richard53dog

I've read in long ago interviews with a couple of her partners that said that one ballerina that was not easy to partner was Markova. She was very reluctant to give that little "push off" keeping the illusion for herself of weighlessness. I agree that Cragun, Nagy, Soto, Nureyev, and Bocca are some guys I've seen that have tremendous partnering skills <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh, take it for what it's worth but Gelsey Kirkland, in Walking on My Grave, complains bitterly on partnering by Baryshnikov but has nothing but praise for D'Amboise, Nagy, and Dowell Richard

I've read in long ago interviews with a couple of her partners that said that one ballerina that was not easy to partner was Markova. She was very reluctant to give that little "push off" keeping the illusion for herself of weighlessness. I agree that Cragun, Nagy, Soto, Nureyev, and Bocca are some guys I've seen that have tremendous partnering skills

Dance Scholar, I remember reading in an old ballet history book, lost long ago, that the Ballet Rousse de Monte Carlo's three baby ballerinas Toumanova, Baronova (who I actually saw, but in an acting role in Fiddler on the Roof), and Riabouchinska could crank out the 64 fouettes on command. Richard

Leigh , The brochure gives no casting but has two photos of Lamy. Richard

I received my Spring 2005 Events at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) From April 5-9, the National Ballet of Canada will bring their production of Kudelka's The Contract for NYC area ballet goers Tickets are $20-70. Also programmed will be BAMdialogue with Kudelka and Torke following the Apr 7 performance

Well, I agree with canbelto on the unbalanced and oddly perverse take Nureyev has on R&J. I would add that Legris and Loudieres seem chilly, almost frightening to me. I found myself unable to care at all about the fate of these two, which isn't what I would expect from any R&J production (theater, ballet , or opera) Richard

Myself, I would choose Ferri... I'm hoping to see Ferri in Giselle this Summer too, Oberon. But last year ABT, both the Srping and the Met and the Fall at City Center had pretty poor attendance. I was really pretty obsessive, I saw about 20 performances and none were close to sold out. Soo....... We don't know if attendance will be so bad this year, but if so, there will be a good selection of tickets at the last minute. What I plan to do is hedge bets. I already ordered some tickets via subscription. then some others I'll get at the last minute to try to avoid as much of the injury, illness thing as I can. Richard

Mary J, I'm a frequent opera goer and I've been an opera fan for a long time. You would think that the music, and then the libretto would be the key ingredients, right? This is less and less the case. The director is the one having the key spot. And a lot of the singers are being chosen for how they look rather than how they sound. Don't get me wrong, I don't like tired , routine, musty productions. It's great if a production team can come up with a new slant on an opera to make it new and fresh. This gives the performance a kind of electric charge. My big gripe is when the music is considered a detail, not to be concerned about and the libretto just ignored. That makes me angry. American audiences seem more conservative and less willing to accept the really distorted productions. But in Europe, particularly Germany, the audiences seem to really accept novelty over any other criteria. I guess this is just a cultural thing . Richard

A few of my high points for 2004 Gillian Murphy in Ballet Imperial and T&V Ananiashvili and Bocca in Swan Lake Ferri and Corella in Romeo and Juliet Guillem in Marguerite and Armand Ashley Bouder as the Dewdrop and lead Marzipan In non-performance things, the Fonteyn Retrospective this Summer at the Lincoln Center branch of the NY Public Library Richard

I went to last night's NYCB program.(Jan 8) It was good to see 4 Temperaments again; I haven't see it in a while. And I thought the performance could have been a little sharper, it seemed to be it was almost as if it was going in and out of focus at times. Still I liked it quite a bit. This was my first time to see Sylve live, I was very impressed. Her dancing seemed very sharp and crisp with very good definition. I really went to this program to see Todo Buenos Aires. I have to say I didn't think much of this. Does any know if this was modified for Bocca? Other than some flashy moments, he didn't seem to be a good fit for it. Even though it was about the same length as Temperaments, it seemed interminable. I skipped I'm Old Fashioned so I can't comment on that Richard

I liked Kirkland a lot as the Sugar Plum too(although I really preferred her as the Dewdrop) From back in that era, I also liked Hayden, McBride, and particularly Verdy. From this season's batch, I liked Ringer's very charming Sugar Plum very much. Richard

I'm curious also about how this will be staged. I saw it today in the lobby of the NYST. Curiosity won out, I bought a ticket.

To sort of take this back to the original survey of "favorite Dewdrops" mine was Gelsey Kirkland at about age 19 or 20. She was just lovely in the part. I did see Ashley Bouder a few weeks ago and thought she was really terrific. Last Sunday I saw Weese. who added lots of balances, which was very impressive. I have to admit that I just love the Dewdrops different little segments

Natalia, Do you know if this actually happened? Isn't she almost 80? Richard

Truly, it's not possible to carry forward all the complicated details of most plays, particularly Shakespeare's. To stay on this story base, but with a switch to another genre, I think Britten did himself in with trying to encompass too many details into his own Midsummer Night's Dream. The third act is drawn waaaaaay out. Ashton or Balanchine. There are two different intents here in my opinion. Ashton tried to create a period piece, a psuedo Romantic, slightly artificial, piece. Balanchine, as he often does, takes something from another era, patterns, steps, in rare cases , stories and brings a modern sensibilty to them . Do we REALLY believe Titania and Oberon will have a future without any waves or bumps? Today's mentality would say "not likely". I'm not convinced Shakespeare wasn't saying the same thing. He certainly was a master of saying one thing with a distinct contradiction as an undercurrent. So time will tell which piece will have a more viable future. Personally, I like both pieces, but enjoy Balanchine's extra dash of wit as an added garnish

To take this thread off in a slightly different direction, I think Alonso also had great skill in what we would call today "re-inventing" herself. I saw Alonso a few times back in the 70s and the Alonso I saw was very different from her dancing on the Alonso documentary video, particularly the Black Swan. She used a very pronounced softness in her dancing, there was none of the athleticism she evidently used much earlier. While she had a very easy extension, the overall quality was that of a very cloudlike floating. Now this makes a lot of sense from a practical point of view. The films show a dancer in her mid 40s, the dancer I saw was in her mid 50s. I would guess that that amazing athleticism was no longer really an option for her at that point so she focused much more on being the vision of those mid 19th century images of a Romantic ballerina. Amazing isn't it? And of course that striking magnetism remained intact, she was a very creative performer. Is anyone familiar with another documentary that features Alonso, one called The Romantic Era? I've been doing a lot of housecleaning lately, found a copy of this, started watching it, and then misplaced it in some more continued housecleaning.