enterachilles

This is really a challenging question... I cannot say Yes or No clearly, partly because I sometimes enjoy attractive new productions of classics as well as so-called original versions. Considering theatre plays, you can also see lots of 're-interpretation' Greek dramas and Shakespeares in the context of Feminism or post-colonialism nowadays. The problem in the discussion of ballets would be, however, that they do not have absolute original, such as written texts. That's why I always find it difficult to know; how 'original' this Swan Lake is. As far as Romantic ballets go, I would imagine how difficult it would be to make a contemporary version of, for instance, Giselle, as the concept of these ballets can be clear in the historical context of Romanticism, the idea not close to us living in a contemporary society. In that sense, Romantic ballets without Romanticism sound pointless. Interpretation by the audience, however, cannot help being updated.

Thank you Estelle! I found her name among those of Grands Ballets Canadiens dancers. I was wondering why he left POB, as Japanese ballet fans saw his brilliant dance in group performances of La Pietra a few years ago, but haven't got any news about him except he joined SFB.

I also would appriciate any of you who might give some information about Pierre-François Vilanoba!

Andrei, Alexander Gouliaev was with Kirov. He joined Dutch National Ballet as a first solist in 1994. Yes, Terry. Yumiko Takeshima is with the company. According to the programme I got for La Sylphide, in 1993 she joined the company where she was promoted to second solist in 1998.

Only three female etoiles remain... can it be a reason why they are not having many full-length classical ballets? Or do you think they are going to promote some female dancers to etoiles, Estelle?

I think La Sylphide by Dutch National Ballet was almost the same as that of Danish Royal Ballet performed in Japan last time. Again, there was not really a big change. A slightly different impression was because of the different company, I guess. Anyway, I am going to see it again soon, and I have to check the programme tonight! As far as Sylph concerned, I liked her dance although she was not really airly dancing.

Dutch National Ballet premired a new version of La Sylphide made under Dinna Bjorn on 18 March. Bjorn, a former dancer at Danish Royal Ballet/ a current director at Norwegian National Ballet, only made some minor changes in La Sylphide based on Bournonville version, which succeeded in making the idea of this ballet more clear. The casts of performance I saw on 27 March included Anna Seidle as a titlerole, Jahn Magnus Johanse as James, Alexander Gouliaev as Madge, Roger Janse as Gurn, Enrichetta Cavallotti as Effy. The performance itself followed a short documentary film about this ballet, in which words of Bournonville were quoted, telling us about historcal backgrounds, Danish identity and character of James. Bjorn must have paid much attention to mime, as mime was used quite effectively to tell story and it was really a part of dance. Her changes in dance of sylphs surrounding James were also effective to show James' embarassment and frustration that he could not catch her. In total Bjorn's La Syphide ended with convincing image that James' story hasn't completed yet, as the short documentary mentioned.

I think Marc is right. Tickets were sold out for Swan Lake. Still the name of Kirov seems to be a big name even for those who do not know much about ballet. I came here last summer and do not know what it is like to be a theatre goer in the Netherlands, but as far as I noticed from performances of Dutch National Ballet (they are having a new production of La Sylphide now in the Muziektheatre in Amsterdam), Dutch people appriciate modern/contemporary ballet/dance, rather than classical ones. I went to see this La Sylphide of Dutch National Ballet last night, but the theatre was far from full while the price of tickets was half of that of Kirov.

A new web site of POB <a href="http://www.opera-de-paris.fr">www.opera-de-paris</a> I preferred the former one though...

I totally agree with Marc, althoug the casts of Swan Lake I saw on the very last day of Kirov in Amsterdam were Sofia Gumerova as Odette/Odille and Daniil Korsuntsev as Siegfried. Apparently, the stage of Royal Carre Theatre was not big enough for Kirov production of Swan Lake (hopefully big enough for coming performance of "The Car Man" by AMP in June). But it cannot be a good excuse to have a rather poor performance. I have to point out that Korsuntsev was trying to give the ballet emotional reality in his pas de deux with Odette/Odille, however, his princess was not so eager to develope the story between her and her prince. I was not convinced that she fell in love with Siegfried. It was a great fun to see pas de trois danced by Dumchenko and Zelonkin, but the company itself obviously lacked appropriate dancers for Kirov legend.

My favorites for now are... *Sylvie Guillem (British Royal Ballet/Paris Opera Ballet?) *Nina Ananiashvili (Bolshoi/American Ballet Theatre) *Miyako Yoshida (British Royal Ballet) *Uliana Lopatokina (Kirov) *Delphine Moussin (Paris Opera Ballet) *Isabel Guerin (Paris Opera Ballet) *Jose Martinez (Paris Opera Ballet) *Manuel Legris (Paris Opera Ballet) *Nicholas Le Riche (Paris Opera Ballet) *Vladimir Malakhov (American Ballet Thea Hmmm, I forgot someone? I found it difficult to find out which companies they belong to, as most of them work for some ballet companies regularly!

Unfortunately, I missed the first night of "Giselle" by Kirov in Amsterdam, but Marc's report gave me a general picture of some problems of Kirov ballet now. I cannot imagine how they could omit "peasant pas de deux" just because they do not have enough dancers... And also it's a pity that some principal dancers could not (or at least, did not) come with the company. Maybe you are supposed to see the performance of company itself, not the performance of a certain dancer. But I still want to know who is dancing, especially when I see classic ballet... enterachilles