Alexandra

I didn't mean to suggest that graduates of the Conservatoire usually went to Marseille, but just asked where they would be able to find work -- in response to Estelle's original comment about how companly after company in France changes from classical to contemporary.

I've copied this over from Links for discussion. I can't imagine ANYONE here who has the SLIGHTEST interest in Cunningham, of course..... Not about ballet, but in the Telegraph Ismene Brown visits with Merce Cunningham and poses questions from eight British choreographers.

In the States, contemporary dance is not as popular as classical ballet -- the general audience (people not really familiar with ballet, but curious, say) will go to a "Swan Lake" before they'll go to a contemporary triple bill. (This is based on what sells out big houses, like New York's Met, or D.C.'s Kennedy Center.) And the really experimental modern dance plays to very small audiences. There certainly are many people who prefer contemporary to classical, of course, and I think there are certainly people who find classical ballet intimidating and contemporary more accessible, but despite all the talk about how contemporary draws in new audiences, the numbers are not there. Aside from Tanzteater, which is expressive, the French contemporary dance I've seen has been resolutely undramatic -- just the steps. (Would one consider Maguy Marin the French version of Tanzteater? I don't know what else to call it. But it's whimsical rather than drawing on dark emotions. At least, what I've seen has been.) I'd love to see some fresh choreography based on the classical technique. Where is it!?! Not the stuff where the dancers put on toe shoes and kick as high as possible while doing contractions, and then dive to the floor and writhe, but really, a new ballet.

I wondered about possibilities for graduates when I saw the Conservatoire's spring program. There were five young women who looked extremely promising -- with stagecraft and allure as well as technique. Where will they dance? One of the things that irks me about the current blending trend is that much contemporary dance uses ballet technique -- in the sense of the strength and athletic aspects of it, though not its sensibilities. So they may well take in ballet-trained dancers. But, as one of our young dancers (Rachel) said on this board: Soon ballet will become something everyone learns but nobody uses.

It is sad. Not because there's anything wrong with contemporary dance, but because it's replacing ballet rather than co-existing with it. And it's even sadder when it happens like this -- because, I'd wager the guess, the people making the decision are not educated in the arts and don't know that there is a difference. We've seen it over and over. "We must return the company to a classical base." "Oh. Then why is next season's repertory going to be completely pieces by Mats Ek and Nacho Duato (and 15 other people with whose works we are less familiar)." Answer: "They are firmly rooted in the classical tradition!" Which, of course, they're not.

Ouch! Lifeguards was once a perfect ballet.

Herman, I agree -- ballet was much more popular in the U.S. when ABT and the Ballet Russe and Ruth Page did coast to coast tours, hitting not just the major cities, but really small towns, where the only "theater" was a high school auditorium. There are dozens of dancers who first discovered ballet this way, but fans, too. Contemporary dance is so much more accessible -- an irony, since modern dance was "the intellectual" art when it started, or at least, that was certainly a goal of the Founding Mothers. But the American brand of it -- rock music, "high energy", no stars, just young people dancing, nothing threatening about it -- makes ballet seem inaccessible: there must be rules that I don't understand, why are they doing this?, why is everyone bowing to her, etc. There's a down side to everything, of course, and there are times I wonder if I'd been drawn to ballet if my first experience had been a small company's attempt at "Swan Lake" or "Sleeping Beauty". And I also think you can make a case for a nation saying, "This is our best. This is what we want to send abroad, to represent us." (not that Paris Opera tours much) But on balance, I think it's dangerous to put all, or nearly all, of your eggs in one basket, in this case.

Thanks, Tigger! I think Paquita just misclicked the first time out -- it's moved into the NBoC forum now.

Thanks for that, Estelle. I thought the notion of centralizing ballet in one company, of making that one company set the standard for excellent (and that that one company is located in Paris) could be seen as Paris-centric, too, but the Parisian answer to that might be, we are at the top exactly because excellence is located here. And then one gets into a question of whether the best is drawn to one center, and the art grows from that yeast, or whether the center sets up the insititutional framework to force that condition. And I wouldn't want to try to answer that one! Watermill, my comment was really an attempt to answer canbelto's question: "I wonder if all ballet companies that are specifically based on one schooling are ripe for abuse." (which is a perfectly legitimate question, and I didn't mean to imply otherwise. It's often asked.)

Eek! I hope ballet schooling and the existence of a company style is not considered abuse! As for POB, look at the difference among principals -- Guerin and Platel, to start. (I know, they were trained at the Conservatoire, not the school, but they werer POB ballerinas) They have very different bodies. At the Maryinsky -- 15 years ago you had Lezhnina (short) and Makhalina (tall) and everything in between. In the current generation, Vishneva and Zakharova are very different. And, as has often been pointed out, Balanchine's princiapls are VERY different -- McBride and Von Aroldingen. Verdy and Farrell. Adams and Kent. The body line and silhouette have changed in every company from decade to decade, and from choreographer/director to choreographer/director; the one steadfast requirement is some identification of style. In companies that have one, of course. We don't usually have to defend classical ballet style on Ballet Alert!, but since the question has come up -- where are the moans of abusive conformity, unfairness, etc. at basketball, which requires tall players; marathon runners are usually extremely thin and wirey. Sprinters more muscular. Gymnasts have to be flexible, female gymnasts are in trouble if they're much taller than five three, because their feet will scrape the ground on the uneven parallel bars. Et cetera. The one thing that ballet and athletics do have in common is rigor -- both of physical requirements, discipline and training.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the company -- apologies -- but Ostrich has asked a question about suggestions for books that I thought you all might not see. http://balletalert.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17688&st=0& Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure.

We actually have a couple of posters from Belgium -- I'm going to post a link to this post in the company forum and see if I can entice anyone over!

Thank you very much, silvy (for both the lovely message and for posting in English).

I think they are more dissimilar than they seem. We used to have a postcard up on the main site of the corps in Swan Lake. When you first looked at it, they looked absolutely similar. When you went from swan to swan, each one was quite different -- not only in her person, but in what she was actually doing. Also, I remember a POB "Swan Lake" performance when, suddenly, in the last act, I noticed that one of the swans was a good eight inches shorter than everyone else. They were lined up, side by side, and it was unmistakable -- yet I hadn't noticed it all evening. The style is what unifies them, and the proportions. Watermill, there was a lot about the "scandal" on the Paris Opera Ballet forum a year or two ago. I don't remember the details, but it's my impression that it wan't really a scandal, just a lot of complaints that the school was too strict.

Hello, Lucianol! Welcome to Ballet Alert! We have people from many countries who read our board, and we wish we could all read every language, but unfortunately that's not the case. We ask that everyone post in English, as that is the one language that most of our posters do read and write. Thanks!

Jane Simpson has a new piece on Ashton as a dancer in ballet.co's Ashton section: Ashton the Dancer

Marc Haegeman did an interview with Patrice Bart (the chief balletmaster at the Paris Opera) for DanceView a few issues ago in which they discussed the situation of classical ballet in France, and as I remember it, it's a deliberate plan to centralize ballet in Paris, to have one company that's the absolute best, because classical ballet must be excellent (paraphrasing, of course). I think there may be economic reasons as well. When dance is state supported, modern dance choreographers can, and do, demand to have part of the pie, and this (and the fact that contemporary dance, with its small companies and no need for the horrendous expense of toe shoes) is far cheaper to maintain than classical ballet. Hence the change of many companies from ballet to modern/contemporary. (I hope one of our French posters, who will have a much clearer view of this than I, will comment.) I think this will come back to haunt them in a decade or two, because it means that most of the country will see only, or predominantly, contemporary dance, which will make classical ballet even more remote, and seem more elitist, than it is now. Regarding the uniformity of the corps, they still play by old rules there, demanding strict uniformity in corps work and individuality in soloist work (sounds good, but it must be awfully hard to do). I think Carbro made a good point about the Royal's corps -- yes, it was once uniform, too. (And remember Derek Deane's comments a few years ago that so endeared him to his countrymen/women, that he didn't want English dancers because they were all heavy and short and pear shaped?) But the Royal also had fine actors, in small and large parts, and Paris, too, can do dramatic ballets in a variety of styles very convincingly. I think it's all in the balletmastering, company direction.

Thanks for the information, Inga, but I should say, so Natalia doesn't have to, that she's fluent in Russian.

From video evidence and the few newspaper/magazine reviews and articles I've read (there isn't that much about this company in English, unfortunately), Nureyev's influence has to count for something, as the corps in the 1970s was not nearly as precise. I've seen an "Etudes" from that period which is quite sloppy. At a teaching seminar in New York a few summers ago, when asked how to make this correction or that, Claude Bessy would say, "We don't have that problem. We wouldn't accept a dancer with that problem." (This is second hand from a dancer who took the seminar and wrote an article for DanceView; I don't claim this is an exact quote!) They can select exactly the body and proportions they want. And another thing that struck me when I was in Paris this spring -- ballet was built on the French body. The stewardesses on the plane (all French) looked as though they were ballet dancers. You see "ballet dancers" every time you see a group of school girls on the street. In America, there are so many nationalities and body types, it's more difficult to get a uniform look to a corps. (I would say that as much as I love the French corps, I do think the Kirov's corps is at the top level.)

To me, it looks like a mix. There are some who've been principals for several years but I don't think are over the hill yet (Filin, Gracheva, Antonicheva); some younger (Alexandrova, Allash) and a few older. Some names aren't familiar to me, so I don't know whether they're early or late career. I think they try to have two complete companies (and have the personnel to do this), a strong one at home and a strong one to tour. But I hope others more familiar with the company will comment. I echo Leigh's welcome, Wanderer1. Glad you wandered by

I did a web search for Lynn Fontaine, because I have a vague memory of seeing her in a television play when I was a child -- "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals" (by Barrie of Peter Pan fame, if I'm remembering correctly). I found this link, which acting fans and/or nostalgia buffs might want to see: http://otrsite.com/logs/logb1026.htm It's the logs of radio shows from the 1950s. Not even PBS, I think, just regular ol' radio. But not Clear Channel.

Yes, thank you for that, Benny (and welcome to Ballet Alert!, if we haven't welcomed you already!) Here's a clickable link to the review: Gala des Etoiles review

From the company: American Ballet Theatre’s Opening Night Gala at City Center, Wednesday, October 20 at 7pm, will salute the Company’s heritage with a special tribute to legendary choreographer Michel Fokine. The evening will also honor Principal Dancer Alessandra Ferri as she begins her 20th Anniversary season with ABT. The Gala evening, which opens American Ballet Theatre’s three week season, will be chaired by Muffie Potter Aston and Sherrell Aston, Julia and David Koch, Cynthia and Dan Lufkin and Grace and Chris Meigher. In tribute to one of ABT’s founding choreographers, the Company will perform two works by Michel Fokine, Le Spectre de la Rose (Revival Premiere) and the Nocturne from Les Sylphides. The program will also include pas de deux from Swan Lake and Le Corsaire and a complete performance of Jirí Kylián’s Sinfonietta. Principal Dancer Alessandra Ferri will perform Jerome Robbins’ Other Dances in a special celebration to kick-off her 20th Anniversary season with American Ballet Theatre. Other Dances, set to the music of Frederic Chopin, will be performed by Miss Ferri and Angel Corella for the Opening Night Gala only. A Gala dinner at New York’s Plaza Hotel will immediately follow the performance. Gala benefit tickets, which include prime seats to the performance and the post-performance dinner dance, are priced at $1,500 and $1,000. For Gala benefit ticket information ONLY, please call American Ballet Theatre’s Special Events office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3239. Performance-only tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s opening night at City Center are priced at $45 to $125 and are available by calling CityTix at 212-581-1212. City Center is located on West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in New York City. American Ballet Theatre’s City Center season, which continues through November 7, is sponsored by Countrywide Financial, ABT’s National Sponsor, and by Cole Haan, a leading benefactor. Graff Jewelers is the 2004 season sponsor of ABT at NY City Center. ABT’s 2004 NY City Center season is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thank you for that -- and especially for the bit about the Marquis de Cuevas marrying John Rockefeller's daughter! (Now there's a way to get funding.....) I'd never read that either.

I thought this was an interesting question too -- Old Fashioned and troops, what say you? I was surprised that so many were going to Texas Ballet Theatre. In one way, it's odd for two "rival" companies to draw on the same talent pool. But on the other hand, it's nice to have friendly "rivals." Good placements -- congratulations to the school and HB2.