cargill

The main point of the Rose Adagio is that Aurora is dancing with all the princes. If she ignores one of them, it is a breech of etiquette, and for me, at least, destroys the whole effect. If someone wants to balance forever, that is what Don Q is for, not the Sleeping Beauty. I really prefer the Russian version, where she doesn't bring her arm over her head (this was added by the balance queens in the 30's, I read somewhere). It seems so much more modest and gracious.

Doug, if you have time and can do it without too much trouble, could you talk about the Prince's last act variation? I know that the Kirov stayed with the K. Sergeyev version, but I have read that you said the N. Sergeyev is very different and difficult, and possibly done for Legat. Could you give a brief flavor of what it was like--beats rather than jumps? Thanks. Mary

So many fairies, so little time! But on my unforgettable list is Bergsma as the Lilac Fairy, followed by Kyra Nichols. I also love the memory of Yan Chen in the Songbird fairy, in the current ABT production. Her upper body was just so calm and flowing, while her feet did all the work (or so it seemed). Usually that variation is just so skittery and cute with all that hand flapping, but she was elegant and effortless. It was a real revelation to see it done that way. It isn't Petipa, but Ashton's variation for Georgina Parkinson as the 7th fairy in the pre-raphealite verion was lovely, all melting arms and quick jumps. Parkinson was just beautiful in it.

I think a great Carabosse can be done by either a man or a woman, but it is definitely a mime role. There has to be a huge contrast between Lilac and Carabosse. But it can't be campy, the way ABT currently does it, like a drag Queen Elizabeth I. There is a wonderful description of Cecchetti's version, in Benois' memoires, I think, that sounds absolutely chillling. And yes, I thought Merrill Ashley was a very good Carabosse--I just wish the Martins' version had let her do the complete mime scene.

I was lucky enough to see Fonteyn, very much at the end of her career, and to be obvious, she does define Aurora for me--no acting, but being. Darci Kistler in the few performances she did in the NYCB production had that same quality, she just glowed. Judith Fugate was another of my favorites in that production, it was so beautifully danced, and she caught the different character of each act so well. I also saw Ayupova when the Kirov brought the production to NY, and she was so lovely in the role. It is so difficult, besides the technical challenges, the dancer, for me at least, must have perfect proportions, and no exaggerations, and be so convincing that there is no hint of acting. There has to be an inner glow, but no grinning (either actual or metaphorical).

Since his Speztizeva ballet had Soviet Comissars, exploding heads and a gay Albrecht, I think that it is possible that Eifman might concentrate on the early career in Russia (definitely with the drowning/murder of the dancer whose name I forget), the Diaghilev years, with the Nijinsky-Diaghilev relationship tossed in, and the post Diaghlilev lung removal--lots of opportunity for blood and gore. The US years with all the wives could be a second night. What about casting?

As for working, the peasants in La Fille Mal Gardee certainly spend some time scything, though they spend a lot of their lunch hour dancing and drinking heaps of wine. I suspect they take long afternoon naps.

What struck me most about the review was the forthright honesty of the reaction--calling a dog a dog, as it were. No pussyfooting around, just the production was awful and it was booed. That, more than the space and the detail, was what stuck me, and what I think is missing in so many dance reviews. Of course, opera is doing fairly well now, and reviewers don't have to be advocates.

I just wish that words like provokative and adult, etc., didn't mean only half-clothed people rolling on the floor. There are adult issues like good and evil that are more provocative, and actually, some of the Russian ballets the reviewer seems to disdain do treat adult issues.

Jack, This is off topic, but there was a long and I thought interesting discussion of Scotch Symphony earlier on this board. I assume you can find it by searching the earlier postings. No, it doesn't really hold together as a story, but works, for me, at least, as a variety of moods, and it can be absolutely beautiful.

I had a problem with the article, beginning with the first sentence. It is not hard form me to believe that Giselle, Swan Lake, etc. mades sense as stories, because many productions I have seen still do. Giselle, unfortunately, more often than the current mangled Swan Lake, but that is not the ballet's fault. I saw the Royal BAllet's 1970's version of SL many times and it made perfect dramatic and emotional sense. Unlike, in my opinion, Matthew Bourne's, which has gaping dramatic holes (no oath of love, no broken promise, we don't know why the Prince should care about the Black swan fellow, why the tutor is in cahoots with the floozy and why he is then pleased when she is shot, etc. etc.) Bourne is dramatically incoherent, unlike a good (though now almost impossible to see) traditional Swan Lake. I also don't really understand her main point. Is she saying Balanchine taught her and others to dislike story ballets, but everyone wants to see them, but the audience is bored by them? I also don't really agree with her either/or outlook. There are good and bad ballets, good and bad productions, which apply to both story and plotless ballets. And it is hard for me to agree with her when she says ballet has yet to find the movement equivalent of supertitles, when I think of productions of Giselle, Lilac Garden, Echoing of Trumpets, The Dream, La Fille, and so many, many others. Nor do I think I am a rich patron with elite and arcane tastes because I love, understand, and believe those ballets.

Ann, I remember reading that when Ashton was making Monotones, he was intrigued by the idea of walking in space, and the costumes he designed were modifications, or inspired by astronauts' apparel. I think the headresses and belts give the dancers a sort of androgynous, otherworldly look.

I was going to mention Ashton's Scenes de Ballet, but in terms of absolute perfection in every aspect, I decided not to, because I find the sets and costumes a bit clunky (though I like the hats). As I recall, Ashton didn't like the original set at all, and managed to get some of it removed. But in terms of construction, yes, it is perfect.

As for Poets after Night Shadow, I think Balanchine made a lot of them--the men in Emeralds, the male solo in Square Dance, the men in the first 3 movements of (I have just forgotten it) the ballet that ends in Theme and Variations, and many others. The whole idea of seeking but not finding, I think, turns up a lot in his ballets. For me, poets yearn and princes love.

To answer Alexandra's question about perfect ballets, I would nominate Nijinksa's Les Noces, Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee, Bournonville's Folk Tale, possibly Sleeping Beauty (though in terms of never, ever getting tired, seeing the cats 5 times in one week can be a teensy bit wearing), 4 Temperaments, Liebeslieder Walzer, Les Sylphides for the geometry, and Ashton's Dream and Monotones, and Symphonic Variations. Cheating I know, but the Shades scene in Bayadere is perfection (without the added male solo), so that gets added. Again, all with perfect casting and productions.

I have seen several recent comments along the lines of of course Fonteyn had no technique (there was one in the Peter Martins interview in Talk, as well), and it is odd. She clearly had enough technique to dance the most difficult classical ballets, so clearly her techinque cannot be just dismissed. I also think that ballet technique has to include things like epaulment, musicality, placement, hands, grace, and I would think ability to mime effectively. It is probably harder to hold a perfect 90 degree arabesque for just the exact amount of time without any seeming effort that to hurl a leg up any which way, no matter how flashy that looks. For those that found her cold, well, tastes differ, but that is not a matter of techinque. I don't think she was my absolute favorite, because if I had the chance to see someone one more time, I would probably choose Beriosova, but even late in her career she had the ability to make the audience (at least me in the audience) believe in her character.

It is of ocurse a difficult issue, and like most people, I guess, I end up defending art I like, which includes almost all of the 19th century. In terms of ballets dead or etherial women, yes, it comes with the 19th century attitude, but it was also just physical--women could dance on point and were able to more convincingly portray exotic beings. And the idea of noble self-sacrifice was not just confined to women--there are all those poems about dead and dying heroes, charging into the valley of death, with a breathless hush in the close, playing the game. The whole Christian ideal is a man sacrificing himself. 19th century art is full of dead heroes, male and female. Ballet has more female ones, probably because ballets were made for women.

If you really want to be confused, try figuring out which Ballet Russes someone is talking about!

I was at the outdoor area in Washington a number of years ago, Wolf Trap, isn't it, in the middle of a horrible storm which blew up in Swan Lake and just as Marguerite Porter was starting her fouettes, the lights went out. She continued as if nothing happened, which was amazing. I was sitting near the edge wearing a jeans skirt which was drenched, just sopping wet. I was unbelievably miserable, and decided culture out of doors was not for me. As for other mishaps, a friend who was at the first night of PAMTAGG (a mishap in itself, from the sound of it) said that one poor mans pants started to split at the crotch area very noticably. He was off stage for a brief period and when he returned had hooked them together with a very large safety pin. I guess those in the audience that saw it were choking with laughter.

I also think that kind of reaction shows a certain lack of imagination. "I can only indentify with people who look like me." In Giselle, it is Albrecht's situation I tend to react to, his faults and desperation, and the awful longing in the second act to see someone who is no longer living one last time.

Again, off topic, but there was a review of 4'33" in the Times, where the reviewer wrote that he was very much looking forward to a full length work by the same composer.

I agree with Leigh that what was most impressive is what she didn't do, which is to say she avoided the obvious cliches. It was very much after Balanchine, but there are worse models. The solos for the two girls were charming in the best since, not coy, but built around their abilities and it seemed,their personalities, so that there was a true connection with the audience that didn't rely on grinning or extraneous emotions.

This is off topic, but the mention of Robert Redford and pretending you don't know who a celebrity reminded me of this story, which I was told happened to a friend of a friend of mine. She was in the Hamptons in an ice cream store buying a cone and Jack Nichols was in front of her. She was determined not to act like a fan and to be very cool, so ordered her ice cream cone and left. When she got out, she didn't have her cone, so went back in and said they had forgotten to give it to her. "Yes, you have it". "No, I don't". "Lady, you put it in your purse."

I would have to vote for the Diaghilev period. I have spent most of my life feeling bereft because I wasn't in Paris in 1909. But lately I have had such a yearning for Bournonville ballets, that being in Copenhagen in the 1870's seems like my idea of heaven. And of course, there is the Romantic era, with all those Perrot ballets we will never see. And of course, New York in the 1950's with those wonderful ballerinas. Since I won't have a chance to see any of them, I vote for them all.

I love the idea of the little swans, but they would look better in longer tutus, since children's knees aren't usually straight. But it would have to be done in a very old fashioned way--no von Rothbart as a pedophile stuff! I also like a few black swans in the last act running around, just as an accent. I also want to cast my vote in favor of the traditional 4th act, though it can seem anticlimactic if there is an intermission after Act 3. I think rushing right to the lake keeps the drama going.