Buddy

I’ve just finished again looking through the New York posts, thank you, and I don’t recall seeing any mention of Hee Seo. I did see her perform Giselle at the Mariinsky International Ballet Festival and thought that she was excellent. She was invited back the next year to perform The Sleeping Beauty, where she had a few minor bobbles and didn’t seem too happy with herself, but for me they didn’t really matter and I thought that she was quite wonderful. A brief video glimpse. Vladimir Shklyarov was her partner in Giselle.

When she’s Exceptional, this might partly explain where she gets it from. “Ballet inspirations” “My ballet inspirations have always been these really older ballerinas and I’ve watched, I still have at home, all these VHS tapes. They’re-black-and-white VHS tapes of all these beautiful, beautiful old generation ballerinas and I grew up watching them and still watch them, and they’re still, it’s still, so amazing what they did back then. And, and, back then, it was sort of, it was more artistic than it was technically challenging like today and the personalities that they brought to the characters back then were just so amazing. It was so impactful. It was wonderful.” I’ve mentioned what I call the kaleidoscope of personalities and realities that she can produce in single situation or single scene. I care about the ability to accomplish this, not only because of the great artistic value that it can add, but also because of the human value that it can add. I care about the good and the innocent, for instance, and with this ability she can even find and express it in a character like Gamzatti. With Giselle, again, there’s the greater challenge. How to accomplish all this in Giselle’s more limited range of expression and how to conserve the delicate beauty of the character. I’ll greatly look forward to seeing what human qualities she choses to emphasize two weeks from now, in Giselle there are many, and wish her the best in accomplishing this.

Coppelia (Australian Ballet version) ?

Anne of Green Gables -- Ballet Jorgen, Canada Very glad that they keep this one going. I’d love to see it or any other really high quality production. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=464136869472460 Hannah Mae Cruddas is delightful. “Oh, Mr. Cuthbert,” she whispered, “that place we came through—that white place—what was it?” “Well now, you must mean the Avenue,” said Matthew after a few moments’ profound reflection. “It is a kind of pretty place.” “Pretty? Oh, pretty doesn’t seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don’t go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful—wonderful. It’s the first thing I ever saw that couldn’t be improved upon by imagination…. “….whenever I see anything royally beautiful. But they shouldn’t call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it—let me see—the White Way of Delight. Isn’t that a nice imaginative name?” ANNE OF GREEN GABLES By Lucy Maud Montgomery

And nice technique on that serve, Drew. 🙃

I’ve seen very few of her performances, but from one portrayal as Gamzatti (La Bayadere) and another as Paulina (The Winter’s Tale) I was ‘Wowed!’ I do mean — “Wowed!” I don’t think that I’ve ever seen ballet characterizations as complexly intelligent and excitingly crafted as these. I tend to consider this part of what I would call dance Expressionism and I would put her in a grouping with Olga Smirnova and the Bolshoi’s very young Eva Sergeyenkova in this regard. This kind of dance Expressionism would be a merging of exceptional portrayal and outstanding dance beauty. This is a very nice interview from five years ago that seems just as informative and meaningful today. She's a lovely, intelligent and sensitively perceptive person. I very much like her emphasis on creating characters and the importance of artistry. The first ten minutes or so mostly describes her background. Starting at 11:00 she says something that many ballet artists probably say, but in her case is very meaningful. “….now as a principal dancer I approach these ballets quite differently because to me they’re not about just doing the steps right anymore or dancing clean but to me it’s more about the artistry and about the storytelling and I really, really like falling in love with the storytelling process and finding the character and making sure that the audience understands the character and its story and I’ve really been focused on that in all the ballets that I’ve been doing so far and I love it, it’s so interesting to me now” [continues with a similar thought]. I do think that she goes beyond just “finding the character and making sure that the audience understands the character.” I think that she creates powerfully new realities for the character that are totally consistent and completely appropriate. She has the ability to produce new, exceptional, very one of a kind character development. This is a similar statement from Olga Smirnova at her BalletAlert! topic. “[Giselle] is one of my favorites, because you have the opportunity to focus on the acting and the story. Before I go onstage I’m not thinking about having to do double or triple pirouettes or balances or other technical challenges, but I focus on my character’s behavior and reactions. This way the technique is woven into the narrative and brings me the pleasure of living Giselle’s life on stage.” At 15:40 is another comment from Christine Shevchenko that I find particularly interesting — “Ballet Inspirations.“ Her Giselle at Costa Mesa the end of this month is something that I greatly look forward to seeing. It would seem to be more challenging than Gamzatti or Paulina because there’s much less drama of character (except for the ‘mad’ scene). To create similar kaleidoscopes of character within this more limited range and also conserve its beautiful delicacy would be something quite special indeed.

Thanks very much, Choriamb. I greatly look forward to seeing her. And thanks, everyone, for all your posts. It seems that many of you really enjoyed what you saw and this is very good to hear.

Giselles Devon Teuscher, whom I’ve seen perform a remarkably wonderful Swan Lake, and Hee Seo, whom I've seen several times, could be perhaps the most sensitively beautiful of the Giselles. This is the quality that is most important for me. Christine Shevchenko could be the most theatrically and fascinatingly beautiful, possibly among the most sensitive as well. Skylar Brandt, based on a very fine Swan Lake, could also be very lovely. Chloe Misseldine, the youngest, as seen on videos and noted in reviews, appears to be a lovely presence and remarkable phenomenon, who should continue to develop — remarkably.

Would anyone care to comment on Christine Shevchenko’s Hermione performance ? How did it compare to her Paulina ? I would like very much to have seen it. Your use of the word “sweep,” Choriamb, really interests me. Does this apply to Christine Shevchenko ’s Hermione as well as her Paulina ? So far I would say that Christine Shevchenko’s remarkable strength is in ‘dramatically expansive’ and more complex portrayals. Does she bring the same range and brilliance of expression to the more subtle and ‘delicate’ portrayals, such as Hermione ? I’m sure that she can. I very much hope to see her Giselle, a similarly subtle characterization, at the end of the month in Costa Mesa.

Been hoping to hear this. Thank you, Abatt. Although I always hesitate to call someone the best, if you happen to have read any of my posts from the Segerstrom in Costa Mesa you may recall that I considered her performance, well yes -- " Amazing and Wonderful ! "

I’ve been watching this remarkably beautiful video, "The Swan," over and over. Olga Smirnova has voiced her interest in both preserving ‘classical’ beauty and exploring new and different forms of dance expression. Why can’t they be combined ? Watching “The Swan” I realized how interesting a work it is. A human capturing the beauty of a swan, being a swan. It’s perhaps a lot more modern than it seems. This is somewhat like the ‘abstractions’ of ‘modern’ dance. Be a leaf, etc. Maybe, in addition to pushing physical and psychological barriers, a stronger element of loveliness, healthiness and dreaminess could also be encouraged. I think that Olga Smirnova could be great at this. I also think that ABT could be as good a place as any to do it. Added: I’d like to say that this is probably the most natural looking performance, especially in her portrayal, that I’ve ever seen her give. Quite Wonderful. Again: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck3N5xlo38W/?hl=en

There’s been much mention of Olga Smirnova here because of her recent Giselle performance with The American Ballet Theatre in New York City. I believe that someone said that she was in a league of her own. I was not fortunate enough to see any of the current ABT performances, but I have been fortunate enough to see some of Olga Smirnova’s performances going back to the beginning of her career. One of my favorite references for dance wonder is Mikhail Fokine’s “The Swan.” There are many ways of interpreting it from ethereally dreamlike to sublimely dramatic. Olga Smirnova excels most for me in Expression, sublimely dramatic Expression. Making allowances for the qualified film quality, hopefully this can be seen here. For me, everything that she does emanates from her face. Her Facial Expression is carried through to her every gesture, radiates out through her finger tips. It’s an example of what she says in the previous post. “This way the technique is woven into the narrative.” https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck3N5xlo38W/?hl=en In regard to Expression, in particular, Facial Expression, this is the league that I would put her in. https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/anna-pavlova-in-pharaos-daughter/

This is from the recent interview where she discusses her Giselle performance with ABT. What she says is something that we probably all have felt across many works to one degree or another. I hope that she will perform more often with ABT. She could beautifully complement its new group of highly talented young (and older) ballerinas. “[Giselle] is one of my favorites, because you have the opportunity to focus on the acting and the story. Before I go onstage I’m not thinking about having to do double or triple pirouettes or balances or other technical challenges, but I focus on my character’s behavior and reactions. This way the technique is woven into the narrative and brings me the pleasure of living Giselle’s life on stage.” https://fjordreview.com/blogs/all/a-giselle-for-the-ages (thanks to Novice123) Although I think that her greatness of expression often comes from a deep inner exploration this might also give her a chance to experiment with a more relaxed, Wheeldon type aesthetic. She’s already succeeded with her delightful Bianca in Taming of the Shrew. It could also introduce her to new dance experimentation in this part of the world. I think that she could produce something quite outstanding in addition to her ongoing desire for classical excellence and what’s she’s already accomplished. Veronika Part once made a similar voyage with some Remarkable(!) results.

Gia Kourlas — Elisabeth Beyer “Yet when a young dancer appears out of nowhere to freshen up the landscape, you perk up. “That was the case with Elisabeth Beyer, a member of the corps de ballet making her debut in the pas de trois. Her sparkling technique was amplified by her airy poise, long lines and the way music flowed out of her limbs with delicate, intuitive grace.” A glimpse from two years ago. (I’d suggest skipping to 3:15 if you don’t want to watch the entire video)

In a way, I would really like simply to end my comments about Dawn Atkins with my highly enthusiastic post above so that it maintains its impact. And because it was what I would call a Beautifully Enigmatic portrayal, trying to further describe it might not do it the justice that it deserves. Still, I would like to post these two photos emphasizing facial expression contained in the following interview that I do think give some more insight (the second perhaps most) and hope that they do her proper justice. I’d also like to mention that, from the performance and scanning the internet, it seems that she has quite a range of expression, which makes this particularly focused portrayal all the more impressive. Also, I would like to add, since this is ballet and not just acting, that her dancing seemed very good, but more important, supported, and integrated itself very well into, her overall impact and imagery. https://medium.com/authority-magazine/beyond-talent-dawn-atkins-on-the-mindset-and-disciplines-of-professional-athletes-04c2641b4e63