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atm711

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Posts posted by atm711

  1. I remember that period so well--she left ballet in 1954 and I left in 1951---for the same reason--marriage. when I read the excerpts of the book on Amazon I couldn't wait to get my copy. She writes of people I knew at the time, particularly Brendan Fitzgerald (born O'Flanagan). She describes him so well--it is the Brendan I knew. I am only a quarter through the book and it keeps calling me to read on....I have recently been engrossed with the new biography of JPKennedy but I have put it aside.....I wishj I could contact her....

  2. I too saw a pair of Nutcrackers---Balanchine by Pennsylvania Ballet and the recent livecast of Peter Wright's Royal prouduction. loved the Clara in. this performance--Meghan Grace. Hinkis --of late a member of ABT. Of. the three female leading roles, this role has the most to offer..

    and it was a pleasure to see the old Fedorova-Ballet Russe Grand PDD--(there ought to be a law that every Nutcracker include only this PDD---I can only imagine Veronica Part dancing it--surely made for each other). My. highest praise must go to Pennsylvania Ballet's admiral production of the Balanchine---my granddaughter was a Hoop.

  3. I have been pretty fortunate recently---although I live in Battery Park I have been away in Pennysylvania visiting family. My good fortune has known no end----I almost bought a waterfront condo on Staten Island that had considerable damage. Someone up there is watching over me---I am sure it is my beloved husband of 61 years who passed away 6 months ago. I hope I can get home in time to vote.....

  4. I saw the trilogy last Saturday night and my disappointment was with "Orpheus" The performance fell flat due in a large part to Marcovici's Orpheus. I saw no longing, desperation or resolve in uniting with Eurydice in his performance. It was a distant laid-back performance---was Eurydice truly the love of his life? The anticipated "Curtain" also literally fell flat...it looked like an ordinary scrim. I am sorry if I come across as too negative but my long memory goes back to the first performance by Ballet Society....Magallanes, while not a technical dancer was a devastated Orpheus, and Tallchief, who I have always thought of as an actress-dancer was spellbinding as Eurydice....and that Curtain!! It had a life of its own---and literally ate up the stage and the performers.

  5. I know that some folks are a little taken aback by Macaulay's remembrances but, in fact, what he describes as the audiences' reactions in Paris 1990 is precisely what I've seen at the Mariinsky - most people are 'd*** bored' by this ballet. The staging looks gorgeous -- no expense was spared -- but there is almost no dancing and mainly a lot of posing, little walks and other casual movements. One woman shuffles in a circle with other women, eventually falls to the center of the circle, jumps wildly, shakes and falls. Whoever portrays this Sacrificial Maiden is unrecognizable through her clown-faced make-up so anybody on earth could be dancing...Iosifidi or Makhalina? Does it matter? It could be Millicent Hodson behind all the pancake, for all we know; just say that Makhalina is 'dancing' and sell tickets! [by the way, this is somewhat similar to today's Ardani-Mariinsky tour, touting the beautiful Ekaterina Kondaurova as the Stepmother in Cinderella; some will buy tix just because they think they'll see EK in all of her classical glory. Boy, are those fans in for a nasty surprise! But I digress.]

    Stravinsky's score is a masterpiece for musicologists...but for Joe & Jane Public? Pass the No-Doze, please!

    The Hodson-after-Nijinsky Sacre is the sort of ballet that most people digest maybe once, just as they digest their castor oil. Because it is good for you so just shut-up and swallow! It was shown on PBS in the Joffrey version ca 1989; we are grateful, we have seen it. Enough!

  6. Looking around for light summer reading I came across "Ther Chaperone" by Laura Moriarty. The 15 year old Louise Brooks is a main character and it covers her early years with Denishawn. It has whet my appetite for more Brooks and I am re-reading "Lulu in Hollywood" and the excellent biography by Barry Paris.

  7. I could never understand the French love affair with the choreography of Lifar. Mimsyb can you imagine seeing 'Suite en Blanc' on the same itinerary as 'Symphony in C'? It happened to me during a POB tour of NYC in the late 40's--although then (Sym in C) it was called 'Palais de Crystal'. When I think of Lifar's choreography the word 'static' comes to mind. Pity the French for getting Lifar instead of Balanchinehappy.png The frivolous pairing of Lifar, Petit and Bejart is a bit much, what with the price of tickets today.

  8. I saw it today, too---and I am wondering what happened to the Lady in White?? Loved seeing Alexandrova---and were the girlfriends really Nikulina and Shipulina? (the program cast was way off) The second one of this pair to dance was must impressive --was it Shipulina? That said, I did not like the production---especially the scenery--oh, that awful drapery......the Grigorovichj choreography was not far behind. David Hallberg, what have you gotten yourself into??

  9. Thanks so much Alexandra for sharing the article from Ballet Co. -- it is a great "read". It is a pleasure to read his candid comments---and I especially enjoyed reading his opinion of Kaye and Alonso in their early careers. As his contemporary (in age, if nothing else!) we were both doing the same thing on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

    RIP

  10. Thank you all for your responses. I'm really interested in the early BT ballerinas, and all of them seem to have lots of material on the Internet, aside from books-(Tallchief, Kaye, Alonso, etc..). Hightower seems to have always been praised for her technique. I would love to hear from someone who got to see her dancing.

    I guess that's me Christian---I saw her in my early years of ballet-going---the 1944-45 season of BT. Unlike the other "Indian ballerinas" she was a full fledged ballerina at the time---her name was ABOVE the title. She was my first Myrtha and I knew early on that this was a Ballerina role---not a soloists.....She had a beautiful classical line and was an impressive Odette and has been properly praised for her Nutcracker PDD. I was so sorry to see her emigrate to Europe........

  11. I cannot resist commenting on the first 'Graduation Ball' I saw by Ballet Theatre---Lichine and Riabouchinska were the leading couple with a delightful Rosella Hightower as the pig-tailed girl and John Kriza as a droll sexy Drummer Boy,Alonso in the classical PDD and Marjorie Tallchief and Margaret Banks in the fouette competition .....it must have made quite an impression as I have not forgotten it or the cast all these years....flowers.gif

  12. I saw Le Palais de Cristal for the first time when the POB was in NYC in the fall of 1947. Toumanova was not in that production. What has stayed with me all these years were two of the male dancers - Alexandre Kalioujny (1 mm) and Michel Renault (3mm). It was a letdown a few months later in 1948 seeing Ballet Society at the NYCity Center---for openers, the stage was too small and when the whole cast was on stage in the fourth movement, it was chaos. LeClercq was in the 2nd mm, but, for me, she did not have the quality of lushness that the part required----I saw some of that quality later with Allegra Kent. and even more so with Farrell, Part and Lopatkina.

    Helene mentions the developee ala seconde in the 2ndmm. and how it changed into an arabesque----could it be that the foot to ear developee would make it hard for the male dancer to walk around her and take her other hand???

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