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atm711

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Posts posted by atm711

  1. Good Grief! I am beginning to feel like Methuselah! First Toumanova, then Riabouchinska and now Beryl Grey! I saw her Lilac Fairy when the Sadlers Wells came to the Met on their first visit, and also subsequent ones. She was indeed a wonderful Lilac Fairy--and along with Diana Adams the solo was never performed better. I would also add, that I saw her "Swan Lake" and if it's any consolation to her now, preferred her Odette/Odile to the one of the celebrated Company ballerina.

  2. I saw her when she "used to be Riabouchinska" It was during the '44 - '45 season of Ballet Theatre. She performed in "Graduation Ball" and danced her most famous role of the Prelude in "Les Sylphides". She was not a great technician (she left that to Toumanova)but she had great charm and effervescence, especially in "Graduation Ball" where she and Lichine sparkled. Her "Prelude" was everything I had read or heard about. I really think she was incomparable in this role. So, that little pudgy woman was really quite something at one time!.

  3. I saw it only once, and it was the first performance. I am with Mel on this one. In l965 I was not a Farrell fan--she was much too bland for my taste---however, I am completely devoted to the post-Bejart Farrell. My recollection of the ballet is not as sharp as Ari's, but what I do remember is a general murkiness---and that terrible score.

  4. No comparison with Assylmuratova, Alexandra! There was little delicacy about Toumanova's appearance. About the only thing they had in common was their beautiful black hair. At the same time I saw Toumanova dancing, Nora Kaye was also performing the Russian ballerina in Tudor's "Gala Performance". It was a very broad comic performance, made even funnier because we knew it was her imitation of Toumanova. Toumanova was famous for her balances on her very squared point shoes. She could hold a 'developpe al la second' for as long as anyone would want, which she showed to great advantage in the Black Swan PDD--and I would bet it inspired Balanchine to put it into the second movement of "Palais de Crystal"

  5. Ed, the first time I saw the "Black Swan PDD" it was performed by Toumanova. I can still feel the electricity that was in the air of that old Met Opera House that night. It was the first time I had seen 32 fouettes performed---and what an introduction!. What makes her so unique is that it's hard to compare her to anyone else. She had a very strong personality and projected it to the audience. In latter day ballerinas, I guess Maria Tallchief in "Firebird" could be compared to her. Toumanova was also my first "Giselle", along with Anton Dolin as Albrecht. She was her most seductive when she danced with Massine, especially "The Three-Cornered Hat"

  6. When I started this topic about Lacarra I was looking for comment on an article that appalled me...here was a critic giving his views in a very partisan way and them admitting that he had never seen her complete "Swan Lake". That said, the discussion turned into the proper height of an extension. The height of an extension is not an issue for me--it's the way it is executed. I favor the slow unfolding of the leg that uses up the entire musical phrase until the extension is achieved. Not for me the ...one...two bang I'm there...and hold the position until the musical phrase ends. Yes, I am a Makarova fan.

  7. Alexandra writes:

    "Serenade does not look like a 70-year old ballet because the audience still believes in it...."

    I wonder what the audience of today would think of it if they could see the way it was performed 50 years ago? Nothing has changed in the choreography in all these years but it looks like a different ballet--thanks (or not?) to the flowing hair and gossamer dresses and the softer lighting.

  8. Thanks, all, for your comments---although I enjoyed Michael 1's wit. Lacarra is dancing in New York at a Gala on Feb 11---my chance!---but, no, the steep prices ($125 top to $65low) have turned me off.

    While I welcomed the opinions of Lacarra's dancing, I was surprised that no one commented on the style of the writer's comments. After reading, what I felt was a very biased article, my first reaction was to spring to the defense of this dancer that I had never seen! It seems to me that any ballerina who does not fulfill Mr. Parish's fantasy of what constitutes a ballerina is worthy of the worst kind of bashing.

    .

    [ February 03, 2002: Message edited by: atm711 ]

  9. My fall issue of "Ballet" arrived today and I still can't believe the candid remarks of Paul Parish in writing about SFB style. I have never seen Ms. Lacarra dance and can't add any comment of my own, but his following observations rankled me...

    "Lacarra has imposed her image, her will and her perverse intelligence on SFB and became a prima ballerina of a Company she cannot inspire"

    "....her lines are simply unbelievable (it looks like she demoralizes the Corps, who know full well they do not look like that and no amount of training will make them look like that).

    I guess Mr. Parish is also a psychic.

    There's more:

    "Her dancing is unmusical by American standards to an astonishing degree--perhaps because it is so premeditated".

    "Lacarra is not interested in movement, but in imagery....while half the audience is swooning, I find myself thinking, Oh there's that leg again, wait, no it's the other one, she's not dancing, I'm bored".

    He goes on to criticize her Swan Lake:

    "Lacarra's unrelenting seductiveness seems to me not only out of place, but also diametrically opposed to central aspects of the role--it was as if she herself confuses Odette and Odile and can't tell the difference"

    But--a couple of paragraphs later he says:

    "I have not seen Lacarra in a complete Swan Lake, only the white swan PDD, but I found myself so upset as she 'worked' the role that I had to look away"

    Good Grief! when did he see enough of her Swan Lake to render an opinion?

    Apparently, he did see The Sleeping Beauty"

    "In The Sleeping Beauty, without doing anything objectionable, she created no world; in fact everybody else looked like furniture (they also danced rather badly). The fairies, the suitors, her parents...only Prince Desire drew any energy from her. She held her balances, her positions were sumptuous, but the feeling, such as it was, was all wrong--elegance, but no ease, no high spirits. Aurora should have a glorious mind, like a heroine in Shakespeare or Tolstoy, and be the hope of her people, not a trophy.

    Aurora as "Anna" or "Viola"? Nah.

    I have never seen Lacarra dance but the photo of her accompanying the article is exquisite. She has the physique of a Nadezha Pavlova. I would like some comments from people who have seen her dance, and especially those who have seen her and also read the complete article.

  10. The best one???The original dancer it was created for--Alonso. I shall never forget her in that brilliant yellow tutu "en attitude" promenaded by Youskevitch. Many years later I saw Assylmuratova who was just as satisfying in the role. A successor to Youskevitch is harder to come by. Balanchine used his technical talents so brilliantly and by so doing captured the essence of his dancing --- his manner, his bearing, and, yes, his manliness.

  11. Ah-h-h...old programs--a very touchy subject for me. About 15 years ago I moved to a smaller house and something had to go...old programs dating back to the 40's--a complete collection of Richard Buckle's magazine, "Ballet"---a book of Gordon Anthony's Camera Studies and others too painful to remember. (I sold them to the Ballet Shop in NYC)

    I have tried to make up for my rash decision by adding 50 books to my present collection.

  12. I saw the Balanchine-Danilova version ofRaymonda in 1946---at the time I had been a ballet-goer for only a couple of years--and was completely immersed in Tudor, deMille and the "Concerto Barocco" Balanchine. I was not ready for this "Chestnut". There were a few memorable moments, particularly the Saracen's dance performed by Leon Danielian--and the marvelous Danilova in the Czardas--and the real saving grace---the Glazunov score.

  13. Drosselmeyer has always been a disturbing figure for me. It was never more so than when I saw on TV this week the Pacific Northwest production. His lascivious leers to the child Clara should land him in a child abuse case. But I don't want to single out this production alone---it's all there in NYCB production, too. Merry Christmas, indeed!.

  14. On C-Span this morning I heard the NYTimes writer who has been putting together the short biographies of the victims of the WTC that have been printed in the newspaper on a daily basis state that she knew of a modern dance work that focuses on the many portraits of the victims that have been displayed on store fronts. I'd like to know more about it.

  15. Patricia, I, too find it hard to watch other dancers perform the roles you cited. It's the post-Bejart Farrell that I miss seeing. It was her cool exterior (with restrained intensity!), and her penchant for rarely smiling that attracted me to her. Farrell was never "about technique"--although, to be sure it was formidable. I rarely thought about the "steps" when watching her.

  16. Chujoy's Dance Encyclopedia lists the following about Henry Danton:

    (real name, Henry Down), dancer b. Bedford, England, 1919. Educated at Wellington College and Royal Military Academy (Woolrich). After three and a half years in military service started to study dance (1940) with Judith Espinosa, Vera Volkova, Victor Gsovsky, Egorova, Kniasief, Rosanne. Soloist "International Ballet" (1942-43) dancing Prince (Swan Lake), Les Sylphides; Sadler's Wells Ballet (1943-46), dancing Florestan (Sleeping Beauty), The Rake's Progress, Les Patineurs, pas de trois from Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, etc. Created Dragonfly (Spider's Banquet), role in Symphonic Variations. Left Sadler's Wells in 1946 to continue studies in Paris. Has also appeared with small ballet companies.

    This Encyclopedia was published in 1949.

  17. I am so sad for my beautiful City. I approach Manhattan by ferry and I have never taken for granted the beautiful NY harbor. As we approach Manhattan there is the Statue of Liberty, and then Ellis Island and finally the awesome NY skyline and the pristine World Trade Center towers. I can't believe it will never be the same again.

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