cargill

Perhaps it was the way I was raised (I still feel taken aback when people I don't know refer to me by my first name), but I feel it is overly familiar to call dancers who I don't know by their first names. It seems like claiming an unwarranted familiarity.

I haven't seen Jonathan Howells mentioned anywhere. He was outstanding as Alain last summer in Washington, adn I wondered if he is still around.

I could certainly be wrong, but I think it is generally considered to be Fokine's Les Sylphides, though of course one could argue that Petipa inserted plotless ballets into his full-lengths. Jadin Animee, for instance, or the vision scene in Sleeping Beauty. Actually, that isn't too farfetched an argument, since Balancine riffed on those his whole life. But complete and plotless, I think would be Fokine. Of course, there were many one-act ballets, which haven't survived very well (Some of Bournonville's have), but they had plots.

I definitely agree with the analysis of what can make a good story ballet, especially the general shallowness of ballets based on literary sources. Fairy tales do not have that type of complexity, but to me the best ones have a moral depth that make the ballets rich, not just simple children's tales, like they are sometimes considered. Croce once wrote that she didn't like ballets which made her think, and I understand what she meant, but certainly Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and the wonderful Bournonville ballets do consider issues which bear thinking about.

BW, I reviewed the Swan Lake when it was done at the Met for DanceView, but I don't know if Alexandra posted it. Anyway, the short version! There is no understanding of the story or the mystery. Even before the ballet starts, the audience sees a glitttery, Hallmark card lake as a curtain, so there is no mystery. The period is all wrong, early Renaissance was not a spiritual period. The peasants and the nobles were all mixed in together, so there were no class disinctions. The prologue is completely untheatrical. Ivanov/Petipa made the ballerina's entrance into something grand, something the audience has to wait for. Here a few people recognize the ballerina in the dim dark surroundings and applaud, so there is no thrill when she enters in Act 2. The story in the prologue is also not the story Odette tells Siegfried. (Though a mimed "Swamp Man raped me" might be fun to figure out.) Siegfried had no real character in Act 1. He romps around with the palace slut and is then robbed of his final curtain scene. The act 2 sets don't make sense. There is a palace by the lake, presumably Siegfried's palace, so clearly the lake is not in some mysterious place, because he can just look out of his window. What is Swmap Man doing living in the lake made by Odette's mother's tears, anyway. Good and evil do not live together. That huge moon is completely distracting. Then I really, really don't like acts 3 and 4. The ballet isn't about sex, Rothbart is evil, not an oversexed Las Vegas floor show. Odile get Siegfried by trickery, not seduction. Good and evil are important ideas, and turning Swan Lake into an MTV-influenced bunch of hotties is not sophistication, it is immature. Well, you did ask!

BW, reviewed the Swan Lake when it was done at the Met for DanceView, but I don't know if Alexandra posted it. Anyway, the short version! There is no understanding of the story or the mystery. Even before the ballet starts, the audience sees a glitttery, Hallmark card lake as a curtain, so there is no mystery. The period is all wrong, early Renaissance was not a spiritual period. The peasants and the nobles were all mixed in together, so there was no class disinctions. The prologue is completely untheatrical. Ivanov/Petipa made the ballerina's entrance into something grand, something the audience has to wait for. Here a few people recognize the ballerina in the dim dark surroundings and applaud, so there is no thrill when she enters in Act 2. The story in the prologue is also not the story Odette tells Siegfried. (Though a mimed "Swamp Man raped me" might be fun to figure out.) Siegfried had no real character in Act 1. He romps around with the palace slut and is then robbed of his final curtain scene. The act 2 sets don't make sense. There is a palace by the lake, presumably Siegfried's palace, so clearly the lake is not in some mysterious place, because he can just look out of his window. What is Swmap Man doing living in the lake made by Odette's mother's tears, anyway. Good and evil do not live together. That huge moon is completely distracting. Then I really, really don't like acts 3 and 4. The ballet isn't about sex, Rothbart is evil, not an oversexed Las Vegas floor show. Odile get Siegfried by trickery, not seduction. Good and evil are important ideas, and turning Swan Lake into an MTV-influenced bunch of hotties is not sophistication, it is immature. Well, you did ask!

I feel about Goldberg the way the (possibly apocrophal) person did about a Covent Garden Tristan und Isolde, who left in the middle of the last act saying "Excuse me, I have chaps coming for breakfast."

I was really not surprized to read of her retirement, since she wasn't down to dance Swan Lake, a part which suited her so well. I think Jaffe is one of the dancers I changed my opinion about, or rather, a dancer who changed over the years. She originally was a technician, I think, in the slightly perjoritive sence, but she really did develop. I just loved her mime scene in Swan Lake, and in classical roles, she was so unmannered and so modest, in a good way. She really seemed to be serving the choreography. But she did develop into quite a powerful actress, especially in Fall River Legend (NOT one of my favorite ballets). She managed to change from old to young, from plain and haggard to beautiful right before our eyes, just by her expression and the way she used her facial muscles. It was so astounding. And the final scene, when the townspeople walk pass her, was amazing. I was sitting close enough to see her expression, and it just gradually grew so hopeless as she looked at each person. It was one of the most moving moments I have ever seen. I hope she is retiring because she wants to, but I think it is such a shame that her abilities couldn't be used longer. It would be great to see her try to stretch herself to do roles like Madge and Carabosse

I wish ABT would do decent versions of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. The new Swan Lake is just hash and their Sleeping Beauty is so badly designed. I would also love to see more ballets where they could develop some characterizations, not just this endless jumping (so that lets out Corsaire!). They did do Symphonic Variations several years ago for a very short time, and it would be wonderful to see it again. And Les Patineurs. I would love to see things from the Diaghilev era, including of course Les Sylphides. If they are so into jumping, they could do the Polovitsian Dances, and work on their character dancing.

Robert Tewsley was a guest at the NYCB for about a week two or three years ago (I can't remember what he danced), but I thought he was gorgeous, very dignified elegant. I kept hoping he would come back, but I guess he has found a good home.

I was going to vote adequate, because there is so much I enjoy, but the Swan Lake issue clinched it for me, I'm afraid. Every aspect was just so terrible, except maybe for some of the dancing. However, he is doing Ashton this spring, so maybe we should vote again then!

I was going to vote adequate, because there is so much I enjoy, but the Swan Lake issue clinched it for me, I'm afraid. Every aspect was just so terrible, except maybe for some of the dancing. However, he is doing Ashton this spring, so maybe we should vote again then!

The first time I saw Suzanne Farrell was when she was with Bejart, in Nijinsky Clown of God, and I really really didn't like her. I thought she was all extensions and no line, not to mention no taste. (Though the costume wasn't her fault.) It took me years to recover from that, and it was really only once she retired that I found out how wonderful and unique she was.

Since it is not on the ABT website, I don't know if people are aware of this, but Guillaume Graffin will be giving a lecture-demo on mime at the Guggenheim on Sun. April 21st and Monday April 22nd at 8 (I presume they are repeats.) I actually just did an interview with him primarily on his approach to mime roles and creating characters and he was so interesting, so it should be a very interesting discussion. Tickets are $18 and all the info is on the Guggenheim website.

Or what about a prequil, which is just as common. We could finally know what drives Mrytha to hate men (too bad Macmillan isn't around any more). I suppose the awful prologues to Swan Lake are sort of prequils, but a whold ballet starring Rothbart as a young and enthusiastic jumper (perhaps he started life as a jester) would finally give men a chance to really take over Swan Lake.

Or what about a prequil, which is just as common. We could finally know what drives Mrytha to hate men (too bad Macmillan isn't around any more). I suppose the awful prologues to Swan Lake are sort of prequils, but a whold ballet starring Rothbart as a young and enthusiastic jumper (perhaps he started life as a jester) would finally give men a chance to really take over Swan Lake.

Just a little quibble--not that I disagree with what anyone has said--but Diaghilev did not say astonish the bourgoisie, or as it often seems to be implied, shock the bourgoisie. He said "astonish me" (in French, of course), which is not tied to any specific type of dance. Apollo is astonishing because it is so beautiful, and so is the Shades scene from Bayadere. Of course things can be astonishingly bad, but I don't think that was what he meant!

I really don't think that the way ABT has approached Corsaire will let it get richer. Bayadere has real villans who do not look or move like every other dancer--the High Brahmin and the Radjah. These are both mime roles, small in terms of time on stage but very important and memorable. Corsaire's villans--Lankendem and Birbanto--just dance (or jump, which is not the same thing!) and can never develop nuances. The contempt which ABT showed towards the ballet in the TV version during the intermission chatter, I'm afraid, can't help but come across. Yes, I did think of the damage the cavalier approach to Corsaire had done when I first saw the untheatrical mess that ABT made of Swan Lake.

When ABT first did Corsaire, I have to say I really did enjoy it, but thinking back, it came right after the premiere of The Snow Maiden, and anything with a hint of choreography would look like a masterpiece! By the second year, though, it looked worse, unfortunately. They had taken out some of the female dancing (a charming variation for the Pasha's favorite, wearing harem pants), and beefed up the male contingent even more. It has gotten broader and broader each time I have seen it, and it doesn't wear well. I just want to scream when Birbanto--a mime role if there ever was one--starts prancing around like everyone else. Malakhov managed to get some character in the slave owner (I won't try to spell it!), but everyone else I saw was just doing steps. One hint--leave after the Jardin Animee, and you will miss some of the extraneous prancing. Clearly there has to be more to the ballet than this production has in it, because Medora was such a popular role, but I find repeated viewings of this to be very dispiriting. It is clearly the approach to this ballet, because La Bayadere has become richer and more nuanced in its 20 years of performance, while Corsaire has become more and more empty and cartoonish.

Ballet Review, Vol 5, no. 2 prints a trainslation of what it says is Petipa's original libretto for the 1898 production including his instructions to Glazunov. There isn't anything about a picture. The numbering is a bit confusing, but Ab doesn't appear until what is described as Scene 2 of the 2nd tableau, when Raymonda is under the control of the White Lady. Just reading the story seems like it is missing the urgency or drama or emotional sweep of Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty. The White Lady doesn't really seem to have a purpose (other than to introduce a vision scene, which may be purpose enough!). But this wasn't the verision that finally was produced, because Abderam comes in earlier. David Vaughan, in a review of Nureyev's production, quotes Benois on the first production "The fault lies in the absurdity of the subject, of which nobody could ever make head or tail---which is rather awkward as the performance lasts for three whole hours." Of course I would love to see that production, but I suspect it is really a case that goregous music and great choreography need an emotional outlet to be truly successful.

Alexandra, That was great choreography, but shouldn't Albrecht's turns be of the veryveryfast variety ending very very s l o w l y, to show that he is conflicted? And while you are cribbing from other choreographers, who about Hilarion doing the original Nijinsky Sherezade fall on his neck death. And what about the poor dogs in the first act that just trot on and off in some productions? I think they should get to dance too, possibly in borrowed Midsummer costumes. For social commentary, they could kill a stag on stage while the awful aristos cheer them on. And somehow or another, there has to be a connection between Myrtha and Albrecht's mother.

Alexandra, That was great choreography, but shouldn't Albrecht's turns be of the veryveryfast variety ending very very s l o w l y, to show that he is conflicted? And while you are cribbing from other choreographers, who about Hilarion doing the original Nijinsky Sherezade fall on his neck death. And what about the poor dogs in the first act that just trot on and off in some productions? I think they should get to dance too, possibly in borrowed Midsummer costumes. For social commentary, they could kill a stag on stage while the awful aristos cheer them on. And somehow or another, there has to be a connection between Myrtha and Albrecht's mother.

In Danilova's autobiography, she writes "Of all Mr. B's ballets that I danced, the one I adored most was Serenade. The music is like a wave--I love to dance to this music, because it's very close to the Russian heart. Balanchine called Serenade a ballet that takes place by the light of the moon, and I've always thought this a marvelous idea, because the shine of the moon is so cold and disturbing, a little bit treacherous and very mystical. I danced the first girl, who enters at the beginning. She is a butterly, having romances with everybody. And then along comes a married man with his wife: they walk, and in their path is this girl. The man has an attraction fo rher, they dance; but for him it isn't serious, and in the end he continues along the road with his wife. The girl is seeking, suffering, and then she is alone, turning to her friends. I asked Mr. B., and this was his explanation. And somehow, I think the part I danced--that girl was me."

I was also very slow to appreciate Balanchine. I had come to ballet via the old Royal Ballet, and just didn't get it. Related to Leigh's other question as to how much time to give a choreographer, I did give him time--mainly because I moved to New York and it was pretty much the only game in town! Also I knew so many people whose judgement I trusted (or rather, I knew them through their writing) thought he was it. I remember being in agony in Emeralds, but now I think it is one of the most wonderful things in the world. I also didn't really think much of Prodigal Son when I first saw it, but find it quite powerful now. As for things I liked but can't stand now, I did enjoy Onegin all those years ago, but find it hard going now, all that padding and posturing. The same with Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet. I remember thinking at first that there were some dull spots, but now I can hardly sit through it.

I agree with Manhatnick about the variety of types of dances. Aurora's friends, especially. There were three group in completely different costumes, which I realized matched subtle changes in the music--I suppose most companies put the girls in the same costumes to save money. My favorite moment were the little girls in flat shoes and short little bloomers, which I suspect were quite popular among a certain older male clientel! I also was struck by how differet the vision scene looked with the Prince in heeled shoes. The contrast between the human and the dryads was so marked and it made the scene so much more magical.