Brendan McCarthy

A few thoughts about KB's posting: 1. One realises already that Anthony Dowell protected London audiences from a great deal of choreography that was plain bad. Ek's Carmen was a depressing experience: one dreads Preljocaj's Le Parc next year. 2. Because no British government is likely to fund the ROH fully, any artistic director of the Royal Ballet will have to make considerable compromises. Sometimes, however, I wonder if production values need be so high. A present-day commission may cost upwards of £300k. Yet Ashton's Symphonic Variations, with its memorable designs by Sophie Fedorovitch, was made on a virtually non-existent budget. 3. There is little purpose in the RB performing a rep that London audiences can frequently see performed at such theatres as Sadler's Wells and the Barbican by the companies for which these pieces were made. The state's spending on the Royal Ballet is part of an investment in the UK's future creativity. The litmus test for Ross Stretton's directorship is whether he can develop work that grows out of the company's heritage and its sense of what it is and where it is. His year 3 programme, when it is announced next March, will be the decisive test.

Just to clarify; Hessischer Rundfunk is Frankfurt's public radio and television service and not a newspaper. This crisis has, apparently, been brewing for some time. The city of Frankfurt has deep rooted financial problems and it has imposed swinging cuts on its culture budget. The Opera, Theatre and Ballet have been told to save one million euros this year; next year, two million; in 2004, 3 million and, by 2005 four millions. But it is not a question of money alone. Frankfurt's political establishment has tired in any case of Forsythe. There has been a clamour for more varied work from the outside, in preference to what a local journalist called 'own label records' . There is considerable feeling that interesting companies from outside simply bypass Frankfurt altogether. The fact that Forsythe's work is so distinctive, and that it has put the city's ballet company on the world stage, no longer cuts any ice with the politicians. They criticise Ballet Frankfurt for travelling too much, and not spending enough time in Frankfurt. Forsythe was to have announced a new artistic plan on June 6th. It is unlikely he will be doing so now.

Forsythe's future, according to the local television station Hessischer Rundfunk, is now in serious doubt. The ruling alliance on Frankfurt's city council is considering whether to replace him when his present contract expires in 2004. The background to this is the city's growing financial crisis. There are deep cuts in the culture budget and Ballett Frankfurt is the latest victim. Forsythe's political support seems to be slender, and to come, in the main, from the Green Party, which says that any decision to dismiss Forsythe, would be a "declaration of cultural bankruptcy". If this happens, the Greens argue, Frankfurt's aspiration to be European City of Culture in 2010 would no longer have a shred of credibility. The issue of Forsythe's future has not been triggered by the budgetary crisis alone. Senior members of the city council are increasingly resistant to Forsythe's aesthetics. They want a Frankfurt Ballet, which will present a more classically based repertoire. Forsythe, who is very distressed at developments, is fighting back. He argues that he runs an efficient company - and that his budgets are better managed than those of Frankfurt's other cultural institutions. There has been a wave of international reaction to the news. Already a support website has been set up. The URL is http://www.sign.de/forsythe/aktion.html

Absolutely Sacre - and in the company of Millicent Hodson, and Kenneth Archer, who so impressively reconstructed it for Joffrey Ballet.

Absolutely Sacre - and in the company of Millicent Hodson, and Kenneth Archer, who so impressively reconstructed it for Joffrey Ballet.

Alexandra, Here are two press releases from Dutch National Ballet that may be of interest. The first carries today's date, while the second, which announces Wayne Eagling's departure, was issued on April 4th. The Board of Het Nationale Ballet has invited the Dutchman Ted Brandsen, at present Associate Artistic Director, to succeed Wayne Eagling as the Company's Artistic Director from 1 July 2003. The Board believes that Ted Brandsen's artistic vision will act as a firm foundation for the further development of the Company. Furthermore the Board is of the opinion that Ted Brandsen possesses the personal qualities and experience to enable him to lead a company of the size and complexity of Het Nationale Ballet. The worker's council were consulted on the appointment of Ted Brandsen. Ted Brandsen Ted Brandsen (1959) joined Het Nationale Ballet in 1981 as a dancer. In 1985 he created his first ballet for the Company's annual workshop. In 1991 ended his dance career and concentrated on choreography. His works for Het Nationale Ballet include Four Sections (1991 - awarded the Perspectief Prize for young artists), Crossing the Border (1993), Blue Field (1995) and Bach Moves (1995). He has also created works for the Israel Ballet, the Donau Ballet, the Ballet Théâtre de Bordeaux, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and Introdans. In 1998 Ted Brandsen was appointed artistic director of West Australian Ballet in Perth, for which he created Chairman Dances, Rose Spirit, Carmen, Romeo & Juliet and Bridge Variations, among others. He also choreographed a new version of The Sleeping Beauty (1998) for the National Ballet of Portugal, as well as works for Ballet West (USA) and the National Ballet of Finland. In 2000 Ted Brandsen received the Australian Dance Award for Choreography for Carmen. On 1 January 2002 Ted Brandsen returned to Het Nationale Ballet as Assistant Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer. The statement about the new appointment was issued today. The following statement was issued on the 4th. of April. Board of Het Nationale Ballet in discussion with Wayne Eagling about termination of contract The Board of Het Nationale Ballet has entered into discussion with Artistic Director Wayne Eagling about the termination of his contract. A proposal was made to Mr Eagling that this should take effect at the end of June 2003, which, in the opinion of the Board, would allow for a gradual and ordered succession to Mr Eagling. In a meeting with the entire company, Mr Eagling informed the dancers of this development and told them that, in the general interest, he would in principle be in agreement with such a ruling. The Board will work out the details of the proposal with Mr Eagling at a later date. The aim of the Board's proposal is to implement the Board's considered intention of appointing a new artistic director of Het Nationale Ballet. All parties involved would have preferred to announce this decision once a definite agreement had been reached. Unfortunately the leaking of these discussions has made it necessary for the Board to make this news public now. On behalf of the Board of Het Nationale Ballet J. Kuiper, acting Chairman

I chose Paris and the Ballets Russes, because the period has been so imperfectly remembered. Reconstructing the ballets of the time seems to be much more problematic than is the case that with those first performed at St Petersburg. At least the Maryinsky has had a continuity of curatorship of the Petipa tradition. It also kept in memory such works as Giselle. For Paris and the Diaghilev period we are seriously lacking enough evidence.

I chose Paris and the Ballets Russes, because the period has been so imperfectly remembered. Reconstructing the ballets of the time seems to be much more problematic than is the case that with those first performed at St Petersburg. At least the Maryinsky has had a continuity of curatorship of the Petipa tradition. It also kept in memory such works as Giselle. For Paris and the Diaghilev period we are seriously lacking enough evidence.

Some early news of the new season. It will begin on October 24th with a triple bill consisting of the Christopher Wheeldon ballet, which will given at the ROH for the first time this May; Mark Morris's GONG, created for ABT last year; and Mats Ek's Carmen. Mayerling, the first of five ballets by Kenneth MacMillan in the new season, will be performed between the 29th October and 16th November. Anthony Dowell's production of Swan Lake returns in November and December, and will be followed at Christmas by Nutcracker. The first triple bill of 2003 will consist of Ashton's Scenes de Ballet, Macmillan's Winter Dreams and Kylian's Sinfonietta. The first full length work of 2003 will be Macmillan's Manon. This will be followed in March by Makarova's new production of The Sleeping Beauty. Angelin Preljocaj's three act ballet Le Parc will be given in April 2003 and will be followed by Kenneth Macmillan's Prince of the Pagodas. The final triple bill of the year will feature a new ballet by David Bintley; Ashton's Scenes de Ballet; Macmillan's Song of the Earth. The full details can be found on a pdf file on the Royal Opera House website

Not 'general parlance' exactly, but last night I came across this quote from the Irish author Eric Cross. "Ballet is the champagne of the arts. It is the gayest, most light-hearted and exhilarating of all products of the theatre" (letter to the Cork Examiner 27th May 1951)

Alexandra, Some Catholic seminaries were better than that. Here's a fifteen month old story from the National Catholic Reporter about the Jesuit priest Robert VerEecke. "In 1971 A dance teacher on the Santa Clara faculty, Diana Welch, offered a ballet class for attending Jesuits. “There were probably 12 to 15 of us,” said VerEecke, “all sizes, shapes and backgrounds. For me it was an epiphany. It was just like, ‘How is it I am 22 years old and I have finally found myself?’ I never knew anything could be this beautiful.” Welch was essentially choreographing dance, religious in nature, using works such as Stravinsky’s Symphony of the Psalms. “Not only was it my first exposure,” said VerEecke, “it tapped into the religious formation I was going through.” VerEecke was hooked. Back in New York, he started a theater program, but he really wanted to dance. On a lark, he ascended to the provincial’s study and asked for permission to study dance at Santa Clara for a semester. “I just assumed he’d say no,” commented VerEecke. “It was not the ordinary thing to do.” But the provincial said yes. Maybe boys didn’t dance, but Jesuits could". There's more on this link.

A footnote to my interview with David Bintley, referred to earlier in the thread.There was more material than I used in the piece, which was not for a dance periodical. This exchange from the original interview may be of interest: No artist, I imagine, would want to be portrayed as a ‘Catholic’ artist. You need distance. Is there a danger of being perceived as somehow ‘too Catholic’? "I don’t think I am anyway. If you’re not doing a piece that’s in your face like The Protecting Veil, people aren’t really aware of that. The first thing that I am trying to do is make good work. Full stop. Being a Catholic will not help you make better ballets. I know a number of Christians who make good ballets, and others who don’t. I would prefer that the works of mine that have a human context are looked at just like that. I would not separate myself as a Catholic from anyone who takes a forgiving and a compassionate view of humanity. That’s what a lot of the narratives that I do are about. I like the people that I choreograph about. Even if they are deeply flawed. Even if they are monsters. I like them and I understand them. Is that because I am a Catholic? I don’t know. Perhaps it is". [ March 20, 2002, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

For some companies in Europe (in Germany, Sweden and perhaps others) the equivalent of 'merde' is 'toi toi toi'. Apparently the phrase is also used by opera singers. Does anyone know what it literally means?

I presume that Leigh is contrasting the versions of Les Noces made by the BBC in 1978 and 2001. The first was filmed over a three day period at Ealing Studios in West London, while the second was filmed in live performance at the Royal Opera House. In the 1978 version the director had the option of moving both his dancers and his cameras. The result is a very 'frontal', very pared down rendering of Les Noces, which is a quite literal account of the ballet's architecture. In the 2001 version, the director needed to take the ballet as he found it on the Covent Garden stage, shooting from three cameras at the back of the opera house, and six others at various side angles. As a result this version renders the architecture sometimes quite differently. I hesitate to come down on the side of one version or the other: both aesthetics are attractive in their different ways. It raises a different point, and one about which I would be very interested to hear some opinions. The economics of television dictate that ballets are rarely now recorded in a studio. For the foreseeable future we can expect to see almost all productions filmed through a proscenium arch. Is this good or bad? [ March 04, 2002, 06:55 AM: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

I'm also an Irish national and agree with Mashinka. On first reading the remark seemed merely playful; it is the coda that makes it seriously offensive. [ February 20, 2002: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

Alexandra, John Percival merely previewed the Stephen Baynes ballet. He hasn't reviewed the programme. As to Ross Stretton, he has taken direct personal charge of the Royal Ballet's marketing. When he was AD at the Australian Ballet, his approach to triple bills mirrored that which he is now implementing in London. While the critics have been devastating, and there is a relatively small 'interested' dance public which has raised some questions, I do sometimes ask myself if most people who go the Royal Opera House really care one way or the other. We do not, I think, have an educated dance audience in the way that we have an educated theatre or music audience. On Opera nights at Covent Garden, quite a number of people come clutching scores, or are very familiar with that which they are going to see. I doubt that the equivalent is true of ballet nights. One one level dance is a very accessible form, and can be enjoyed at a fairly basic level of understanding. But it is because the dance-literate public is so minute that I feel the Opera House could contemplate the changes to the Baynes ballet in the hope that they would get away with them.

Alexandra, 'Leaves' seemed interminably long and there was insufficient contrast between it and the first work in the programme 'Beyond Bach' by Stephen Baynes. It has been harshly received here, with Clement Crisp of the Financial Times recalling that at the time ABT premiered it, some thought to rename it "The Fades are Leaving". While I thought there was some exquisite writing, the piece was some ten minutes too long - and when the lead couples come on stage for a second time, I couldn't but help think, "but we've had this". Programmed differently it might have been better received, but the set-design and costumes have not weathered well. What has angered some of us is the fact that Bayne's ballet 'Beyond Bach' had an entire section dropped from several performances, without the audience being told. The section in question was quite central to the architecture of the ballet. Each cast demanded four principals and two soloists with matching body symmetries. Injuries took their inevitable toll and the two casts for 'Bach' were not interchangeable. It was understandable in one sense that the section in question was dropped; what was unacceptable in my eyes was that audiences were not told. I could not imagine a movement from a symphony or a concerto being dropped without some hint to an audience, or a triptych becoming a diptych with no word of apology from an art gallery. It seemed to me to show spectacular contempt both for the art form and for the audience. [ February 10, 2002: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

I too was curious about this and talked a few minutes ago to a dancer who was in the Royal Ballet in the 1960s (I hope to have lunch with her soon - and if you like, Alexandra, I can take my tape recorder along and try and get her to talk a bit about rehearsals with Nijinska). By 1966 she was aged 74. Despite this, she had a most expressive body. "She was like a little ball", my friend told me. "She was very active. I remember she wore soft ballet shoes. Even though she waddled a bit, she really used to chase us around the room. Her husband was also there, I don't know if he was a dancer. He spoke English and used to translate. She would tell us the steps in French and Russian. If we did not understand, it was not the steps that we hadn't grasped, but the style". "No, no, no", she would shout if she wasn't happy. "Second Stage". By 'Second Stage' she meant 'Second Cast'. "We girls were terrified of her. The boys weren't. She loved the boys and they would play all sorts of tricks. She might say "one two three"; except that three sounded like 'chai' Ken Mason, who was a real joker, would say tea! tea! -and we'd all troop off to tea" All this made me curious enough to make a quick internet search. I found an old Washington Post internet file with chapter 1 of Maria Tallchief's memoirs. There she describes the experience of being taught by Nijinska. Much of it chimes with what my friend in London told me. Here's a flavour: "Madame's class was rigorous. Students weren't allowed to slouch at the barre or hang on it haphazardly, and we had to be conscious of each exercise. After we finished doing a step, we had to walk to the side and stand still with perfect posture until it was time to take our places for the next exercise. At the same time, Madame indicated that we should watch our fellow students closely and listen to every correction. Because her English was practically nonexistent Madame Nijinska rarely spoke. She didn't have to. She had incredible personal magnetism and she radiated authority. Most of the time she demonstrated. It was hard to imagine her as a ballerina, but how she moved! Her footwork was phenomenal. She jumped and flashed around the studio. I was under her spell. The likes of Madame Nijinska were something I had never seen before. Every day she dressed in the same pants and plain top; her ballet slippers had a slight heel. In her pointe class, we'd have to repeat steps over and over, learning how to balance and how to hold a position so that our entire backs were being utilized. She was very precise. In first position, elbows had to be held a certain way and the little finger had to touch the front of the thigh. If Madame could come by and move someone's elbow, the position was wrong. She was insistent on port de bras, and she told us the reason her brother could jump so high and hover in the air so long was because of the control he had over his abdominals. It was from Madame Nijinska that I first understood that the dancer's soul is in the middle of the body and that proper breathing is essential. Even though she wasn't verbal, Nijinska knew how to get her point across. She communicated with a firm tap on the shoulder. Her husband, Nicholas Singaevsky, sometimes translated, but his English wasn't much better than hers. "Madame say you look like spaghetti," he'd explain, and the message was understood. He'd also expound her philosophy. "Madame say when you sleep, sleep like ballerina. Even on street waiting for bus, stand like ballerina." There's more on this link [ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

Bronislava Nijnska’s ‘Les Noces’, part of last spring’s ‘Stravinsky Staged’ season by the Royal Ballet, was filmed by the BBC and shown this week in Britain and Canada. When Frederick Ashton became Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet he was determined to bring Les Noces into the repertory. De Valois had previously asked Robbins to choreograph the work for the company. Although designs were commissioned, the plans came to nothing. In an interesting sidelight on this, Ashton’s biographer Julie Kavanagh cites evidence that de Valois’s jealousy of Nijinska was the reason Les Biches was not then in the Royal Ballet’s repertory. This may also be a reason why de Valois had asked Robbins to choreograph Les Noces, and not chosen to revive Nijinska's original. When Nijinska finally came to London to 1966 to stage Les Noces, she had, according to one account “all the demeanour of “an elderly peasant woman”. Notwithstanding that, there was a near immediate ‘love-match’ between her and the dancers in the company. Communication was not easy and Anthony Dowell still wonders at how the company learnt the ballet from her. David Drew, then a young dancer, and now a character principal, was more graphic: “The woman and her rehearsal methods were bizarre. To our younger eyes she was ancient. She allegedly spoke three languages, English, Russian and French, but had forgotten all of them. She had this huge old hearing aid with a long wire disappearing into her blouse somewhere and there was this huge receiving kit. You began to realise that if you wanted her to hear you, you had to bend down and talk into a rather pendulous left breast. That in itself was rather odd”. Stravinsky described the music for Les Noces as a ‘cantata’. It is a very fierce and relentless score for chorus, four soloists, four pianos and percussion. The ballet itself depicts a Russian peasant wedding. It divides into four tableaus – The Dressing of the Braids at the Bride’s Home, At the Groom’s, the Departure of the Bride, and the Wedding Meal (the wedding itself is not depicted). Bride and groom, here danced by Zenaida Yanowsky and David Pickering, are virtually anonymised. They have no say in their fates. The tableaus are of massed groupings of wedding guests. Their demeanour, and that of the cast, is impassive as the choreography moulds them into human pyramids and phalanxes. For the dancers the rhythmic complexities are immense: according to one, “we found ourselves counting, counting, counting all the time”. That said, the performance was one of the highlights of 2001 for the Royal Ballet. It works as effectively on television as on the stage. The issues surrounding the filming of dance in an opera house setting are well known. A director is limited in his choices because the camera positions are fixed. On the other hand, there are obvious gains in seeing a live performance with an audience present. While most dance filmed in a theatre looks as if it is being filmed through a proscenium arch, Les Noces was different. It really did seem as if it could have been designed for television. It is not hard to see why. The ballet is stripped down to its barest essentials. Natalia Gontcharova's designs are grimly functional, monochrome almost. Its architecture, the piles of bodies forming one geographic shape after another, works for the camera. The images are simple, direct and unmissable. Nijinska was accused by one of her critics of creating a ‘Marxist’ work “that swallowed the dancer”. Television can enhance the geometry and, if anything, can retrieve the dancer. The director’s eloquent use of close up, if anything, underscored some of Nijinska’s meanings – in particular the inability of bride and groom to rejoice in their fate. The entire cast was superb. Without the Royal Ballet, Les Noces might not have survived at all. This staging shows proper care for an important legacy, and the television version does it homage. It should in time be available on DVD. [ January 26, 2002: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

Alexandra - Les Noces is not in the RB rep this season. A televised version of last year's 'Stravinsky Staged' programme, comprising Les Noces and Firebird, has however been shown in Canada and the UK. I suspect Stravinsky Staged was reviewed on balletalert last spring.

A full transcript of the parliamentary committee hearings into Scottish Ballet is now available. Scottish Parliament

You may find this article by Maggie Kast interesting. It is entitled "Contemporary Choreography: Reclaiming the Sacred" and appeared in the Winter 1999 edition of 'Image', a Journal of the Arts and Religion. The URL is http://www.imagejournal.org/kastframe.html [ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]

Alymer may have cause to shudder afresh. There are rumours that English National Ballet is considering an 'arena production' of Spartacus.

According to a piece in yesterday's edition of Scotland on Sunday, the Bolshoi is to devote a third of its repertoire to works by foreign choreographers. Roland Petit's ballet version of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades will be premiered in October. The piece went on to say that the Bolshoi would perform an Ashton ballet in February. There were no further details. I wondered if balletalerters could shed further light? The original article is at http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/world.cfm?...&keyword=ballet

One of the essays in "Following Sir Fred's Steps", the published papers from the Ashton Conference at Roehampton College London in 1994, discusses the Fred Step in some detail. According to the author, Adrian Grater, a choreologist and former member of the Royal Ballet, Ashton adopted it as a 'lucky step' after first seeing it performed by Pavlova in her Gavotte. The sequence typically goes: pose en arabesque,coupe dessous, small develope a la seconde, pas de bourree desous, pas de chat. This was the form performed by Ashton himself as one of the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella, and as Mrs Tiggy Winkle in Tales of Beatrix Potter. David Vaughan first notices the Fred Step in Les Masques (1933). Grater finds it in A Wedding Bouquet (1937) performed by de Valois dancing the part of Webster, the housemaid. It occurs several times in Daphnis and Chloe (1951) and in The Dream (1964). As one of your posters has already suggested, one of Lise's friends dances an abbreviated version in La Fille Mal Gardee (The Flute Dance), before her friends join in. It occurs in the version of Illuminations rechoreographed for the Royal Ballet in 1981 (not the original for NYCB). Here it is danced by eight girls as a variety of characters, such as a chimney sweep, postman, baker, each one carrying an appropriate prop. A further instance comes from Les Deux Pigeons, when it is performed by the girl's friends as they are greeting Lady Bountiful. Grater also instances "that wonderful exit from Month in the Country". Finally, as Mme. Hermine has suggested already, Ashton used it when escorting Fonteyn from the stage at the end of Salut d'amour (1984) I doubt that this collection of papers is still available in print. "In Sir Fred's Steps" is edited by Stephanie Jordan and Andree Grau, the publisher is Dance Books, and the ISBN number is 1 85273 047 1. I hope this helps. [ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ] [ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: Brendan McCarthy ]