CygneDanois

Alexandra, that may be quite simply the most frightening thing I have heard in years. Note to all ADs who may be reading the board: Do not, repeat, DO NOT look at this thread as inspiration . ------------------ CygneDanois

How about a bisexual Giselle who is torn between Albrecht (male) and Hilary (female)? As for lesbians, well, there are those two demi-soloist wilis in the second act. Alexandra's idea of Bathilde and Myrtha being the same person works well. But why don't we set it in Spanish Harlem and choreograph to Ricky Martin and Santana? The royal court could be Giuliani and his officials. "Gisela" likes to go clubbing, but "Bertrada" her mother, says all those drugs aren't good for her, and if she keeps taking them, she'll eventually be sent to rehab. One night at the club, Gisela sees "Alberto" with "Batilda," New York City royalty, and overdoses. Gets sent to rehab. Alberto visits her there and tries to get her out, but he is clearly high, and the nurses try desperately to keep him in, too. However, he threatens to take legal action, and they must relent. He leaves, and tries to take comfort in the fact that the relapse rate for people in such situations as Gisela is ridiculously high. Wow. I can't believe that trashiness came out of my own head. I'll have to appoint a " Balletic Integrity Police" for myself if I'm ever an AD . ------------------ CygneDanois

How about a bisexual Giselle who is torn between Albrecht (male) and Hilary (female)? As for lesbians, well, there are those two demi-soloist wilis in the second act. Alexandra's idea of Bathilde and Myrtha being the same person works well. But why don't we set it in Spanish Harlem and choreograph to Ricky Martin and Santana? The royal court could be Giuliani and his officials. "Gisela" likes to go clubbing, but "Bertrada" her mother, says all those drugs aren't good for her, and if she keeps taking them, she'll eventually be sent to rehab. One night at the club, Gisela sees "Alberto" with "Batilda," New York City royalty, and overdoses. Gets sent to rehab. Alberto visits her there and tries to get her out, but he is clearly high, and the nurses try desperately to keep him in, too. However, he threatens to take legal action, and they must relent. He leaves, and tries to take comfort in the fact that the relapse rate for people in such situations as Gisela is ridiculously high. Wow. I can't believe that trashiness came out of my own head. I'll have to appoint a " Balletic Integrity Police" for myself if I'm ever an AD . ------------------ CygneDanois

I regret being born 50 years too late, and in the wrong country. The only thing that will mollify me is if I get to see some of these burgeoning stars mature, and see them regularly for a long time to come . ------------------ CygneDanois

Just how would ABT suddenly become regional if it moved out of New York? Would it be simply because it had left the country's cultural center? ------------------ CygneDanois [This message has been edited by CygneDanois (edited February 15, 2001).]

I imagine that Barbie already has an eating disorder by now. How else could she possibly be that thin? ------------------ CygneDanois

You can relax; I was just kidding. No way could I throw away a treasured spot at the best ballet school in the US . The Metropole is the name of that hotel? I will remember that . ------------------ CygneDanois

Jeannie, I am going to stop dancing and be a banker so that I can make enormous amounts of money and travel to St. Petersburg and Paris at a moment's notice . I am positively forest green at the moment . ------------------ CygneDanois

The March DM says that the Royal Ballet bestowed the title of Prima Ballerina Assoluta on Fonteyn. Can anyone verify this? [edited] Diana L, I wish the SAB students would look upon Kyra Nichols as a role model. ------------------ CygneDanois [This message has been edited by alexandra (edited February 09, 2001).]

I do know that . In 19th-century Russia, they would have been two different ranks to be achieved, right? (Although for 99% of the dancers, Prima/o Ballerina/o was as high as they could go.) ------------------ CygneDanois

Thank you, Alexandra. I thought, though, that in Russia in the 19th century, prima ballerina was a rank to be attained, though I may have just been misreading. ------------------ CygneDanois

"Prima Ballerina" used to be something akin to "Principal Dancer" (or maybe a little bit above that) in the days of the Imperial Ballet. Only two (one?) dancer(s) have ever achieved the rank of "Prima Ballerina Assoluta": Pierina Legnani and Mathilde Kschessinskaya (although I'm not sure about Kschessinskaya--she might just have been the first Russian dancer to complete 32 fouettes). I've heard it said that you can always tell a ballerina by her port de bras. ------------------ CygneDanois

I agree that he is the greatest choreographer of the last century. Paquita, you might be surprised at the number of short dancers in NYCB . ------------------ CygneDanois

Strange, isn't it? Because the dancers roll through their feet going onto and off of pointe, it seems as though their articulation wouldn't be too bad, but 1) as you probably already know, when standing en pointe, the toes must be kept straight, and 2) the way the dancers work their feet at the barre contributes to the problem because they don't use all the muscles in their feet when doing tendus, degages, etc. I hope you have a good time at ABT--their T&V should be quite spectacular. ------------------ CygneDanois

In Suki Schorer's book, she writes about how Balanchine asked her to teach children. I doubt that she taught them pure classical ballet. She also writes that he did think about the training of children--right down to the way they held their hands to develop that rounded look. I would guess that it probably was his intention to have dancers trained in his style, eventually, although no one can know that for sure. So many aspects of the Balanchine style were created in order to guard against certain aspects of "classical" ballet, such as the overcrossed 5ieme position, overcrossed wrists, clawed hands (to compensate for certain dancers' tendencies to hold all the fingers together), permanent pointe work (to build strength, but it also has the effect of dulling the articulation of the feet and damaging the dancer's sense of her "center"), straight back leg in 4ieme (a wonderful idea, but only in theory, unfortunately), fast adagios, fast ronds de jambe, and fast everything else (this only leads to a lack of control because the dancer merely jerks and twitches instead of controlling his/her movements). Funny thing, liebling; it's rare to see a dancer begin his/her training at SAB and still have a career in ballet. 95% of the dancers who get in to NYCB were only at SAB a few years--just long enough to pick up the mannerisms, but not enough to really damage their techniques. ------------------ CygneDanois

I don't think eating disorders can be blamed solely on Balanchine. He liked a slimmer look; that doesn't mean everyone has to stop eating. From what I read, there were times in the eighties when a sort of national slim-down occurred (this was also the time of ballerinas retiring at 30) and eating disorders were rampant, but I believe that artistic directors are seeing that although dancers do need to be slim, they also need to be healthy or (gasp!) they won't be able to dance. I think that I should also state that I have a great deal of respect for Balanchine as a choreographer. Even though I don't enjoy watching all of his ballets, many were the balletic equivalent of revolutionary in their days, and his choreographic invention seems to have known no limits. In addition, after re-reading my post above, I just want to say that I don't think it's impossible for anyone to be trained in the Balanchine style and have a career. Obviously, this is not the case--NYCB is flourishing. Not everyone gets the injuries I listed, even though they are the predominant types of injuries of what are currently called Balanchine-style dancers. I was simply pointing out certain negative aspects of Balanchine training that I experienced; I can point out positive ones easily. ------------------ CygneDanois

As a former dancer of the Balanchine style, I feel qualified to comment mainly on the technical aspects of this style, which is fabulous from a choreographic standpoint, but which often has adverse effects on the dancers' bodies (if you are trained in the style; obviously, dancing a few Balanchine ballets a season won't give you shin splints). Now, I do not know what SAB/NYCB were like while Balanchine was alive. I don't know how much the style has been distorted over the years, or if it has been kept the same, technically. One thing I notice a great deal is that Balanchine dancers tend to have incredibly tense arms and hands. From my experience, I believe that this is a result of excessive emphasis on speedy leg- and foot-work and a certain amount of neglect of the upper body. As far as I know, Balanchine did want the hands to be placed in that rounded claw position, with fingers poking out every which way, and I do understand that he wanted a more informal port de bras. I have always found it interesting, though, when someone comments that Balanchine hated mannerisms, because Balanchine dancers have the most mannered port de bras I have ever seen. The flowery use of the wrists is especially offensive, aesthetically. In addition to having almost incorrigible mannerisms in the arms, I find that dancers of this style also tend to have poor posture, caused by excessive emphasis on having the weight too far forward. Never, in all my years at SAB, did I ever once hear a teacher say, "Shoulders back." The result? Dancers with rounded shoulders and heads that jut forward, staring out into the audience blankly. Now for the legs and feet. Balanchine was said to have liked the look of winged feet, so at SAB, everyone dances on feet that are so pronated as to be injurious. This gave me--and many others--injuries in the ankles, knees, hips, and even back. The physical therapist's room at SAB is filled to the brim with dancers needing help for their lower legs. This is aggravated by jumping, or in fact doing any sort of plie with the heels off the floor. Yes, it allows for a deeper plie, but there is such a tiny amount of the foot on the floor that the plie is hardly worth anything at all. To jump well, it is necessary to push off from the heels--not by placing weight solely on the heels, of course, but by using them to help push off for the jump. If one plies with ones heels down, there is more area of the foot on the ground to contribute to the force necessary for a high jump. Without the heel one the ground, one is essentially jumping from ones toes. Plies without heels on the floor have consequences besides that of a smaller jump. The achilles tendon can tighten and even snap because it is not being stretched of fully used. This causes tendonitis. And because jumping with no heels on the floor places an enormous amount of strain on the tiny muscles along the shin, shin splints often result, as well. Returning to the upper body, so many Balanchine-style dancers hold an amazing amoung of tension in the backs of their necks. With the shoulders, upper back and arms carrying tension, and the head simply staring straight ahead, pressure is focused on the back of the neck. I think that this, too, can be the result of having the weight so far forward: the body is leaning so far to the front that the upper-back and neck muscles try their utmost to pull back to keep the dancer from toppling over. Well, I could go on forever on this topic, but I don't want to put the board to sleep with in-depth technical analyses of every step in the Balanchine book . ------------------ CygneDanois

Well, now I have to go hunt down every last video of Kirkland I can possibly find and see if I can extract even the tiniest, most vague sense of what she might have been like live. These descriptions of her are just incredible. I, too, when I read her book, had the sense of, "Well, if that's what it took for her to create those splendid effects, she could go right ahead." And I wish I hadn't brought up LaFosse's book! Gianina, I like Alessandra Ferri, too, even though I've only seen a few videos and one live performance of Pas des Deeses in which she hardly did anything. I have a video of her in Giselle, and while I don't find her acting utterly heartbreaking or earth-shattering, I do find it very believable. She looks as though she really does love Albrecht, and her mad scene is plausible--she doesn't go insane all at once, but by degrees, as though gradually realizing the full weight of what has befallen her, becoming more desperate as she goes along. I'm also enthralled by her Act II, in which she is cold and dead on the outside, but there seems to be a faint heartbeat, a tiny glimmer of love for Albrecht inside, and it is trying desperately to break through the frigid pallor of death. She moves as though she's in a swimming pool, as though death has slowed her down and that little bit of love inside her is trying its very hardest to hang on, and it is a very effective contrast to her easy, carefree movements in Act I. This gives me the idea that when the Wilis dance forever, it's not necessarily as ghosts free in the wind--it's a struggle for them, possibly even painful, because they can never rest, forever subject to the command of Myrtha with her willow wand. ------------------ CygneDanois

Wouldn't tilting a straight spine also have the effect of raising one shoulder? That is what I meant to express in my earlier post. ------------------ CygneDanois

Drew, as I have never seen Kirkland dance live, and all my information about her comes from books, I very much appreciate your insight. I have to ask about Seymour's Giselle; do you think that a hardier interpretation would have worked? What I mean is that from my perspective, the whole point of the story is that Giselle is a delicate little thing with a weak heart, and that's why she goes insane and dies so easily. Would Albrecht's betrayal have had the same effect on a stronger person, or does anyone know if Seymour was able to work this into the role? Thanks for any answers. ------------------ CygneDanois

Sorry, felursus. Now that I read over that post, it sounds a bit rude. No offense intended. ------------------ CygneDanois

The open-air gala that Marc mentions is the one I was referring to. I have the "Paris Dances Diaghilev" tape as well, and it is one of my treasures, though I don't see Maurin's name mentioned anywhere. I did not notice a heavy bust on her in the "Casse-Noisette" tape, but maybe I was too busy watching her immaculate footwork and triple pirouettes. As for similarities/differences between Lezhnina and Maurin, I've only seen Lezhnina dance "Diana & Actaeon" pas de deux, "Fairy Doll" pas de trois, and a variation from "Paquita" (all on tapes), and I've only seen Maurin in that one "Casse-Noisette," so I am not really qualified to judge; that's merely how it seemed to me from seeing them those few times. I also think Belarbi really looks authentically Spanish in "Don Q." He has that "inner fire" going. It's wonderful to watch, and I think that if Ananiashvili had used a similar interpretation, the pas de deux would have looked pretty good, but of course she has to do what works best for her. It's also unfortunate that the black costume on Belarbi makes most of him fade into the black background, while the contrast between Ananiashvili's pink tights and the background makes her look...a bit large. At any rate, her technical fireworks more than make up for it. I still don't know what they were thinking when they decided to film an open-air performance. It makes me wonder how Arbo would look in Giselle at the Paris Opéra, because from what I can tell, she'd be very good at it, with her dark, reddish hair, pale skin, and long, long arms. She looks as though she was trying to create the proper atmosphere for the pas de deux, but the venue simply was not conducive, and the music seems to be much too fast. ------------------ CygneDanois

Gelsey Kirkland was obsessed with the acting component of her roles, according to her autobiography. She brought in acting coaches to help her, although some believe she carried it too far--witness Robert LaFosse's autobiography wherein he recounts a time when he and another male dancer were to enter as Kitri and had no other part in the ballet. She didn't think they were relating properly to her (they were onstage for maybe a few seconds) and had them analyze their roles, relation to her, et cetera with her acting coach. LaFosse and the other dancer thought it was ridiculous, so two other dancers were brought in to do the parts when Kirkland danced Kitri. I don't know why some people persist in thinking that Ulanova had no technique. She was trained by Agrippina Vaganova herself! I would think that would be enough to dispel any suspicions that her technique was less than adequate. ------------------ CygneDanois

felursus, that is a developpé to écarté derrière, as I recall. In écarté, you are supposed to lean to the side. I believe she does elevé to demi-pointe. Yes, it is very controlled and beautiful to watch. She does not lack strength or control or, for the most part, technique. Also, it is a rule in ballet that even in écarté, the spine does not bend. It remains straight and tilts so that it is on a diagonal straight line. The times that I have seen Guillem's position à la seconde, her spine has been curved. I tend to look at it as the leg getting in the way of the ribcage, although it is fun to watch her contort herself in modern pieces. She has the most extraordinary dancer's body. ------------------ CygneDanois

Thank you, Estelle! You are such a wealth of information. Yes, my copy of "Casse-Noisette" is copyrighted 1988. Maurin reminds me of Larissa Lezhnina--they look similar and both seem to be tiny and perfect, like small diamonds. I wish I could see more of Belarbi, as the costume he has to wear on that tape is not flattering. He dances Giselle with Arbo, and the music seems to be too fast for her...well, I'll just have to keep my eye out for other tapes of them. ------------------ CygneDanois