Alexandra

Another Verdy vote (for the reasons others have already stated. She's not only articulate, but extremely quotable. Also, of people I've interviewed, Nikolaj Hubbe. He can come up with image after image to make his points, and is very poetic, as well. Two others: Michael Bjerknes and Rosalie O'Connor. Both can say what they mean succinctly and very clearly.

The Paris Opera women don't have any trouble with his fast footwork One can argue that Nureyev used too many steps, but I think it would be hard to prove he did it deliberately to harm dancers. After the early 1970s he didn't have Volkova, and that may have made a difference. The 1962-69 years (which I didn't see) were when he was working intensely with her. Also, after 1970 he was a guest artist, rather than more regular company member, with the Royal -- there's one interview where he said "they had no more use for me." Guest hopping all over the world without regular classes must have taken their toll, too. He wanted to be a jet-age dancer, but it had its price.

This would have given you a much different picture of Nureyev, the pre-1984 version, ViolinConcerto. Thank you for your comments. (And it was good to have a reminder of how much fun the Cold War was (not) ) I was surprised that Alla Sizova wasn't mentioned, and wasn't described as his partner. She was the unshown dancer in the 1958 Corsaire clip -- the full version of that, in black and white, is commercially available, and she's stunning. Her career, one reads, was very negatively affected by Nureyev's defection. But now she's a nonperson? Are we the only ones who watched? What did you think?

Mel put up another thread to discuss the show here: Nureyev so I'm going to close this thread and direct people to the new one so that we don't have two discussions going -- with apologies to Cristian! (I'm glad you enjoyed it. The footage at the beginning was when he was in the police station, having just been arrested, with Fonteyn, for being at a party in San Francisco at which marijuana was another guest. I've always been amazed that he could have been that calm and cool, when he must have been terrified -- it could have meant deportation.

papeetpatrick, I think they are available, but only on PAL (as far as I know).

I think that was beautifully put, ngitanjali, and clarified the issues very well. (Ballet is known for its one-parent heroes and heroines. Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" and Clara in "The Nutcracker" are exceptions. The rest are orphans or half-orphans.) On the Chinese dance in "Nutcracker," I have a story. A few years ago a Chinese ballet company came to DC and brought a Chinese ballet with, in addition to classical dancing and a few things borrowed from the circus (very artistically!) there were some folk dances. One of them had two men come out, wearing regulation ballet Chinese hats, put their hands up, extended their index fingers, and began bobbing their heads from side to side. A colleague of mine went back stage and asked where that had come from and was told it was a traditional Chinese dance -- he had more details, but I can't remember them. Now, they may have been pulling his leg; I don't know. Buyt it was interesting. Back to blackface in 19th century ballets, I think it's important to keep things as they were for history's sake, unlike TV's "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" or whatever it was called awhile back where the Old West was presented as a contemporary multi-culturalist's dreamland that was very, very far from reality. We need to look at our sins. I've posted this on past discussions of this topic, so apologies to those who've read it before. There is a blackface dance in Bournonville's "Far From Denmark" that has an interesting background. They are at the heart of the ballet. Bournonville had heard Gottschalk's "Negro Dance," as it was called and was fascinated by its rhythms. He wanted to make a ballet, but couldn't imagine how he could find a Danish story that would suit. So he had sailors visit the Caribbean, where Denmark had colonies and there was a large black population. Thus Jason and Medea, two servants (with quite a few children, whom they did not kill!), were born. At one point in the ballet, Jason asks one of the characters to play the piano. Bournonville writes about this, saying, first, that he was very proud that Denmark never countenanced slavery and that Jason and Medea were servants, not slaves. And although some people might object to a servant asking a guest of the house to play the piano, he thought that Jason had been such a good servant, and was such an important part of the household, that such a request would not be out of line. I think details like that are important to history, and I wouldn't want to lose it. All that said, I can imagine that someone who hasn't been prepared for what he or she is about to see on stage could very well react negatively and be hurt or offended or angered by what they see. I don't think that it's easy to reconcile the two views.

Like many things, it depends on one's definition of brutal The examples e'smom posted aren't a red flag to me. Could you post the complete reference? It might sound different in the full context. (Both of these comments were part of several reviews.) As kfw mentioned, the reviews were rather.... I'd say "harsh." So brace yourself before reading the links he posted above!!! Did anyone else read the Dance Mag review? If so, what did you think? And who was the reviewer?

Yes, it is a change, isn't it? rg mentioned Nureyev's shortening of the jacket to make his legs longer. In contrast, here were long-legged dancers who lengthened the jacket so that the legs weren't "extreme," as Hans noted above. Small people can be perfectly proportioned, too, of course. Niels Kehlet, a tiny Dane who could jump about four times his height, was beautifully made

ABT tried a no-makeup "Petrouchka" here a few years ago, and I don't think it worked. "Petrouchka" is not white; he's in "white face" (tradition says that Pierrot, from whom Petrouchka derives, was a baker's assistant and was always falling into the flour. The flour is what makes his face white.) The Blackamoor, to me, isn't a "black person" but a specific, Blackamoor doll. So to me, the makeup is important. An aside. I showed "Petrouchka" to a class of students this summer. They did "read" the characters as racial types, and were interested about the "doll" background information. And they were very surprised that the Blackamoor was the cool guy and got the girl. One boy thought it was very "advanced for its time!"

Of course!

Carbro, I agree on the Balinese change in La Sonnambula. It always looked to me as though they tried to find the ethnic group least likely to complain! (And three virtual golden apples for reading the whole article AND the comments!!!!!)

I wanted to let our faithful readers know that there have been some changes at danceviewtimes. The first is that it's been redesigned. The second is that reviews will be posted as they're written, rather than waiting for a new issue every Sunday. And the third is that we've added blogs -- someone suggested when I started danceviewtimes that we needed a "Sunday Section" for commentary and features and things that didn't fit in a publication dedicated to reviews, and this is an attempt to do that. There will be several individual blogs. Not all of them are active yet, but I hope they will be by the beginning of the season, and I'll post the links here so they'll be easy to find. (They're also on the front page of www.danceviewtimes.com under DVT Columnists.) The first three have some content now: Lisa Traiger (dance news, reviews from DC) George Jackson; travel pieces Where Were You Sitting? (Alexandra Tomalonis) (currently this is only an archive of reviews from the past three years) and here are four that will get going in the fall. Letter from New York (Nancy Dalva) Paul Parish Dale Brauner Eva Kistrup (this will be primarily reports from Copenhagen) The names and designs of the blogs may change but the links won't. I hope.

Dirac just posted this on Links and I thought it worth discussing. We've discussed the topic before, but not for a few years, so let's have a go again. It's a short article, and I WOULD BEG YOU to read the whole thing before posting! Here's what dirac posted: Judith Mackrell muses on the Bolshoi's little pickanninies in The Guardian's arts blog. (Luke Jennings responds in the comments section.)

Why thank you, Hans I missed Bruhn as a classical dancer, but he was always described as "perfectly proportioned." (He thought his legs were too skinny, I've been told.) Kronstam was a "new" type in his day -- very long legs, long lines. John Martin wrote of him on the Danes' first trip to New York that he was unusual because he "was lyrical without seeming weak." One of his rivals said he was too narrow in the shoulders; Eliot Feld said he was the most perfectly proportioned dancer he'd ever seen, "like a statue by Michaelangelo." So there you go I was going to make the same point rg made about Nureyev controlling the viewer's eye, and making his legs look longer by shortening the jacket. He also wore boots dyed to match his tights, which also lengthened the leg.

I didn't realize that, Jane -- thank you. It's a curious -- and interesting -- choice of a work to revive, I think. (And that looks like a good program! I hope they bring it here.)

I got an advance copy of Gerard Uferas's "In the Company of Stars," a photo book on Paris Opera Ballet. I think many of the photos are lovely (and emphasize ballet more than some of POB's "ballet moderne" repertory). The photos are very artful, but not artsy -- no smeared Wilis shot from across the street through a veil. You can pre-order from Amazon for $31.50 nearly half-price (they list it at $60): In the Company of Stars (they don't give a release date) Editing to add: It's published by Flammarion and distributed by Rizzoli. I don't know how many pages, because if there are page numbers, I haven't found them It's oversized, but not bulky, and has an indexing feature I've never seen -- instead of listing the photos at the back, there are thumbnails of each photo with a caption. One of my favorites is of Laetitia Pujol in Belarbi's "Hurlevant" ("Wuthering Heights"). There are photographs of everything from children at the school, to dancers in rehearsal, backstage, and, of course, performance. It's a lovely book, particularly if you're fond of POB

Thanks, Leonid. That's my take on Bejart as well -- classically trained and very knowledgeable about ballet, a company of many very good and interesting dancers, and an aesthetic that put theater above all.

Thank you, Helene! And I'll put in a vote for Anthony Dowell.

Thank you for that, rg -- I'd never read it, but it makes sense. I've always heard/read what you wrote about the contrasts between the fairies, the mortals, and the spirituality of the final act pas. (I was taught that the fairies were earthbound, rather than ethereal, because they were Germanic fairies, to match the music.) And I hope that all the company ADs who are promising to stage Act I only read your post! I think carbro is correct about the intended cast, but I think with most choreographers, and perhaps especially Balanchine, it's the actual cast that matters.

That's a good question, leonid. I often think of that when I think about dancers of the past. Everyone is becoming rigid now. We're in a period of rules, rather than what the eye sees and the soul senses. There are quite a few companies now who will not look at a boy under 5' 10", which I think is absolutely ridiculous (and would have ruled out, to name five, Bruhn, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Nijinsky, and Vasiliev. I can't imagine a Seymour, or a Pavlova, would get into a company today. (I keep remembering the story that Fokine decided that they shouldn't force Pavlova's turnout because the lack of it "was part of her personality.") I've lost it now, but there was a discussion above about the difference between "line" and "lines." And the discussion of Seymour implies the difference between classical line and romantic line. Fascinating how a simple question can lead down so many paths!!

I'd just say that the Romeo and Juliet excerpt didn't help me understand why Bejart was considered to be a major choreographer

I already regret posting that Before we get off on New Ballets with Interesting Character Names, let's get back to Loys as a lost character (not just a name). Does the ballet "Giselle" need the audience to know that Giselle thinks Albrecht's name is Loys?

I was thinking the same thing. Drug Grafa sounds like a character in a new ballet by Ratmansky about the Russian Mob.

Hilarion is Hans (or Gans) in Russian productions. (and with the Trocaderos, who used to have a wonderful, chubby;, determined Hans in raspberry tights) Thank you for the information about Silesia, bart, and for the cast lists, rg.

Bejart. Now that's a name we don't often mention on these boards! Bejart was THE avant-garde ballet choreographer of the 1960s and '70s, very popular in Europe, performed in football stadiums (I regret not having seen the ballet where the dancers entered on motorcycles). He was controversial. I had one friend who called him "the anti-Christ, and I mean that literally," and another who thought he was as classical as Balanchine. His works aren't often danced here, but I just got a press release that the Alvin Ailey Company (which has a tradition of dancing in all styles, including ballet; Ailey choreographed a few ballets with the women on point) will be dancing Bejart's "The Firebird" this fall. I saw the ballet back in the late '70s, when Bejart was going through a rechoreographing old Ballets Russes (and Ballet Russe) ballets phase. I remember it as lots of men in red -- it was made in the aftermath of the Danny the Red period, if I'm remembering correctly, when all good young men were Communists -- and the Firebird (a male dancer; Clifton Brown for Ailey, by the photos) rises from the ashes, like a Phoenix. All this is from memory, so if someone has a better, or more recent, acquaintance with the work, please correct me! Anyone seen this one? Anyone curious to see it? What about Bejart, generally?