Amy Reusch

Talking about the differences between Balanchine and Massine with a friend, and what their relative merits might be... I got to wondering about how we have a concept of what a Balanchine dancer might be, but what would a Massine dancer be? And for that matter, what would a "Fokine" dancer be?

The Nutcracker Family: Behind the Magic Virginia Brooks, U.S., 2006; 95m Across the country every fall, ballet companies rehearse the season’s favorite, “The Nutcracker.” Director Virginia Brooks and producer Delia Peters give us an unprecedented inside look at the School of American Ballet’s children in the 2003 production of George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker”™ with rehearsals, archival footage, and interviews with former Maries. Introduced by the director. I'd love to send you all out to see this, but unfortunately it seemed to have only one screening at the Dance On Camera festival. Hopefully it will available in the future. (I want my own copy!) If you just saw the Ballets Russes movie, here's a dance institution on view from the youth perspective! ...though the discipline and focus of these young children has to be seen to be believed! Plums: watching the children learn who will be Marie & Fritz; having the pantomime scene spelled out for you; seeing these kids up close in rehearsal reveals more than is apparent in performance when one tends to be distracted by the principals & soloists on stage; studio rehearsal footage of Somogyi & Boal; Somogyi being coached by Tallchief; 1970 dress rehearsal footage of Mr. B demonstrating movement. I do hope this becomes available on DVD. I think any young child who has been a Nutcracker production would find it interesting to compare with their own experience. It would be nice if NYCB would have the pantomime sequence available in it's reference resources on it's website. I wish some company would do a pantomime guide the way ABT has it's on-line dictionary. I know I have seen a Swan Lake pantomime image guides out there somewhere in still images, but seeing the gestures moving would be even better. It would be nice if the library for the performing arts had a pre-performance showing of this video. Wouldn't it be a nice package to bring a child to? Particularly since you really want to see the ballet after seeing the video (and I thought I'd seen enough Nutcrackers to last me a lifetime several lifetimes ago by now!). I'm so impressed by these kids, I look forward to seeing them on stage as they mature!

Thank you! (as always).

What I'm not clear on is the bit about the 3 year contracts. That's a standard now? I was under the impression that generally contracts were reviewed every year... so that letters of intent went out before the audition season... It seems like the shelf life a dancer is so short that 3 year contracts might not work well for a company without a secure endowment (as I assume most ballet companies in this country are). And then I started wondering about Europe where presumably things are more stable. How does job security work at the Paris Opera? How does it work for professional ball players... presumably they have a short career span (compared to say insurance brokers) as well... but then again, there's that business about trading players... haven't figured out how that might play out in the dance world...

I was interested to read that Kolpakova was setting the Papillion pas de deux on NJ Ballet. I hope someone here goes and posts on the results! I couldn't quite figure out from the article... this is a Lacotte "recreation".... is it a reconstruction? What is it based on? (I hope she doesn't go up in flames at the end!)

What an entertaining evening... What a romp it all seems to have been... Is it just me, or did the Ballets Russes talent have a better handle on glamour than companies today do? What was that Hollywood film Marc Platt was in? Wish I had a notebook with me. Why was the Mort de Cygne movie footage so blurry? Often it seemed their source footage of some of the films was 3rd generation VHS... [i'm not talking Ann Barzell's footage, but some of the movie studio footage]... Anyone know why? Was it for effect? Something to do with rights? Has the original been lost? That's a wonderful movie as well... Well narrated [Marian Seldes] and the music was allowed to carry the film in the way it surely carried the dancers, if not exactly contemporaneously. Loved how the Firebird music worked at the end of the film... I did find myself wishing to hear the music as the dancers were hearing it, though I understand why that wasn’t possible… and longing for some of the footage to be at the necessary frame-rate so that it didn’t look so speeded up. I went expecting to put blinders on to get past the change in ballet technique and try to see how they must have seemed to audiences at that time, but how wonderful to still be impressed after all these years! The clips go by so quickly and with a poor recall they blend together for me, but wow Frederic Franklin sure flew around the stage in Scheherazade! He leapt off those stairs as if they were nothing. And George Zoritch! Talk about wanting to look like “x” at age “x”! So much joy & so much love of dance… I know unions are a darn good thing and dancers deserve and need to be protected, but there was something to be said for the zeitgeist of crazy selfless devotion to the art the dance world of those days seemed to have. And the cultivation of glamour… Are our current companies as good at creating that kind of excitement? Or is that beyond the 21st century; if the ads reach for it now, they seem to be overreaching or grasping? Loved seeing the Pas de Quatre footage (what was the cast in the footage?) Jack, I don’t know how difficult it is to get the music close to what the dancers heard, I’m sure “Hollywood” could do it (are there foley artists that specialize in dance? Or is that only footfalls, not syncing up sound tracks…) but I’m not sure it’s within the resources of the typical documentarian? And Ann Barzell, it’s wonderful to see her included, but was I the only one thinking that most people watching the movie would have no idea how much of the footage she provided (I hope there’s an interview with her about how she shot all that footage in the extra offerings on the DVD). Anyone know how much? Can’t wait to see the “extras” that will be in the DVD.

Probably one of those things where the corps has to just resign itself to enjoy listening the orchestra... to get that dreamy expression.... though how often one can listen to the same music and still feel dreamy...(?)

Is there a readily available DVD of the Royal Danish Ballet doing Les Sylphides? Mel, was that a Joffrey production? Does it exist as video at the NYPL? I did see the Kirov do it when they returned to NYC after their 20 year break (? mid 80s?) and I've never seen dancers look so bored on stage. I'll be in for the Dance On Camera festival, perhaps I could nip over to the library.

I assume we're talking high extensions by women? I don't really care for high extensions by men. Actually, I think high extensions have become so mundane that dancers have forgotten how to make them impressive when the choreography intended them as such.

But even beyond the artistry necessary to make the instrument sing, there are stylistic elements that have been lost... I'm not sure we can see a convincing Les Sylphides any more... the dancers seem to mimic the style but not achieve it. There was a softness to the gestures of the midcentury dancers which seems to have been translated into lifelessness today... I've also noticed a kind of isolation between the legs and upper body which I can't say I prefer but surely took technique to achieve. ... Looking forward to seeing the film this week in CT! It premieres in Hartford on Thursday at the Wadsworth and then moves to Real Art Ways for a few days run.

"a sutler (or vivandiere)" ??? Was this some sort of side role during the battle?

Hey Paul, I remember one teacher, when using it in the classroom as a teaching device, insist upon the elbows being raised higher than in the photo... does that jive with your experience of it in class? I don't quite feel it as setting up the back as well if they're dropped, though it certainly has a different choreographic effect.

I'm curious about this bit about the rehearsals being overly grueling... I wish someone would give some details so we might have a sense of where the balance of truth lies.

Capturing Ms. Sundstrom on videotape was sheer pleasure. I wish more people could have seen her dance. Please send her my warm regards. If she could create another dancer along the lines of her own dancing, I, for one, would be delighted!

Could you elaborate? I remember a time in the '90s when all ABT was allowed by the unions was an un-manned VHS camcorder in the back of the house. At about the same time, NYCB was using two IATSE members for it's archival shooting (I don't know where the equipment came from, but it was good equipment to judge by the recordings)... quite an expense. I once stopped by PNB's tech department on a visit to Seattle and saw their equipment... which looked like low-end broadcast [still significantly expensive]... they were doing the taping themselves ...possibly a different union situation dealing with a different local. The NY unions can be very tough. Sometimes the archival video recording rights are pawns in larger union contract negotiations. I still think it's a shame... piracy issues notwithstanding, having inexpensive recordings readily available would grow the live audience and ultimately benefit all the unions involved.

Interesting concept, but it sounds difficult to control to make sure there is no unauthorized access. If the control were lost, it would be more difficult for the NYPL to obtain the videos in the first place. And then again, why would the NY taxpayers subsidize the rest of the country? There would have to be some sort of exchange, I suppose... It seems a more something the Library of Congress ought to do. It's been a while now, and my memory doesn't serve very well, but don't choreographers need to file a video with the Library of Congress in order to copyright their work?

Brian Rushton passed away August 28, 2005. Talented graphic designer and photographer with a passion for life, contributed tremendous time and effort toward the success of The George Balanchine Foundation particularly in it's Interpreter's Archive projects. His smiling camaraderie will be sorely missed.

I'm just so pleased that it has nothing to do with ill health or in life goals leading away from dance. I'm not surprised that she would like to try her hand at the classics. I would rather like to see her version of some of the ballerina roles. I also would not be surprised if after a few years she returned to NYCB. I seem to remember something from some biography or other that claimed that if one left NYCB, one wasn't welcome back (although Farrell did)... but surely that culture has passed? Does leaving NYCB with no other contract in hand make her more approachable by other artistic directors/choreographers? It's an interesting technique.

Isadora Duncan wasn't a philosopher? Flappers didn't change society? Louis XIV's ballets had no influence in court? And what about Salome...? And what individual works of art have changed history? (I'm not sure political documents such as Jefferson's Declaration of Independence count as a work of art, being as it was more a work of politic than anything else). I think perhaps your husband has made a faux pas.

There's been no announcement? Just poof, she's gone?

I thought there used to be "Support the Arts -- Take A Dancer to Lunch!" Don't know why, but "When in Doubt, Bouree Out..." appeals as a bumper sticker...

Okay, I try to resist asking these questions because the funny descriptive words are usually meant just as mnemonic device to help the dancers rather than for any viewer trying to understand the work... but... what was the "trouble step"?

Hans! How could you have missed: Halfway through the year, center floor has been dispensed with, replaced with recital rehearsal. Frankly, I think anytime a rehearsal takes place during class time (unless this is specifically a "variations" class), the entire school is suspect. Oh... and: No one in the entire school seems quite sure how to point their feet. It's heartbreaking for me, but my daughter prefers to study at a Dolly Dinkle. I must admit the teacher works well with young children... but I'm not sure what they learn beyond confidence on stage... however, until the child is 7 or 8, perhaps it's unimportant... Still, I wish she were being taught musicality, even if strict technique is inappropriate for young children. And then there's the side effect that by age 9, most of the children have lost their interest in ballet (and who could blame them when there seems to be little else to it beyond sequins and tiaras and pretending to be princesses). I guess she'll never know the joy of floating through the air in a perfect grand jete.

Excuse my ignorance, but what are Italian fouettes?

I'm just delighted that nowadays one is able to get a good copy of the broadcast! Remember all the years when that wasn't possible?