Alexandra

That used to be a repertory staple with ABT, but I don't think they've done it in several years. I liked Ivan Nagy in it. I saw the Kirov do it when the company came to Wolf Trap in the mid-1980s and loved them in it. It actually was everybody's repertory staple for eons, and perhaps it was done to death. By the time I got to see it (in the mid-1970s) it was pretty lifeless, I thought. I used to have fantasies that someone would slip the conductor 25 bucks to speed up the tempo. Dah...DAH....dum.........dah dah dah DUM........................dah dah dah DUM......DAH......et cetera, et cetera, and so forth. I'd love to see a good revival of "Les Sylphides." I've heard balletmasters say that it is extremely difficult to stage -- one of those ballets that looks easy, because there are no tricks in it, but is quite difficult, and especially difficult stylistically.

Sorry, I don't know of any authoritative source that ranks companies around the world, in the sense of publishing a list of companies ranked in order of..... budget? artistic achievement that year? etc. There are lists of festivals in various places. I believe Dance Magazine publishes a list of them. But they're strictly informational. Rankings are usually done by people who have seen all of them and make a personal assessment, but I know of no World Dance Organization that takes this on as an institutional task.

Did anyone else attend any of Dance Theatre of Harlem's performances in D.C.? I'd intended to post a review on the site about this company (which I generally admire) but didn't because I thought the performance opening night was so below par. I agreed -- mostly -- with Sarah Kaufman in the Post, except that she felt the performance looked underrehearsed, while I did not. I've seen very sloppy performances of DTH's "Creole Giselle" in the past -- they're often just finishing a tour, or coming back after a lay-off -- but I didn't have a sense of that this time at all. The production had its face washed and its hair combed, as it were, but I thought it was very, very weakly danced. The peasant pas de deux boy had NO turnout and had a great deal of difficulty with the steps. He didn't look as though this were an off-night, but as though he'd been studying for about a month and a day. The Albrecht looked 45, a bit tubby, and dull as it is possible to be. The Giselle looked as though she'd rather be dancing -- and that was her attitude towards the story. All of the dancers seemed to lack elbows and knees, giving their dancing a jerky quality. It was a very studentish performance -- from a not very good school. Well beyond what DTH has done in the past. The one bright spot for me was Carmen De Lavallade as Giselle's mother, the most ALIVE! person on the stage, and, I thought, totally "there" and understanding the production. They looked better in the ballet moderne piece that shared the bill -- unoffensive, I thought, if not particularly interesting. Unfortunately, the comments I heard at intermission were along the lines of, "They're really so much better in the modern stuff than in ballet" -- perhaps true, but not what a ballet company wants to hear. I knew DTH was "between generations." Several dancers I've loved -- Eddie J. Shellman, Christine Johnson, Ronald Perry -- have retired, and Alicia Graf, their young ballerina, has been out for three years with a very bad injury, and the company is always in financial crisis. I did not go to the subsequent performances where the casting of the leads looked more promising. Did anyone else

Thanks for that, Jack. I often wonder what Daniel Duell is doing -- good to read about this performance.

Good point, Mme. Hermine. I first heard about Sevillano when she was 15 ("Giselle" before "Romeo and Juliet," if I'm remembering correctly. Thanks to everyone for this information.

I'd agree that art has no borders, in the sense that art created by, say, a Spaniard can be appreciated all over the world. But I would say that there are national characteristics in the work of some artists. I think that's what Ballet Nut was after. I think this is a great question. I just didn't want to start off answering it (except by posing more questions) for a change Balarina, I think even without a setting, or a plot, there can be national characteristics -- not in all works. Some really are Franchise Ballet. You can find the same thing everywhere.

Wrist flickers!!!!!!! (That is, people who end a variation -- any variation -- with a flourish of the wrists. Once used to deflect attention from the fact that the feet were in extreme disharmony with the requirements of the choreography, but recently being used just because they can. Heather, I think we're after things that bother when you're watching ballet, as a part of the audience, rather than what happens in class. Do you have any pet peeves as an audience member?

I agree there are similarities. There used to be a lot of ballets of this type, but most have been lost, so they're a bit isolated in the repertory. If you were dancing both roles in the same season, how would you make them different?

I've only seen Pavlova on film, and Bessmertnova and Maximova on film and, when onstage, at the very end of their careers. Wasn't Pavlova also considered a great Giselle? That would make her more a lyrical ballerina, I think. There's a video of Maximova doing "Walpurgisnacht" that is phenomenal -- can't remember which collection of Russian goodies it's on, but maybe someone else reading this will. I agree with you that Maximova is a soubrette (and I'm glad to find someone who makes distinctions among types of dancers but she was also a fine technician. Not primarily a virtuoso ancer, but certainly could put over the virtuoso roles. While I think Bessmertnova was always more the Giselle and Juliet type. Others?

I'll take your word for it, then My friend's source was an interview he did with another Paris Opera dancer (not Martinez). I think it was just a question asked in passing, about whether or not there were any foreigners in the company.

Good for you, Patricia It's good to hear a different view, and often people are reluctant to post when they go against the tide. I'm glad you did. You asked why hype is considered bad for dance. I think the hype in this case was criticized because it concentrated on everything BUT dance, and was selling the ballet as though it were a Broadway show or a new Disney movie. It's good to draw people in, yes, but, as is often talked about on this board, for ballet, not the special effects. I think it's wonderful for ABT, or any company, to take chances, but this seemed like a calculated grab for a huge big hit, not taking chances at all, to some.

You're right, of course, about La Dame aux Camelias, Katja. Thanks for the correction. I can't answer your question about "Spartacus" very well, I'm afraid, as I've only seen Act I in a theatre. I've seem it several times, with different casts, on video, but that's harder to judge. When Maris Liepa did it, I'd say it was a meaty role, but he wasn't a kid when that was filmed

I can't add any, Terry, and thanks for posting that list, but I've been told in the past by someone who covers the Paris Opera that Jose Martinez is French; Spanish heritage (I don't know how far back), but born in France.

Michael, Firebird was danced by so many different types in Balanchine's day he seems to have had a very broad idea (even different ideas) of the role. Gelsey Kirkland did it as a young teenager; she was called a "hummingbird." Karin von Aroldingen did it, with a rather fantastic costume -- not a tutu; lots of feathers (vague memory). I never saw Tallchief dance, so I can't place her, but my idea of her was that she was a classique -- this may be laughable to those who did see her; I'm only going from photos, but rather like Makarova.

It is amazing. It's often said that Spain has no classical ballet tradition because it has such a richly developed classical tradition of its own. But that also means that dancing is respected there, and children grow up dancing, so there's a huge "talent pool" for a ballet company to draw on. I'm going to move this topic to Anything Goes for ease of finding later. (We have forums dedicated to different things, like aisles in the supermarket, for ease of finding. Recent performances is generally for reviews or comments on performances people have just seen.)

Great slug, Jeannie. My heart stopped for a second -- then I realized there wasn't a ballet star big enough for the National Enquirer to trash Safe post

Thank you, Wendy! I'm so glad you got to go, and VERY glad you wrote about it for us.

Juliet, Michael posted -- it's about six posts down as I write this, slugged City Ballet 5/22 http://www.balletalert.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ult...c&f=13&t=000517

You said you'd learned the dance from the video, in your first post, and I think that was what people were responding to. Copyright applies even to school recitals, and changing a step or two doesn't change that. I'm going to close this thread. The question has been answered as best we can.

Glad you woke up! Welcome back, and thanks for posting.

Welcome, justafan, and glad you posted. My post was meant (as is this one) as an encouragement, not a signal that all has been said Often people weigh in after a week, or even a bit longer; if you're going to the ballet, it's hard to have the time to write about it.

Just a word to say thanks to all of you -- especially to those jumping in with your first reviews, and the length is just fine Welcome to Ballet Buff. I hope you'll all keep posting. It's wonderful to have so many viewpoints on a single program.

Unfortunately, it's so long ago I can't remember even a vague source. I THINK it was an article about "Sleeping Beauty," explaining why there was a Prologue. I thought of classical exceptions as well -- Shakespeare's tragedies and history plays are five acts, I believe. I have no idea whether the person was a reliable source, or just guessing, or what. I really posted that to see if it rang any bells with anyone -- NOT to suggest that I thought it had a basis in fact. [ 05-22-2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

Good question! You also started with an interesting list of emigre choreographers. It seems a lot of them find happiness in a strange land I think this one would be interesting to kick around. What makes Balanchine's ballets American? (Or not, if you think he's more Russian.) Tudor was criticized for making some ballets, like "Undertow," that seemed set in England and not "American" enough -- not just because that ballet was Dreiser's "American Tragedy" dressed up with Greek gods, but because the characters, to some reviewers at the time, seemed as though they would be more at home in an English factory town than an American one. Are Cranko's ballets German? Ashton's ballets are almost always described as "quintessentially English?" Why? Are MacMillan's? Danes will tell you that Bournonville's are very Danish (despite his French father and Swedish mother) because they reflect a peculiarly Danish "sense of humanity." And, one reads, that, like Danish speech {which is very uninflected], the harmony of his ballets reflects the flatness of the countryside. Probably too late to tell, but did Petipa ever really become Russian? Or are his ballets still those of a displaced Frenchman? Robbins and DeMille are American -- because of their subject matter? Or does it go deeper than that?

[This was originally posted by bijoux. I've copied the post from another thread.] I wanted to know if anyone had seen Bosotn Ballets' production of "Sleeping Beauty" and what they thought of the production.I saw it and thought it was great.I was the full length (a prologue and three acts),but there was so much going on that you didn't realise how long it was.I saw it a few times because there were multiple casts dancing everything and I wanted to see dancers who people don't usually get to see.Of course the principals were outstanding.Each set had a different interpretation of their roles that were equally appealing.I must say that I was most impressed by the dancers in the corps de ballet who got to "strut their stuff" in soloist and even principal roles.The women in the corps are all very talented and versitile.There are a few who have gotten their chances and have prooven to be consistent,so I expected a good show,but there were a couple who we rarely see who held their own quite well.In the prologue fairies,Melissa Ward,Sasha Dmochowski and Erika Lambe prooved quite capable in their respective variations.It is funny that one of these women lost her job and the other two almost did.They are fine dancers...On a level up,corps de ballet women Karla Kovatch and Tatianna Jouravel danced the role of the lilac fairy with confidence and ease.this is a principal role that even soloists have struggled with.Sarah Lamb prooved consistent in the Blubird pas de deux even when thrown together with a new partner at the last minute.( corps de ballet member Nick Mishoe who did a fantastic job) In all I just wanted to say that there was fine dancing on the part of the dancers of Boston Ballet and they deserve recognition for presenting such great shows amidst the turmoil they are going through.I believe their season is over now and I wish those who will not return all the best wherever they go and for those who return good luck with the new season.--bijoux [ 05-22-2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]