

I think the standard response to this (the Royal would say the same for Ashton and the Danes for Bournonville) is something along the lines of "We're not a museum company!" -- said proudly, in the tone one would use for "We don't eat babies here!" [ 06-22-2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

Thanks for TWO very detailed reviews, Sylvia. I hope someone else saw these performances as well -- anyone?

Unfortunately, I think it's just a matter of time (months?) before someone posing as "Siegfried" lands a quad in compe -- er, in Act III of "Swan Lake."

Thanks very much for posting this, Terry (and the info on the "Nijinsky Gala" too). IMO, choreographers competitions are not as likely to cause problems as competitions for young dancers (the training-for-competitions rather than general schooling, emphasis on tricks over artistry, etc.) However, many choreography competitions are extremely expensive for the entrant. Some of the smaller ones seem to want to put together a program on the cheap. You enter, you come, with your dance and your dancers; we'd love to have you. That makes it much more expensive than someone who's not attached to a company can handle. Leigh, and others, will know much more about this question.....

Flemming Flindt's in 1966 in Copenhagen, I think, and I think there were others around that time. When you start messing around with it, you all of a sudden realize that the audience can't figure out what's going on, and so add a prologue to a) explain everything or B) really confuse everybody. That's my theory, anyway. Thanks Drew, Mahnattnik and Colleen for such nice long reviews. I think we'll do "Swan Lake" as the next Ballets in Detail. Threads up tomorrow.

Thanks, Jeanne, for all the news and commentary Ilya, while I think conspiracy theories are not out of place regarding competitions and prize fixing, it's not infrequent that a gold medal is not awarded (but no gold and no silver?? I think that's rare.) This happens in piano competitions rather frequently, and they're reported on in the press here (while ballet competitions never are). I don't think it's too much of a leap to assume that the reasons are the same. When it happens in a piano competition, the reason invariably is that although the level of technique was high, the artistry was not, and there is a "standard" in the judges' minds of what a gold medalist is, and that was not reached.

Second.

Katja, while I'd certainly agree with your assessment of Malakhov in comparison to others, I'm not sure he has become a Big Star here. He isn't tied to one company (he dances with several European companies as well), and is a guest artist at ABT rather than a regular principal; money may be part of the reason he has fewer roles with ABT (guest artists command very high fees for performances). For whatever reason -- and, IMO, not at all a reflection on his gifts -- Malakhov hasn't dominated ABT, even in the way Ananiashvili has. Unfortunately, the ballet in Vienna is simply not on Americans' radar screens. I agree with Dale, though, that I don't think his dancing of secondary roles is meant to be a reflection on how the company views his talents, but more likely of his desire to try different things. Dowell did something similar, dancing Lescaut instead of Des Grieux, Mercutio instead of Romeo, etc., for a time. [ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

liebs, I agree that it's not just about race. I think it's a part of American history, too, that immigrant groups see/will support/feel comfortable with performers from the Old Country. There is a good long-term effect from that, in that some of the children and teens who're taken to these events WILL like whatever the art form is for its own sake. I noticed the same thing at the Universal Ballet performances that you did about the Bolshoi audience, by the way. (Another sign that the audience was not a dance audience but more a movie audience was that the candy tables were stripped bare by second intermission. Luckily, Minkus had foreseen this; it's hard to rattle candy louder than Minkus

Some very good points. Thank you. Ticket prices are a big problem for everybody, and I don't see that as solvable. Costs will continue to go up, and houses will continue to stay the same size. (The threats to move everything into football stadiums, which have been rumbling since at least the 1960s, do not seem a good solution for classical ballet.) But the tickets for DTH and Universal Ballet weren't free, so those audience members have the means to pay. It's poor people of any color who get shut out. I think Diana's last point is probably right on, and it's sad. I wish our ballet companies were more integrated -- definitely (I used to fantasize that DTH and ABT would merge, and that would get it over with. Black dancers would be in a major company, looking great, and critical mass would do its wondrous work.) BUT the idea that people will go ONLY to performing arts events that are of their own group, I find that bothersome. Nothing to be done about it, but bothersome. When I taught dance appreciation at a local university, I had 8 African American students in a class of 60, and they were quite open about being interested -- several put it as "only being interested" in seeing tapes of black dancers. The question was raised constantly -- and it wasn't intended as political, but just interest and curiosity. "Aren't there any black ballerinas who dance Swan Lake?" "Why aren't you showing us black dancers." When we got to modern dance, that class saw the most bizarre collection, especially of postmodern works, because I ended up only showing the class companies that had at least one black dancer in a performance. Otherwise, I lost the black students in the class. Perhaps company integration would solve this, but our companies have not, shall we say, made this a priority (we had a long discussion of racism in ballet awhile back and many of these issues were discussed there).

At performances of the Universal Ballet here this week, more than half the audience -- maybe as much as two-thirds -- were Koreans. (The Universal is primarily a Korean company.) There was a lot of supposition that the house was heavily papered; if so, good for them. They brought in people who don't usually attend ballet, and they seemed to enjoy it. Koreans are not in evidence at regular Kennedy Center ballet subscription evenings. African-Americans come for Dance Theatre of Harlem or Alvin Ailey, but also do not make up more than 1% of the regular audience. Years ago, when DTH did a two week season here, one on subscription and one off, the racial composition of the audience was completely flipped (white for the subscription week, with a scattering of blacks, black for the off-sub week, but with a sizable white minority; DTH has crossed the color line). Some of this is due to papering. When presenters need to fill a house, they will go to constituent groups. One often hears French spoken at French dance company performances, German at the Stuttgart -- often Embassy and business staffs will come, whether out of duty or pleasure I don't know. We hear of similar audiences for the Eifman Ballet, not only in New York, but across the country. The audiences seem to be predominantly Russian. (For Eifman and Universal Ballets, the balletmane audience is not yet attracted to them.) The Cuban Ballet when it was here some years ago had a large Spanish-speaking component. Aren't presenters and dance companies missing something here? If these national-specific audiences were dragged in, or only would come for a free ticket and spent the time yawning, that's one thing, but they don't. The Korean audience seemed as interested in "La Bayadere" as in "Shim Chung." They liked BALLET -- but will they be back? If ballet could bring in all of these different groups, the audience would swell considerably, and it would avoid the present bush-beating approach -- if we show them MTV-ballet, they will come -- that is often going on now. How does one reach minority audiences?

Seh-Yun Kim danced Gamzatti in the Universal Ballet's "La Bayadere" here the other night. She must be quite young -- I'd estimate between 21 and 23, as she graduated from the Kirov Academy (also in D.C., and a feeder school to the Universal Ballet) a few years ago. I saw that performance (as "Giselle") and while I thought she was very nice, I was in no way prepared for the performance she gave as Gamzatti. Quite simply, I have never seen a dancer so young perform at that level. Unfortunately, that was the only role she was listed to do here, or I'd be down there now, watching her. I can't describe her adequately after seeing her in one role -- tall, slender, very measured technique: that could describe a dozen dancers. The dancer she reminded me the most of was the POB etoile Elisabeth Platel -- she has not only a similar body, but the same calm and gracious persona. The Gamzatti was not only beautifully danced -- she outshown Nikya and was the performance's ballerina -- but beautifully acted. She was, throughout, a wronged Princess, not a woman scorned in a love affair that went sour (closer to the original intention, I think).

Ilya mentioned on another thread that Nikita Dogulshin danced at a gala in Russia. To many Americans, he is one of the Great Lost Dancers -- we never got to see him, and he "left" the Kirov and was sent to a theater outside (then) Leningrad. I've seen a film of his staging of Paquita for a small company in Russia and thought it excellent, and I thought he was mentioned as one of the advisers at the Maryinsky. Makarova mentions him quite affectionately in her book, and the photos make him look fascinating. Can anyone tell more about him? What you saw him dance, and what he's doing now?

Thanks again for taking the time to do this, Jeannie.

I haven't seen this version. I have the original issue video and saw it when it was released in the theaters. They may have changed something since, but originally, yes, the dancers turned fast. That's the way they turned. Nureyev was a whirlwind. Mel, you saw this one. Did you think it had been "enhanced?"

Thank you, Stan Bowker. This will be one of my favorite posts of all time. PLEASE post more often!!! (I cannot answer your excellent question, for I am not the Delphic oracle, but I think there's a dramatic point. Perhaps Rothbart will plead that he's a multiple personality if the case ever comes to trial?)

I have favorite roles, or roles I think look particularly interesting to dance, but I have never, ever, even in a drunken stupor, wished I were on a stage (or off a stage) dancing, at the Met, or anywhere else I remember reading, as a child, in some fairytale I've long forgotten that took place in China, the Emperor -- with the longest fingernails ever grown -- saying to the ignorant Westerner, "Oh, no. We don't dance. We have others do our dancing for us." I thought it a lovely concept (speaking as one nondancing critic)

I love your soap opera one I wanted to comment that I agree it's unfair to expect fledgling choreographers to be on the level of Ashton or Balanchine; but the 50-year-olds are fair game

Thanks for this too, Jeannie. And, of course, if you'd like to slip in a little "What the blazes is going ON over there? chatter" in your reports....

Then I ask with some trepidation, what are the current trends in business management? (If ballet is 20 years behind the trends, this would let us know what to look forward to.) The only things I've read is that playfulness in corporate management is out -- no more Coke machines in the CEO's office and basketball courts in the buildings -- and, of course, there's always streamlining and downsizing.

Yes! Of course you will. The more you see, the more you'll see, and, one hopes, keep enjoying it, too

Come on, don't be shy! How are they doing? What did you think of the "Swan Lake?" Bostonians, please speak out. Any New Yorkers going up to see this? (They sure flooded Washington )

Felursus, thanks very much for posting that background. Mel, do you really think the era of "anybody can administrate anything" is over? I'm afraid it's just beginning. (Babcock sounds like the Twin of Michael Christiansen, who still is thoroughly entrenched in Copenhagen, the former Undersecretary of Defense brought in to head a theater with all too predictable results, but in America, I think, too, the executive director from anywhere -- the MBA rather than a latterday Lincoln Kirstein -- is still the norm. And the battle over who really runs the company -- the "CEO" Babcock or the Artistic Director -- is still raging, I think. Do you think this is a battle that is over in business (if I can run a department store, that doesn't mean I can run a factory) but not in the arts?