Amy Reusch

Thank you SO MUCH!!! I wondered if that might be a House of Bernard Alba and a Romeo & Juliet! So that's Wayne McGregor! I liked the costumes for Genus... Was it Matthias Heyman who did the effortless batterie then? Though there were many examples of superb dancing. Do you remember the waltzing ballroom ballet? What was that? I don't mind there not being text onscreen identifying people & choreography, because I understand that would change the way we saw the movie... this was much more dream-like or silent observer... I'm not sure exactly how to describe why, but I do think identifying would change the experience... but it would have been nice at the end to give a quick rundown with images during the credits... BUT I wasn't free to wait & watch the credits, so for all I know everything WAS identified there... It would be nice if it were an option on the DVD.

Did they restore the sound track as well? The trailer didn't sound as clean but maybe the movie did? I noticed in a snippet somewhere, someone goes to offer her a drink during a rehearsal break and someone swoops over and says something along the lines of "Are you crazy? Do you want to spoil your breathing?" What were they worried about?

Dance Actress - Could you give a rundown of who was dancing what? Or who the choreographers were? Once again I had to leave before credits ran...(I had children with me and we had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us). I see names of choreographers but not who choreographed what. I'm embarrassed to say how ignorant I am, but would love to know who was who... I gather the foot thing at the Bastille was Sasha Waltz, who was the choreographer discussing casting? Who was the choreographer chanting Indian rhythms? Who were the old coaches? I took my 11 yo & her 12 yo friend... to the films credit they wanted to stay through to the end... I amend my statement that the film just ends... it ends with some absolutely incredible dancing, but it's a solo... for some reason I expected something with a full cast for the end... Also, now I understand that the young girl meeting with Lefevre was probably replacing the older dancer in the pas de trois she wanted to drop. I could have sworn the older dancer said she was having trouble with pointe and jumps in her interview, but didn't hear it go by this time. What was the strike Lefevre was talking about? NY Susan... I totally agree with you. We went @ 5:30 yesterday and the line for people already holding tickets was out the door... a half hour before the film started! Every seat has a full view of the screen, of course, but if you expect to find two seats next to each other, do not arrive 10 minutes before screen time!

Thank you MJ! I Will!

There is a scene in the Wiseman documentary on the POB where representatives are negotiating a visit for donors from the Lehman Bros firm... and I kept wondering... Isn't the POB a government agency? And they still take donations? How does that work?

What a beautiful film. How beautifully shot! I hope I haven't said too much... perhaps this should have a spoiler warning? I was a little shocked by the Tallchief comment… one could say so many things about the dancers of earlier generations… one could say things about Nureyev after all… but why? They trained under different circumstances to different standards, it was a different world… who knows how they would have looked were they trained as today’s dancers are trained? I was less shocked even if surprised when Farrell’s mannerisms were described as flaws that now others copy, because I can see how someone who had been meticulously trained not to do those things might see them as flaws… but a little surprised all the same… ha a gauntlet been thrown down? Is there still anger within the POB that an American from outside the system was once promoted above them? The dress rehearsal(?) comments about the young soloist sounded like headphone chatter, probably not intended for everyone (poor thing!)… just before the soloist with the fabulous beats… Was young soloist the same dancer meeting with Le Fevre? I found that whole bit hard to read… Was she being obsequious or was she just displaying a typical French girl’s speech patterns & feminine mannerisms? Couldn’t quite figure it out… Had she just been promoted? Why was she meeting with Lefevre? Contrary to the review, I didn’t think Lefevre was so manipulative, but rather right… rather very right… she seemed to be most concerned with keeping the quality of the POB up very high, but still going forward, not becoming a museum, while acknowledging that she still needed to work within the bureaucracy of the opera … It was fascinating watching her explaining to the guest choreographer (who was that? I hope the DVD has an ID option!) that he couldn’t just watch some company classes and ask for dancers by name… but he could ask for a type of dancer and she’d give him a few to try out… Someone felt the rehearsal masters were being mean… I didn’t, I thought they were doing their job and skillfully. It was fascinating to see how they were trying to carve even more out of a beautiful dancer’s interpretation… Also how many different languages the dancers were being rehearsed in, apparently without translators… The Lehman Bros visitation refusal seemed simply that one couldn’t feasibly fit 20 business people invisibly or comfortably into a rehearsal studio… (I want to say self-important business people, as there’s no reason to expect these people to make themselves small) but they were willing to let them traipse through a rehearsal space, doesn’t that seem interruption enough? I’m going to try to take two tweens but we’ll probably be leaving soon after bureaucracy speech starts and before Medea starts killing her children… it’s a long movie for a kid. Speaking of which, will this be likely cut down before it hits DVD? Will it tour the art houses in this length? Enjoyed Wiseman’s voyeurism… even looking in at what the cafeteria was serving… Most enjoyed Wiseman voyeurism of the creative process, the choreographers talking to the dancers, the coaches, but especially the bit with Lefevre explaining to the guest choreographer that he couldn’t just watch a class and ask for the dancers he likes… We never did get to see how that resolved! I didn’t think the subjects were performing for the camera… I expect it became invisible to them as has often been my experince working with dancers. I didn’t think anyone was self conscious, except well, maybe cafeteria cashier was self conscious & costume shop woman seemed pointedly absorbed in her work – but hey, wasn’t that janitor sweeping up at the Garnier graceful? Enjoyed the modern piece with the feet at the Bastille, the one where the platform raised… What was that? Was it Romeo & Juliet? I kept waiting for some big grand classical ballet bash… I swear there was stuff in the trailer that wasn’t in the film … Somehow I thought we’d see more of the Nureyev snow scene… Maybe I was lost in thought as it went by. I loved seeing the Paquita footage up close… it’s always seemed to be a ballet about how much the dancers enjoy doing those steps…(as opposed perhaps to the big choreographic picture), so it was nice to have the closeness the camera allowed us as opposed to the gulf of the orchestra pit. Interesting at how Le Fevre is trying hard to push the modern… Confounded that the students were not availing themselves of the modern technique classes offered which would help them with just the repertoire they are complaining was difficult for them to take on… I see she took courses from Merce, Taylor, Nikolais. She has choreographed before but doesn’t now?? I couldn’t find a Wikipedia page on her, surprisingly. What was the strike about? No one is ever seen dissing the Nureyev repertoire… One watches the cavalier variation for a few moments thinking “what is this ballet?” before realizing in shock that it’s Nutcracker! His work looks so full of steps, so difficult, often too busy, as if he choreographed it to a slower tempo in his imagination... but I rather liked the pas de deux for Clara and the Nutcracker at the end of the battle... Movie didn’t seem to build to an ending… it just ended. In the middle. at a stopping point. of sorts. like life. But the whole thing was so beautifully shot… if one couldn’t see the overall choreography, one could still see the dancing in choreographic phrases… the only time it was hard to watch was the song of Medea, and only where Medea has lost it… perhaps he was going for disjuncture, underlining that out of control feeling?

Kent & Carreno are dancing the gala? They couldn't really be doing the UConn performances could they? (Could they ?)

I enjoyed watching it but was frustrated because it was so difficult to see the choreography in the clips... lots of lovely artistic detail shots, some really nice shots... but hardly any chance to see the choreography and how it is reflected in the music... perhaps because it is rehearsal footage.. just made me really want to see the ballet again. But, alas... we won't be finding that on youtube... the realities of the way the world works make that impossible I guess.

I didn't realize Warburg was ever listed as Director... somehow I always thought that was Kirstein's position...

This lends some light to the So You Think You Can Dance controversy with Alex Wong, doesn't it?

Looks like there was a big rock to leap off of in the set...

Cute! I wonder no one else has made use of it?

It looks so different... Is it from the 4th Act? When Seigfreid discovers Odette amongst her maidens? The feather on his head is something I haven't seen done in many places... You have seen so many Swans, have you seen a similar costume?

And there's the cane! (still fascinated by a tool's disappearance from modern dance pedagogy). I think it's interesting to see so many different renditions of the position... makes me wonder if he wanted a natural turn-out in it rather the traditional 5th sousus... also the hands... some of them have that one hand higher than the other like Doukodovsky used give... and one wonders which focus he indicated, some of them look at the floor, some just tilt and gaze downward... some just turn... Judging by the way some are right up against the back wall, it was posed for the photographer rather than just a candid moment in class... but Fokine himself is half framed out of the picture! And the variations in tunics is interesting too...

I think it's because of youtube...

I can't imagine there was less scrutinizing outside the theater. I suspect the costume didn't seem so risqué when Toumanova dropped her collar bones back down... it was just an unfortunate moment.

I'd be worried too, in that pose in that costume... [posted while duffster was posting.. I concur!]

My personal apologies on the state of http://www.dancer.com/dance-links/index.php I haven't been able to keep up with it.

So sorry to hear this. We've lost another window to a world now past... So grateful for his many contributions, I cannot begin to count the times I've learned about ballet and dance from his efforts. RIP

Yes, I'm inclined to think of Stravinsky's sound not being as "thick" but there are moments in say Firebird & Petroushka... or in some of his wind orchestra pieces... but not like Tchaikovsky & Mussorgsky's sound ....

I know that professional dances are given at least a new pair of pointe shoes for each performance, but I don't know the rehearsal situation or the annual allotment... For instance, does anyone here know how many pointe shoes per year a corps dancer at NYCB would get? Just curious... Perhaps because of this mention in an article about the Scottish Ballet's new digs: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotlan...est/8260824.stm

I'm tempted to say "I don't know anything about music, but I know what I like..."! I'm not sure how one would describe the similarity between Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Stravinsky, but, there's almost a thickness to the sound. Ok. I better give up. Thank you for all the helpful information! The New Yorker article by Elif Batuman was in the April 27, 2009 issue, p. 22. "The Bells: How Harvard helped preserve a Russian legacy." Like the typical NYer article, it's a vastly entertaining read.. including a bit about Boris Godunov exiling a bell to Siberia. OK... to correct my earlier untrustworthy memories: Saradzhev sounds pretty interesting... he had wanted to compose symphonies taking advantage of these microtonal fingerprints, but was not allowed such secular access to Moscow's church bells. (despite professors at the Moscow Conservatory & Reinhold Gliere petitioning the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment, no one would give him a set of bells) Poor savant. Anyway... an interesting article. But since we're on the topic of Tchaikovsky, and Nut is looming.. any recordings exist out there with the glass harmonica for Sugarplum's variation in them? I understand it was not Franklin's invention but something else?

Probably my difficulties with Allegro Brilliante have more to do with my relative tone deafness or scale ignorance than anything else... ... and I'm racing at the moment, but when I find a quiet moment, I'll dig out the NYer article. The gist of it that I remember (and untrustworthy memory at that) was that the bell ringer who appeared to be a kook was actually something of a rare genius... and that they now believe that he could as he claimed hear a 1000 microtones. (between pitches? between whole tones? out of my league here ).. that the russian bells were all slightly different and pitched individually. He claimed there were some missing links in the Lowell carillon even though there was no evidence that any of the originals had been lost. I was thinking that if ...well... if there were subtle slight microtonal differences in tones played together, whether that wouldn't make for a fuller tone, sort of like a stringed instrument's vibrato, and whether with the carrilon deep in Tchaikovsky's sense of what he liked in music, whether he would have used instrumentation that would have mimicked this. (now what on earth I was thinking might happen with a piano, is just typical of my fuzzy thinking...). Still, different composers seem to have affinitis for different tonalities... I was just wondering what makes them tick.... there are only so many notes on the scale, and yet Tchaikovsky is so different from say Bach... it's more than just rhythmic motifs, isn't it? Will find the NYer article... it's interesting regardless of my rambling.

A ballet russe before Les Ballets Russes?

In my insophisticated way, I was wondering about Tchaikovsky's tonality today, because Allegro Brilliante's music has been stuck in my head and I keep catching myself trying to hum it and getting lost... and started wondering if it might have been influenced by the Russian microtonal style carrilons which I've never heard but have been wondering about ever since reading that recent New Yorker article about the Harvard carrilon... there's this sort of deep orchestral resonance in Tchaikovsky's music that makes me wonder if microtonal harmonies are happening within the structure that weren't typical of more western composers. Would someone with some music theory behind them please tell me to stop letting my mind wander off on it's own in the dark, or is there actually some plausible commonality? With all due respect, I've did a light check of the über-brain (the internet) without much success... . Did find this silliness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_House regarding the 1812 overture and carillon: