dido

I'm sure that this is a sign of something bad , but I woke up this morning convinced that carbro, perky, oberon and BW (why you guys? no idea) were all shouting at me to get up because "excessive indulgence" was the perfect way to translate the Greek name "Eurymachos" (which actually means something like "wide/broad fighter/fighting.")

I am not sure what your "huh" was about, but mine "huh" goes something like this: 16 and 17 year olds where? And wouldn't everybody like more dancers of the quality of Lopatkina? And how many more do you want? Identical army size? Or a few more to fill in upcoming retirements size? All this in addition to the ultimate "huh?" which is "The Vagonova Academy has no talent? Are you on crack?"

Thought I might pass this along, Mikko Nissinen "participating in a dialogue with members of the audience" (whatever that means) and Boston Ballet Company Dancers will perform selections form their Spring Program, FALLING ANGELS." (That's why I'm going!) Tix are free for the BU community, call the Tsai Performance Center box office at (617) 353-8725. And here is a link with full information.

I love that quote, I'd like to put it on a t-shirt, shall I attribute you as just "kfw"? But on a more serious note, I would guess that what Mr Kauffmann is saying is that this is his job, and therefore his duty (rather than privilege) to review films that are obscure, easily missed, not mainstream (whatever--and therefore minority). I've been reading a lot of the "Father Brown" stories lately and thinking about the current political/cultural climate. It seems to me we'd all be a lot better off trying to thing of "duty and mercy" not "rights and justice." Sorry if that got a bit

Oh yes, Francoise is a powerhouse for sure (she was usually in the Trepak). You asked above why such good dancers are in such a small company; and while I don't know I'd guess that it's because it's so small. There's only 20 and that means that everyone gets to dance both the big and the small roles. Also, you may have noticed that there isn't really a "mold" from very tall to very short, very thin to very muscular.

Mr Mateo has been established in the Cambridge area for a while; fairly recently they started performing their Nutcracker in the Sanctuary Theater (a Baptist Church) rather than the Emerson Majestic in downtown Boston. Of course the budget is always tight, but the lack of scenery you saw was due to the space. I take open classes at Ballet Theatre and if memory serves this is the 20th anniversary of the company so the Spring Show should be a knockout; last year's The Cuban Condition was stunning. Was the DewDrop you saw Elizabeth Scherben Shinzawa?

:glare: . No kidding.

The Sybil is one of my all time favorite books; I resisted reading anything else for fear it would "spoil" him for me, and succumbed to Barabas, and I was right. Not that Barabas wasn't a good book, but I found the Sybil to be so absolutely transcendant that anything else was a let down. My fault. I'm not sure yet how I feel about ballets. I have a feeling from the two novels of such grim endurance and stubborn resignation that it seems all wrong for dance, but I think that may be just a reaction from 8 Nutcrackers in the last two weeks (can there be a ballet without Mother Ginger? Surely not!)

For me too it's Karsavina--always. I love the photographs of course, but the image that I can always call up with absolute clarity is the Sargent sketch of her wearing that little Robin Hood hat. But also (and in no order, of course) Olga Spessivtseva Wendy Whelan Moira Shearer Beryl Gray Alicia Alonso Tamara Toumanova Sarah Lamb Svetlana Zakharova

I went to an Art Nouveu exhibit in D.C. a few years ago (sorry to say I don't even remember where it was) and while my mom was looking at all the acres and acres of furniture (boooring) I found a room where they had a short film of Loie Fuller on continuous repeat. Considering that I stood there, entranced, for well over an hour I don't have a very vivid picture of it, but it was a moth/insect fluttery thing going on, and I remember thinking that lighting was very studied and emphatic.

Thank you for the congratulations on behalf of all real (i.e. non-drunken-rioter, non-badly behaved) Red Sox fans. Was I right, or was I right? More on topic, I think perhaps one of the reason's Curt is so chatty is that he realizes fans are going to feel as if they know him personally whatever he does. (E.g. Watching Pedro struggle and then, finally, triumph was like watching a friend go through some very bad personal situation which you cannot help with--at least for me.) Yes, it's a bit nutty but I think it's fairly common. This could be a way to make sure that the public perception of someone is actually coming from his actual behavior and opinions.

Someone started the Galina Mezentzeva thread just after I saw her Giselle (on video of course) for the first time, and I found it very thought provoking and helpful. I checked the 1961 Bolshoi Cinderella out of the library (mostly because I just love that ballroom waltz, and the clock striking music). The film and audio quality were pretty bad, but I liked the production in general. I do have a hard time adjusting to such a different aesthetic however. I was wondering what people who know better think about this dancer (all sorts of questions: what kind of dancer was she? A jumper I'd guess? What were her essential qualities, why did people admire her? etc. etc.), and perhaps more specifically this particular movie.

Distant Dances by Sono Osato is a wonderful book about a 1/2 Japanese 1/2 German (?) -American who danced with the Ballet Russe in it's later years. I haven't read it in a long, long time but I remember that it was very well written, and had a bit of a different twist, as Ms Osato was never a "star." I, Maya Plisetskaya I also liked; I see why many would have liked some stronger editing in there, but I think getting that strong sense of an authentic (and extremely autocratic) voice makes any potential confusion or boredom worth while. (Of course I second many, many of the previous suggestions as well)

Add The Homeward Bounders to all the other Diana Wynne-Jones things mentioned; E. Nesbit also has, I think, a few (but definitely one, about Atlantis again) short stories about time travel in addition to the Story of the Amulet, most of them in a collection called The Magic World.

Oh, WOW.

(I used to work at a children's bookstore, this is my list of favorites) McKinley, R. Hero and the Crown; Blue Sword Jones, Diana W. Dark Lord of Derkholm (the alternate world from another point of view... very funny); Howl's Moving Castle; nearly all her books feature alternate worlds of some kind or another, the Chrestomanci books develop the thought behind her scheme in the most detail Philip Pullman of course. Aiken, Joan The Wolves of Wiloughbey Chase books (especially the Dido Twite ones) feature a bizarre alternate history--King Richard the IVth-- which is NEVER explained at all) Zilpha Keatley Snyder wrote a wonderful book called the Changeling about an imaginary world (which stays imaginary) and then took the idea, tree people, and wrote a trilogy around it. ANYthing by Edith Nesbit practically (though I suppose the Story of the Amulet is most relevant). I would think the Secret Garden model could provide some interesting comparisions, and in that vein there's Ruth Sawyer's Roller Skates and Janet Talor Lisle's Afternoon of the Elves, Snyder's The Egypt Game, the Velvet Room and A Fabulous Creature. p.s. I'm sure more will come to mind in time (if this is actually worse than the bookstore let me know).

What? No pink?

Oooh, amid all these heavy heavyweights, Aristophanes (anything but Wealth,), the Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and Ovid (his biggie is the Metamorphoses, but the Ars Amatoria or the Amores is funnier, and really more representative).

Don Quixote. The Iliad, Middlemarch, the Brothers Karamazov, the Aeneid, The Persian War (Herodotus), the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides), the Annals (Tacitus). Those were the first that sprang to my mind.

Thank you all for all those resources (the pre-performance seminar is an especially nice reminder; I'm fairly sure they do quite a bit of that at BB, but never can remember). I'll definitely look for the books mentioned as well; is there one (or anything?) that goes through productions identifying new/redone choreography? For example I know that certain productions do the Act 3 national dances all in character shoes, and some productions have some of the dances en pointe. I'm going to hunt down one of the Kirov performances and the Bolshoi with Plisetskaya (or parts thereof). I really love the Makarova/Dowell myself; would it be considered traditonal/faithful?

OK. Boston Ballet is doing Swan Lake soonish and I would very much like to be in the position of knowing what I'm looking at, what I should be looking at and other such matters. I hope to go to several performances (we'll see how the stipend is holding out), but in the meantime I hope to get some 'homework' from the board. I claimed (with wild exaggeration, as is my wont) to have 5 or 6 Swan Lakes. I actually have only 2: the Makarova/Dowell and the Nordquist/Nordstrom (performed by the Royal Swedish Ballet). I know there are others out there, and I was hoping that the better informed could give me some reccommendations with appropriate description (don't ask much do I? ) The RSB performance has an interview with Sir Peter Wright, who gives a pretty clear idea of what he tinkered with, and what he didn't, but I'm curious about other productions. Sorry. This is so rambling. Let me put it this way: What should I do (reading/watching/thinking) so that I'm not watching this ballet from a position of ignorance?

Just back from the Saturday night show, I agree: go see Larissa Ponomarenko and Yury Yanowsky. She was really stunning, especially given that she spent quite a bit of the ballet sitting on a bench dying of consumption. I have to confess I don't really like partnering; I like solos and corps work. This partnering especially reminded me in a bad way of ice dancing. Not that I was cringing in my seat or anything, but I did think it was monotonous and was glad to see the other stuff. On the other hand it struck me as a very jumpy and turny work too. There were even plenty of beats in the jumps. Cheap and malicious are two words I thought could never describe Pollyanna Ribeiro, but as the nasty courtesan Olympe that's exactly what she was (also, as usual, impeccable, assured and a delight to watch. She's so naturally adorable that it was kind of fun to see her play a huge cow). Romi Beppu is still one of my favorites, and she did a lovely job as the sort of bland, baby courtesan. I love watching her pirouette, so light and confident. I'm hoping to see another show week after next. Hoping for Feijoo because I still haven't seen her, and can't wait for the Morris/Balanchine/Caniparoli/Emo(?). It's been so long since Nutcracker I've forgotten how good this company is. Oh yeah. The sets/lighting were GORGEOUS.

One of my favorite history professors say, "History IS dates," by which he means that to know why something happenend you have to know when it happened, what came when. This is Ancient Greek history, and not knowing when the Peace of Callias happened is very frustrating; were there 1 or 2 peaces, how did that affect Persian-Athenian relations (and therefore Athenian-Spartan relations)? I think too often dates are presented as this dull, uncontrovertable list that must simply be memorized "because." If that's true, then there really is no point in knowing dates, because you could just look them up. But because dates are attatched to events that have antecedents and consequences, the dates are important in themselves. (The Romans knew this: when they made up dates they made them darn significant: the founding of the Republic traditionally happens in 510 B.C., cooincidently the same year that the Pisistratid tyrants were expelled from Athens. Hmmm.) This is a great topic ( can't believe I missed it, thanks for bringing it back up Juliette). I too fall on the side of "interesting for it's own sake" rather than "interesting because I can apply it to my life." I wonder though how that can be communicated. I love Battement Cloche's plan; hard to implement in a semester long course though...

Karsavina in Firebird (or anything really) Plisetskaya in Swan Lake (or anything really) Spessivtseva in Giselle Danilova in Coppelia Alonso in Giselle

Good Lord Hans, MORE DETAILS! That sounds amazing and truly enlightening.