Alexandra

Once upon a time, there was a very dignified, elderly man who attended every single one of the ballet performances at the Kennedy Center. He carried a stop watch, and noted the running time of each ballet. He is known to me only as The Chinese Gentleman -- say that name to any Kennedy Center regular, and they'll know instantly who you mean. One day, a friend of mine asked him why he came ever night and he said, "Because you never know which night will be the good one." These are among the wisest words I have ever heard spoken about ballet.

That was beautiful, Drew. I've always admired Kistler. I saw her first Swan Lake when she was sixteen, and saw her fairly frequently in her early career, but not very much in the past ten years. I've heard and read that she's totally fallen apart, etc., but the few times I have seen her -- about six, including one TV and the Nutcracker film -- I still thought she was wonderful. If her technique has deteriorated and she's not adapting to it, then that's sad, but in the things that I have seen her do -- including Duo Concertante, twice -- yes, she glows. For me, the rank of "ballerina" is for life. You can be an aging ballerina, but if you've ever had that magic, you don't lose it.

We have such a large and vocal New York contingent here, that I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion about Balanchine among people who do NOT live in New York. This is sparked by comments mod-squad made on the Balanchine, the Movie thread. ("Outside New York" includes England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Australia and Russia ) Pro or con, what do you think of Balanchine? How much of his work do you see where you live? Would you like to see more, less? How do you think he has affected ballet -- in his lifetime, but also as a continuing influence? Too much? Too little? Just right?

Orzak, following up on Yvonne's comment, forgive me if I've missed it--I have not been reading the board carefully this past month--but with what company(ies) did you dance? It's so interesting that you began so late and yet had a professional career, I think it might be very inspiring as we so frequently get questions from people asking "is it too late for me to start." (Sorry, this is a bit off-topic of dancing and acting.)

There is a film of Ulanova's Giselle that I saw long ago, my first year of watching dance, so I can't give you cites and production details. She was a peasant -- not earthy, but innocent, allowing herself to be ugly, the way a country girl who'd never looked in a mirror and had no idea of "beauty" could look. I was riveted by her first act; I don't remember much about the second, but I do remember the mad scene, and she was terrifying. One can argue that ballet is not supposed to be realistic, that one doesn't go mad in "Giselle" the way one would in a contemporary piece, but go mad prettily, as Fracci did (I also liked her), but it certainly was good theater. I never saw Seymour either, and always wanted to, Drew. To me, she would have been the ideal Giselle (and Sylph. Ashton wanted to do La Sylphide for the Royal in the 1960s but the Danes wouldn't let him have the production) I always thought Sibley-Dowell and Seymour-Wall would have been wonderful in that ballet.) On dance-acting in general, it occurred to me that during the Ballet Russe era, everyone would have been assumed to be an actor-dancer, and the oddball was the one who could only dance. There would be virtuoso solos for those dancers, and for very young dancers, but 80% of the cast would be dancing and acting.

I've been listening to dancers on this topic for the past ten years, because the Danes, generally, are known as actor-dancers (although there are some notable exceptions ) I think there are some people whose acting is stronger than their technique, but for others, it's not. How's that for helpful? I didn't see Nora Kaye, but everything I've heard or read is that she was a strong actress, but not a classical dancer -- but she did dance leading roles. Lynn Seymour wasn't a killer technician, perhaps, but I thought she was a lovely dancer, and she acted through her dancing. Fonteyn was also an actress. Kronstam, the Dane I know best, started out wanting to be an actor and always had an actor's approach, but he also had a top-level technique. It was a matter of approach. His Florimund would be classical, because it was a classical role, the purity of the style was part of the character. But in a character role, a different kind of movement was needed. I do think, in general parlance, when someone writes "she is a dance actress," they often mean to imply that "and can't turn for squat." But I think that's because there's a tendency to categorize people, and also, we don't want to believe that somebody can do everything. It's much nicer to be able to condescend, and say, "Of course, he could turn, but he can't act, etc." I think Plisetskaya is an example of someone with a technique of steel, but who was also at least extremely expressive. And Ulanova had a very fine technique (the West didn't see her until she was 50, but she was young once). It's a good topic. Any other actor-dancers? Of Danish dancers, I'd name Anna Laerkesen (great as Caroline in Lilac Garden), Sorella Englund (for me, the best-ever Madge), an older mime, Gerda Karstens, who took Stanislavsky classes at the Theatre's drama school; Arne Villumsen and Ib Andersen, as well, were both good actors, and excellent dancers. Nikolaj Hubbe was superb in acting roles at a very young age, and another dancer near his age, Alexander Kolpin.

I think the point that style is simply how one is taught to dance is a very good one. There's a school of thought that doesn't like to use the word "style" at all, because it's really a matter of technique. "Style" implies something decorative. (Although I can think of a few aspects of style that aren't inextricably linked to technique, such as whether the fingers are split or not, and whether the man's extended foot is flat on the ground or pointed.) I think that "style" is a useful word -- often a necessary one -- in comparing dancers or companies. I also agree with Marc that it's an accent. I've always thought of style that way. And just as one never thinks one has an accent, but can readily recognize one in others, so one often thinks that "our" dancers are doing it the right way and "they" are somehow inferior. There's a newly released video of a film of Erik Bruhn (I think it's coming to New York and I hope you'll all go see it) where he's working with Nureyev in a studio and tells how Nureyev kept saying something was "not Russian." (In shock and horror, one gathers.) And Bruhn would say, "No, Rudolf, it's not Russian. It's Danish, but that doesn't make it WRONG."

Checkwriter, you're very right to be skeptical of anything posted on the net that's unconfirmed, but RG is a very reliable source and would know this, I'm quite sure.

LeClerq has long been in my Top Ten of Dancers I Wish I'd Seen. I loved the Barbara Newman interview also. She was constantly saying, "Of course, I couldn't turn." "I had no technique." "I couldn't jump" -- according to her, she couldn't do anything! (Others would disagree) Sadly, though, she never referred to the illness, just to "when I was stopping dancing," as though she had gracefully retired at 42. Think of the ballets we would have, had she not gotten ill (in Copenhagen, of course).

I'll wager that "style" is another one of those words that we all only think we use the same way. It might be interesting to get some definition of style, with examples. I won't go first

I think it's rather superficial as well. I believe it was Anna Kisselgoff who pointed out a good decade ago that there really isn't anything as "national style" to begin with; style descends from choreography. When I post a link that "might make for a good discussion" this doesn't mean that I either like or agree with the article But she does raise some issues about polyglot ballet that are worth considering.

I've moved this over from Links, without commenting one way or another on the article, except to say I thinki the points raised might make an interesting discussion. Manhattnik's already made one and is welcome to make it again here. Omnipresent international stars a threat? Louise Levene comments in the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003319252...26/btnut26.html

I should check this before I write it but I have a vague memory of hearing that there ARE two authorized biographies, because they cover different aspects of his life? It would be possible to have an artistic one and a more general biography, for example.

Amanda, I think that Deborah Jowitt is writing a book about Robbins, but I don't know when it's due to be released. I don't know anything about this one except its impending existence, unfortunately. It's a shame it's missed the pre-Christmas season, though.

Yes, please keep posting about what you're seeing If there aren't more comments, it's only because we don't have anyone else, at least who's an active poster, who's seeing the same things you are -- but that makes us all the more eager to read about them, so I hope you'll continue to be as detailed in your writing -- it's lovely to read.

Ann, I'm sorry, I don't. I've heard of Babelfish, but no more than that. Perhaps copying a post into a word processing document and then running Babelfish??? That's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head. (There's nothing that comes with this software that says "does not work on Babelfish )

Thanks for posting this, Sonja. It's great to be able to learn what's being danced in Germany. I remember Pankova from her days with the Kirov. I thought her a very interesting dancer, and was glad to learn what she's doing now.

Thank you very much for posting such a detailed report, Hu Xinxin. I'm sure we're all, as Giannina would say, green green green (which is American slang for jealous, if that doesn't translate well)

Welcome to Ballet Alert! I'm going to move this to the Video Swap Shop. I have to say I know people with extensive video collections, but they don't have these. But good luck Alexandra

Welcome, Siren, and thanks very much for your post -- length in the service of art is no vice It's wonderful to have so many views -- to repeat, I think this is the best, most complete, series of reports of a season we've had so far. I hope you'll keep contributing.

Yes. I don't think it lasted very long. But I'm sure there's lots in the Perlmutter book about it (that's one I started and couldn't finish).

Drew, please continue spilling Perhaps we should start a new thread for the second week's performances, though? I'll put up an initial post as a lure

dirac, thank you very much for all of that background. (I'd agree that there's no problem with mentioning cattiness and rivalries in a biography, or an article that's specifically about the history of the time, but in a preview piece for a revival of a ballet?) I think the article reflects what editors want these days -- more gossip than art, anything negative or remotely scandalous. kip, there are two Tudor biographies that I know of (there was to be a third, by Fernau Hall, but I don't think it was ever finished.) They are very different. One -- "Shadowplay" by Donna Perlmutter -- is very concerned with his personal life. The other (and I can't remember the title) is published by Oxford University Press and is by Judith Chazin-Bennahum, and deals with the ballets. Some find the latter to be a bit dry and the former to be not dry enough There's no "Goldilocks" book for Tudor yet, I'm afraid.

Nan, "Thumper" will be the sequel

Victoria, both Danish and Swedish dancers are very fluent in English (and were by the 1960s as well). The Danes worked with Volkova in English from the 1950s and were quite used to be insulted -- well, yelled at -- in that language!