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Is anyone familiar with Renato Zanella's Aschenbrödel? A DVD from Euroarts is forthcoming. http://euroarts.popdata.de/artikel/dvd/?id...roedel_nicht_tv http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MRP1P0/

I attended the program on Saturday. I can only express complete joy at Alberta Ballet’s acquisition of Serenade, and the dancers were determined to do it justice. Sometimes I got the impression that the dancers were so concerned with demonstrating precision, obviously appreciated by the audience, that the dancing itself lacked a freedom. Partly this may have been because the stage seemed too small to allow them to move out. Frankly, this surprised me; the stage of the Jubilee Auditorium is not small, yet the ballet looked cramped. How on earth does the Royal Ballet manage to dance this ballet at Covent Garden? Sandrine Cassini was the Waltz Girl, Maki Matsuoka was the Russian Girl and Galien Johnston was the Angel of Death. The male soloists were Reid Bartelme and Matthew Lehmann. Of the women, I liked Johnston best: not quite Maria Calegari, but then who is? She had greater elegance and poetry than the other two, and I wish that Cassini and Matsuoka had been as tall. I can’t say I found Bartelme lacking. I think his dancing has an admirable lightness. The role doesn’t demand any pyrotechnics, and I didn’t seem to me that he was struggling. (Perhaps his prominent ribcage gives the impressions that he’s having difficulty, but as someone cursed with a similar build, I’m sympathetic to him on that score.) However, I don’t think he’s at all suited to partnering Cassini. Her dancing is fundamentally percussive, while his preeminent quality is lyricism. I think Cassini’s percussiveness was better suited to the Tall Girl in Rubies than to Serenade, but Elyse Bourne, who staged the ballet, must like her strong sense of accent. Incidentally, Jonathan Renna did not dance in Edmonton either, nor did Leigh Allardyce, who was featured so prominently in the promotional materials for his program. Having seen it only once, I’ll try to describe Jean Grand-Maître’s The Fiddle and the Drum as thoroughly as I can, though my account may not be entirely accurate. I’ll just have to wait for the television version to get it right. “The Fiddle and the Drum” Dancers covered in varying degrees of green body paint, the women wearing leotards and pointe shoes on bare legs and the men in trunks, emerge one by one before the front curtain. One dancer puts on a combat helmet and slowly falls to the ground, followed by another dancer and a third. The curtain rises. There are rectangular video screens on both sides of the stage and a circular screen hanging above. A little girl in a white dress (Clara Stripe, daughter of ballet master Edmund Stripe) stands in a spotlight in the centre of the stage before being carried off by one of the dancers. “Sex Kills” Five spotlights fall on the floor, defining the dancing areas. The movement is fast and aggressive, with lots of large jumps and turns in attitude. The dancers standing further back provide counterpoint to those in front. “Passion Play” A woman (Sandrine Cassini) in an airy dress runs out on stage. She dances with a man (Igor Chornovol) who wears a loose shirt and has a streak of red paint on his chest. Later he dances with another man (Kelley McKinlay), suggesting, at least to my eyes, the camaraderie of soldiers rather than the intimacy and sensuality taofpooh noted. In the background other dancers provide counterpoint by bounding across the stage, parallel to the proscenium. Perhaps because I was watching from the balcony, I didn’t find this distracting or busy. “The Three Great Stimulants” This piece was the audience favourite, led by a spectacular Yukichi Hattori. His partners were two other small, speedy dancers, Nicole Caron and Christopher Gray, but at times they seemed to have trouble keeping up with him. The chorus in the background consisted of a trio of women, still dressed in their Serenade tutus, performing piqué turns, alternating with goose-steeping, Nazi-saluting dancers. “For the Roses” At this point the ballet takes a romantic turn, in keeping with the lush orchestration of the song. There is a starlit background and an image of the moon projected onto the circular screen. It’s a dance for some of the company’s leggier and more lyrical dancers: Galien Johnston and Reid Bartelme, Laëtia Clément and Blair Puente, and Alexis Maragozis with McKinlay. (Here is where I noticed the absence of Allardyce and Renna.) The movement is vaguely Tetleyesque, by which I don’t mean to suggest that it’s derivative, simply that the silhouette, sort of avian in line, is similar. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” Again, the lines are reminiscent of Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries. The rhythm of the music is stronger and more couples come on stage. “The Beat of Black Wings” A man (McKinlay) enters, followed by two others (Bartelme and Puente). They put on combat helmets and perform choreography that includes more floor work. The counterpoint comes from a group of unlit women, who wave banners in the manner of Maoist ballets, followed later by other men in helmets. Choreographically, this was the most generic of the sections. Unfortunately, Echoing of Trumpets or Soldiers’ Mass it’s not. “If I Had a Heart I’d Cry” In this section Hattori was listed as co-choreographer. There is a contrast between a group of eight dancers, now wearing loose, unbuttoned shirts and dancing in circular patterns, and two couples on the stage right-stage left axis, all in soft shoes. At this point the ballets takes a more optimistic and lyrical tone. “If” A sort of cross between a number from Hair and a hip hop dance contest. What struck me most was that dancers of diverse backgrounds, from Canada, Australia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Ukraine and the USA, all looked equally at ease in this section. They certainly seemed to be having a grand time, but it’s difficult to project that feeling into a theatre as cavernous as the Jube. The ballet ends with the return of the little girl, dancing in the central spotlight and making a peace sign with her fingers. After the bows there is an encore to “Big Yellow Taxi” with the dancers cavorting around joyously, including a jumping duel between Hattori and Gray and a sort of lover’s quarrel between Hattori and Cassini. There is a solitary dancer carrying a briefcase and wearing a trench coat who marches across the stage at great speed, apparently still caught in the rat race. The dancers all looked terrific, though special mention must go to Hattori for this rhythmic drive, the flow and dynamic variety in his phrasing and the amplitude of his movement. I did not find the video installation distracting, but I paid little attention to it. My one quibble would be that the constant projection of images onto the central screen precluded proper blackouts. Overall, the ballet’s biggest liability is the music. Pop songs nearly always have an unrelenting, monotonous rhythm track, and Joni Mitchell’s songs are no exception. I think Grand-Maître successfully avoided mimicking Mitchell’s lyrics, but he seems to have been sucked in by the insistent rhythm. Physically, there was lots of counterpoint in the arrangement of groups, but not enough rhythmic variety. I also suspect that he’s not the sort of choreographer who’s attracted by the “message” ballet. He’s very skilled at portraying the dynamics of matters of the heart, and, for that matter, he’s quite good at the angelic realm (Celestial Themes and the full-length Vigil of Angels). It’s sort of a pity that this ballet should be the one to get so much attention since it’s not a particularly accurate reflection of what he does best. Still, it’s a hit with audiences, and at 47 minutes it’s ready for its television time slot. Originally this program was to have included Nacho Duato’s Without Words. Perhaps Alberta Ballet was afraid that the program would have been too long or that some of Duato’s and Grand-Maître’s choreography would look too much alike. Still, I would have liked to have had some Schubert, and I hope the ballet is rescheduled for the future.

I'll second Brioche's choices, though I prefer the earlier Royal Ballet film of Peter Wright's Nutcracker, which is available from Kultur, with Lesley Collier as the SPF and Anthony Dowell as her Cavalier. I agree that the slow tempos may drive you batty. Here are a few more things you may want to mull over. There's very little Balanchine out there, so I'd consider A Midsummer Night's Dream. I would think that the Dutch National Ballet's Sleeping Beauty would be of great interest to fans of Sofiane Sylve. Ditto for the Royal Ballet's Coppelia for fans of Carlos Acosta. Even though the documentary that goes with the POBS Coppelia is abridged, there's more than enough there to play a game of "spot the future étoile." If you enjoyed John Neumeier's Death in Venice, you'll probably like Sylvia. If not, don't bother. Jeune Homme and Carmen are an excellent introduction to Roland Petit if you're looking to expand your familiarity with European choreographers, though I think Clairemarie Osta is miscast as Carmen.

I definitely share your frustration. It's been discussed often on this forum, but the fact that most Dance in America broadcasts are not available commercially is a crime against the popularization of dance. Isn't it ironic that PNB had to go to London to get itself onto DVD? Not that the majority of BBC dance broadcasts are available either! I'm grateful that the POB has some three broadcasts on French state television each year and that the majority of these are made available on DVD. I'm also glad that the ballet company at La Scala has been using the prestige of its name to get itself onto disc. But there ought to be so much more! The situation with music is much easier to deal with. Classical music is readily available on radio and, what's more, it can be listened to while a person is at work, performing chores or in transit, which in turn cultivates familiarity. But watching dance requires undivided attention, and where are uninitiated North Americans going to see it? If the public demand for ballet DVDs is small, then I suppose it's up to us to create it. But it's awfully difficult to create a demand when dance gets so little television exposure.

I see that dancers are not being cast in both Don Q and Proust. After all the injuries that plagued the simultaneous runs of Giselle and Coppélia, I think that's a smart approach.

I'm ten days slow with this one, but here is a link to an interview with Aurélie Dupont in which she discusses, among other things, the POB's forthcoming run of Don Q. Aurélie Dupont dans un ballet haut en couleurs

As I recall, the lighting in that film is quite dark, so the fact that Ivan Liška spends the entire ballet dressed in black probably doesn't help his cause. There are scenes in the second act that definitely aim for a black-and-while effect. I do remember the contrast between Haydée's white dress and black hair and Liška's blond hair and black clothes. That black-and-white effect is reinforced in photos on the Hamburg Ballet web site: Dancers in costume Scenes from performance

Thanks for that link, Sophia. It's always sad to see a great dancer leave the stage . But congratulations to him on a long and wonderful career .

Giannina, which night did you attend? Perhaps Riabko was dealing with exhaustion, as he had partnered Joëlle Boulogne in the ballet on Tuesday. I don't think he has all that much experience partnering Heather Jurgensen. This may well have been the first time they danced the roles together. He usually dances with Boulogne or his wife, Silvia Azzoni. Jurgensen used to dance this ballet, and many others, with Jiří Bubeníček, but he moved to the company in Dresden this season. There have been rumours that the Paris Opera Ballet's production of the ballet will be filmed next year.

I don't know how long it will last, but a number of TDK and Opus Arte DVDs are selling on Amazon.com at a 27% discount. Some of the titles on sale include: Opus Arte Coppelia (Royal Ballet) Sleeping Beauty (Dutch National Ballet) Nutcracker (Royal Ballet, with Cojocaru, Putrov, Yoshida, Cope et al.) Swan Lake (Royal Swedish Ballet) A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pacific Northwest Ballet) Jewels (Paris Opera Ballet) Amelia (La La La Human Steps) (Sorry, that's my two cents.) TDK La Sylphide (POB) Giselle (La Scala, with Zakharova & Bolle) Coppelia (POBS) Excelsior (La Scala) Don Quichotte (POB) Swan Lake (La Scala) Le Jeune Homme et la Mort/Carmen (POB) Notre-Dame de Paris (POB) Sylvia (POB) Appartement (POB) Les Ballets Trockadero, vols. 1 & 2 The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky and Martha Graham in Performance are selling at 25% off. While you're at it, don't forget to support Ballet Talk by using the link at the top of the page!

Time to ask the music historians. I've encountered this comment on the musical reference more than once, and no doubt Petipa intended Odile's port de bras to mirror Odette's in the window. But it's worth remembering that Tchaikovsky wrote this adagio for the first act, when neither Odette nor Odile were on the scene yet. I may seem musically obvious to us, but Tchaikovsky didn't conceive it that way. Could Tchaikovsky have meant it as musical foreshadowing of characters that were to come later? Most musical recordings of Swan Lake follow Tchaikovsky's score, which differs considerably from the 1895 production. The first-act pas de trois as we know it comes after the waltz and the scene with the dowager queen, and that's how Tchaikovsky wrote it. There is the intrada, followed by an andante. The latter is not used in Petipa's pd3, but is sometimes reassigned to the Siegfried to give him a sort of melancholy solo, usually at the end of Act 1. The three variations and coda we're familiar with follow. Immediately after the pas de trois, comes a pas de deux, most of which has been recycled as the "Black Swan" pas de deux. There is a waltz, followed by the andante, which makes up the "Black Swan" adagio. It leads directly into an allegro, which we know as Siegfried's third-act solo, though the original has far more repeats. Then comes a brief waltz, which I've never heard used in any SL production, followed by a coda, the one usually used in the "Black Swan." Tchaikovsky's own music for Odile and Siegfried was used by Balanchine in his Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Overall, it's probably superior music, but it's nowhere near as flashy or melodramatic as the music we know as the "Black Swan," so I can certainly understand Petipa's reasoning. The question for you historians is, who was the first-act pas de deux intended for originally? The notes to one of my Swan Lake CDs state, not especially helpfully, "two courtiers perform a dance (whose music may be more familiar as the pas de deux often nowadays...given to Siegfried and Odile in Act III)." I've often wondered why Tchaikovsky should have assigned such flamboyant music to a pair of courtiers and far more subdued music for Odile's big seduction scene.

I've encountered this comment on the musical reference more than once, and no doubt Petipa intended Odile's port de bras to mirror Odette's in the window. But it's worth remembering that Tchaikovsky wrote this adagio for the first act, when neither Odette nor Odile were on the scene yet. I may seem musically obvious to us, but Tchaikovsky didn't conceive it that way.

The Telegraph quotes an employee of the Japanese embassy as saying, "I don't think it is racist at all. The story could have happened in Vietnam or even London. It is about the time it was set in, we don't feel offended because it is about Japan." And the New National Theatre in Tokyo will be presenting the opera next month: http://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/english/season/s311e/s311e.html

Indeed. Since the topic was addressed in more or less popular culture almost 20 years ago, it's odd to see a scholar bring it up now. When I came across Parker's "attack" on the Internet today, I was struck by a profound sense of "been there, done that." Post-colonial criticism has been around for decades. Surely opera fans have been filtering their appreciation of certain operas through its lens for many years now.

I think it's a bit more than that. For historical reasons I also don't like steps being altered or substituted. So many changes have crept into Swan Lake over the years that it's becoming increasingly difficult to know how much of the original choreography remains. At least we know for certain that the 32 fouettés were present in Petipa's original, so let's not hurry to toss them out.

Oops, I see carbro's beaten me to it. Michael Crabb's review for the National Post Mitchell's dance against death Kaija Pepper's review for the Globe and Mail Joni Mitchell's plea for paradise Louis Hobson's review for the Calgary Sun Joni Mitchell ballet inspiring Bob Clark's review for the Calgary Herald Joni enjoys rousing debut Judging by these headlines, you'd think that Joni Mitchell had done the choreography. Honestly! I expect there won't be any reviews from the Edmonton papers until the piece is performed here.

French ballet fans alerted me to this television report on the POB's performances of Apollo and Agon. It includes comments from Brigitte Lefèvre, Agnès Letestu (seen dancing in Apollo with Jean-Guillaume Bart), Kader Belarbi (who does look pretty small next to Marie-Agnès Gillot in Agon) and Benjamin Pech. tf1.lci.fr

My experience is limited also, but I don't think it's off base. I first saw the Bolshoi as a child in New York. I was taken to Grigorovich's Romeo & Juliet and I absolutely detested it. Now, you may think that I had been too young to appreciate the ballet or the score, but my earliest memory of ballet was of watching the Fonteyn/Nureyev film of MacMillan's Romeo & Juliet; my uncle had prepared me for that Bolshoi outing by giving me a recording of the score, which I listened to over and over again and enjoyed very much; and by then I was taking ballet lessons, so I had developed some idea of what ballet was about. The fact remains that I thought Grigorovich's version was hideous and ludicrous, and that I giggled during Tybalt's death throes. Alexander Godunov and the Kozlovs defected during that tour, so it would be 11 years before the Bolshoi visited New York again, and in the meantime I could only watch Grigorovich's ballets on television. For someone raised on Balanchine and Ashton, with a healthy dolop of Cranko, MacMillan and Kylián thrown in, I would watch all that stomping around in unison completely incredulously. This qualifies as choreography?, I'd ask myself. Admittedly, when I did see the company again in 1990, my reaction was a little different. The energy of so many dancers stomping around in unison to very loud music does produce a strong visceral effect, but that doesn't alter the fact that the choreography they're performing may be simplistic and repetitive. It seems to me that Grigorovich has very little movement invention. The solos of his heroines are practically interchangeable. Frankly, if I want to get the Busby Berkeley effect, I watch the man's films. Berkeley's choreography is much more interesting. I don't know if I'd agree with Ismene Brown's comment about hidden dissidence in Grigorovich's work, but I do think that his ballets may have provided Soviet audiences with a guilty pleasure. For one thing, Soviet ballet is just about the most decadent thing around: dancers running at each other with outstretched arms from opposite ends of a diagonal to swelling music, followed by some outrageous lift or throw. All that's missing is a wind machine and a 50-foot piece of silk. I can think of few faster ways of reducing ballet to an acrobatic spectacle. But beyond that, Grigorovich's ballets give audiences a chance to be seduced by potent, glamorous villains, invariably more interesting than his heroes, and to view the occasional orgy. That the excesses are conducted by nasty Roman imperialists or recidivist Soviet capitalists is beside the point: it's still an officially sanctioned means of seeing an orgiastic spectacle.

Unfortunately, this is standard practice when the Hamburg Ballet is on tour. I suppose those interested have to look up Edvin Revazov's page on the Hamburg Ballet web site (for those intrigued by Klavier's report). Neumeier has now made two major roles for him. Somehow I don't think he'll be in the corps much longer. I remember attending an ABT performance at City Center during which the people in front of me attempted to match the dancers listed in the program with the headshots of the principals printed in the playbill. Boy, were they disappointed when they found that role X was not being performed by a principal dancer. Never mind the actual performance. I'm afraid for some people the rank matters most. SanderO, I know that Neumeier's Death in Venice has been shown on German television (because I've seen pirated clips ). But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the DVD. DVDs of German companies are very rare birds.

Thanks for your report, binklemom. If your kids enjoyed The Fiddle & the Drum and Veronica Tennant came out from Toronto to see it, it would seem that Alberta Ballet hit upon a winning combination. Were the performances well attended? I came across a little story in the Calgary Herald about some people, presumably not regular dance-goers, who came out primarily to see Joni Mitchell. I wonder whether what they saw persuaded to check out future ballet performances. I know that a television special about the ballet is being produced. Did you see any TV cameras around?

Tomorrow night, February 12, Canada's Bravo network will air John Alleyne's The Faerie Queen, danced by Ballet British Columbia, at 7:00 p.m. ET. This is a reduced one-hour version of the ballet filmed in 2003. Contrary to what the title may suggest, it's actually Alleyne's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring Emily Molnar as a female Puck. www.bravo.ca

Thanks for your report, taoofpooh. I'm glad you weren't disappointed. Now I'm really looking forward to next week's shows in Edmonton. How was the performance of Serenade? Helene, you're right about Mitchell's dowager hair! Of course, here she looks more casual. That belt seems to be a constant.

When Natalia Makarova mounted her production of Swan Lake for London Festival Ballet, some ballerinas did both roles while other casts were split. It allowed some beautiful lyrical dancers to perform the ballet even though they didn't have the technical wherewithal to do Odile. Likewise, some powerful technicians who weren't equipped with the long limbs and necks and pliant backs Odette requires were at least able to show off the brilliant quality of their dancing. I've also seen the role split for dramatic purposes, as in John Neumeier's Illusions like Swan Lake, in which the ballet is recast as the story of Ludwig II of Bavaria. (In producing a Swan Lake with gay overtones, Neumeier preceded Matthew Bourne by almost 20 years.) Neumeier rechoreographs most of the ballet, but he keeps Ivanov's second act and the "Black Swan" pas de deux. In fact, Neumeier preserves an older version of Ivanov's choreography, complete with Odette's mime and huntsmen standing together with swan maidens during the "White Swan" pas de trois. In this version, the King attends a private performance of Swan Lake, and, in accordance with Ludwig's swan fixation, becomes so enthralled by the story that he assumes the role of Siegfried himself. His fiancée, who has been completely unable to break through to him, sees this and is freaked out by it. However, during the next act she comes to his masquerade ball dressed as Odette, in a white tutu, and she and the King perform the "Black Swan" pas de deux. Basically, my point was that the behaviour of Odette and Odile is so different, that I can't believe that Siegfried is duped into thinking that they're the same person. Some producers try to allay this by dressing Odile in white. I think the strongest argument in favour of some sort of enchantment is the Queen Mother, because otherwise it's difficult to believe she'd approve of her son's choice of such a crass fiancée. But fundamentally, I think the ballet is about the tension between chaste (I don't mean virginal) and carnal love, and this tension is lessened if Odette and Odile aren't two separate alternatives Siegfried must chose between. Finally, I don't think that the fouettés are some sort of optional step that can just as easily be replaced by something else. A really spectacular set of fouettés can conquer an audience like few things can, so it's an expression of Odile's seductive power. When Siegfried stands roughly the same position and performs his own sequence of turns, it illustrates how completely he's been sucked into Odile's world. Besides, as Jack Anderson pointed out in "Idealists, Materialists and the Thirty-Two Fouettés," which I'm sure many of you have read, it's not just a step that's at issue. Replacing one step with another brings up the problem of what constitutes a given ballet. Having said all that, I definitely prefer seeing one dancer in both roles. I am left in awe of ballerinas who can perform both parts well. Whether or not you think the role can be split at all depends on your reading of the story.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that Odile seduces Siegfried by dazzling him? I've never bought the line about Rothbart fooling Siegfried into thinking that Odile is really Odette. I think of Siegfried meeting a damsel distress in the forest, say, Olivia de Havilland, only to be confronted by a fabulously glamorous and seductive woman at the ball, say, Rita Hayworth, at which point lust takes over and he conveniently forgets about his vow. It's why I don't believe in Soviet-style happy endings. Like John Cranko once said, Siegfried is a tragic hero and must be vanquished. (Not that I approve of the Cranko and Bruhn approach of having Siegfried commit suicide by himself, leaving poor Odette alone forever and adding ungallantry to his inconstancy.) I don't see any particular reason why Odile can't be performed by a different dancer if the ballerina performing Odette finds Odile's turns too difficult to deal with. I love the fouettés. They're a perfect physical expression of Odile's triumph.

Today's (February 9) France 2 evening news includes another report about Maurice Béjart, this time on the occasion of his troupe visiting Paris with two programs. It features comments from Béjart and Gil Roman. Use the menu on the right to skip ahead to 33 minutes past the hour. (But first you'll have to get past that pesky ad.) http://jt.france2.fr/20h/ From TF1: Les spectacles de Maurice Béjart n'ont pas pris une ride