Alexandra

I'd love to see it too, but I don't think that version has been in any rep except the Ballet Russe. As you noted, Balanchine put has done several divertissement ballets from "Raymonda" (and I think the full-length was as much Danilova as Balanchine; he always gave her a great deal of credit for her stagings.) Nancy Reynolds...

I've been meaning to look at this site but hadn't had the time until today. It's an online magazine with sections on all the arts and literature, including dance. The dance section is allied to ballet.co.uk, and there are reviews, features, etc. http://www.artsworld.com/index.html

Jane, I never realized that's what Hilarion was doing. (!!!) I thought he was just saying, "Sword. Eureka!!! He's no peasant!!! He must be one of Them" -- pointing to hunting horn to indicate Them. As usual, the libretto makes more sense, and clear miming (instead of the usual embarrassed, oh, geez, now I gotta make this dumb gesture and I don't know what it means) would make that clear. Or perhaps a clever designer could make a shield simple enough to be seen so that the audience could make the match itself (ourselves?) Thanks for that, Jane. P.S. Note to all: I'm going to keep this whole line of Giselle threads open until mid-May, so we can get at all these nagging little questions. Then I'll clean the threads (deleting down to the essentials) and move it into a Giselle archive.

Drat! He stole my idea!!!!! ( ;) )

(Calling atm.....) Youskevitch is high on my list of Dancers I Wish I'd Seen. His name came up on the Favorite Albrechts thread -- and he was considered by many a very great Albrecht. I've only seen bits of film -- bits of Albrecht, and the solo in "Theme and Variations," which I've never seen anyone, live, come close to matching in speed and power. Describe Youskevitch to me. Is there anyone since who was like him? He had an interesting beginning -- as an athlete, not a dancer, and was a very late starter. Bruhn lists him as a role model, which is curious, as they seem to have been very different. I'm also curious as to whether he "fit in" to ABT, the way Baryshnikov did, or if he was always obviously a European dancer?

I'd like to thank everybody for sticking to talking about production details, using dancers as examples Even though we've done "Who's your favorite Giselle/Albrecht" several times, there are always newcomers -- and people change their minds. So, who are your favorite Giselles and Albrechts? Note to those new amongst us: We try to have a rule that we say "My favorite," or "in my opinion," or "for me," instead of "positively absolutely the best in the entire history of time," because the latter can lead, if not to bloodshed, to unpleasant battles. And, not that anyone has done this in awhile, but no matter how ludicrous we may think someone else's favorite is, we recognize that s/he has every right to have that favorite. We love strong opinions, especially passionate opinions, but we like to leave the enemy standing at the end of the day. I know this makes us duller than some of the opera boards, but I can live with that.

There was a Roman custom (and perhaps Hellenic as well) that a woman would express grief with "disheveled hair," as well as rending her clothes and both were eagerly adopted in the Renaissance, I've read (think Lady Capulet on Tybalt's bier). Hair down -- but please practice enough so that it comes down in one wild grab of a stragetically placed pin instead of wrestling with it, or having Mum desperately try to get it out of whatever it's stuck in, while pretending to comfort.

Being OT in the cause of memorializing something as important as a bow or a curtain call is never a vice Carreno did his bow to the audience in the second act -- I actually didn't mind it; I thought, rightly or wrongly, he's doing what he was taught. But Belosertkovsky did the same thing the next night and made it work dramatically, because he bowed to Myrtha, and not the audience. Got twice the applause for it, too

I wanted to pull this over from Links to call attention to it before it disappears into Cyber Limbo. It's a collection of brief interviews from different perspectives in the dance world -- very New York centered, but this is the Village Voice, so that's to be expected. Because this article is from a modern dance perspective (although ballet is also included) Zimmer begins the "dance boom" with the establishment of the NEA and the Age of the Grant. Ballet historians usually date the ballet boom earlier, and link it to Hurok and the Age of Stars. A minor point, but one that shows the importance of perspective. More importantly, do any of these points/complaints/issues ring true? For those outside New York, is your city facing similar problems?

I think having Albrecht and Giselle dance a pas de deux (rather than the peasant pas de deux) would address Andrei's very good point that it's good to have a diversion for the audience so that the drama of the ending is a real shock, as well as the point several have made that the pdd is jarring. I think it's jarring, not because it's dancing as much (now that I think about it) that we don't know the people. Somehow, in the third act of Napoli, the tarantella dancers fit in because we know it's a wedding and we can presume they're guests. In "Giselle," though, we don't really know it's a harvest festival until the harvest festival bursts upon us, and in many productions, ppd happens before that moment.

Mary, I think your "is it useful, how is it used?" criterion is very apt. It's interesting, after a century of abstraction, how most people still react to art primarily in terms of content.

Marc, Mary Skeaping reconstructed that pas de deux -- which means, I'm sure, that it was at least half-imagined -- for her "back to the sources" production. I have only a vasgue memory of it, but I think it happened during the crowning-Giselle-queen-of-the-harvest segment, when the peasants asked both of them to dance. It's odd that that one got dropped, isn't it? Although in the 19th century, one often reads complaints that there was "too much dancing" in this or that ballet.

I believe Odette is a Princess; she mimes, "I am a Princess" to Siegfried when she introduces herself. My French friend's comment was more about what he thought about Kirov style than anything to do with the ballet. (The view, obviously not shared by everyone that the comparatively straight French back is "superior" because it is free of the "peasant" folk dance elements that became part of Kirov style. Now, before you throw bricks, remember all the nasty things Maryinsky dancers used to say about the Bolshoi....) Your comments about the difference between Odette and Odile are very interesting, I think. It could be to denote a difference in character -- nowadays, the ballerina tries to be as different as possible in the two roles, which rather destroys the point that it's two different women, with the second one imitating the first -- obviously much much more difficult to do. It also, however, could be a difference in choreographers, if it is true that Ivanov choreographed the second act rather than Petipa. (Something that several scholars are at least a bit skeptical about.) As always, good eyes, CD

Good point! Maybe they buried all girls who loved dancing too much in the forest so it would be easier for them to become Wilis Wouldn't want Myrtha to have to wander through town, or get too close to the church

I once took the 12-year-old son of a friend to see "Giselle." It was his first ballet. I'd given him the outline of the story. He was following it. Then they started the ppd and he grabbed his program and bent over, holding it to the light that the Kennedy Center seats have on their sides. An instinctive reaction, I thought, to the "what does this have to do with the story????" I also think it detracts from the classical dancing that's in the act (there isn't anything big and showy besides the solo Victoria mentioned, which is a much latter addition by Petipa, but both Albrecht and Giselle dance in the first act). I think the lore is that, at the premiere, two of the Opera's leading dancers pressed for part of the action, as it were. I've read that version, at any rate; don't know if it's true. In ABT's current production, they have a little bit of mime that helps set it up -- Giselle is very eager to dance for Bathilde, but her mother holds her back and gestures to her two friends, who do the honors in her stead. In that production, and the old David Blair one, the ppd dancers are introduced at the beginning, the first time the villagers come in. The two who will dance the pas de deux sit on the bench for an instant; my guess is this is a later addition. I've enjoyed performances of the ppd -- I loved Marianna Tcherkassky in it -- but when it's over, I'm always jarred back to the story.

I think attacks on art, or particular artists, are often about power. The attackers hide behind whatever buzz words will sell to their constituency.

Thank you very much for posting your review! I hope others were there and saw this and will add their comments. You really saw a good slice of American ballet -- it sounds like a good experience. These festivals very rarely get covered even in the dance fest, so it's great to hear about them. More, please

It's always fascinated me how much fear art can generate. The Far Left often simply doesn't want people to have access to it, period. It uplifts their minds and we wouldn't want that. There is a fear of the geniuses, of not only those who may be "better" than the norm, but of the very notion that such people exist. Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Far Right is terrified that one glimpse of a naked saint will divert people from the Path of Righteousness and, therefore, must be expunged (or at least not publicly funded )

I knew Taras had the rights to stage certain ballets ("La Sonnambula" is another one) and that he charged a great deal; I didn't know he was now subcontracting them out, as it were. Because ballets aren't as concrete as books or paintings, their afterlife will always be difficult--we're starting to see it in Balanchine, but I don't think it's anything new. At the Ballet Russe conference last summer, one BR ballerina, asked about which Massine ballets she'd like to see revived, reportedly said, "None. When I see what they've done to other ballets, I think it's better to just let them die."

Not exactly Taliban West, but the president of Venezuela is disturbed about elitism in the arts and made some personnel decisions that some in the art world find disturbing. There's an article in today's NYTimes about it -- this isn't about ballet, but an art museum, but the principles discussed can apply to any art form. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/24/arts/24SHAK.html Ballet is often accused to being elitist by some (and proudly claimed to be elitist by others). I think this article is worth taking the time to read. Those who do, have you any thoughts on the issues raised?

Yes! Very few of us get to see these festivals. If you're wanting to talk about the evening performances, we're sure interested in hearing about them.

Ballet Nut, a high percentage of the films and videos made in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are of dancers past their prime, I think. I suppose this was because people were anxious to capture great performances in a new medium, and went for the senior artists first. Also, there are some people who simply do not film well -- and Seymour and Nureyev are two of them. I actually like productions that cut the peasant pas de deux. It does totally break the drama -- where is Albrecht? lurking in the woods until it's safe to come back? -- and it's often so badly undercast, I can live without it

I agree with Mel's comment on caricatures -- all we have of Guimard are paintings (where she's very thin) and caricatures (where she's so thin you want to throw her some doughtnuts). I also loved dirac's comment about the new curvy woman being the old skinny one with breast implants (forgive the inelegant paraphrase). Maybe we really are working towards Barbie: breast implants, removing a rib or two to fake a waist where there isn't one....

Welcome to Ballet Alert, Robert. You have a lot to choose from this summer in London. Ann, I think you nailed it when you wrote: "I can't explain the British media's obssession with creating a 'feud' between the two companies' promoters; I think it's some sort of journalistic laziness - a useful tie-up between the two companies which saves the necessity to write separately about each company, perhaps?" When I first saw this story, my instincts said "this was the editor," or a writer trying to guess what an editor wants (this is a total guess on my part, of course, and I may well be wrong). Newspaper editors, even arts editors, love controversy, and the chances of getting "what a lovely company is coming to town" in print is low to nil. I also agree with those who've pointed out that comparing the Kirov with a Stars of the Bolshoi group is apples-to-oranges. On the positive side, it's an article about dance and will let people know it exists.

Where Beaumont got his libretto, I don't know, but it doesn't mention a weak heart. (Bournonville thought Giselle was sentimental from the beginning, unlike his own ballet poems ) I don't doubt that the lillies for Nureyev were related to Giselle, but aren't lillies appropriate for funerals generally? I have mental image of dozens of movies that have funerals and funeral parlors in them, and that image includes vases and vases of white flowers. Of course, I am barely literate where flowers are concerned. Once you get past the rose and the violet, I'm in trouble I think the flowers were used for storytelling -- the lillies were a tangible sign that Albrecht was very sorry, and a tangible way for Giselle to see that, and then to communicate with him, forgiving him. A silly question about the daisies. When I was a child, I used to pour over books about names, and I remember that "Daisy" was a nickname for "Margaret," but there was never an explanation given. Now, in English, we call "daisy" what in French is "marguerite." Does anyone know the reason for this?