Lukayev

Should Odile.. Smirk knowingly at the fate of Siegfried? Have a truly evil, nonsmiling, low-cast eye look? Wear a mischievous grin because her ploy at imitating Odette is working? I know it all depends on how the character's interpreted, but someone stated that Odile was supposed to imitate Odette.. however, I see no wrenched anguish faces upon viewing the close-ups of Odiles on video. And should Odette.. Have 'suffering, withering princess' written on her face throughout the ballet? Have something of a smile, maybe some wonder at what on earth Siegfried is here for (Act II)? ...? One of my friends went on a vacation (she got out really early.. odd schedule), and saw a Swan Lake two-ish years ago. She then asked me, "Why does the white swan lady look like she's constipated and about to cry like the whole time?" When can the heart-wrenching pathos image be overdone to the point of.. facial tissue overworking? And how can Odile be maliciously evil, but kiddishly mischievous at the same time? (Upon being asked whether or not Odile was 'good', she said, "The black swan lady? Yeah, um.. I think she likes the guy. She's like always smiling.. That flirt!"). --Luka [ 07-04-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

I have this so-called complete Swan Lake collection I ripped onto two CD's, and there is a variation listed under the Pas de Six as Variation V - Moderato; Allegro semplice that fits the description of an oboe-played theme. I don't know if that's it, but it might be.. :confused: --Luka

I have no idea if this makes sense, but the Rose Adagio has the four suitors for Aurora partnering her as a part of 'court etiquette'.. or not? Was everyone just polite and danced with whomever was present? --Luka

So Odile is not like a distraction away from Odette, she's literally trying to impersonate her? Neat! I learned something new today. And as for the feathers -- in a Kirov version I saw a few months back, von Rothbart is an Owl, so I suddely saw the connection.. the feathers are either a link between Rothbart and Odile, or.. ? --Luka

(I had to bring this up).. As I stated above.. do we really need von Rothbart (or in some cases, his evil female twin) in the Black Swan pas de deux? --Luka [ 06-27-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

It seems to me that as the years pass in ballet, the feather plumes atop Odile's tiara are shrinking in size. From Natalia Dudinskaya's Quaker-worthy feather quill flaunters, to Cynthia Gregory's tiny little turtledove backside tailfeathers, there's so much of a variation. In regards to costumes.. Should Odile's costume be onyx-black or with intricate gold patterns, like I've seen on some ballerinas? A feathery, fluffy tutu or that straightforward, starchy one (I'm thinking the latter, because of Odile's "Siegfried, baby, you are my prey" direct approach and her distinct motives)? Ornate tiara, with jewels to dazzle and blind Siegfried, or a plain one made out of some cheap village mine gold? Help me think of some more. --Luka [ 06-27-2001: Message edited by: Luka ] [ 06-27-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

I just had a goose bumps episode about a few hours back -- Watching the Spring Waters pdd (chor. Messerer, arr. Rachmaninov) with Maria Bylova and Leonid Nikonov of the Bolshoi, probably sometime in the late eighties.. that one part where the music swells up and then washes away, the girl flings herself into the guy's arms with an assemble followed by a.. well, for lack of better words, SOAR.. FLY.. CATCH! I got chicken skin right there, and both of them were just so exhilarating and lengthy in their dancing that it reminded me how beautiful ballet can be. --Luka

Next year, my family and I will be visiting NYC (joyous!) for six nights, and because I have dragged them into my quagmire of ballet-obsession, they have agreed to take me to the ballet. It'll begin around March 23rd, and so I was thinking if the seasoned ballet-goers know what kind of ballets NYCB and ABT perform around this time. For instance, I really wished that the Tchaikovsky Spectacular is held at this time, but is it like a mid-June thing only? Or mid-month? As I've said before, I have tastes leaning towards the die-hard classics, 'ballet at its best', as some say. So.. what's there to see? --Luka

For full-length productions, I've seen only one; I was forced to dash out of the other (by whom, I can't remember) because I had eaten a bad candy bar and its consequences were affecting my digesting tract. The full-length was when the Kirov came touring to Japan, and Sofia Gumerova with Igor Kolb as the two main characters. It had the black swans in the Act IV too, and that was kind of interesting because it follows the Black Swan pdd and I think that Odile's wrath on Odette still plays a part, instead of Act III just being a 'happening' in this continuing saga of Swan Lake. I really loved the costumes for the character dances, and the scenery and 'extras' made the stage encompass all of its space and let the audience feel like they'd stepped into a royal engagement in a palace. A word about the stage - the place the Kirov performed in was not made for dances, and so everytime a pointe shoe made contact with the stage or Kolb finally came down from his jump, a resounding *THUD* echoed throughout the theatre. I couldn't help grimacing through the Cygnets dance because their feet weren't together and that was made worse by the fact that individual 'clunk, thud, bang's were heard. I went back home kind of disappointed because of all the excess noise, but the dancing was effective enough for me to give it a . --Luka

I thought this would be interesting to bring up - in my video on Japanese ballet, there's a tiny excerpt from Swan Lake, and when I saw Odile doing the fouettes to weird music, my ears were thrown off and I was like, "What.. is that Tchai pas?" Sure enough, it was. Another thing that I think was discarded from Swan Lake along the way was a variation for the black swan - it's mainly an oboe showcase, then the entire orchestra comes booming in for a flurry of piques. One of the Japanese competitors sort of threw off the panel of judges at Prix de Lausanne by performing this for her 'free' variation. --Luka [ 06-23-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

(This is to all the non-dancers out there. ) Since we dancers often have dreams of being Aurora, Kitri, Odette, Juliet, etcetera, do non-dancers (namely critics) ever wish they were the ones dancing up at the Met.? If so - What ballet? (Choreography, music, [certain arrangement], era [Romantic, classical]). Where? (City Theatre, overseas, yadda yadda) If it's a pas de deux, with whom? (Okay, in an idealistic world, I'd partner the most good-looking guy. But then, I'm not answering this.) Any other nuances you think that you would add/take from the role, upon viewing others' performances. I might just have inspired a few brains to go put on pointe shoes. ;) --Luka

I just came up with this question -- If some ballet company were to keep back a 'short' person as the techinician of the company, like how the Kirov was going to make Baryshnikov dance the Peasant pdd his entire life, does that mean that companies who believe in this kind of casting shorten the dancing life of their dancers? Some people do escape the wrath of the artistic director and dance Albrecht but some people don't. I was reading this Pointe magazine entry on a day of Miranda Weese's life, and she explained how NYCB usually cast her in very techincally demanding roles and how certain parts were usually for the 'tall, grand ballerinas'. If someone were to be typecast as technician, I think that's a bit unfair for those who are second choice to those 'tall, grand ballerinas' so fabled in ballet lore. I'm sure these people have their artistic gifts too, but what if the audience can only "see" them onstage as the evil-fast petit allegro soloist? Does that mean their career may only be confined to how long their bodies can carry out the execution of the steps? --Luka

OH! Hehe. Sheezno confused me, I thought it was some Arabian version of Dame Margot.. or something. Her lost sister that was adopted by an oil sheik. --Luka

Um.. *what* is a Sheezno? Hehe.. Yours confusedly, Luka.

For me, when I saw my first on-stage fall (during, I think, those tricky traveling fouettes in Pas de Quatre), my response was, "Mommy! Tell the people to stop making the stage slippery!" There are a lot of things that contribute to a fall, i.e. miscalculation, raked or non-raked stages (Americans must have fun tumbling around on sloped Russian stages), not being an "on" night, or just bad luck. When a dancer can get back up and return to what they were doing before, that's true professionalism, to me. The people who curse, slam their feet down and get back up with chin jutting out like a grumpy witch may have the best technique in the world but lack artistry. I saw a video of Nureyev as Conrad in Le Corsaire, and during his variation in the Grand Pas de Deux, he really went for the jump, and sort of slip-slippety-tumbled his landing, only to return in true form and style for the next attitude pique. When a dancer holds back and doesn't make the tiniest slip or stumble, that's nice for them but then I get the feeling that ballet isn't really the place of safety. It's an art that revolves entirely around the body, and a dancer should take risks to make the dance that much more pleasing. I couldn't imagine a timid Lilac Fairy taking baby steps up to the King and Queen. Her status seems to represent a ground-covering, large-movement lady who's really presenting the ballet for the Prologue and First Act. Now that I've exhausted my virtual vocal chords, I'll reiterate.. You don't become a dancer for a career that spans forty years and pays so well that you can own a Beverly Hills home. That should tell you something about risk, and falls are part of that. Ta! Luka [ 06-10-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

I received a video from my sweet grandparents, and when I popped it into the VCR, lo and behold, a documentary on Yoko Morishita, legendary prima ballerina of Japan appeared. She's about 53 (?) and has danced with many a great partner, including that wonder-evoking Rudolf Nureyev. However, I noticed that backstage life is far from 10 years ago's relative ease. She must be carried to and from the stage, dressed up in about seven layers of clothing so her middle-aged muscles don't seize up, and have a bed in her dressing room to snooze in constantly. And though her dancing on stage is so beautiful and flowing.. when do you think it's time to call it quits? Most reviews that I hear on the video have to do with "amazement at the grace she still retains after fifty years of dancing" and they go on and on about how she's so great.. for her age. You'd think all the reviews on the networks and newspapers are centered on her age. Plisetskaya danced into her sixties, Fonteyn into her fifties (I guess.. I am the last person on earth to organize my thoughts by numbers).. It's clear that dancing into that age is something to inspire wonder.. because dancers probably have one of the most short lived careers and fragile ones. Morishita says she'll dance until she drops.. but then where would we be without a great veteran teacher to whack the unstraightened knees of the new generation, to devote herself full time to teaching? Should they dance until their death.. or stop, take a breather, and assume the life of a teacher and mentor? Or maybe they could do both.. ? Ta! Luka (On that same video tape is a recording of the finals at the Prix de Lausanne.. interesting surprises abound).

I don't know if it would work.. But for La Spectre de la Rose, I would love to see Nijinsky (because I have only seen photos of him) as the Rose, and.. hmm, trying to think of someone.. Kirkland as the Girl. She seems to portray such a young girlike image on stage, and I think she would be so good, especially at the end, when the Girl stretches out in longing to grab back her dream of dancing with the beautiful Rose. I think that I'd like to see Ulanova as the Girl too.. pretty. Oh, and I heard something about Nureyev's L'Apres d'un Midi something Faun .. I don't know French - that would explain my taking of French I in freshman year of H.S. next year. Something doing with the Nymph's scarf.. that would be interesting to see. Ta! Luka (I'm sounding like some delirious girl, mentioning dancers she hasn't even seen live and only on video). Oh, yeah! I forgot one of prettiest ballets - Firebird! I *really* want to see what Nureyev would be like at the Tartar Prince - since he himself is Tartar.. and Plisetskaya as the Firebird.. don't ask me why, because I don't know! [ 05-31-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

I have seen so many videos of Maximova - she is probably the cutest and vivacious Kitri I've seen. Those passes (I can't get the accented e to show up) from fifth in the middle of the Act III variation are so quick, it's like if you blink, you'll miss six beats. I also have landed a videotape of Bessmertnova as Phrygia (at least, that's what everyone's calling the main character.. right?) in Spartacus, and she wowed me with those awesome lifts with Mukhamedov. My golly, I would be so scared that I would cry on stage if someone whooshed me up, upside down and on one arm. She is such a lyrical, flowing-y dancer and really swallows the stage up with her presence. Either that or it was the close-ups.. (stage makeup.. scary). I have never seen Pavlova in anything; is she related to Anna? (My ballet history goes back about five minutes and that's about it.) Ta! Luka

Oh, golly.. I just remembered something from somewhere.. last year, I believe -- 1. Anything saying "Stars of.." Ooh, that line just annoys me! If they're so great, why are there so many under the same alias? 2. Female dancers wearing low-cut bodices on the stage so as to give the impression that their boobs are bigger and that ballerinas *can* have cleavage. This happened on a Stars of the Bolshoi tour to Hawaii last year and this one lady in Pas de Quatre had this white bodices that left the audience fearing for her decentness as she performed the allegro Cerrito variation. 3. People who clap after four fouettes, stop, clap for the sixteen, stop, and then don't even clap after the entire thirty-two. This has happened more than once as I listen to videos or attend live performances. I have more, I just have to grow more irritable (it's hard to when your neighbor's newly acquired dog is being such a cute thing). Ta! Luka

If anything, now that I've asked around for opinions on aesthetic issues.. what are some of your ballet peeves? For me, it would be something like a grinning-ish smile during a melancholy ballet like La Bayadere or Giselle Act II. Or the exact reverse.. a solemn face during something happy, like Iota and the Fisherman (Russian story ballet - my 'friend' was the soloist, supposedly performing on under the sun surrounded by happy fish, but didn't smile once) or the Clog Dance in La Fille Mal Gardee. Just recently I was the Stepsister in a Disney-fied version of Cinderella, and not once genuinely happy smile crossed my face once.. I made sure of that with exaggerrated frown lines and hideous makeup. However, my fellow Stepsister was grinning away like Aurora on a wedding day and it just got to me. I must be either 1)Snooty or 2)Overly grumpy. Either way, it annoyed me. So, folks.. what really made you grit your teeth during a performance? Luka

When I am in one of my 'perpetual-pout' modes to learn a classical variation (i.e. Coppelia) everyone, not including the teacher and pianist, whips their head around and says (in a monotonous, drawling voice) "Go back to Russia where you 'came from'". In other words, I'm thinking that they believe that classical variations should stay where they are in Russia-land or Europe land and that, being American and as Balanchinian/Stylized as we are today, the ballets we should learn are Serenade, the *American* version of this, of that, etc. Are Americans (I'm speaking for myself, too.. in a way) so narrow minded that everything, down to the last step, must be manipulated so that it is familiar with American audiences? Should Kitri have to do the echappe-hop on attitude pointe and picking feet diagonal for her variation just because it's an American audience out there? Maybe classical ballet can become American classical ballet, but not the classical ballet that the rest of the world had in mind. Ta! Luka [ 05-24-2001: Message edited by: Luka ]

Alright, then, to name someone who was not a dancer but whose work was seen as vital as dancing (according to a book or two I read).. Karinska, the one-name costumer for Balanchine's company. Her costumes graced famous bodies for performances and from the examples I saw as photographs on several pages, they're exquisite and beautiful! I have never seen a live performance of NYCB (really, the only performance I've seen is Peter Martins' Swan Lake aired on PBS a few years ago). But, seeing of how much she made an impact on the books and articles of NYCB's Balanchine days, I think that costumes came alive then, and maybe even now, if there is stage magic enough. Ta! Luka

I don't know if we've really moved onto dancers now, but what about Dame Margot Fonteyn? I'm sure the soloists waiting in line at Sadler-Well's were just waiting until her dancing age was over, but then came along Nureyev, and it was that flick of the whip that made the prima ballerina assoluta what I think that people remember her as. My mom thinks that dancers are pushing it in mid-late 30's to be dancing, and I semi-agree. But this lady was on her toes into her fifties! Just another example of how the human spirit can defy 'set' laws like *that*! Ta! Luka

Perhaps because it's one of the comic ballets, people put it second to such drama as Giselle and Swan Lake. But, I think, in light of how ballet is evolving, Coppelia is one of those 'gem' ballets. If it's survived this long, and the audience still finds it amusing, there must be some of that hidden 'stage magic' sprinkled on it somewhere. Just as how the supreme control/girliness of Aurora, the different sides of Odette and Odile, and the wonder and excitement of Clara (Nutcracker) are essential personalities to learn, to become an animated doll or the owner of a hopelessly flirty boyfriend (Franz) is a challenge in itself. So for me, I think Coppelia deserves to be on the list with the 'great ballets'. If we're considering the great Swanhildas then the ballet itself must have a legacy too, right? Ta! Luka

That's a good point, I guess that tutus were made for showing off the legs.. and that Romantic skirts would just look wrong and crinkle downwards into the hip joint if the leg was extended *really* high. From a dancer's point of view, everyone (that I know, anyway) secretly desires to get that 6 o'clock extension that has made Guillem, among other ultraflexible dancers, a living example to strive for. After all, the people I know (and there are probably many more) are self-critical during class; always comparing this to that, dancer to other dancer. We may heed to words describing those kick the head developpes as uncharming, not-in-the-era, and so on.. but in this time, this world of Americanization, of Balanchine's leotard ballets.. we try to be reasonable. I am against contemporizing such classics as Giselle, but in this time, most likely a company would hire a Wendy Whelan body rather than, say, a Romantic era, Fokine-time (I'm not good with numbers) body that we find is getting to be a rarity except for on videotape. Look at the Kirov. Vishneva, Lopatkina, Zakharova, etc.. such young principals, their extensions could scrape dust off the stage lights, and so on. While the Kirov's repertoire is sticking to balletic ballets, their dancers are striving for hypersplits, bang-head-on-ceiling jumps, and let's-tickle-my-ear-with-my-knee legs. I know it's not just the Kirov, but this is the company of such die-hard classical dancers and ballets, that I would be overwhelmed by the clash of styles. So what do we dancers do? Whether or not I admit it, I am envious of high extensions and would use them to my advantage to wow the company director, and then the audience. It's old reasoning, at least for me - if you can be the best, be it. If you aren't.. then, try anyway. I'd like to correct myself a little.. a Wendy Whelan body could still learn the era's technique and pull something very past-timeish, like Pas de Quatre, beautifully. But when stylized hyperextensions and purely classical Odette bang headlong into eachother, I believe the result wouldn't be leagues close to 'the era image'. Ta! Luka P.S. While I do believe if someone like Guillem can make hyperextensions seem fitting and within the proper musical timing of the ballet, then that would only enhance the beauty. But that's just me. [ 05-09-2001: Message edited by: Lukayev ]