atm711

Dear Ms. Leigh---after that wonderful description, the least you can do for us is a performance photo

I wonder if the Nijinska/Chopin work you saw was "Constantia"?

'Constantia' was a ballet by William Dollar to Chopin and I saw it danced by the deCuevas Ballet International--and...it was not memorable. The Nijinska ballet was called 'Chopin Concerto' and the best thing I remember about it was the performance of the young Maria Tallchief.

I always have a problem watching 'Fancy Free'---for me, Robbins captured NYC in mid-century--which I find missing in performances of today. I did not see the first performance, but I did see the second. Although no one has topped the original cast, for me (Robbins beautifully tailored the choreography to match the talents of the cast), it's more than the performers. The sense of time is gone and I would like to see it set as a period piece. The jocularity appears strained. The ballet was very much like some of the wartime Hollywood movies at the time (think Garland in 'The Clock'). It had the feel of wartime NYC.

"The Duel" really brings b ack memories---I saw it for the firt time with Petit's group, "Ballet de Paris" when they were in NYC. Although I saw it with Melissa Hayden, for me the performances of Colette Marchand (a Zakharova-legged ballerina) and Milorad Miskovitch tops anything I saw of it by American companies.

I also saw a Nijinska ballet to a Chopin piano concerto danced by the Denham Ballet Russe, and Lifar's 'Suite en Blanc" performed by POB in '48 in NYC--all I can say, really, is that they paled next to the Balanchine I was seeing.

Is "Design with Strings" Taras's? That was a big favorite in the '50s and '60s, a small cast work especially suited to young dancers. I never saw it, but have read about it often (I know, I know, not helpful. But maybe somebody else saw it.)

Yes, I saw it with Ballet Theatre and liked it very much---Tchaikovsky score and much indebted to Balanchine--but, hey, what's wrong with that?

Thanks Marga, as always, for your beautiful thoughtful comments. I was struck by the amount of weight the dancers gained---47 lbs?; 40 lbs? In my day you dared not gain more than 20 lbs. I know the medical profession has revised that but I would think someone wanting to return to a dancing career would have been more astute.

After 270 pages of living in Kavanaugh's Nureyev Neverland I need a break. I found the perfect antidote--the restored version of Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward, Angel'. This is a real treat for this old Wolfe fan. 66,000 words were cut from the original manuscript by Wolfe and his editor Maxwell Perkins and every one of them has been restored, using Wolfe's original title of 'O Lost'--and I am wallowing in every one of them.

I guess Hagland and I were at different performances Sunday afternoon...ha! I loved the soft romanticism that Yuriko Kajiya brought to 'Ballo'; I always felt the ballet was only about technique but she showed us a whole new side of it. And since I am in the process of reading the Kavanaugh/Nureyev bio it was so gratifying to see Cornejo's beautiful pirouettes...a high retire way up on 3/4 toe. I am already looking forward to his Albrecht. I thought the central PDD of "From Here On Out' was the most successful part of the ballet, due in a large part by the performance of Herrera and Gomes. They made the choreography look a lot better than it deserved. 'Fall River Legend' looked very dated to me, or perhaps because I can still remember Nora Kaye's performance---her anguish was felt from the depths of her solar plexus and I saw nothing of that from Wiles, or last year from Murphy (in 'Pillar of Fire').....we just are not nurturing dramatic ballerinas anymore.

It appears Accocella is in her best "Mama" mode and is protecting her young (only 34, she reminds us) charge. She even manages to read his mind:

"he hoped to lure in a new audience.....hence the curtain speech...chinos, messy hair...he seemed to be saying 'I'm not like those other ballet directors, old men in suits. I'm young and cool like you'"

The snobbery remark was the least--I've been hearing it for years but I didn't expect it from her.

I don't know what North Carolina Dance Theater director Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux does in his home theater, but when his company was here in Charlottesville recently he walked around talking to people during intermissions and after the performance, several times seeking out a family with young kids who had attended his pre-performance talk. He seems like a genuinely modest man and there was nothing showy about his presence, and it was sweet to see him with the children.

this is the Bonnefoux I see most summers when I go to Chautauqua---where he is head of the Dance Dept. He is easily approached and genuinely appears to like the interaction with the audience.

She is a wonderful teacher and must have been an amazingly expressive dancer (esp in Giselle).

I only saw her 'Giselle' once, and that was a guest appearance with the Ballet Russe at the Met on April 28, 1950. The program is one of a very few I have from that time and I kept it to renew my memories of her performance. Frederic Franklin was her Albrecht.

This looks like the 1945 Ballet Theatre production by Adolph Bolm with scenery and costumes by Chagall. Markova was the Firebird, Dolin her Prince, and Diana Adams was the princess.

Rest in peace, sweet Bip--how I loved seeing him perform.

On this one I am with Macaulay 100%---he summed up my feelings beautifully:

"In 1989 it was said that the Kirov Ballet was at last trying to enter the 20th century, in 2008 it looks as if Ballet Theater is trying to move in the opposite direction."

Shame on ABT for not properly honoring Tudor in '08.

I like spending my Sunday mornings -- well, afternoons, I am not an early riser -- with the Times. Rather like Cliff and Jimmy at the curtain rise of the first act of Look Back in Anger, only my afternoon is pleasanter.

who's doing the ironing?

--back to topic---I am currently reading Duberman's bio of Kirstein and loving every page of it---I admire his writing style and will surely look into his other books.

I just finished reading it---nowhere in the book did I get an inkling that she knew much about the history of her chosen profession. In her brief preface she states that "...with the exception of my family and certain prominent individuals, I have changed the names of and details about persons described in the book to protect their identities" and then goes on to skewer most of the professionals she came in contact with. What irritated me most about the book was her off handed way of dismissing the talents of the dancers around her. She was blessed with a beautiful body, but she didn't know what to do with it. I guess her final revenge was thumbing her nose at Liane Dayde.

The remake of the Japanese film 'Shall We Dance' with Richard Gere.....A-a-a-gh!--and to a slightly lesser degree, all the remakes of 'Love Affair'---Boyer, Dunne and Ouspenskaya cannot be beat, even by Cary Grant; and Warren Beatty?

It may well be the pas from Lacotte's Sylphide --

It is.

I, too, finally succumbed and bought the Alonso tape. The Black Swan with Youskevitch was a great disappointment. I hate to think of people who never saw him perform live would judge him by this tape; (he was about 46 at the time). I have always admired Alonso's aristocratic manner in this pas; no trace of the Vamp here. She also performed Florine's solo from Bluebird with this same aristocratic manner. She was the only dancer I saw who performed it this way---and to this day I cringe when the Florine's get too cutesy. (I wonder, cubanmiamiboy--how is it performed in Cuba?) I can live without most of the tape. I never cared for her Cuban Giselles, and especially her partners, nor the Alberto Alonso choreography. A taste of the real Romantic Alonso comes through in the PDQ; it's the reason I bought the tape after seeing it on youtube. I am very pleased at the way she was captured in this performance. When she first started performing Taglioni she would alternate with Markova; and unfortunately picked up on an annoying (for me!) habit of Markova. When striking an arabesque the foot on her extended leg broke at the ankle and pointed upward--(or, the leg was east and the foot was northeast). I was so pleased to see that this did not occur in this recorded performance.

I am reading 'The Dragon's Trail' by Joanna Pitman. It is the biography of a painting--Raphael's 'St. George and the Dragon' which I believe is at the National Gallery in Washington. Also, Al Gore's 'Assault on Reason' and Kirstein are waiting in the wings.....I finally plowed through most of Doris Kerns Goodwin's book on Lincoln 'Team of Rivals'---I haven't quite finished it; the assasination is coming up and I don't feel like going there yet.

From early on my favorite Odettes were Kirov (Maryinsky) trained. Danilova was (and still is) my gold standard for the role. I don't know if the Vaganova method had much to do with her training because she only studied with her during her last year at the School. After Danilova it was Makarova and then Ananiashvilli (this Bolshoi dancer managed to sneak in!); and presently, judging by the performance I saw last year (and waiting to see many more), Veronika Part.

To answer Canbelto's question on my favorite change over the years it would have to be the abundance of ballet companies all over the world.....and in particular, here in the US.

I am surprised there wasn't more talk of the Bolshoi production with Gracheva/Vetrov, both of whom gave gorgeous performances. Vetrov's Shades solo is one of the best I have seen. To anyone familiar with this production, I would love to know who the Gamzatti was---and also, the 3 soloists in the shades scene. There is one scene in this production I can live without---it's in the Gamzatti 'tutu' scene---before Nikiya's basket dance. A male corps flies around beating what looks like tom-toms and behaving like refugees from 'Prince Igor'.

KFW, I have many complaints about Swan Lake and the cygnets are the least of it. I was fairly content for years to see just Act 2 and an occasional Black Swan PDD. Then the Europeans came with their 4-act versions and that seemed to be the only approved way of seeing Swan Lake. From the very beginning I had problems with ACT 1 (choose any Company!) and the national dances of Act 3. But because I gained the beautiful Act 4 I thought it was probably worth it. In the intervening years we all know what happened to Act 4---cut to shreds---and I still had to sit through Act 1 and those boring national dances. At this point, I would be happy to go back to my beginnings of just Act 2 and Black Swan PDD. And while I am on the subject--that 4-act Swan Lake was the beginning of the end of Ballet Theatre as I knew it. Slowly but surely they abandoned their phenomenal repertoire for evening long ballets......

What throws me off about it being Dolin is the soft, 'pretty' quality of the face.