vagansmom

Re "The sign of a true skating fan "....and old age On a serious note, I really thought that the Canadians deserved the gold medal. Stylistically they're very different from the Russians. I'd love someone with the professional eye to explain to me why Sale/Pelletier DIDN'T win it. I thought their performance was every bit as technically difficult and that they skated flawlessly. The only difference I could see is that perhaps the gold was lost in the upper body. The Russians have had port de bras training and the Canadians haven't? It so reminded me of the Babilonia/Gardner vs. Rodnina/Zeitsev (sorry, I don't know how to spell his name)years. Irina Rodnina didn't have the balletic style of the present Russian pair but she had dazzling speed and deep edges. Babilonia and Gardner were every bit the same style skater as Sale/Pelletier and matched physically as well too. To my dying day, I'll always wonder if they could've beaten Rodnina/Zeitsev (I don't remember which Olympics) when the Americans had to pull out due to Randy Gardner's torn hamstring or groin muscle.

I don't like seeing the disparity in size between the men and women in pairs and agree that Sale/Pelletier are well-matched. They remind me a little of Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, a US pair from some years back. They were well-matched in size and as a result, it was very aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes, with the couples who aren't matched in size, one gets the feeling that the man is tossing a girl, rather than woman, around. It's almost an entirely different aesthetic.

I also sent my email complaining about Costas's comments about the dancers. I suppose Costas doesn't know that the founder of MOMIX, and one of the co-founders of Pilobolus, won an Emmy for his choreography in the closing ceremonies of the Lake Placid Olympics. That's the kind of comment Costas SHOULD have been making.

Jeannie, I was livid when I heard Costas disparage the medals ceremony too. It was very rude and I think that we have to let NBC know, in no uncertain terms, our feelings. Let's fire off our letters and emails right away so that perhaps Costas might actually be reprimanded before the Olympics are over.

I wondered about Ballet West also, Alexandra, till it occurred to me that many of the hoedown dancers just might've been from there. I like the hoedown theme - very much our heritage. Overall, I thought the opening ceremonies were in good taste with the exception of one Bob Costa comment when the Iranian athletes came out. The camera showed George Bush and Costa called his reaction to the Iranians "stone-faced". I thought it was terribly unfair because we don't really even KNOW if Bush was looking at or reacting to the Iranian athletes. There were lots of countries' athletes parading through the arena at the time - he could've been looking at some of them or no one at all. Even if he COULD know whom Bush was looking at, Costa's remark was spurious, offensive and out of place in an opening ceremony.

I love Dick Button. I'm sure it's because I grew up on him. As a child, I drank up his comments and thought of him as a sort of god. Childhood loyalties are hard to give up. A couple tidbits: MOMIX will also be performing at some point. They'll be doing "Skiva" (see Dance Mag's Feb. cover), Moses Pendleton's homage to skiing - a passion of his. Also, did anyone read NY Times article today about Sarah Hughes and her "flutz"? Is it true that she, along with most of the American skaters, takes off from the wrong edge when she starts a lutz? I don't know enough about jumps in terms of skating edges to tell. And, if true, it begs the question: why haven't the American coaches been stricter with their skaters? Thanks for putting up such a comprehensive schedule. I've printed it out for reference.

I also believe it's a cultural work ethic. In my experience teaching in private schools, the Asian population has uniformly been far more serious about education - and this is within an environment where education already is a high priority - and more hard-working in general. There's good and bad elements to this, of course.

I had a feeling someone would think that my comments were merely general Despite that, as a musician, I stand by them and fully intended to not pick the dancer apart to find what movements constitute musicality because that is precisely what makes the difference between a dancer with musicality and one without: the one who has it is so much an embodiment of the music that it cannot be picked apart. It's all musical - every gesture, every placement. If a flow is required, the flow oozes. If staccato stops are required, well, they are sparkling, diamond-edged staccatos. (Forgive my possibly non-ballet terms). The dancers lacking in musicality go through the motions and do what they think, rather than FEEL, should be done. So you may find robotic, albeit perfectly placed motions instead of legato and you may find staccato where legato is required. I've seen dancers with the most perfect placement be so perfect yet so lacking in musicality that they appear to be those little windup ballet dolls. Everything's there, performed to exactly the correct beat but not the COLOR of the music: no attention's been paid to crescendo, decrescendo, legato, tranquilo, delicato....everything that makes the music lush and rich. I think a more interesting question would be - Can the same dancer have musicality in one performance yet not another?

I agree about there being many different kinds of musicality. But, speaking as a musician, I'd say a dancer has musicality when s/he moves in such a way that the music seems to ooze out of all pores. And when, even if the technique isn't perfect, my eyes are riveted to that dancer who isn't dancing TO music but IS the living, breathing embodiment of it. Suzanne Farrell had musicality. Cheryl Madeux, whose career includes Joffrey Ballet, Hartford Ballet and ABT, has musicality. Alesandra Ansanell. Among men, Baryshnikov certainly. And Victor Malakhov, my favorite. [ January 24, 2002: Message edited by: vagansmom ]

Yes, I've been thinking that I ought to call ABT just to let them know how disrespectful the caller(s) were. They'd gotten my number from my having ordered tickets from the ABT website the last couple years. According the telemarketer, that's no longer an option. Hmm, I think I'll mosey on over to their website to see if that's indeed true before placing my call.

OK, I'm reviving this thread because of the phone call I received from an ABT telemarketer last night. Last month someone had called me about buying series tickets, stating that it could no longer be done via the Internet and she asked if I was interested. I said I didn't know my daughter's schedule and so couldn't commit till I had her schedule in hand which wouldn't happen till early spring. She persisted in trying to get me to commit and finally after she suggested calling me again in January, I agreed-solely to be able to hang up without being rude. I received that new call last night. This woman was even more persistent than the previous caller (who may have been the same person-not sure). In fact, this time it took downright rudeness on my part in order for me to hang up. I once again explained my reason for being unable to buy tickets now although I fully intend to later, but she interrupted me constantly, asking when I'd know, and then ignoring what I said. There was an edge to her voice as if to imply that I really wasn't going to buy tickets which certainly isn't true and of course which I resented. I finally told her that I'd buy tickets when I (louder voice on the word "I") was ready and that wouldn't be till early spring. She told me that they weren't going to run this campaign for much longer. When I asked for how long, the response was "April"! So I said I'd call back by then, and I quickly hung up with her in mid-sentence. I'm not a rude person. I like ABT, I personally know a couple dancers in the company very well, and I want them to succeed. But I feel that both telemarketer calls I received on behalf of ABT were conducted rudely. And if I weren't committed to them, I'd refuse to buy tickets just BECAUSE of those calls. There was a desperateness about each call. It seemed that once I'd mentioned that I WOULD be buying tickets eventually, the telemarketer was unwilling to hang up until I'd done it through her. Period. Does anyone know how these calls are conducted? How do these telemarketers work? Is it on commission as with other telemarketers? (She did mention that she's a former dancer.)

Oh my - we're a suspicious bunch. I wondered the same thing about Plushenko and also chastised myself for the thought! I prefer to think good thoughts. Jeannie, earlier today I began to respond to your question about ice dance as a legitimate sport but had to stop and delete it all because the more I wrote and thought, the more I wondered. My gut response was, "Yes, of course it is!" I took ice dance lessons way back when. It's grueling work and as you say, the quality of the edges is terribly important. It's very exacting, athletic work and most of its difficulty isn't of the nature that would thrill an average audience. I was initially thinking that adding the element of ice and how to respond to its vagaries is what turns it into sport. Somehow that alone seemed a little lame as a reason though. So I then thought that what makes it sport would be the trickiness of those edges on the ice. Till pointe shoes loomed in front of my eyes. Once I started making comparisons between the difficulty of dancing on ice to the difficulty of dancing en pointe, I lost my certainty that ice dance is, in fact, a sport So now I don't know what to think. I'd love to hear more comments. In any case, I'm delighted it's a sport because I get to watch it

Re the pairs skating and romantic displays: I remember that, years ago, back when Peter and Kitty Carruthers, brother and sister USA pairs team were competing, that was a big problem for them. They were siblings. It was felt by the various commentators that the Carruthers team suffered in their choreography. What do you do as a skating pair when you can't feign romance? - was the overriding question. Good question. What kind of chemistry between the two skaters should be reflected? I assume lots of thrilling lifts and throws, of course, but what story do you tell with that routine? I was looking forward to seeing the choreography pf the current US pairs team featuring a brother and sister but they had to pull out of the comp due to injury.

I saw the women's free skate as a rerun today. I paid really careful attention to Sarah Hughes's shoulders, thanks to having read Victoria's comments before watching. I agree - her shoulders really are up much of the time. But I also think now that she bends too much from the waist and her neck is strained forward more than the other skaters. All that, taken together, gives a rather gawky look. She may conquer it yet though; she's certainly improving very quickly. Because of that, I suspect she's a joy to teach. Nikodinov is, like Hughes, tall yet there's none of that upper body gawkiness. I noticed that she didn't pitch her upper body forward as much as did Hughes. I felt sorry for N. She's such a lovely skater, but she's another one, like Eldridge, whom I often steel myself against liking too much. Too often, her nerves seem get the better of her. This competition must've been a terribly hard one for her to lose though - I do feel for her. Jennie Kirk shows so much promise. Her ballet training gives her a clear advantage to my eye over, say, Hughes. But Kirk, like Hughes, has a way of hunching her shoulders up terribly during jumps. It drives me crazy to watch. Well, I really looked forward to seeing Sasha Cohen's long program...and I was disappointed! Not in her execution of her program, but in its content. I didn't think it was a well-choreographed piece at all; in fact, it was the least interesting skate of hers that I've seen. She did it justice but I'd have liked to have seen more variety in between the jumps; this is a skater who's capable of infusing everything with her own special magic. Had Cohen's program been more interesting, I'd have said she deserved the gold over Kwan. I really think it was her program that prevented that. However I have to wonder if the judges would've allowed Kwan to NOT win the gold, given a clean, solid performance. In any case, it was well-deserved. Kwan skated cleanly and incorporated much more interesting choreography than did Cohen.

I missed tonight's women's finals - I hope to see the reruns tomorrow afternoon (I went to see "The Lion King" instead - finally!). Just wanted to address the comments about Sarah Hughes: I have the same problem with her skating as mentioned by Jeannie. I've been trying to figure out what, exactly, it is. She's certainly improving practically minute by minute. I THINK what seems off to me lies in how her upper and lower body aren't quite working in tandem, but I'm not sure. They don't seem to work smoothly together all the time. Taken in isolation, one could say her positions are excellent but put both halves together and there's still a slight disjointedness. I'm not completely positive that's what it is and would love it if someone else better versed in ballet can explain it to me. I've been trying to figure out for some time exactly what it is that I don't like about Hughes's skating, esp. because I'm usually in complete agreement with Dick Button. And he adores her skating. All the other real skating afficionadoes seem to also agree that she has superb technical positions - they rave about her foot being just exactly the right height, her back so straight, etc. I think that she's got a coltishness about her that's still quite raw and gets her into trouble on occasion. She hasn't quite gotten used to her grown body and it's like her energy is sometimes flying out in all directions. I can't wait to see the reruns tomorrow.

I missed the men's competition last night but I heartily agree with the comments about Tim Goebbel's skating. It's a shame he's only now paying attention to his upper body. Any of you remember Elaine Zayak? (I think that was her last name.) Boy, could she jump, but everything else about her skating was painful to watch. Midori Ito as well. Another great jumper but that was it. And then there's Surya Bonalyi (Sorry, I've probably massacred the spelling there). I wish that jumping weren't given such great importance. It certainly has value in the sport but there's so much else to figure skating. And judging by how rare it is, I'd have to say that clean lines, artistry and musicality ought to win out over jumps. Seems that there are more people who know what to do OFF the ice (in midair) than on it.

Of all the female figure skaters that've come along over the last decade or more, Sasha Cohen's artistry stands out. She's still so young and has so much more room for growth; I find it exciting to think of her future. I hope injuries are kept to a minimum; she's coming off a bad year. I was excited about Michelle Kwan early on when she was about the same age but even she didn't have the balletic qualities of Cohen. Todd Eldgridge is certainly the most accomplished US male skater and right up there with the two Russian men in my opinion, with the exception of jumping ability. But he's his own worst enemy. I can't bear to watch him in major int'l competitions any longer - he finds a lot of ways to defeat himself. Of the two Russians, I'm hoping Alexei Yagudin will be the winner. His routines are powerful, well-choreographed, and his costumes are sophisticated rather than gaudy and cheap-looking. He's strong in every area that counts in figure skating.

I've always found Suzanne Farrell's contention that her hip problems were due to heredity, NOT dance, to be questionable. She was 38 years old when her hip began to cause her serious trouble and she had her first (of three, I think) hip replacement surgery when she was 41. Regardless of heredity, that's young. Likewise, Darci Kistler's been dancing injured since she was what - nineteen? Too much on too young a body? I wonder what would've happened had her body been given a bit more time.

I can only enjoy all these performances vicariously through your reviews, so thank you very much, everyone, for posting. Leigh, thanks also for encouraging newer ballet lovers to post their comments. I'm feeling vindicated reading some of your posts. I remember that about three years ago when I first got online, I posted something on another dance forum about Ansanelli - her great musicality and joy while dancing - and my comments were ridiculed by someone who had much greater experience than I with ballet and the NYCB in particular. His statement that Ansanelli was the least musical dancer at NYCB stung and I had to wonder if I really just didn't "get it" when it came to watching dance and knowing what to like. It caused me to wait a couple more years before I ventured to comment again about a dance performance. So of course I'm happy to see that others are delighted with Ansanelli - I thought she was lovely in the only performance where I had the pleasure to see her dancing.

Estelle, Are there two Eks? I saw the documentary about Sylvie Guillem recently where she dances "Wet Woman" by Matts Ek. I was wondering about his bio. I thought I'd have classified that particular dance of his as contemporary ballet except when I thought about it, I realized it didn't necessarily require ballet training to dance it. In my opinion, it just wouldn't have looked as good though without the ballet-trained body. [ January 02, 2002: Message edited by: vagansmom ]

Estelle, Are there two Eks? I saw the documentary about Sylvie Guillem recently where she dances "Wet Woman" by Matts Ek. I was wondering about his bio. I thought I'd have classified that particular dance of his as contemporary ballet except when I thought about it, I realized it didn't necessarily require ballet training to dance it. In my opinion, it just wouldn't have looked as good though without the ballet-trained body. [ January 02, 2002: Message edited by: vagansmom ]

Good timing - I just read today about "Shurale" in Plisetskaya's a/b. She states that Leonid Yakobson staged it for her using music by the Tatar composer Yarullin. The story of Yarullin's death is quite amazing. He died as a very young man, as part of a massive group of frontline soldiers in WW2 armed with nothing but their own bodies. It was called the "people's militia" - an enormous, senseless slaughter of unarmed people by the Germans who had no idea these people held no weapons. Yarullin could've avoided this apparently but decided that the "Homeland needed defending" and signed up. "Shurale" premiered January 29, 1955. Plisetskaya danced the girl-bird Syuimbike, Levashov was the evil forest spirit Shurale, and Yuri Kondratov danced the role of the hero Ali-Batyr. According to Plisetskaya, Yakobson was most "original and inventive" in his successful and warmly received production of "Shurale". She refers to "Laurencia" as "Krein's ballet" and says it's based on "Fuente Ovejuna" by Lope de Vega so that explains all the Spanish dancing. P. danced "Laurencia" about the same time as "Shurale". "Laurencia" was Chabukiani's choreography and on the opening night of this particular production, Krushchev was in attendance along with many other big Party members. This was danced by P. during the time of her greatest persecution when she was desperately trying to contact Krushchev to be allowed to travel on the overseas tours. (She got as far as his son-in-law who was then punished for trying to help her). Perhaps as I read on, I'll find some mention of "Storking" as well. I've just gotten to 1956 in the book. If only this book had an index....! [ December 28, 2001: Message edited by: vagansmom ]

I'm halfway through this book right now. My thoughts about it mirror Nora's. I, like Mashinka, am very frustrated by the lack of an index. Initially I actually began to write down some names on a sheet of paper so I could keep track of them. That was until I realized that she was tossing out names like candy to a crowd of parade-goers - I simply couldn't keep up! So I gave up. I also am finding the narrative to be choppy - that said, I do agree that we're truly hearing Plisetskaya's voice and perhaps with a ghost writer, that voice would've been watered down. I've loved Russian history ever since high school when I took a course in it with a particularly difficult teacher. My one and only "F" on a term paper came from him - he said I offered nothing new to the subject. Perhaps that began a lifelong love with anything Russian. My daughter's experience at a Vaganova pre-professional school with Russian teachers has fed that love. And Plisetskaya's book continues it. One couldn't write about her ballet life without describing the politics - they're so entwined. She mentions this herself early on in a sort of apology for not writing a ballet book, so to speak. A wonderful companion book is Valery Panov's "To Dance". His was written with a professional author and is much easier to read. But he tells some similar stories of the very same people. And very similar personal experiences. The Soviet regime was harsher on him as an artist, I believe, at least judging from what I've read so far in Plisetskaya's a/b, (notwithstanding what happened to her parents). [ December 28, 2001: Message edited by: vagansmom ]

Geez, OttawaMom, I assumed when I got MY telemarketer call (from ABT) at work that they'd mistakenly called me there. Now it sounds like they just don't care or don't bother to check which number is the home number. I was pretty annoyed - I'm a schoolteacher and was taken out of class for the call. She apologized for it and then said she'd call me at home later (which she did). The ABT caller was quite persistent. When I mentioned that it's too soon for me to know which dates would be free for my daughter, she kept asking when I'd know. Although I was polite (not so to the average telemarketer but I WANT ABT to succeed) and I tried explaining why I won't know till last minute because my kid won't have her rehearsal schedule till March or April, she continued to press me as to when. Finally she said she'd call me in January and frankly, I'd reached the point where I just plain wanted her off the phone so I agreed. But I won't know my kid's spring schedule in January. I read an article by George Will ages ago where he compared any phone call, but esp. the telemarketer call to a mail carrier who barges into your house unannounced, shoves a letter in your face and demands that you read it and respond NOW, no matter what you're doing. Sounds about right.

I thought that, if anything, those few minutes presented an unflattering appearance to a nation-wide audience. I felt badly for the dancers. The music WAS horrible, tinny-sounding, the "stage" if you can call it that, was much too tiny, those silly corps costumes were just that, and Julie Kent looked either scared or cautious (there was no room to move) or both. I kept trying to imagine whether an audience, ignorant of ballet, might be moved to consider buying tickets following that little performance and the answer in my mind was a resounding no. What a shame. It would've been better had it just been Corella and Kent alone so they could at least move without fear of tripping over a corps dancer.