Helene

I'm very glad that the DVD Torvill and Dean: Golden Moments has been released in the UK (PAL/Region 2). We can hope that there will be a NA release in NTSC, or at least PAL worldwide, so that we can view it on our computers in the US and Canada. Although "Bolero" is Torvill and Dean's most famous program, and the one that earned straight 6.0's for the second mark, my favorite Ice Dance program of all time is their Paso Doble Original Set Pattern, which they also performed in 1984. Full disclosure: I don't think professionals should have been reinstated in 1994. I think this was unfair to amateurs, who invested time and money in training based on the assumption that only amateurs would be eligible to compete. (If the ISU wanted to let pros back in, I think they should have agreed for the next Olympic cycle, in 1998.) Among the singles skaters, only Brian Boitano had the technical skills to compete for the podium; Petrenko was not known for his training in his amateur days, and he was not in the same shape in 1994 that he was in 1992. The ladies' field had surpassed Witt technically. It was ironic, or perhaps poetic justice, that Boitano, who had driven the reinstatement movement, failed in the SP and took himself out of contention. Among pairs, while Brasseur/Eisler had their trademark lifts and twists, including a spectacular lateral twist, there were no amateurs who could compete with the combination of technique and oneness of the returning pros, Gordeeva/Grinkov and Mishketienok/Dmitriev. The pros were not a factor in singles, and in Pairs, the hardest decision the judges had to make was whether the quality of G/G's skating and their extra lift and death spiral (within the rules) compensated for the two flaws in their program, compared to M/D's. It was a very different story in Ice Dance. The Soviet Union/CIS/Russia had dominated Ice Dance from 1970-1984, and even during Regoczy/Sallas' win in 1980 and Torvill and Dean's four-year reign from 1981-4, they won every silver medal, and three of five bronzes. After Torvill and Dean, they resumed domination until 1994, with the exception of the Duschenays's world title in 1991, in no year from 1985-93 did they win less than two medals, and in 1992-3 they swept the podium. Torvill and Dean pushed the boundaries, but the Soviet teams pushed them further into what I'd describe as "Ice Theater." It wasn't the first time that Soviet teams changed the face of the sport: in a book published for the 2004 Dortmund Worlds, Gorshkov was quoted as saying that because they could not compete with the British teams, which had dominated for 13 of 17 years from 1952-1969, technically, they had to change the paradigm, which they did with emotionally open and dramatic free dances. In 1994, into the mix skated Torvill and Dean, and unlike in singles and pairs, they faced amateur competitors who were extremely capable: Usova/Zhulin, long held back behind Klimova/Ponomorenko, and the up-and-coming Gritchuk/Platov, who chose an age-appropriate, energy-filled, technically packed rock-and-roll program in Lillehammer. They decided to skate at Europeans; spooked by the results there and the judges' feedback, they put together a new program in three weeks, and were not prepared for the Olympic competition. I think that there were two factors that determined their placement: because the competition was so strong, and they neither took themselves out of the competition early nor dominated every aspect of skating, the judges' preferences were key. And then there was the "Cassie" factor. In A Chorus Line, when Cassie is auditioning in a group dance, the director has to repeatedly call out for her not to dance so prominently. In Cassie's case, it was a matter of sticking out of the line. In Torvill and Dean's case, I think their emphatically professional presentation took them out of the running with the judges, while endearing them to their fans. And their bronze is still heavily debated on among figure skating fans over a decade later. My second favorite Torvill and Dean performance is in Yo-Yo Ma's series "Inspired by Bach" (DVD Volume 3) in which they performed Dean's choreography to Bach's Suite for Solo Cello #6 in a section called "Six Gestures." This is available through Sony, along with the great Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando performing to Suite #5.

I think the two-company model supports this type of experimentation on the part of the dancers. Peter Boal, while full-time at NYCB as well as a faculty member at SAB, had his own small company, for which he commissioned contemporary/modern works in the off-season. The dancers in Suzanne Farrell Ballet perform with the Company on their off-time from their primary companies (Ballet Arizona, National Ballet of Canada, Boston Ballet, etc.); the Bejart and Balanchine rep as taught by Farrell could be viewed as an opportunity to explore more widely than what they dance or the coaching they get in their base companies. There's also Benjamin Millepied's touring group, for which he choreographs. This model allows the dancers to work collaboratively with the same core group on the off-season, without having to arrange individual guest stints or arrange with their other companies (like Vishneva and Malakhov) for time off.I suspect there's a social aspect to this too: the ability to work with respected fellow dancers on a more egalitarian level and/or be mentored by a noted dancer in a small environment. Jacques d'Amboise didn't form a company, per se, but he did put together small groups of young dancers for lecture-demo/performances, coaching them in and giving them the opportunity to perform roles that they wouldn't have been cast in at NYCB. The original Times article did quote Wheeldon as saying that he doens't expect the original roster to be the long-term roster. If Wheeldon does have the funds to support a full-time company with overlapping schedules, then his company would resemble Robbins' Ballets USA, which Barbara Milberg left NYCB to join.

Through 2006 2007 N. M. Dudinskaya and V. M. Chabukiani in Raymonda; E. Lukom and B. Shavrov (Added 3 January 07) Jean Babilée (Added 8 Jan 07) Ruthanna Boris in Serenade Costume from Ballet Russe Production (Added 10 Jan 07) Boris Yakovlevich Bregvadze, with Alla Shelest in Egyptian Nights and with Emma Vladimirovna Mincheyenok in Legend of Love (Added 12 Jan 07) Mary Ellen Moylan Sitting in Tutu (Added 24 Jan 07) Mary Ellen Moylan in White Tutu and in Rome (Added 24 Jan 07)Enrichetta Grimaldi in Little Corsaire (Added 31 Jan 07) Laurent Novikov as "Ocean" (Added 4 Feb 07) Souvenir Program Cover of Vecheslova/Chabukiani Tour to San Francisco, 1934 (Added 9 Feb 07) Kronstam and Honningan still from the Disney-produced movie, Ballerina (Added 18 Feb 07) Anna Pavlova Film Stills from The Dumb Girl of Portici (1915) (Added 20 Feb 07) Grouping from Balanchine's Card Party (Added 23 Feb 07) Sofia Vasilevna Fedorova, Fedorova II in A Life for the Tsar (Added 1 Mar 07) Mary Ellen Moylan and Igor Youskevitch in Ballet Theatre's Theme and Variations (Added 4 Mar 07) Russian Children in Le Sacre du Printemps-inspired Clothes (Added 19 Mar 07) Alla Shelest as Odile (Studio Portraits) (Added 21 Mar 07) Alla Shelest in Laurencia (Added 22 Mar 07) Fight Scene from Opera Version of Romeo and Juliet from Latvia (1932) (Added 24 Mar 07) "Esnell" from Collection Nadar (Added 31 Mar 07) Tallchief and Magallanes in Orpheus (Added 1 Apr 07) Vakhtang Chabukiani Portrait (Added 7 Apr 07) Dances at a Gathering First London Cast Surrounding Jerome Robbins (Added 12 Apr 07) Historical Programs from Mariinsky's Le Corsaire (Added 6 May 07) Munich Opera House Program for "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux" (Added 11 May 07) Alexandra Danilova as the Sleepwalker and Frederic Franklin as the Poet in La Sonnambula (Added 19 May 07) Nina Vyroubova and Rudolf Nureyev, and English version of Paris Match article on Nureyev's defection (Added 3 Jul 07) Tatiana Riabouchinska and Partner in "Bluebird" (Added 5 Aug 07) (Please see thread for a disucssion about who her partner might be.) Etching of "Scene: From the Russian Ballet 'The Lake of Swans (Added 14 Aug 07) 1877 von Rothbart (Added 16 Aug 07) Program for Gala Performance of George Balanchine's Don Quixote (Added 21 Aug 07) Margot Fonteyn in Ondine (Added 23 Sep 07) Alicia Alonso in Waltz Academy (Added 23 Sep 07) Josef (aka Iosef) Felixovich Kshesinsky (Added 23 Sep 07) Mathilde Kshesinska and (Papa) Felix Kshesinsky (Added 23 Sep 07) Liner Notes for the Zuraitis Recording of Giselle (Added 4 Oct 07) "Who are the Fairies?" (in Sleeping Beauty) (Added 8 Oct 07) Nadia Nerina (l) and Margot Fonteyn ® in Cinderella Publicity Photo, signed by Nerina (and Photo Caption) (Added 20 Oct 07) Jerome Robbins and Janet Reed in Fancy Free (Added 17 Nov 07 Grouping from Agnes deMille's Rodeo, with Jenny Workman and Annabelle Lyon and Two Unidentified Dancers (Added 17 Nov 07) Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevich in Theme and Variations (Added 17 Nov 07) John Kriza and Ruth Ann Koesun in Michael Kidd's On Stage (Added 17 Nov 07) Original Cast Members Gelsey Kirkland and Jonas Kage in Antony Tudor's The Leaves Are Fading (Added 17 Nov 07) Martine van Hamel in Harold Lander's Etudes (Added 17 Nov 07) Agnes deMille and Frederic Franklin in a Ballet Russe Photo of deMille's Rodeo[/b] (Added 17 Nov 07) Starr Danias in Gerald Arpino's Trinity (Added 17 Nov 07) Laura Dean's Night with Luis Perez, Valmai Roberts, Tom Mossbrucker, and Lynne Chervony (Added 17 Nov 07) Tina LeBlanc and Ethan Stierle in La Vivandiere Pas de Six (Added 17 Nov 07) June Brae, Anthony Burke and Donald Britton in A. Howard's La Fete Etrange (Added 17 Nov 07) Louisville Ballet in La Fete Etrange (Added 17 Nov 07) Mikhail Baryshnikov in Jacobson's Vestris (Added 17 Nov 07) Ninel Kurgapkina and Boris Bregvadze in Jacobson's Strauss Waltz (Added 17 Nov 07) Susan Strain and Danny Catanach in Todd Bolender's Souvenirs (Added 17 Nov 07) Schollar and Vilzak in Carnaval (Added 23 Nov 07) The Diaghilev Group at the Airport -- Photo by Alice Nikitina (Added 25 Nov 07) Nikitina's Inscription on the Photo, Listing the People in It (Added 25 Nov 07) Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II, Odette and Corps (Added 30 Nov 07) Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II, Corps (Added 1 Dec 07) Souvenir Program Photo of Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II (Added 1 Dec 07) Patricia Wilde Studio Portrait in Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II (Added 4 Dec 07) Studio Photo of Diana Adams in David Lichine's Helen of Troy (Added 4 Dec 07) Diana Adams and Corps in David Lichine's Helen of Troy (Added 4 Dec 07) Andre Eglevsky and Partner with Corps in David Lichine's Helen of Troy (Added 4 Dec 07) Swan Lake "Fantasie" by Balanchine for the Movie "I Was an Adventuress" (Publicity Shot) (Added 7 Dec 07) Photo Used for Swan Lake Motiv Behind Opening Credits of "I Was an Adventuress" (Added 7 Dec 07) Melissa Hayden and Peter Martins in George Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II, with Corps (Added 8 Dec 07) Studio Shot of Maria Tallchief in George Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II (Added 8 Dec 07) Galina Kirillova and Vsevold Ukhov as Raymonda and Jean de Brienne (Added 8 Dec 07) Postcard if Ter-Arutunian's Set for Balanchine's Swan Lake Act II (Added 9 Dec 07) Timofei Stukolkin, the First Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker (Added 11 Dec 07) Balanchine as Drosselmeyer, Publicity Shot (Added 11 Dec 07) Two Photos of the Corps in "Grand Pas Classique" from Paquita (Added 14 Dec 07) Members of Paris Opera Ballet Returning Home from New York City after A 1948 North American Tour (Added 22 Dec 07) Victor Aleksandrovich Semenov, Elena Mikhailovna Lukom, and Vladimir Ivanovich Ponomarev in Les Caprices du Papillon (Added 28 Dec 07) In "Popular People's Dances," Yekaterina Geltzer dances a piece by Aleksandr Gorskii, to Honor Belgium (Added 31 Dec 07)

Marc Haegemann has added two photo galleries to his site, For Ballet Lovers Only: Natalia Osipova of the Bolshoi Ballet Svetlana Zakharova in Yuri Possokhov's Cinderella Click on the thumbnails for a full view. The site also contains interviews and other written materials, as well as archival photo galleries, by company (link at the top of the home page) and dancer, with biographies and/or rep for many of the dancers, and a historical section of photographs, bios, and repertory.

News on books by Bussell: The paperback edition of Pilates for Life is available for pre-order on amazon.com for release on 25 April 2007 Darcey Bussell's Dance Body Workout, published 2007 in paperback, is available from Dance Books Ltd.

I just received the following email from the Kennedy Center, signed by Suzanne Farrell: Here's a link to Farrell's Notes from the Ballet on the Kennedy Center website. To date there are two entries: On ABT: Othello and Mixed Repertory On Kirov Ballet: Romeo and Juliet

The last time I saw Meditation with NYCB was in 1982, with Farrell and d'Amboise. Who's seen it since then?

I've been running the new IE version on my Windows-based laptop, and did Links with it this weekend without problems.

I didn't realize until today, when scrolling through the new releases at Dance Books, Ltd. site, that there was a book published in 2006 called, Malakhov's Sleeping Beauty: escapades with the Berlin State Opera Ballet. http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/titles/4881.asp It is described as "A record, in words and many photographs (many in colour) of Vladimir Malakhov's production of Sleeping Beauty for the newly formed Berlin State Ballet, with text in both English and German," and is a hardback book. I'm assuming it's a foreign import, because amazon.com is selling it for $47.27, with a 4-6 week lead time (which is comparable to the 24.50 GBP plus shipping price at Dance Books.) The screenshot of the cover on amazon.com has the German title and in the "used" book section, one of the sellers has a note that the book is in German. The screenshot of the cover on Dance Books is in English, and it may be a different edition, as it's described as being in both German and English.

I received an email from Dance Books, Ltd. in the UK, announcing that availability for the 2007 release of Nureyev's verison of Swan Lake by the Paris Opera Ballet, with Letestu, Martinez, Paquette as Odette/Odile, Siegfried, Tutor/von Rothbart. Cost is 21.99 GBP plus shipping. The DVD is listed as uncoded (for worldwide distribution), but NTSC format, which is the standard format in North America. It's an Opus Arte release, which usually means good quality notes and pressings. I haven't been able to find it on amazon.co.uk or amazon.com yet. The page for the DVD on the Naxos site has a link to a preview of an excerpt from the last act. Even though I logged in and am a subscriber, I've been having a hard time getting it to stream properly, but that is probably a connectivity issue on my end. The only "Buy Online" link directly from Naxos is for Europe, through JPC, which has versions in multiple languages, including English.

I'd never seen her dance nor read much about Boris until her interview in Balanchine's Ballerinas, and I was bowled over by her intelligence and expressiveness. Thant you atm711 for that remembrance. I wish I had been able to see her teach.Rest in peace, Ruthanna Boris.

The PNB website is already updated, with the newly promoted Rausch, Cruz, and Eames listed as soloists and their bios reflecting their promotions as well: http://www.pnb.org/company/soloists.html Congratulations to the new PNB soloists

It's beautiful, rg!

I saw two performances of The Nutcracker this year. I'd just started a new position and couldn't write them up at the time, and apart from the stellar performances of Colby Lewis as young Clara, superbly danced and acted (both times), a sensuous Peacock by Carla Körbes that could have made gay men and straight women switch to the other team, and a Dr. Stahlbaum by Anton Pankevitch that could have been a training video for all operatic Eugene Onegins, the adult Clara of Lesley Rausch was the standout among the casts of both. There are three things I'd like to mention about her performance: in arabesque her expansiveness is in all planes. In the scene that opens Act II, where Clara and the Prince ride in a boat throughout the overture, and where the Principals can easily run out of mime, her pacing was not only patient, she did not once succumb to damsel in distress: if there was a storm, she'd weather it with her Prince. The third was the most impressive, which is her beautiful epaulement. The high moment was during one of the turning overhead lifts, where her arms and shoulders followed the swirl of the lift. It was stupendous.

Now, if only work will send me to Europe this summer...

Party affiliation in the US is required to vote in primaries. In other forms of voting, like instant run-off, proporational representation, etc., it is not required to declare a party. In Europe, privacy laws in general are more stringent than in the US, across the spectrum.

To put this article in context, the Canadian Free Press has been characterized by Wikipedia as a site that has taken editorial stances that have been characterized as having "published allegedly discriminatory and racist comments about people who live in Turkey" in the context of reviewing possible admission of Turkey for ascension into the EU, which certainly explains its interest in the Clarke story, and having published an article "accusing Jewish banking interests of being behind illegal immigrant protests in several American states." On the other hand, it has contributors from the New Democratic Party, about which Wikipedia says "In the Canadian House of Commons, it represents a centre-left to left-wing position in the Canadian political spectrum," although it's motive may be because the NDP is a "spoiler" party. Nevertheless, I, personally, think the author, regardless of his political bent and motives, has charterized the situation correctly. I'm somewhat suspicious that most of the publicity is about a ballerina in the ENO, as opposed to the other people who were "outed," who, like the MP cited, actually have political clout and participate in the political process in a major way.

We don't even know if this is his decision to make. The earlier boards were there to support Balanchine, and they had to deal with Lincoln Kirstein's formidable will. It isn't clear who will determine who will succeed Martins and what form the leadership of NYCB will take. What does seem to be clear is that the board supports Martins in his current role and that it is Martins' perogative to decide when he's no longer interested.

According to the article, A potential court battle is something I'd never heard before. Not all of the ballets went to the Trust immediately. For example, John Taras owned the rights to Symphony in C, and according to Francia Russell in a post-performance Q&A from a few years back, he insisted on a particular version. Again, according to Russell, Taras allowed a grateful Russell to stage a different version for a gala, and Peter Martins was willing to suspend performances of the ballet, because Taras insisted on a different version than NYCB performed, until Taras relented. Suzanne Farrell still owns the rights to Don Quixote. (I'm not sure about Meditation.) I wonder if part of the settlement Solway writes about granted lifetime rights to the works, to revert to the Trust when the recipient died. For those that still hold the rights and have not given them to the Trust during their lifetime, the issue of succession could be a driver to giving up the rights immediately and/or to granting NYCB permission to perform them. Mark Morris made it very clear that he would grant rights to his work to PNB because Boal took over the company, but not before.

We have a wide range of topics on Ballet Talk, and, as a rule, people participate in the ones that appeal, and don't participate in the ones that don't. I think that is the gist of carbro's message. I am interested in pursuing the line of thought that Haglund's has raised, which is, when the inevitable question of succession is critical, what should the administration of a large, major arts institution look like when no one who has worked with Balanchine or Robbins is still alive or in the running? Does it make sense to have a single Artistic Director, regardless of what that person is called, or should the work be distributed? And in the case of the treasure of Balanchine and Robbins repertory, what is the role of the institution to maintain it, and what is the best administrative structure to fulfill this role? Peter Martins is almost 60. While that is not by any means ancient, it is an age not much younger than at which Balanchine was thinking of who would succeed him. (The early front-runner was said to have been d'Amboise.) If the structure of the organization will change, it is key to vet who is interested in such a change, and to train a number of people to be able to fulfill the roles, so that the institution is prepared. One of the things I find fascinating about the Russian companies is the tradition of individual, personal coaching by former dancers. It is one way that artistry -- great, mediocre, bad -- was able to carry on, despite administration by bureaucrats who knew nothing of ballet and by artistic directors who were on a different side of the fence artistically. NYCB has always been a place where a single vision was the main one, and with the exception of a small group dedicated to Robbins, did not have many artistic factions. The question is whether this is possible not only without the founding genius running the Company, but also without someone who was mentored by the genius and for whom the genius choreographed.

There will be an encore performance of The Magic Flute on Saturday, 23 January. It is playing in downtown Seattle, at Pacific Place. I'm going to see I Puritani this morning (10:30 am start on the West Coast) and will report back. It's in Auburn, but, happily, from the map, it looks close enough to do an IKEA and Great Mall of China run at the same time

The photos are gorgeous -- thank you amitava! It must have been satisfying to get so close to the dancers from China. The Blue Lapis Light photos are wild.

January 6, 2007 Dance Kaleidescope performs a program featuring music by Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands is previewed and reviewed in Charlotte, NC: Six Women, All Headed in Different Directions A Blending of Euripides, Martial Arts and Noh

I'm not sure I'd wish this position on anyone without a Lincoln Kirstein-like figure with connections to the new Rockefellers. I take that back -- there are people I'd wish this on, but they're not in ballet.

As a dancer, our sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers should interest you. It is a site dedicated to those who dance or teach (and the parents of dancers). You will need to register separately on that site, but I'm sure you will find many great topics on the site.