doug

I have to admit, I'm tired of seeing 32 fouettes, but that is probably because they have found their way into Soviet versions of Paquita and Le Corsaire, etc., that I have had to watch recently at PNB. The fouettes were included in the Black Swan coda because Pierina Legnani could do them. She had done them the year before in Cinderella. If another ballerina had created the role of Odette/Odile in the 1895 production, we wouldn't have the fouettes in Black Swan or, probably, anywhere else. Sometimes I wish that was how it went! I'd admire a ballerina for substituting a combination that seemed to express the dominating quality of Odile's personality (or at least her dominance of Siegfried's attention). Didn't Makarova (ironic, since she was a Soviet ballerina) substitute a manege of pique turns?

rg is absolutely correct. The dance after the Rose Adagio was choreographed by Petipa for eight pages who were danced by girls (in the notations, in Sergeev's hand, they are represented by circles - females - rather than x's - males - and he has indicated in writing that these are "girl students"). They are followed by the four women who held the mandolins during the adagio and then the four maids of honor. This represents, in order from lower to higher, the hiercharchy rg mentions. Please see Wiley, "Tchaikovsky's Ballets," pp. 174-176. I believe the Kirov has it right in their new/old Beauty.

In Raymonda, Petipa's lead couple in the Act II Spanish dance was augmented by eight "couples," all danced by women (corps de ballet members in that instance). But he also choreographed the Act III "Danse des enfants" for 12 students couples who were danced by girls and boys, as was the Paquita Mazurka.

Re Lilac variations in the Sergeev notations. The one marked "Marie Petipa" has some pointe work but is simpler than the second version. I'll look at the second version and compare it to Grace's notes, etc. In its new-old version of BEAUTY, the Kirov comes up with a Lilac variation that is neither of the notated versions. I don't know where it came from. I believe they claimed it was the Marie Petipa version from the notation, but it's not.

These were my impressions of the Kirov's new-old Lilac variation when I saw it a few years back:

The Kirov's Lilac Fairy variation follows neither notation, although claims have been made that their Lilac Fairy dances Marie Petipa's version. While the floor plan of the Kirov's variation follows that of Marie's, the steps differ from the notation. For example, the Kirov's Lilac begins with a diagonal of large jetés, traveling from upstage left to downstage right. The notation, however, offers the following first combination: after a starting pose with left foot tendu front, the ballerina steps forward on the left foot and piqués on the right foot in a low arabesque. Stepping through to plié on the left foot, she performs a pas de chat, leading with the right foot, to finish en face in fifth position, left foot front. She now steps to her right side, piqués on the right foot and brings her left foot to coupé front, while making a half turn to the left to face the upstage left corner. She pliés on her right foot, as her left leg moves to a low à la seconde, presumably while finishing the turn. (The lack of a left turn sign in the notation – indicated by a minus sign in parenthesis above the feet and legs stave – makes this turn slightly ambiguous.) She steps to plié-coupé on the left foot and is ready to begin again. The entire combination is performed three times. No jeté is indicated. The Kirov's final combination of penchée arabesques also is not given in the notation.

About the gold waltz and the jewels pas de quatre: fortunately there is no mystery anymore. Wiley has dealt with the pertinent primary sources. We know the four ballerinas mentioned danced at the first performance in 1890 (see Wiley, A Century of Russian Ballet, p. 364). According to the notations, which I have in front of me, all but Diamond began the intrada, with Diamond dancing solo for the second half. Silver variation danced by Silver, Gold and Sapphire; Diamond danced Diamond variation. All four danced the Coda. The Sapphire variation music was cut. The Gold variation music was interpolated into Act II as Aurora's variation, in place of the music Tchaikovsky composed for Aurora. See Wiley, Tchaikovsky's Ballets, pp. 181 (Act II) and 184 (Act III) and Appendix H, pp. 401-411 for a discussion of the performance score.

Hans, the intrada music I am referring to is the intrada of the pas de deux, rather than the intrada of the jewels pas de quatre. The jewels intrada remained in place; thje question here is whether the pas de deux intrada was danced by Gold and Sapphire, possibly after the pas de deux adagio.

Yes, Desire's Act III variation is notated with Sergei Legat's name written at the head of the notation. The variation is very difficult; I like it. There are many connecting steps between the larger combinations. It's fairly non-stop and I've never seen it performed, but taught it to a dancer just once.

Hi all,

Yes, the Gold variation from Act III was interpolated in place of the original music for Aurora's variation in Act II. And this apparently was in place for the premiere. Just as Petipa made some concessions to Tchaikovsky, the composer did same for choreographer, and Petipa must have felt this was the thing to do, despite the incongruity of the music, aesthetic, etc. Drigo fashioned an extra couple bars of music to facilitate the modulation to the new key (E-flat). Wiley has published this music in his book. Doesn't make sense to me either, but there you go.

Ashton did choreography this solo, as did Balanchine for Patricia McBride in the 1970s - I am assuming he choreographed the original music. Someone needs to ask her if she remembers it.

The intrada. Sketchy info here, but some concrete notation. We know that the Gold and Sapphire fairies (who variations were eliminated from the jewels pas de quatre) participated in the now-so-called "grand pas de deux," which was actually also a pas de quatre. The music to which the fairies danced is in question. There is notation for the fairies, and it is quite clear choreographically. My thinking at the moment is they danced to the intrada, but perhaps after the adagio (I thikn WIley suggests this). It is also *just possible* (my assertion here) that they danced the first 32 counts of the coda. The notation of the coda begins with Aurora's diagonal entrance, about 32 counts into the music, at least as we know the choreography today. It's possible the fairies danced in the coda before her entrance. I have all this info lying around but haven't really looked hard at it. Some speculation required, unfortunately.

Re the Beauty notations in general. Yes, they are in Sergeyev's hand (unlike the Bayadere notations, although the Kirov claims they are in Sergeyev's hand). Sergeyev regularly include groundplans and foot/leg work, very occasionally arms, torso and head. Of course, the foot/legwork is needed most. A few other notators are represented in the Beauty notations, as well, but just contributing one or two numbers, or a second notation version of something.

Fishdives are not in the pas de deux notation. Wiley has documented all cuts in the music, as well as metronome markings - invaluable stuff!

Yvonne, as a west coaster, I'd be interested in your reviews and thoughts on Ballet West. I hope you'll begin writing about them again.

Cyril Beaumont's "Complete Book of Ballets" (1941) includes a cast list and scenario for THE TALISMAN (pp. 424-429). A sparse choreographic notation of the ballet is preserved in the Sergeev Collection at the Harvard Library, including, I believe, a second notated copy of the pas de deux for Nal and Damayanti. In reviving dance from this collection of notations, I've found that much of the choreography looks like Bournonville. It's a good reminder that the French school was the basis for both the Russian and Danish 19th century ballet schools.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments on the Russian teachers issue and the timeline of style from Imperial-era through Balanchine's neo-classicism (and Vaganova's Soviet style in Russia). This is a subject of real interest to me and worth discussion.

Sorry to be so slow on this. Sergeyev made a second career out of staging ballets with the help of the Stepanov notations he brought out of Russia. The notations aren't all in his hand. The earlier ones are better than the later ones that he made. Sergeyev's notations are mostly for legs and feet (with groundplan). Sometimes upper body movements are given, as well. Most of the formal dance numbers in Sleeping Beauty are notated in some form or other. But some are missing and other means must be used to determine what is the most "original", etc.

Sergeyev staged a good part of Beauty for Diaghilev in 1921 and then staged the entire ballet for Sadler's Wells and later the International Ballet. I assume he had most of it in his head and used the notations as a guide to jog his memory. That said, the RB's Beauty (those parts that Sergeyev staged that are still danced, at least) is on the whole closer to what is given in the notations and what additional research about early Russian productions reveals than Konstantin Sergeyev's production for the Kirov circa 1952. We're getting to the point where research can really back up these assertions with solid fact.

cheers, Doug

Hi, everyone.

Carbro -- I think the movement you mention is too detailed to be included in the notation made in 1900, although the Bayadere notations are very detailed, relatively speaking. I can dig them out and check when I have a moment.

Grace -- the notations are in the Stepanov dance notation system, used in St. Petersburg at the turn of the 20th century. The Bayadere notations are based on the December 1900 revival by Petipa. These are the main documents upon which the Kirov has based their recent reconstruction.

In the notations of the BAYADERE Shades from 1900, Solor doesn't dance. Gerdt did this role and the most he gets is a notated fourth position and port de bras. Nikolai Legat did the dancing the in fourth act.

I agree, Marc, that the Maryinsky seems to be trying to resurrect the aesthetic of the day in their reconstructions. I am not surprised that all the dancers don't want to go along with this.

Has anyone mentioned yet that perhaps the 'reconstructed' choreography does not have to be wedded to reconstructed sets and costumes, or even reconstructed style?

My interest in recovering the notated steps from the Stepanov notations is to see what steps were danced. I continually find more variety, objectively speaking here -- actual variety , in the notated dances than in later versions of the same ballets. I am interested in what was danced, but feel that is a different question from how it is danced. Sure, I don't think the highest extensions work really well in Petipa ballets, but I don't think today's dancers should look 'faux' in them either. I think it might be possible to dance Petipa-era steps in todays classical styles - Vaganova, neo-classical, English, French, etc. This certainly was done early in the 20th century as Russian ballet was disseminated to the West.

Re: the musicality issue, some of the reconstructions have suffered because of the difficulty of setting notated steps to music. The Bluebird pas de deux in the new-old Kirov BEAUTY is a good example. In the coda, Florine's first entrance is mistakenly taken at half speed. This meant the stagers ran out of music (taking cuts into account) before running out of steps. They therefore opened a cut in the music, ended up needing only half of the music in the cut, then filled the rest of the music with running around that is not notated. They were mistakenly unable to reconcile the notation and music. In Florine's variation, what is notated as the downbeat is actually the second beat in the music - Tchaikovsky often composed music in which the second beat felt like the first. Anyone listening, i.e. a notator without sufficient musical training, would be unaware of this. If a reconstructor today tries to reconcile this anamoly, he/she must have sufficient musical knowledge to understand the differences between the bars of notated choreography and bars of music in order to reconcile them.

By the way, I do support the reconstructions, generally speaking.

I believe they were intended to be together in the end. The 1877 libretto states: "APOTHEOSIS: Through the rain the peaks of the Himalayas are visible. Nikia's shade glides through the air; she is triumphant, and tenderly looks at her beloved Solor, who is at her feet. THE END"

The creators dont'; seem to have been concerned with as much analysis and logic as we seem to be today.

According to the 1877 libretto, Nikiya and Solor and a conversation during what is now the first pas de deux of the Shades scene. She showed him a castle in the sky that would be theirs if he didn't betray her. Probably by 1900, and possibly, earlier, this scene was replaced by the first pas de deux. I can't confirm this from the dance notations, however, because this first pas de deux is not notated. But that doesn't mean it wasn't danced.

Hope this bit helps.

I'm not able to lay my hands on many contemporary writings about the characters in Bayadere. Most of the reviews that I have access to mention the spectacle and dances. Parts of Ekaterina Vazem's (the first Nikia) memoirs have been translated. She doesn't mention character motivation, etc. There is a contemporary (late 1870s) drawing of the destruction of the temple, entitled "The Revenge of the Gods," so it appears that the destruction and murder of those in the temple was at the hands of the gods and not willed by Nikia in some Carrie-esque fashion. Perhaps our post 20th century viewpoints encourage us to credit to Nikia with more aggression that was intended by the creators? I think, as Leigh suggested in one of his options, that Nikia was part of a plan ordained by the powers that be. Her statements to Solor, as given in the 1877 libretto, support this take.

Roland John Wiley has translated the 1877 libretto. The subtitle for Act IV, Scene 7, is "The gods' wrath." That the curse is Nikia's own is not mentioned in the original published libretto. During the apotheosis, Nikia's shade "tenderly looks at her beloved Solor." I've always thought of the ending as moralistic, the sort of ending that would have been thought inevitable at the time the libretto was written. Vengeance was brought about by the gods on Nikia's behalf.

To my mind, the difference between GISELLE and BAYADERE lies in the difference between Bathilde and Gamzatti. The former was an innocent, while the latter brought about the heroine's death.

Try Elizabeth Souritz's "Soviet Choreographers in the 1920s" (Duke University Press, 1990).

The first thing to know about the collection of notations at Harvard is that they were made by a variety of notators, some were even students, and they vary greatly in level of detail, sometimes even within a particular ballet. In the case of PHARAOH, at least most of the ballet is in Nikolai Sergeyev's hand, and most of his notations provide only ground plans with steps/movements for legs and feet. This makes it possible to recover the "steps", but requires editorial port de bras, etc.

Frankly, I also don't blame Lacotte for not basing his version of PHARAOH on the notation. He doesn't read the notation, so it would have ended up not really being his production. But certainly, a more "authentic" (realizing that word is a Pandora's box in itself) version is possible. But Lacotte's is probably more exciting to watch for today's audience.

My colleague and I recreated the river variations and some of the (I believe) Act II divert dances. Only bits and pieces were actually used by Lacotte. I found the river variations fascinating. Even in Sergeyev's hand (which regularly includes wrong time signatures and a very quirky sort of shorthand for certain steps), the choreography was actually quite clear - these are character variations (very little pointe work though the ballerinas wore pointe shoes) and a lot of fun.

This post is pretty rambly, so apologies in advance.

Realizing I am coming to this discussion very late, and wondering if my post wouldn't better belong in the splintered-off heritage topic, my comments, having seen the Kirov very little, but being very aware of their recent reconstructions (time out to breathe in midst of very long sentence), is that they are realizing their classical heritage is very convoluted. Many steps performed in their productions of 19th century ballets were created in the 20th century. Attributions to Petipa and Ivanov are no longer taken seriously. Reconstruction projects have been acclaimed internationally but scorned at home. Two productions of the same ballet are retained in order to appease? Ballerinas, now serving as coaches, are being told that what they grew up knowing as Petipa is really that work of so-and-so, the less than famous (or even infamous) ballet master. Has the recent international success of reconstruction projects cast a pall over non-reconstructed works, at least for purposes of international touring? How much will financial profits from touring play into repertory decisions? Seems to me they've turned a corner with regard to their classical hertiage and now have a number of decisions to make.

(The rest of the world seems content with Soviet-era stagings by famous Russian dancers who defected to the West, despite very real questions of authenticity even on the most general level - another topic altogether.)

Mel - in order to clarify, the choreographic script of DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH lies in the Harvard Theatre Collection (and partially in my closet). In the end, Lacotte decided to create his own choreography, save for one or two brief dances, so his production is a pastiche "in the style of..."

The original LE PAS DE FLEURS was intro-waltz-adagio-interlude-variation-interlude-variation-coda. By 1899, variations from other ballets (PYGMALION and ADVENTURES OF PELLEUS) were being interpolated by Legnani and Olga Preo... Other variations have since been used. Today we hear Delibes' waltz, adagio, some of the interludes, and coda in a radically different orchestration than originally made in 1867.

I agree with the assertion that arrangements of many of the ballets scores being discussed plays a part in their condemnation. I don't think Delibes has been mentioned here, but his score for LA PAS DES FLEURS (now usually called LE JARDIN ANIME in LE CORSAIRE, or referred to as the "Naila Waltz -based on a subsequent arrangement of tunes from the original LA PAS DES FLEURS divertissement) is heard only in arrangements today - and those that I have heard do not do the music justice in any way. Nor do they reflect the subtlety of the original.

This is so interesting. In the notation, the corps indeed does the turns with the 3 soloists, rather than just passes. To me, the turns done by everyone become much more dynamic. Some of the metronome markings in the piano scores used by Nikolai Sergeev after he left Russia indicate faster-than-usual tempi for a several of numbers in the scene, including the corps' entrance and the third Shade's variation.

How about Nikiya's coda? For her first entree in the coda, the notated steps include 3 saute arabesques with Solor walking behind her (rather than lifting her), followed by the lift with beats. This is repeated three times all on the same diagonal (takes less room becuse fewer lifts), rather than crossing the stage three times, as done today. This is followed by a number of steps performed in a manege - I think it is saut de basque, petit jete en tournant, grand jete - all done 3 times - followed by chaines turns. We usually see only tour jetes today.

Nikiya's second entree comes right down the center of the stage - sissonne arabesque - actually leaping onto pointe - followed by by rond de jambe en l'air. This combination is done very quickly and is repeated over and over to the alternate side. This is followed by a backward diagonal moving toward upstage left - two hops on pointe in fifth, hop to a flat-footed echappe (forgive my terminology here) and another hop to pointe in fifth. Repeated several times while travelling backward (reminds me of a similar step for the ballerina in SYMPHONY IN C, first movement). Then, grand emboites forward, followed by a double pirouette into Solor's arms, followed by a swoon (the position is notated) as, I believe, the curtain falls. At the very end, the corps comes running in from the sides, but their final positions aren't given (might be a semi-circle).

Any comments on what was performed by Nikiya in the coda?