Mireille

That's great news. I have also been looking for the Raymonda video with Dudinskaya and Sergeev; is-it available at all?

Has anyone attended the symposium? Mireille

Thank you Volcanohunter for sharing this information. He wanted so much to attend last year, will power made him go and he came back very happy to have made it.

Brydon Paige passed away on October 9, 2007 after a long illness. Born in Vancouver, Brydon Paige joined Ballet Chiriaeff in 1953, which later became Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He stayed with the Company for 20 years as character dancer, and later ballet master and choreographer. He wrote choreographies for companies such as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Banff Centre of the Arts, National Ballet of Guatemala, National Ballet of Portugal, Opéra de Montréal and Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary and Québec Operas. He staged ballets for the Louisville Ballet, Baltimore Ballet and Ballet Nacional of Cuba, and choreographed for the Aida opera presented at the International Opera Festival at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and in Australia, en Europe and Asia. He was artistic director of the Alberta Ballet from 1976 until 1988. He created the Snow Maiden ballet commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and presented during Calgary's Olympic Games, for which he was granted a scholarship to go to Russia. Brydon Paige also taught at the Banff Centre of the Arts and directed the Ballet Academy in Guatemala as well as the Les Compagnons de la Danse, a sister company of the Grands Ballets Canadiens. He was also director of the dance department at École secondaire Pierre-Laporte in Montréal. He was artistic director of Ballet Divertimento since 1996.

In Montreal's Place des Arts, at the Salle Maisonneuve, right above the entrance stairs, you may now admire the beautiful tapestry "dernier déjeuner sur l'herbe" made by Canadian hand weaver Louise Lemieux-Bérubé based on a photo taken during a ballet by Fernand Nault, I believe, in 1965 (hope I'm correct); unfortunately, the 14 male dancers from the GBCM are not identified. Here is a link to a photo of the tapestry: http://www.fiberscene.com/galleries/g_images26/berube3.html

... and the last time I was planning to catch their performance together in NYC, he had to have surgery and it was cancelled...

Can't breathe here! WOW! Thank you Ardani!

Thank you so much, rg and Mashinka. That would be the court pas de deux I was referring to, and I just wished I was that Mireille! The female variation, on a gavotte by Lully, is absolutely beautiful and just about impossible to perform, starting with walking in fondu and moving on to hopping on pointe in attitude, evolving to slow turning the hopping on pointe attitude, with of course a slow port de bras, and finishing with a diagonal of ballonnés... a charming challenge. I would have loved to see Dudinskaya and Sergeyev in it, maybe they taught it to their students. I wonder if this part of Flames of Paris just got forgotten. It confirms to me of what an artist Mr. Vainonen was. Interesting. Mireille-not-de-Poitiers

I recently watched a PDD from a scene in Flames of Paris at the court, different from the Jeanne and is it Gaspar PDD, and find it to be a real jewel by Vainonen; is this PDD still danced nowadays? Does a full version of this ballet exist? I also found interesting that Asafiev chose pieces by French composers as music for this PDD.

I would have loved Panov if his variation would have been included in the Kirov film of the 60s; why it wasn't included in the film ?

Pugni's Little Humpbacked Horse, get the dancers that danced it to revive it before it is too late...

Thank you very much for the link, some of the programs looks very interesting, i.e. McPhee on Beauty's music. Can't wait to watch. Mireille

What about the other dancers, who danced Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris and how did they do?

Lunkina performed the russian dance from the little humpbacked horse at the Maya Plisetskaya 80th anniversary gala at the bolshoi last year.

I caught the travelling-for-balletitis bug two years ago and planned a trip to St.Petersburg from Montreal around Lopatkina dancing the Legend of Love. I loved its music, learned a small part of it and thought I should see the real thing. I tried to catch as many ballet performances in the shortest possible time and had a lot of fun trying to set the best travelling time in spite of the Mariinsky posting the playbills just a short time before, and I booked classes in between and turned this trip in my own little ballet-festival&workshop. I repeated this year, this time during the real festival. I would travel to Copenhagen for the next Bournonville festival - that gives me a long time to save money! - and made myself a rule not to set foot in Cuba unless there's a ballet festival at the same time! I think ballet-travel is a great way to get to see what you really love and to meet people to share the same passion with, which is quite rare in my part of the world, and after all, considering that birdwatchers will travel to a remote jungle at the end of the world just for the chance to maybe catch sight of a rare bird species, our chances are much higher to get to see what we expect!

Korsuntsev probably...

About cell phones, Windflyer reminded me of an unusual incident, a chirping cell phone at the Hermitage theater which came from... the jacket of one of the viola player in the orchestra pit! There was nothing she could do as she could not stop playing!

Does anyone know who will be performing on the added Sunday evening performance? I do have a ticket for that evening, and was wondering...

I will be in Ottawa for the week-end but could not get a ticket for the Saturday performance , but got tickets for both performances on Sunday. I cannot wait to see Pavlenko's Swan Lake, I saw her in Diamonds twice in St-Petersburg in March and was completely overwhelmed by her... Does anyone know who is scheduled to performed Sunday evening? I'm guessing Somova based on the tour schedules...

Vishneva took out Ondine from her performances as she is sick. Would anyone know who will be performing the premier on the 16th?

I totally agree with you Solor, I heard the Pavillon' suite warmfully conducted by Vladimir Ziva in St-Petersburg, fell in love with the music and found the same full version afterwards... the score is so full of possibilities, I keep hoping that one day someone will rewrite a ballet on it!

For those who will be attending the Festival, the acrobatic Swan Lake will be shown in St-Petersburg... the same nights as the Tsiskaridze and Zelenski galas: http://www.aktivist.ru/culture/articles/a20691.asp

Got an answer from Johan Kobborg! They still have not decided on what they will be performing at the Gala (he shall post it on his site when they do)... but she is definitely scheduled to perform the Sleeping Beauty He mentioned having declined due to having another Beauty scheduled in UK shortly after. Now let's hope the plan does not get changed! canbelto! Mireille

Thank you Canbelto! I posted the questions and will let you know the results... Mireille

Would Alina Cojocaru have a website with performances to come posted ? Mireille... Wishing very hard!