Helene

Here is a video from a photo shoot with Carla Korbes and Karel Cruz; Angela Sterling is the photographer:

I just finished the Kindle edition. For the first 2/3 of the book, roughly until the byzantine workings of the various Ballets Russes splits, off-shoots, reorganizations, etc., the book is beautifully written, lucid, and organized. Once the Ballets Russes chapters begin, it read like a series of essays cobbled together, with repetition -- for example, Fleischmann, the businessman who financed the final sale of the company, is described three separate times -- and a mishmash of chronology that made cause-and-effect difficult to follow. Blum comes across not only as one of the brilliant men of his era, erudite is many arts, and true to his upbringing, someone quite assured of his taste, but also as a mensch. Knowing that he would be interned and killed was a cloud over his story. He was not ruthless like Diaghilev, perhaps because he did not have to manipulate money from people to back his enterprises since he had institutional funding through the theater in Monte Carlo and a private fortune he spent on his ballet company, and, with the exception of one long-term relationship with the actress Josette France, didn't mix business with pleasure and seemed disinterested in creating emotional instability.

Because to a contemporary audience, that she's allowed to have any hips at all as an actress is almost remarkable. An actress with Monroe's actual body today would be considered a cow.

PNB Videographer Lindsay Thomas was doing a piece on Jessika Anspach when she filmed a video clip of the errant headpiece. http://pnbunleashed.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/the-fallen-headpiece/ It takes a village.

BRB's filmed performance of "Cinderella" just finished a short run at the Vancity Theatre in Vancouver. David Bintley hosted, giving a glimpse of backstage, knocking on various dressing room doors, where dancers gave brief comments and received notes from Bintley, including one during first intermission in which he asked Iain Mackay, who played the Prince, if he could make a change to one of the lifts during the big Act II pas de deux. There was also a short segment with designer John MacFarlane and members of the costume shop. They outdid themselves: the costumes, wigs, and headpieces were spectacular. While MacFarlane played them "roughly in the 18th century", the women's costumes for the courtiers at the ball were slightly Gothic, with tight corsets with black over deep pink tulle, similar to the tulle skirts in Balanchine's "La Valse". The primary set, the kitchen with its big hearth and a big set of stairs stage right, was a bit overwhelming, and cut the depth of the set. This may have been my impression from the filming, but it seemed that Bintley made the conscious choice to have a lot of side-to-side solo choreography upstage and little using the depth. When the Fairy Godmother revealed herself, the hearth was turned to show a multi-story mirror, which cut into the stage space where the Seasons and the stars (corps) danced. The carriage, which looked liked it was made from icicles, was wheeled in almost flat, and then the front and back were pushed up to create the carriage itself, which was a magical effect. The coup de grace was the end of Act II, where the giant inner workings of a clock loomed during Prokofiev's clanging, industrial music, and choreographer Bintley had the corps and Seasons, who were omnipresent at the Ball in gorgeous jewel-toned tutus, perform mechanical movements to reflect the passage of time and the machines overpowering forward thrust, which worked a lot better than I've been able to describe it. The prologue was a very short scene, with the young Cinderella at her mother's grave, comforted by her father, who was then swept away by the Wicked Stepmother, or as her deft portrayer, Marion Tait, described her, the Stone Flower. The stepsisters were played by women, and were Skinny and Chunky, with Chunky swadled in fake fat. I was disappointed that Bintley didn't make Chunky the graceful one, but Chunky was food-obsessed and Skinny was boy-crazy. Shown as bumpkins, their clothes, despite the snobby and bewigged dressmaker, weren't remotely like the other guests' -- Skinny wore an anachronistic black tutu with cone cups, black and white horizontal striped tights, and black toe shoes while Chunky wore a pale bodice with a very short tulle yellow tutu, perhaps the only tutu I've seen that could be properly described as a schmattah -- and in light of the Act I business with the dressmaker, wig maker, and dancing master presenting their bills in Act I, the Stepmother should refuse to pay. (Their everyday clothes were much nicer.) It wasn't that surprising when Skinny hit on the servants for love and Chunky hit on the servants for food and drink. (She also stole as many oranges as she could during the "Pass the Orange" dance.) The Stepsisters had a lot of dancing, and kudos to Carole-Anne Millar for the way she handled the fat suit, especially in a series of perfect pirouettes. There were some lovely touches to the story: Cinderella had a red velvet box of treasures, a portrait of her mother that Cruella de Ville stomped on, and a pair of bejeweled slippers. When the Fairy Godmother first appeared disguised as an old, destitute lady, after Cinderella fed her, she noticed that the old woman was barefoot. She thought about putting the box with slippers away, but then offered them to the old lady. I wasn't sure if the Fairy Godmother, when she appeared transformed, was trying to show Cinderella that she changed them into heeled shoes, but they appeared as toe shoes in Act III. They were, theoretically, part of her Act II costume -- I thought her toe shoes were plain -- and after the Ball, she put the single slipper she had left into her red box, which the Stepsisters almost found while tormenting her relentlessly before the search party arrived, and she revealed to the Prince after the slipper he brought fit. She did a few bourrees in them, but then she returned them to the Fairy Godmother before doing a barefoot pas de deux with the Prince. (The final pas de deux, in pointe shoes, was performed after a costume change while the stars returned.) There was another lovely moment, when, alone together after their Act III reconciliation, the Prince was upset that Cinderella had been reduced to rags, presumably because this means she has been treated badly, and she bourreed up behind him and put her arms around him, as if to say, "Don't waste any energy on that: I'm with you now." "Cinderella" was chock full of classical choreography in the plainly elegant mold. For me the highlight was the Spring variation, which oozed steps, followed by the Winter variation. The "helpers" in the Seasons were three adult lizzards and two children dressed as mice, who made an appearance with human heads but also their tails in the ballroom scene. I couldn't tell if Bintley was dull as a corps choreographer in the big set corps pieces, but it looked that way on film. All three big pas de deux for Cinderella and the Prince were challenging. Elissa Willis, who danced Cinderella, had extensive choreography in bare feet, and with her high arches and beautiful articulation made it look almost as if she were on point. There was a giant lift, the one Bintley called their "Bolshoi" lift, in which Mackay lifted Willis and then held her by one foot (and ankle?) as she cantilevered over him, and it was pretty spectacular. Backstage, she said she was first afraid that she would fall, since she was so high over the stage, but that Mackay would never drop her. Vancity Theatre is a small one, and even though I was in the back row, it was closer than I would normally choose to sit. There were quick cuts from distance to close-ups, and they made me a bit dizzy until the camera settled down. It might be easier to watch in DVD form, but I was glad to see most of it on the full screen.

Bah humbug to that news

Thank you rg -- Merry Christmas to you and all BAers who celebrate! From Pacific Northwest Ballet during rehearsals for "Don Quixote": (Kyle Davis, Maria Chapman, Liora Reshef and Jerome Tisserand, Carla Korbes and Don Q's armor, Lindsi Dec and Lucien Postlewaite, Seth Orza, William Lin-Yee, ??*, Chapman,Postlewaite, and Emma Love (blur=Seth Orza), Kaori Nakamura and Postlewaite, Jessika Anspach, Dec and Postlewaite, Laura Gilbreath. *She went by too fast in a blur)

It started as a Moscow (Yagudin/Kretova, Marinin/Somova, Kostomarov/Osipova, Shabalin/Krysanova) vs. St. Petersburg (Staviyski/Obratsova, Tikhonov/Arbusova, Tchernyshev/Perren, Vanagas/Makhalina) thing that later turned into couples. I could barely get through ten full programs without going to the next. I could almost hear the SYTYCD contemporary choreographers explaining, "It's about a relationship where they try to get together again, but then are torn apart..." "It's about two portraits coming to life, but then are torn apart..." "It's about two people who keep crossing in the night, but are torn apart..." I tended to like the comic ones, like these, because they required excellent timing: Alexei Yagudin/Irina Perren Maxim Marinin/Natalia Somova The only serious dance I really liked was this by Marinin/Somova: and this "free dance" wasn't impossible and had very intricate partnering: Although his upper body was stiff like all of the male skaters, Marinin to me was most convincing as a dancer. Even when his form wasn't great and he was a bit stiff, like in one of the tangos, he had excellent timing. He was dancing with his wife, which I'm sure made them look like more of a couple, but that's a double-edged sword: when asked in a Q&A about what the difference was between dancing with her husband, Seth Orza, and other partners, Sarah Ricard Orza replied, "No filter." Marinin, as one of the two pairs men -- Tikhonov was the other -- had to perfect an entirely different lift technique for this contemporary choreography, having had little practice in dance lift technique, apart from the "Cotton Club" program and some exhibitions he skated with Tatiana Totmianina. (Had this been classical ballet, his pairs lift technique, almost all overhead, would have come in handier.) In that sense, the ice dancers -- Vanagas, Tchernyshev, Kostamarov, Shabalina, and Staviyski -- had the distinct advantage, especially since all dance lifts are worked out on the floor before they are translated to ice, not to mention their extensive ballroom training and skating for the Ice Dance discipline. I thought they worked around Yagudin as a singles skater quite well, since he doesn't have general experience lifting or skating that close to anyone.

Facebook has recently lifted its character limit for "statuses" -- the FB equivalent of posts -- which I think was 420. It was always an interesting exercise to summarize immediate thoughts after a performance into such a small space.

He also mentioned expense. We have had thousands of members over the years who have done nothing but read "Links" and have never contributed to the discussion or financially, and probably more hits in a day to "Links" than to the rest of the forums combined many weeks.

That is huge news and very sad.

Michael Popkin reviews Merce Cunningham Dance Company in "Roaratorio" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for danceviewtimes.

Marc Haegeman has published photos from this production, mainly, but not exclusively, of the dancers who performed in the HD broadcast: http://www.for-ballet-lovers-only.com/bolshoi-sleepingbeauty-2011-2.html

Lucky Parisians! Thank you for the heads up!

Michael Popkin reviews Shen Wei Dance Arts in “Rite of Spring,” “Folding,” and “Undivided Divided” at Park Avenue Armory (NYC) for danceviewtimes.

This is such sad news. Rest in peace, Mark.

Bart, I the same reaction to Stimme last summer! I learned to clap at the screen at the Vancouver Olympics. The medal ceremonies were held jointly at Whistler and BC Place in Vancouver. The ceremony alternated between the two venues, with each of us watching the other on big screens. There were two young Russian cross-country skiers awarded gold and silver, and their joy was so infectious that the stadium in Vancouver exploded. That's when I realized that it was no longer considered strange to react to virtual reality. After that, applauding for Netrebko or Alexandrova in a movie theater was a piece of cake They know we're watching, even if they can't hear us. The Tweeters, on the other hand, should be locked in the room with the crying babies, in my opinion.

I will dare to remind thta Shipulina's casting partially was due to Osipova's cancellation (Osipova's fever or exhostion from running both ABT and Bolshoi's performances at the same time). I wrote that when it was happenning, i respected Shipulina for stepping in. The rank of Principal does mean a certain level of technique and artistry, but beyond that, it is also given for importance to a company, and she proved her worth to the Bolshoi during that tour.

There's a longish thread in our Ballet Videos forum about this HD:

My immediate gratification side is very sad, but I am happy he will be able to complete his book projects.

Excellent news! to Ms. Shipulina!

No need to apologize for being geographically specific, or nearly every on this site would be apologizing all the time.

Ms. Krysanova. Congratulations to her!

I had never seen that clip of Soloviev. Jennings gives interesting commentary on each of the clips, as well as context for the dancers that some of his readers may only have heard by name.

Vancity Theatre in Vancouver is showing the David Bintley's "Cinderella" performed by Royal Birmingham Ballet on the big screen. I assume it's the version available on DVD: Friday, December 23, 3:00 Saturday, December 24, 3:00 Monday, December 26, 3:00 Tuesday, December 27, 6:30 Running time: 120 min + 20 minute intermission http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=2122