djb

Interesting that you should mention Deanne Bergsma, Alexandra. Her bourrees were the smoothest I've ever seen. When I slightly unfocused my eyes, she actually appeared to be gliding across the stage. I don't know whether she was doing ankle or knee bourrees, but I noticed that each step was tiny.

(I wonder how smooth her bourrees would have been with Ashton riding on her back?)

I don't know whether this film has come out on DVD yet (maybe it has in France), but it's one to keep an eye out for: "Violette et Mr. B." I just saw the San Francisco screening -- with Violette Verdy present to answer questions afterward -- and was floored by her dancing, even in those poor quality old clips. She's also an exceptionally articulate and entertaining speaker, as is evident in the coaching scenes (in which you get to see some excellent dancers). If a DVD does appear, it will be a must-have.

Thanks. That makes sense. I guess it was referring to it as the choral "addition" that confused me.

Way back in this thread, someone commented that the addition of vocal music was "jarring." I knew the music before I saw either Ashton's or Balanchine's choreography, so I'm quite used to, and enjoy, the voices. If asked, I couldn't have told you whether Balanchine used the voices, but I assume he didn't, since someone commented on the addition of voices in Ashton's. I only saw Balanchine's once, and I don't remember. Can someone enlighten me?

Perhaps that is the impression people get because of the ballets he choreographed that have good dancing parts for only 1 man, while the rest of the men are mainly partnering or doing relatively undemanding dancing.

I did think the choreography in some sections was a bit repetitive and therefore not terribly interesting, but overall, I loved this film (I have it on VHS). There are lots of clever bits, and the scenery, sets and costumes are wonderful.

I liked the scene with the mice doing a garland dance, using their tails as the garlands.

I also would put Radunsky, Yagudin and Taranda on the list. Another great Bolshoi character dancer of yore was Natalia Kasatkina. She can be seen as the gypsy woman in the excerpt from "The Stone Flower," shown in the movie "Bolshoi Ballet" (aka "Bolshoi '67"). I saw her live at the San Francisco Opera house in the '60s, and her solos would get as much applause and cheering as those of the principals. And then there was Vladimir Vasiliev, first in the film of "The Little Humpbacked Horse" and much later in "Anyuta."

As for the Royal Ballet, there are too many to list. Back in the '60s, when I saw a lot of Royal Ballet performances, I thought that every single dancer in the crowd scenes in "Romeo and Juliet" was a wonderful character dancer. But I loved Leslie Edwards and Desmond Doyle.

I saw an excellent classical dancer do my favorite Carabosse -- Parrish Maynard, formerly of the San Francisco Ballet.

[sorry -- at first I said Kasatkina was in "The Little Humpbacked Horse," but I corrected it.]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Vasiliev had a better technique than Baryshnikov, but he was pretty close, and I preferred him as a performer, especially his acting.

Alexandra, Maximova does appear on one of the Bolshoi excerpts tapes in the 2nd act pdd from "Giselle," but not with Vasiliev. I don't recall who her partner was.

Wow! Where did you come across Maximova and Vasiliev in "Giselle"? I'm sure it's not commercially available, at least not now, but I'm curious.

I don't stand just because everyone else does.

I had read the article, but didn't have time to mention when I last posted. I enjoyed it very much.

Another movie in which Donald O'Connor did some very elegant dancing was "Anything Goes," with Mitzi Gaynor. I don't know whether it's commercially available.

Here's a very informative website about Donald O'Connor

Just a quickie: I'm glad to see all the critics giving so much notice to Tina LeBlanc. Now that Joanna Berman is gone, Ms. LeBlanc is sole owner of the title, "my favorite female dancer in SFB." It's interesting that Ann Murphy used the image of a racing Camaro in describing Guennadi Nedviguine. A friend of mine likened LeBlanc and Nedviguine to Ferraris. I'm looking forward to seeing them in Don Q tomorrow night.

I saw this in an article in the Miami Herald about Cynthia Newport's documentary "Dance Cuba: Dreams of Flight": "the sensual throbbing of Afro-Cuban dance." Really, Mr. R!

I also tend to watch Donald O'Connor when he's dancing with other people. As for the comment that his style was comic and eccentric, well, he certainly did that style well. But in other movies, his style could be romantic and even somewhat classical. A good example of his non-eccentric, beautiful, smooth, effortless dancing is in the number "A Man Chases A Girl" from "There's No Business Like Show Business."

"You had to be there," "defies description" and "words are insufficient" could all be better expressed as "I can't write."

I saw in in the '60s, when the San Francisco Ballet performed it, with Cynthia Gregory as the dancing Anna and Nina Foch as the singing Anna. I liked it, but I was a teenager, and a lot of years have gone by, so who knows what I'd think of it now? Tonight I saw a photo of Cynthia Gregory in the cabaret scene. Pretty high babe factor. Her hair is unmistakably from the '60s, which is kind of funny, although I wasn't, of course, aware of it when I saw the ballet performed.

I expect seeing Allegra Kent and Cynthia Gregory in this role would be two very different experiences.

Anything that "defies description."

Someone recently emailed me the results of winners of last year's Bulwer-Lytton contest (run by the English Dept. of San Jose State University) for the worst first line of a bad novel. Here's #8:

"With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."

Dirac, I suppose the problem is that these really are athletic competitions, so really, the athletes should be allowed to react the way any athlete should. But since the judges and commentators make so much of the skater's artistry, I'm disappointed when a skater instantly drops that artistry because it makes it seem so phony. Also, I've seen these reactions from skaters at exhibitions, and from skaters who should be old enough to control themselves. What was with that almost penitent expression that Oksana Baiul would put on when she hadn't done well?

I'm another Paul Wylie fan who thought he should have won gold at the Olympics. Still, I like his response at a press conference when the question of whether he could have won the gold came up: "Hey, just how much of a Cinderella story do you guys want?''

One thing I appreciate about his performances is that he treated them as performances. I get tired of skaters who do supposedly artistic programs and then either pat themselves on the back or look chagrined, the instant the music stops. Wylie presented himself like a professional performer, no matter how his program went.

When I saw "Flashdance" in the theater with a couple of fellow dancers, all 3 of us laughed out loud when the main character states that she's never had a dance lesson in her life. (The dancing was done by Marine Jehan, an obviously trained dancer.) A girl in front of us turned around and asked, "What's so funny about that?" I guess she believed the fantasy.

Yes, I've observed that Condition many times. I wonder how Bizet felt? (Getting back on topic .)

Did the man have any idea how great his own stuff was?

"Flashdance" was certainly the most absurd plot I've come across in a movie about dance, although I did enjoy the dance numbers. David Letterman continued in the same vein by having a man on his show who was purportedly a welder with dreams of becoming a film critic. The man reviewed "Flashdance," of course. All of his comments were things like "They had her welding with all this curly hair sticking out -- you'd never see that in a real steel mill." It was even funnier than the movie.