volcanohunter

My understanding was that the Bolshoi production relied on notations to a limited degree. At the time Ratmansky was not yet using them, and in retrospect he said he would have approached the production differently. The Bolshoi's Le Corsaire premiered in 2007. It's my understanding that Ratmansky's first reconstructions came several years later.

Specialists tell us that the notations can be incomplete: part of a variation may not be notated, perhaps legs are notated but not arms, there may be a floor plan but no specific choreography. I would submit that if the Mariinsky production fills in those blanks the same way that Ratmansky did, that material is stolen.

I have no idea how much of Petipa's Pharaoh’s Daughter was notated and described by eyewitnesses. Ratmansky wrote about staging "close to two hours of reconstructed choreography and mise en scene." If the production still claims to a reconstruction of Petipa's original, to which end Bockamp was hired as a notation reader, the ballet could not possibly have been completely re-choreographed as the Mariinsky claims. Unless Candeloro just made up entirely new choreography, which is unlikely since he has never staged anything remotely on this scale, and in which case it wouldn't be a reconstruction as advertised. 

2 hours ago, Xiaoyi said:

Alexander Sergeev has been first soloist for around 10 years and NOT promoted this time.

I was going to write the same thing. Sergeev has been a first soloist for a looong time. For example, this interview, posted in 2017, describes him as a first soloist of the Mariinsky Theater.

1 hour ago, AB'sMom said:

Odette doesn’t die in this production, but Siegfried drowns at the end.

This became a kind of trend in the 1960s, possibly beginning with Cranko, who said something along the lines of Siegfried is a tragic hero and must be vanquished. Nureyev and Bruhn followed suit.

The Dutch National Ballet performs Rudi van Dantzig's production of Swan Lake.

Just about any production is preferable to Grigorovich’s monstrosity. Except for Kudelka's, which was actually more loathsome. 

6 hours ago, Fernie M said:

I think Sara Mearns plans to come back soon. Her IG story this morning commented on seeing National Ballet of Canada, their amazing performance invigorated her to return to stage as soon as possible. I’m not sure if story still up at this point.

Yes, Mearns posted a photo of the company bows with the caption: "Came back to see this. Had to. After being away from performing since October...this piece [Crystal Pite's Angels' Atlas], these dancers have brought me back. they've given me that deep visceral human experience that is unmatched. Thankyou for inspiring me to get back to stage, no matter what it takes."

Her next story from Sunday morning describes "doing 1.5 hours of plies and tendus bootcamp" via video link with Denmark. "Getting back into shape, at the phase in my career w the body I have now, is maybe the most intense ever."

1 hour ago, glassyeyed said:

I LOVED Crystal Pite's piece, Angels' Atlas.  I found the choreography incredible and emotional with the body of dancers appearing to become a living, breathing organism.  In an odd way, this choreography reminded me a bit of Balanchine's Serenade

As it happens, when the National Ballet of Canada returned to the stage post-Covid lockdowns in November 2021, The program included Serenade and Angels' Atlas.

4 hours ago, abatt said:

I'm a little surprised that Wendy Whelan has not yet engaged Pite for a NYCB commission.  

Pite is very, very busy. Angels' Atlas took years to arrange. 

On 3/21/2023 at 11:54 AM, Mashinka said:

Just tours to China then.

Yup.

On 3/17/2023 at 11:28 AM, California said:

Many companies do Petite Mort (including Colorado Ballet) but this is the only company that does both of the Mozart ballets that I have noticed. I saw PNB do this in the theater about a decade ago and plan to watch it again on their digital streaming. They really work well together and it's a puzzle why more companies don't do both paired. (Cost, perhaps?)

Probably not what you what you had in mind, but I once saw the State Ballet of Georgia perform a Kylián program including Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze (with Falling Angels sandwiched in between).

15 minutes ago, sandik said:

Seth Orza has been working diligently on developing a new soft ballet shoe with internal support (especially in the sole) -- it looks like he's ready for business!

Very cool!

Olga Smirnova will be interviewed via Zoom for the London Ballet Circle on May 4th at 7:00 pm BST. The cost is £5 for non-members.

9 hours ago, California said:

Ugh. Ratmansky is on record (in 2019) that it's time to drop blackface. I have to think he's spent enough time in the US to understand why it's such a problem for us.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/arts/dance/blackface-ballet-bolshoi-misty-copeland.html

And not all Russians have taken the Bolshoi’s side. Alexei Ratmansky, a former director of the company, now an artist in residence at American Ballet Theater, wrote on Facebook that it was time to drop blackface.

“What is the artistic value in black makeup, under which you can’t even recognize an artist?” he wrote. “Why provoke?”

This production is irredeemably tainted. No impressario or distributor will touch it, and the Mariinsky isn't helping itself by continuing to perform bona fide Ratmansky ballets without his name on them. So if it's going to be for domestic consumption, and if the company is a pariah anyway, why avoid the blackface and Asian stereotypes foreigners find offensive? If anything, they may double down in the name of "tradition."

I guess this is Spuck's stamp. There are Giselle and Sleeping Beauty and a Forsythe program. But I think two works by Sharon Eyal are too many for a ballet company. Her pieces are mesmerizing, and they go over really well with audiences, but you don't need ballet dancers to perform them. 

Sorry, folks, there is blackface, not for Ramzé, but for some of the male characters. 

I see that the stepsisters no longer wear prosthetic noses.

The history of Cinderella at the National Ballet of Canada

https://national.ballet.ca/Tickets/Virtual-Museum/Cinderella-Introduction 

My all-time favorite NBoC danseur gave his final performance in the Stevenson Cinderella in 1995, as one of the stepsisters. (The nicer one. )

Renavand is scheduled to appear in Béjart's Bolero on May 24 and 28. Has she danced it before? I took a quick look at the online archive and didn't find anything.

https://www.operadeparis.fr/saison-22-23/ballet/maurice-bejart#distribution

To be honest, the only production that works for me in this regard is Neumeier's. The fiancée of the king (Ludwig II) witnesses his strange fixation with "Odette" during a private performance of Swan Lake and decides to come to a masquerade ball dressed as a white swan. (He's temporarily thrilled, because he believes she truly understands him.)

Otherwise I'm inclined to think that the bombastic music for Odile's entrance and the adage Petipa decided to repurpose rather negate a subtle approach.

I'm fairly certain that no current production gives Odile the female variation we know from Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux. It's a nice piece of music, but it would be altogether too cheerful.

The music for Petipa's Odile variation is really, really boring.

I see that unfortunately it's necessary to re-post Alexei Ratmansky's statement, which California posted on a different thread:

"PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER.

This is a reconstructed variation from the famous Act II Pas d'Action, a rare example of Petipa's choreography for the men, danced here by the brilliant António Casalinho. It is part of a larger ongoing project called 'Petipa Variations', a long time dream of mine. A filmed record of the notated 19c variations done by the best dancers.

I am posting it on the day of PhD premiere at the Mariinsky. In the spring of 2021, after two years of preparation, I was able, together with my wife Tatiana, to stage close to two hours of reconstructed choreography and mise en scene of PhD at the Mariinsky and was going to finish the production in May 2022. We had complete runs of the material and the dancers (superb) were ready to go on stage. However when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 I left in protest and had to cancell (officially postpone) the premiere. UKraine is a home country where my family still lives, there was absolutely no other choice for me.

My designer Bob Perdziola who at the time when the war started did most of his job already was just informed couple of weeks ago about the new premiere date and the new 'artistic team' taking over. This team consists of Toni Candeloro and Juan Bockamp, people I knew and corresponded with, who choose to become tools of putin's propaganda. Hope they realize that the taxes they pay in Russia are spend to kill and torture Ukrainians.

And there is one more aspect. After seeing recent rehearsal footage I am suspicious that parts of my work might have been used. I won't make any statements until I see the film of the full production. All I can say now is that the PhD is the most painful professional experience in my life. And it does hurt."

It's notable that while Robert Perdziola has been posting his designs from productions of La Bohème in Kyoto and Carmen in Chicago, which are currently running, he hasn't posted a single image from The Pharaoh's Daughter.

This production may not use blackface, but a photo in my feed shows that the Yellow River dances with her index fingers pointed upward, so no points for cultural sensitivity.

This is from Nureyev's Vienna production, which differs from his later Paris production. It is still performed by the Vienna State Ballet.

Burmeister, Bruhn and Grigorovich used the same music for their Odile variations.

So, the prizes went to Mackenzie Brown from Stuttgart and Daichi Ikarashi from the Royal Ballet, and the choreographic prize was awarded to Roman Novitzky for the piece he choreographed for Stuttgart's pair.