Ostrich

OK how long does it take to learn Danish?

From time to time, talk of "the Balanchine book by Arlene Croce" surfaces on Ballet Talk, but we already know that's not a biography but a study of the ballets -- if it exists at all.

It does, cos I've got it!

And I vote for a biography of Nadia Nerina. Born in South Africa, trained with Marie Rambert and eventually invited as a guest artist to the Bolshoi, then to dissapear abruptly from the world of ballet - surely there's a fascinating story there?

Personally I have neve seen a more perfectly proportioned body for ballet than Nikolai Tsiskaridze's. Talk about a high demi-pointe...

After all, Blyton's people were never actually nasty to the underprivileged - just full of their own superiority.

Speaking of from my own Enid Blyton reading craze, I remember the wonderful feeling of superiority you got - but it was superiority to the adults in the book. "Generationist", you might call it. How great to enter a world in which the kids could outsmart all the adults around them! This, I think, is one of the main attractions Enid Blyton has for children. Her books make you feel so capable, so clever, so able-to-handle-life. And that's a good thing for kids, isn't it?

Ah, maybe that explains the reports that the standard of the Stuttgart ballet's male dancers is so high. Does anyone know why he left the Bolshoi? Rather stupid of the Bolshoi to loose him, wasn't it?

I googled to find info about this wonderful teacher (surely anyone with both Malakhov and Tsiskaridze numbering among their pupils must be brilliant?) and could find nothing current about him. Where is he, and what is he doing? Still teaching?

I hope so!

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So many of them are quite happy to read whatever it is you push under their nose with enough praise.

Thanks for commenting, Ostrich. But..... maybe some of them were looking for guidance? Isn’t that a good thing? You were the one who was there, of course, but when I did a brief summer stint in a bookstore I encountered many well-intentioned customers who just needed some help.

Fair enough. However, as manager of a bookstore for about 1 year, I found that many people tend to base their judgement of the merits of a book solely on other people's opinions (often press opinions). So what I meant to say is that not only do many people buy a book on someone else's (possibly indiscriminate) praise, but they also end up judging it the same way. Not everyone, of course. I met a lot of very interesting and discriminating individuals too. And yes, I do my best to help those people truly looking for advice and guidance.

Assura which according to the producers is an exotic themed solo choreographed by Bolshoi's Morihiro Ivato.

has anyone seen Ivato's work ? There's quite a lot of it in the program.

No but I'd be very interested to! I've only ever seen him dance Golden Idol, which I think he performed most artistically. Doesn't say anything about his choreography though.

And regarding Ruzimatov, stupid question maybe but how old is he exactly?

It's fun, and I always assume that the dancers appreciate it.

Certainly I've heard many dancers express this. I'm sure Ivan Vasiliev mentioned this in one of his interviews.

I'll never forget watching a ballerina(don't know who she was) of the Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre performing the fouettes from her Le Corsaire variation. She was outstanding and very, very fast. The audience started clapping enthousiastically, upon which she gave us just a hint of a smile and doubled her speed!

Oh well, then maybe I will still get a chance to see him dancing "live".

With an aunt who helps get him a guesting opportunity at the Bolshoi and a nephew(supposing it is his nephew) who wins the Shanghai International Ballet Competition, Carlos Acosta has some great family connections.

After working in a bookstore for a while, I realised that it in no way necessarily increases your respect for the so-called "reading public". So many of them are quite happy to read whatever it is you push under their nose with enough praise. Similar to how they'll just accept whatever's just showing on TV.

I am not sure if this is the same book (sometimes books are given different titles in other countries--I am in England) but I read "Prologue" a few years ago and loved it. It is about her living in England and how she takes up dancing again.

As far as I know, "Prologue" is simply another title for the same book.

What I find refreshing about this book is that it is a genuinely well-written autobiography. Yes, I agree with most of the comments, about her bitterness, her personal problems, etc. but it is an absorbing and grippingly written account for all that.

Retired as in not dancing at all anymore, or only on special occassions/galas et.? And does anyone know what he intends doing now? Teach?

Female dancers' jumps. Wonderful to see a Gillian Murphy or Ashley Bouder fly across the stage in grande jetes that would make men jealous.

And extensions in men that make ballerinas green with envy... OK, not when they are overused, but a grand jete in split or near split looks sooo much more elegant than a jete with the legs making a near 90 degree angle.

I don't like the Corsair Pas de Trois, however historical it is, (or others outside of Manon's) because a third party usually is intrusive, causing the action/flow of the pdd to degenerate into a series of truncated sequences. And poor Ali gets only one chance to dance his heart out--and enjoy the company of fellow harem slave Medora--in a 3hrs of being amazingly loyal, helpful, and subservient to Conrad, and he has to share.

Ali is always my avourite character in the ballet, maybe for this reason. I'm always wishing he and Medora could get together. Or that he at least gets Gulnara.

Swan Lake -I've always thought "What an idiot is this Siegfried!" to mistake the glamour-gal in black to the gentle Odette in white. I mean...DUH!!!!

Same here! Especially when she wears those "donkey ears" feathers in her hair that the Russian companies like using!

Other "duh" moments (for me):

Romeo & Juliet: Juliet sees Romeo in his creepy black mask and falls for him right away. She isn't even close enough to see his eyes! No wonder her cousin is suspicious. My sympathies are all with Tybalt on this one.

Giselle: Why does Albrecht leave his dukely clothes in the hut opposite Giselle's, no less? And leave his sword standing beside the window!! And the window unfastened!!!

Sheherezade: The big fat claok that gets put around the Golden Slave's shoulders by - what's her name actually? She's the sultan's first wife. Sheherezade is the faithful wife. Anyway, I still can't work out what it's for.

La Bayadere: I've never liked the dance with the scarf in the white scene. I find it distracting from the unity of the act, and it feels like a "trick" or a "stunt". At least, that's how I often see it performed.

In conclusion Kirov is the best interpretation and old tradition ballet,ABT is the future of ballet and the best techique.It's not a question of musicality.I'd only add Opera of Paris for the best technique in Europe.

A sad day for ballet when musicality is no longer used as a measure of a company's greatness.

In fact, recently while I was enthousiastically "standing up" at a performance (together with about 1/3 of the remaining audience) I was asked by an irate lady behind me (neither old nor disabled) to sit down so that she could see the curtain calls. She seemed unaware that her request was anything but perfectly just and reasonable.

Don't keep us in suspense, Ostrich. Did you enlighten the lady?

I politely informed her that she could stand up if she enjoyed the performance enough to want to see the curtain calls.

Is it appropriate to applaud before a variation is completed or before a bow is given? This seems to occur quite often by members of the audience. If I am not mistaken, Balanchine did not want the audience to applaud until a final bow was indicated by the artist. Just because there is a pause in a performer's movement on stage does not always mean the piece is completed.

Clapping before a variation/dance is finished can denote one of 2 things: that the audience is so excited that they can't wait to applaud, or that they are so bored that they think "surely this must be over now, it's gone on for long enough". I don't think it is rude either way. To be on the safe side, I do hesitate long enough before clapping myself, just to be sure I don't interrupt (or show myself up as ignorant). Then again, I think the attitude to this will vary according to the cultural context. At Pavaroti's catastrophic "Farewell to Africa" performance, held in an open sport stadium in Cape Town(it began to rain halfway through) the audience started to clap and sing along. Apparently he was very annoyed and asked them to stop. How were the poor sports fans to know that?

I think it also depends on - how shall I put it - your "taste" in musicality, or what you are accustomed to seeing. Musicality is difficult to define exactly. Personally though, I do think Kirov dancers the more musical.

Our traditional strictly-a-spectator audience culture is breaking down and becoming more like the participatory audience culture described by cubanmiamiboy. As previous threads have shown, this is gradually happening in Europe as well.

Interesting how audience behaviour varies in different parts of the world. The "automatic standing ovation" is not at all in evidence here (South Africa). In fact, if you can get a standing ovation in Cape Town, you can probably write to the Guinness Book of Records and let them know.

But the Cape Town audiences are the stuffiest I know (apologies to all Capetonians and please remember I was one myself for a while...)

In fact, recently while I was enthousiastically "standing up" at a performance (together with about 1/3 of the remaining audience) I was asked by an irate lady behind me (neither old nor disabled) to sit down so that she could see the curtain calls. She seemed unaware that her request was anything but perfectly just and reasonable.

Sure the performers like to get a standing ovation and now have probably come to expect it

I have observed this. In fact I attended a performance by a touring company (the Russian National Ballet) that had some members of the company reduced to tears on stage during the bows (I am not exaggerating) because of the indifferent audience response.

I would imagine that there are others like myself who have purchased a dvd after discovering its existence through YouTube.

I do that a lot.

I am dying to hear reviews...

I have it on relatively good authority that Galina Ulanova had a child. In fact, I met a supposed descendant of hers, who seemed able to fill me in quite well about her life. However, I am most surprised, as I have never heard about it before, and being a devotee of Ulanova, I surely would have picked this up somewhere along the line. I hope the all-knowing Ballet Talkers can help me here...

Lors de cette conférence de presse, les journalistes conviés ont pu voir seulement quelques extraits du ballet, accompagnés au piano, avec notamment la participation de Svetlana Lunkina et Maria Alexandrova. Les artistes suivants sont annoncés sur le ballet (sans précision des rôles, il doit s'agir de Medora-Conrad): Svetlana Zakharova, Galina Stepanenko, Anna Antonicheva, Nikolaï Tsiskaridze, Sergeï Filin, Yuri Klevtsov, Andreï Uvarov.

According to this source, (Dansomanie), the Itar-Tass press interview/viewing of a rehearsal of Ratmansky's Le Corsaire revealed that Stepanenko and Antonicheva are also rehearsing Medora and Uvarov and Filin Conrad.

Maybe somebody with better French than mine can help here.

You can see some of the photos taken at the press viewing

Here