Mireille

Running until October 9, the program announces Malakhov in Swan Lake and Faruk in Rasputin... anyong attending? Here is the link: http://www.balletmikkeli.com/eng/index2.php

She did indeed and it must have been a special evening to attend... has any BT member been able to attend? Please post your impressions!

I'm glad you received them and that they meet expectations... and envy you a great deal! Maybe one day they will be distributed outside Japan...

Last night’s Gala des étoiles offered a tango-flavoured program of 15 works, several of them premieres, interpreted by strong teams of Gala veterans and first-timers. The classical Don Quixote and Corsaire PDD followed contemporary works of Forsythe and Duato, and several works choreographed by the performers themselves. Here is a quick lunchtime review of the evening… without the program in hand. Pablo Verone had the difficult task of opening the first part with a tango pas de trois and following the Bissonnette-Radacovski duet in the second part with a lively Orillera that was well received by the audience. Yolanda Martin and Alejandro Alverez followed with Duato’s familiar Rassemblement and their rendering of Arenal was superb in intensity. For the first time in Montreal, the awaited Daniil Simkin performed the only solo work of the evening and showed in Fallen Angel a good range of his artistry: strong and light, expressive and technical and with rarely seen easiness and maturity; he simply has it all. He returned teamed with his father in “My way”, Dmitri Simkin’s only appearance in tonight’s gala, where both were outstanding. Hopefully they will both come back next year and perform something different that will show even more of their possibilities. Inaki Urlezaga and Caroline Queiroz Gaer first performed a lovely tango-inspired PDD hindered only by Urlezaga’s costume blending with the background and returned in the second part with his Sylvia PDD which left me longing to see more of Caroline Queiroz’s possibilities, especially during her pizzicato variation. Alicia Amatriain was partnered by an expressive Jason Reilly in Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew, in which Reilly shone, until they returned a thrilling contemporary work by Galilis reminiscent of Forsythe, where a bruised Amatrain stole the show and glowed. Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington performed an emotional work by (where is my program?). The first part of the evening closed with Daniela Severian elegantly partnering the fiery Rasta Thomas in Don Quixote. Her pizzicato variation with balancing in arabesque and fluid arms in the last diagonale sure made up for her proper but show tours fouettes. The second part brought Forsythe’s “In the Middle” superbly danced by Patricia Barker and Jeffrey Stanton. Mario Radacovski’s new work, Ombres et lumières, was superbly interpreted by Anik Bissonnette and could not be better danced… are we going to see more of her this year in Montreal? I hope so. What a fine dancer she is, and what a fine choreographer he is. And to close the evening, the young Terioshkina partnered by a reliable Sarafanov in the Corsaire PDD (finally!): fine technique with beautiful lines, grand pas and poise, a dream. Sarafanov had to cut his diagonale short of the third grand jeté that would have taken him somewhere in the parterre… Overall an evening well enjoyed by a full house of Gala regulars and newcomers that in this age of technology and special effects in everything, can still be amazed by pirouettes and grands jetés and appreciate in dance what humans do best.

Here are changes in the cast for tonight's Gala: Victoria Terioshkina will be partnered by Leonid Sarafanov in replacement of Igor Kolb, who was supposed to be replacing Andrian Fadeyev. Diana Vishneva is not part of the Gala this year and neither is Ogulcan Borova. Jeffrey Stanton is partnering Patricia Barker and Daniela Severian will be partniered by Rasta Thomas. Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington were not at the rehearsal yesterday, I hope that they will be performing tonight...

I hope that he will be performing in Kader Belarbi's La bête et la belle in October with the Grands. I will keep you posted on the performance.

Would anyone know what Chopin pieces are used in the ballet by Val Caniparoli, especially the pas de deux from each act?

I would also be very cautious about stating that one receives training in the Vaganova style outside the Vaganova academy in Peterburg. I have seen countless teachers stating that they teach this method, and coutless students believing this, based on the teacher having a Russian name.

Solor, you may find some information in John Ardoin's book on Gergiev and the Kirov as the author spent the 1995-1996 season at the Mariinsky and mentions Vinogradov's involvement in the 1995 scandal.

Goro, I was told that they did not ship outside Japan; are you in Japan?

It is still performed by the Maly and there is a video (PAL) available in Russia.

Thank you Herman for correcting me. I checked my program and the Schumann pieces was performed that evening by Cédric Ygnace. In their repertory, to they perform the part with the difficult arabesque on plié and relevé that Dowell does?

We have a wonderful dance library in Montreal and I had the chance to watch the Bournonville School 2-DVD set: what a treasure it is! The classes are filmed on stage on a black background with a camera facing the dancer. For the barre variation, a second camera films the right leg's variations sideways, so we get to see the variations from the 2 angles. The dancers are dressed in pale colours. We see everything, unlike some dance films that treat dance as a non-dance topic and cut the feet, or worse, make close-ups (I always get offended: it would be as if when recording an orchestra playing, to focus on the viola we would erase the remainder of the orchestra…). The female dancer unfortunately wears a skirt, hiding the legs and the hips but she’s does the barre on pointes. And when we're being told to stay on our jambe de base, that's what it means: no-thing moves. The same for holding the working leg: it is held. I particularly enjoyed the richness of head movements. The technique is flawless and all variations are performed by excellent dancers with perfect épaulement, hips, knees, head movements, arm positions. Only I noticed that the male dancer at the barre does not close his fifth or his first position: is there less stress on closing the positions in the Bournonville school? The variations? oh dear... apart from being beautiful and very musical, they are extremely challenging: the third variation at the barre on Monday consists of grands battements jetés (yes), and is fairly simple: 96 of them... The Wednesday rond de jambe variation is a challenge of coordination. The variations in the center are all that and particularly rich and so well performed. It is all lightness, the feet being like feathers brushing the floor. I truly enjoyed it. Well presented, beautiful black & white introduction at the beginning, each DVD having a very informative presentation by dance historian Erik Aschengreen on August Bournonville and the Bournonville school. In "conversations about Bournonville", the style is discussed, differences between class and stage, Russian and Bournonville mime, and the excerpts of rehearsal of La Sylphide make you want to attend the rehearsal. It is so well filmed. I am now dying to see a Bournonville Sylphide. I want to go to Denmark.

Here is the Russian Ark's official website: http://www.russianark.ru/eng/ And Glinka's Separation is divinely played...

I'm ready John Ardoin's excellent book on the Kirov and comparing Balanchine to Kirov, he quotes Andris Liepa saying that Russian dancers never count, they simply feel the music, and that it is a difference between dancers in the East and in the West. Having a Russian teacher, I have been told a million times to "listen to the music" before a variation. But how do corps de ballet dancers get to feel the music the same and respond to it the same way, or 32 corps de ballet dancers perform the same movement at the same time and same speed without counting? Someone has to decide that the développé is on 3 and pass it on, no? Is this "difference" a myth?

I saw their performance in Montreal and a nice evening it was. I enjoyed the Schumann pieces very much but the corps de ballet in Pastor's work looked underreheased. I found Brenson's Carmen much more refined and in tune with Schedrin's arrangement than Alonso's, and its emotional build-up made me forget Petit's as well (except for the intermède), and as the next pas de deux ended, I wished for the tradition of encores that disappeared, I would have clapped to see it again and again. Overall talented and very expressive dancers (strong male dancers) in well-defined roles, and Ms. de Jongh's lines, exquisite walking and lightness in dancing was delighting.

Kulik as Cinderella? A treat for sure, I have Kulik as one of the sisters. What an expressive dancer.

The Guangzhou Ballet will be performing in St-Sauveur (near Montreal) tonight and tomorrow night. I'll try to go tomorrow night and was wondering if they toured other cities and how their repertoire is. Anyone seen them perform?

I viewed it in St-Petersburg this winter and am not sure if it was commercially available... maybe Mashinka would know? I'll try to find out where this excerpt came from. It's in black and white and was filmed in a studio.

I was only video excerpts of the Pugni version with Soloviev dancing the water/river god dance and I believe Kurgapkina in the pearl variation, and it is entirely different from the Schedrin version.

Josef Suk's Love Song (Pisen Lasky) screams pas de deux, you hear the male variation, then the female one, then PDD... very romantic. For sure someone wrote choreography on this one?

And imagine how much more boring it must have been in the original version: 64 shades instead of "only"32!! It think that Lopoukhov mentions in his chapter on the shades scene that the collective frontward and backward movement is reminiscent of the waves movement, and add to this a new wave at the horizon for each new measure, it could not be more perfect.

I would LOVE to see it, if you would have more information on it...

Great topic as this ought to be the most important quality in a dancer. I'd give a Grand Prize to Evelyn Hart, with honorable Mentions to Kolpakova (a Nutcracker adagio struck me, she was so musical in it) and Mezentseva (in the Kirov Swan Lake PDD w/Zaklinsky, she pliés right on with the harp in perfect sync, the other ballerinas I saw would plié too early or too late... I'm forgetting who discussed how important it was to descend/rise on toes with the music... Fokine maybe? Even among dancers it is a rare quality to be able to stretch your movement tempo in sync with the orchestra's and accompany the numerous layers of symphonic music and not only its beat or its main melody, and we won't mention classes where it is often absent, even with square music played by a single instrument.

I used the third solo variation from the shades scene (the one right before Nikia and Solor's duet with the veil, starting with the sisson developpé écarté en arrière and ending with pas couru and grand jeté) to compare the three versions I have: Kirov, Royal and... Bolshoi. The Kirov dancer executes it well and the vocabulary is very clear. The Royal dancer executes is also well and in very clean manner, and the changes to the choreography (the last bourree step is replaced by temps lié and then retiré) are very esthetic. Then I watched the Bolshoi's and, well, I wondered what happened there. The arms during the first diagonale, the footwork in general and the changes in choreography (jeté at the end of pas couru replaced with piqué arabesque) left me disappointed. Is this how it is normally performed by the Bolshoi or was the choreography changed for this soloist?