chrisk217

It's excerpts from Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's "In Memoriam" An "In Memoriam" slide show: http://www.balletsdemontecarlo.com/diapora...inmemoriam.html Click on the arrow to see more images from the slide show. You'll find more info about the work here: http://www.balletsdemontecarlo.com/program...inmemoriam.html http://www.balletsdemontecarlo.com/program...inmemoriam.html

Perhaps I'm crazy but I'd love to see Stephen Fry as Diaghilev. I can think of no one better to play a snob, an aesthete and a charmer. The unpleasant side of Diaghilev's character might be a bit of a stretch for him but he may manage, who knows?

Alas, bart, they do!!! I'm young and I have no idea about the 50s but I have sat through many of them in the 90s and 00s...

canbelto, that was so funny I especially appreciated the thud. And the wild looks, left and right, lol!!! But we both forgot the "From the heart of Russia into the hearts of the world - the inspiring true story of a remarkable man" line.... No biopic trailer is ever complete without the "inspiring true story of a remarkable somebody" somewhere in there

As much as we would enjoy (picking apart) a Balanchine movie it might be better if it were never made. Misrepresentation in the name of commercial viability is what movie people do for a living. Whatever nuance there is to the Farrell story will be lost. Artistic and spiritual passion may come off as lechery. Chiches and stereotypes will abound... Every ignorant person's worst suspisions about the world of ballet will be confirmed... And ten years from now people who have never seen one of his ballets will say: "Balanchine? wasn't he that guy that sexually harassed his dancers?" I can also imagine the cringe inducing trailer: Booming male voice: "In a world of beauty and passion.... there was a man... obsessed with women.... and one woman... who dared follow her heart" Cut to Balanchine whispering: "Dance for me, Suzanne" ... dancing ensues, audience applauds wildly... Cut to Suzanne saying: "I want to be free...." Booming male voice: "Fate has brought them together... now love will tear them apart..." Frantic montage ensues... Balanchine: "Stay with me... I will make you a star..." Cut to Suzanne shouting "Let me go, let me go!!!!" Thunderous music.... then (booming male voice again): "Balanchine... the ballet master... coming soon to a theater near you" Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! But if we must cast "Balanchine: the movie" I vote with bart for Jeremy Irons. He has the aristocratic bearing, the old world manner and the self-contained remoteness to play Balanchine. He can do a decent accent and can act sublimated passion convincingly. He appears perhaps more melancholic than Mr B was. But give him a year of daily ballet class and he'll cheer up, I'm sure

I'm sure Kirkland would have been wonderful but what incredible luck to film Allegra Kent in the 2nd movement. This is perhaps the most haunting ballet video of all time.

Some Balanchine ballets have recently been on satelite tv among them Symphony in C with Allegra Kent and Conrad Ludlow in the 2nd movement. Does anyone know when this was filmed? Looks like the 60s. Does anyone know who the other soloists are? The image is a bit blurry and I'm hopeless with faces. Thank you!

By the same director as Comme les oiseaux (Dominic Delouche) you can also find a documentary named "Katia et Volodia" about Maximova and Vasiliev. They talk about each other and their careers. Among the early excerpts of Vasiliev shown are short bits of a Laurencia rehearsal, a 1959 Nutcracker, Romeo & Julliet (Lavrovsky), Sylphides(with Ulanova!!!). All very short. Later (and slightly longer) excerpts include Aniuta, Sylphides, Corsaire (in rehearsal, he also coaches Erik Vu An), Football, Giselle (coaching with demonstration), Romeo and Julliet (Bejart). There are also excerpts of Maximova alone (in Sleeping beauty etc) It's 60 minutes and in the same DVD as Maia, a 1h30min doc about Plisetskaya (Vasiliev also makes a small appereance in the Maia doc) Both are region0/PAL dvds which means that if you're outside of Europe you'll be able to play them on your computer but probably not on your tv and standalone dvd player. You can find them here (among other places): http://www.dancebooks.co.uk http://www.fnac.com (Search for Delouche)

Zakharova's supposed turning weakness was the cause for a very interesting discussion. But since this is the internet and myths form easily and die with difficulty I must report the following:I just watched a video of Svetlana Zakharova (Don Quixote, act 3) and her fouettes were impressive: 8 sets of 2 fouettes followed by a double, fast, clear and with not much travelling. If she can't turn I don't know who can. We're all guilty of forming opinions of dancers after 1-2 viewings. I do it all the time since I rarely have the chance to see a star dancer more than once. But maybe we should keep in mind that dancers have bad shoe nights, trouble with the raked/unraked stages, partnering misunderstandings, recent injuries etc that we may not know about. Perhaps it's not fair to judge them from 1 or 2 videos but only after we have watched them many times... Just a thought...

Paul, the Bayan is the bard that sings during the first act and predicts what will happen...

Natalia, is there any possibility that the restored Sleeping Beauty will be filmed?

A friend of mine bought the whole series of Delouche's films from Fnac for 75 euros (not including postage) That's a nice bargain (more than 25% off) http://www.fnac.com/Shelf/article.asp?PRID...&To=0Ν=1&Fr=3 That's 8 films (about 12 hours, not including extras): Maia (about Maya, of course), Katia et Volodia (about Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev), Yvette Chauvire Nina Vyroubova Violette et Mr B. Comme les oiseaux Serge Peretti, le dernier italien Alicia Markova la legende Some have more coaching, others more reminiscing. Most have more historic excerpts than Violette et Mr B. (Alicia Markova as Giselle, anyone?) The ones I enjoyed most were Violette et Mr B., Katia et Volodia, Nina Vyroubova and Alicia Markova. The one I least enjoyed was Comme les oiseaux. But even those that I did not enjoy as much have interesting parts. In the "Serge Peretti" for example, you'll find Emmanuel Thibault being coached by Peretti on a Tarantella-ish dance (I don't remember by whom) As was mentioned, there is quite a bit of Lifar choreography in them. The coaching is usually interesting and provides some insights on the changes in technique and the more intangible aspects of the dance. Not for the casual ballet-goer but excellent for aficionados! A word of caution though: four of the films are in french and the subtitling is somewhat erratic. It really helps if you have some acquintance with the language.

First of all, I'd like to thank Ariodante and richard53dog who sometime ago recommended Ruslan & Lyudmila to me! What a FUN opera it was! Very beautiful music, a most splendid production, a "Lord of the Rings" fantasy/magic ambience and lots of ballet right in the middle! I have a question though... I'm not an opera fan but I think I do know good singing when I hear it. I'm really perplexed by Yuri Marusin, the singer who sings the Bayan. He seems to sing in a flat, off tone kind of way - I can't describe it better in English but anyone who has heard R&L will know what I mean. It's so pronounced, that I think it may be intentional... If you have heard this recording I'd like to hear your opinion... Is it indeed intentional? Is it, perhaps, a national or personal style?? Is he trying to convey something about the role??? What do you think of it?

I don't want to veer away from the topic too much so please move this post if appropriate... Helene, thank you for your answer... If I understand correctly you are saying that in case of release on other media (not tv broadcast) new contracts must be negotiated... What I still don't understand is this: aren't the artists and the backstage personnel much better off if something is released and they do get some royalties? Not to mention, recognition by a larger audience for those artists still working... In what way is keeping a video in the vaults or impeding its release financially rewarding?

Slightly off topic but I wonder.... why isn't at least half of this list on DVD? If they have the rights to broadcast it, they probably have the rights to sell it, no? As niche as the dance dvd market is, it, still, is a market that has a place for at least 2 different DVD versions for each of the 4 best known Grigorovich choreographies.... Or for 4 different Cloud Gate Theater DVDs (I just mean that CGT are not very mainstream, for European audiences at least) So why isn't there a place for Balanchine? Why only 3-4 dvds? Are there many people who doubt he was the greatest choreographer of the 20th century? I don't think so.... So why, if the recordings exist, can't they be made availlable? Can anyone please explain this?

Many thanks to all for helping! I eventually decided to follow kfw's advice. I'll let you know what I think of the book when I read it!

As kfw writes, there are interviews with the dancers, Lefevre, Patrice Bart and the set and costume designers. They talk about Bayadere (plot, characters, dances etc) but they also talk at length about working with Nureyev. It goes rapidly over the history of the ballet (Sakuntala etc), but not in great detail. I don't think there will be anything about the history and the plot you will not have read/heard somewhere else. The best part are the long rehearsal excerpts. You see the dancers work on most significant scenes of the ballet, little details, gestures etc. Ghislaine Thesmar is the repetitrice. Very interesting. 1h 40', video & sound of the high quality one expects of POB and TDK.

In Dominique Delouche's film Maia you can see Plisetskaya in 1999 do the part you describe in the studio, wearing everyday chothes. Bejart comments that this piece ("the dance of the knucklebones") is a choreography he learned from Lisa Duncan one of Isadora's spiritual daughters, and comes from Isadora herself.

Tamara Rojo is very beautiful from head to toes and a most remarkable actress. In the revival of "Five Brahms Waltzes in the manner of Isadora Duncan" she gave a nuanced fearless performance, precariously balanced on the edge between high art and camp, exactly what Isadora must have been. Amazing to see. IMHO, she should get to do all the hard-to-do-well Ashtons like "Marguerite et Armand" and "Month in the Country" and whatever Lynn Seymour excelled in. There is a video of "5 Brahms Waltzes"; it was broadcasted by the bbc in an Ashton tribute program. Maybe there are other videos also. Some photos of Rojo (and feet): http://balletbookstore.com/ballerina/pic/rojo04.jpg http://balletbookstore.com/ballerina/pic/rojo05.jpg http://balletbookstore.com/ballerina/pic/rojo03.jpg http://balletbookstore.com/ballerina/pic/rojo06.jpg http://balletbookstore.com/ballerina/pic/rojo01.jpg (photos: Bill Cooper - I'm not very certain what the policy regarding links to photos is - please snip if inappropriate)

Joseph, this is just conjecture, but from reading announcements on ballettalk, I get the impression that there is some correlation between what is issued in Europe by Warner and what Kultur issues in the US. Most titles released in Europe by Warner are eventually picked up by Kultur. So maybe in the next 6 months or so there will be a region1/ntsc release of La Sylphide.

I have a gift certificate from amazon and I was thinking of using it to buy "The Ballets Russes and Its World" by Lynn Garafola. That is, until I read the reader reviews, some of which talk of errors and misconceptions, and are negative in a quite nasty way: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300061765/ What do the ballettalkers who have read it think? Is this a good book?

According to Amazon.co.uk the Royal Danish Ballet's La Sylphide will be released in region2/PAL by Warner on March 27, 2006. No other info is given but it may(not sure) be a transfer to dvd of the Jeppesen/Hubbe laser disk. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000E97ZY6/ I have never seen this on video, I don't think I can find enough smillies to express my enthusiasm!!! :huepfen024: :hyper:

Mel thank you, this was hillarious carbro, I have seen the "choreography by Balanchine" videos and I consider them the best directed dance videos. I've read somewhere that Balanchine's judgement was sought and respected by Ardolino and I've always wondered how various other videos would look if choreographers would only supervise the editing. Living choreographers, that is... bart, arte is a satelite channel, broadcasting in french and german. They usually play half an hour of dance each week. I dont have satelite, but a friend sometimes tapes the dance and I get to see it. Some of it very interesting. Here's a link to their dance page: http://www.arte-tv.com/fr/art-musique/danse/260244.html They frequently (but not always) use filming techniques like the ones described above. I guess it's less noticeable when the dance is contemporary; it's does not discord with the expressive, experimental climate. It's much more noticeable when they start cutting away at something that is highly stylizised, very musical and full of nuance. I agree about La Sylphide. Incredibly respectful. But in Ivan I think the director antagonized the dancers at times. The Kirov celebrates Nijinsky was directed by Ross McGibbon of the BBC if I remember well. Other very interesting dancers at this gala were Dvorovenko and Belotserkovsky from ABT (they danced the (lyrical) Corsaire pdd), and Lorena Feijoo and Boada from SFB (they danced the DonQ pdd). They all met with the same inglorious fate in the editing room.

I have watched today what must surely be one of the most clueless filmings of classical dance ever done: the Ashton Sylvia pdd (with Yanowsky and Bonelli, broadcasted on arte on Christmas day). Has anyone seen it? For those who haven't let me try to describe a short part of it, let's say Bonelli's variation: As the music starts we are backstage, watching the stage manager go throught his notes. Then we see Yanowshki, from the rear, bending over and stretching. Bonelli starts his entrance. We see 5 seconds of a full body shot of the entrance before we change to the much more interesting (to the director, at least) foot and calf shot. In the next 5 secs the camera moves upwards to B's face and then we get a full body shot again. No more than 5 seconds pass and we move to an upper body shot. 5 seconds later we get a thigh shot (B. has nice thighs. He wears garters that hold up his socks. Now, that's what I care about when I watch dance ) It is by now obvious that the director cannot hold his gaze on any body part of Bonelli for more than 5 seconds at a time. What comes next is this (give or take a second): 5secs of a diagonical full body shot; 5secs of a frontal full body shot; 5secs of legs; 4secs of full body; 2secs feet and calfs; 4secs full body; 4 secs upper body; 3secs legs; 3 secs upper body; 4 secs full body; 4 secs legs; 3 secs upper body; 2secs calfs and feet; 5secs full body; 3 secs thigh; 2 secs full body; 2 secs upper body; 4 secs of legs; 2 secs full body. And this is just Bonelli's variation. Overall, about a third of the pdd consists of fingertip shots, back of the neck shots, embroidery/waist shots, thigh shots, crotch shots, knee shots (of double tours en l'air! ), edge of tutu shots, head shots and of course the ubiquitous pointe shoe shots. When not furiously cutting body parts, the director, one Roberto-Maria Grassi, occupies himself by choosing awkward camera angles. In this, he is aided by his having many cameras to play with, some of which are, apparently, moving. I'm neither obsessive (well, except, maybe, for that counting of seconds thing above :rolleyes: ) nor a fanatic. What I am is very disappointed and in a way worried. Disappointed because this was a great opportunity to showcase the poetry of Ashton's choreography to the general european art-following public (a public not necessarily very familliar with Ashton). Also disappointed because I waited a very long time to see this... And worried because arte is a channel dedicated to the arts. The dance they show may usually be modern/expressive/fusion but they are supposed to have some understanding of the classical idiom, aren't they? If they edit in this way, what can be expected of other more commercial channels? The fact that they reduced the Sylvia pdd to a series of disjointed, well enframed shots shows that they are clueless (I can find no other word strong or apt enough) Clueless not just about Sylvia, or Ashton but about ballet itself. It is in a way an advertisment-influenced view of ballet. Ballet edited to appear fast paced, sexy, intimate, lively. Of course, ballet left untampered is frequently all these things and much much more. But you'd never guess it from this senseless video. OK, 15 minutes venting is enough... Now some questions - what I'd like to ask is: who watches such things as this? Are there people out there who prefer to see calf shots instead of both the dancers from head to toe? (What's the point of watching dance if you are not going to watch the dance but someone else's impressions of the dance? ) Is there a difference of preference between those involved in ballet and the general public? Also: can't dancers/companies/choreographers veto badly editited videos? Do they have any kind of control over the end result? And if not shouldn't they? If someone proposed of making a recording of a symphony with only the winds or only the strings everyone would think it a preposterous idea. So why is it considered ok to show dancers from the waist up on video? Is it a kind of condescention (thinking that the choreography does not really matter - visual omitions aren't really that important)? Is our need to see shinny, glowing body parts up-close that great? OK. I'll stop here. Forgive the length of the post and the awkwardness of my English - I felt a bit strongly about the issue. I'd like to hear your comments on this or other videos and the issue in general.

About Lacotte's process of re-creation: In the small documentary that comes with the dvd, Lacotte says that while writing a book he found some Taglioni documents from a remote descendant of hers (I can't remember exactly whom) and from there he followed the trail to other individuals who had related documents and to the Louvre. He also says that Johansson who was Lyubov Egorova's teacher and Taglioni's last partner showed Egorova some steps which she passed to Lacotte. But he does not specify what exactly comes from Egorova. a short review/comparison of the two videos: I love Thesmar and I have been fascinated for a long time by her performance. There are many things to admire: the footwork, the ballon, the use of the head, the supremely fluffy tutu that aids the illusion of lightness. But most exciting of all, for me at least, is the way she leans her torso forward and curves the shoulders. And not only because it looks like the images of Taglioni and other romantic dancers, although the evocation of ballet history is part of it. The romantic style leaning makes most steps more interesting to behold from all angles - a simple pose done in an upright position might look bland; when done at an angle to the vertical axis, it fills the space. The poses suggest a multitude of moods (inclination, longing, elusiveness, sorrow) that I don't find in the most recent video, where Dupont is decidedly upright for all the first and most of the second act. In the doc, she mentions that it took time to get used to leaning and that Lacotte urged her to feel what would be the limitations of the original costume's corset (and lean with a rigid torso). Virtually all the recent dvd has a slower tempo. This is very appropriate for the second act, it makes the music sound like better music than it really is and it enhances the atmosphere. It also gives Dupont the opportunity to use her very soft arms and the effects created are exquisite. The lifts are all airy and weightless whereas in the older recording the strain was very apparent. There are 20 extra minutes of dancing in the DVD. It is filmed beautifully and intelligently, with only the absolute minimum of close-ups. Less than convincing is also the ridiculous Dance of the witches. I wonder how they keep the audience from rolling on the floor laughing when they do that squirel thing...