volcanohunter

Just for the sake of clarity, let's not confuse the Nicene Creed with the Lord's Supper. The Nicene Creed in both versions (325 & 381) states that Christ is ομοούσιον τω Πατρί (homoousion to Patri). In Latin this is translated as consubstantialem Patri. In Church Slavic it's единосущна Отцу (edinosuščna Otcu). (I apologize for not having proper Church Slavic fonts installed on my computer.) In the Book of Common Prayer it's translated as "being of one substance with the Father," as it is in the Lutheran Service Book. The Orthodox Church of America translates it as "of one essence with the Father." At present the Roman Catholic Church translates this into English as "one in Being with the Father," although the committee responsible for the English liturgy has decided that it ought to be translated as "consubstantial with the Father," to bring it closer to the Latin. The key thing here is that Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and many other Protestants accept the Creed as authoritative and none of them holds that Christ is "of like substance" (homoiousios) with the Father. Consubstantiation is something entirely different. That term, generally but not entirely accurately associated with Martin Luther, is used for the doctrine that states that Christ's body and blood substantially coexist with the consecrated bread and wine. This doctrine was indeed condemned by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent. The Catholic Church holds to a doctrine of transubstantation, which states that consecrated bread and wine actually change into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, so that only accidents of bread and wine remain. The Orthodox position is essentially the same. But back to the parable itself. I don't think there's much basis for attributing Balanchine's interpretation to the Russian Orthodox Church. It probably has more to do with the personal religious views of Prokofiev, Kochno or Balanchine. I've never seen the translation of the Bible used by Old Believers, but in the standard Church Slavic Bible the father is described as running out to meet his son while the latter is still far away. The word used is текъ (tekŭ) derived from the verb meaning to flow or run, and related to the modern Russian течь (teč'). As for suggestions that the libretto was inspired by Pushkin, Kochno himself seems to have disavowed the idea. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...&pagewanted=all

If you're interested in reading an eyewitness account of the performance, here is a link to Marc Haegeman's review. I hope he doesn't object! www.danceviewtimes.com/2006/Spring/09/lascala.html

The issue at the root of the schism of 1054 was the filioque, not the nature of Christ. It was a dispute over whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from both Father and Son. What you're referring to is related to the Arian heresy, which was condemned in 325. I can assure you that both Orthodox and Catholics refer to Christ as homoousios or consubstantial with the Father. (The Church Slavic term is edinosushchna.) On this point there is no dispute.

But that's just it. The father in the parable has always been understood to be God and the son represents repentant sinners. In the notes to the Orthodox New Testament (Holy Apostles Convent, 2000) Blessed Theophylact is quoted as writing, "The man who is introduced here is God, verily the one who loves mankind. The two sons portray the two ranks of men, the righteous and sinners" (vol. 1, p. 357). The parable of the prodigal son comes right after the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, and in both cases they're followed by explanations about there being more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than many righteous men in no need of repentance. And yet both Prokofiev and Balanchine seem to focus on how difficult it is for the sinner to humble himself and repent, rather than how eager God is to welcome back the wayward. Now I see how the other son's subsequent irritation and the father's explanation about the dead coming back to life and the lost being found would be difficult to translate into movement, but that still leaves the punchline of the parable missing.

Why would Old Believers interpret the parable in this way? Presumably their translation of Luke's Gospel would have the father running out to meet his son as in every other translation. Nevertheless, is there any evidence that Balanchine was sympathetic to the Old Believers? I think the real question is why Prokofiev gave the piece such a somber ending. Given the music, I don't see how Balanchine could have choreographed it any other way.

Try accessing the video clip via the Opus Arte web site. My computer didn't seem to have any trouble with it. http://www.opusarte.com/pages/product.asp?ProductID=182

On the contrary. The DVD had been out of print, but it's now been reissued at a lower price.

TDK's next ballet release is the Makarova staging of La Bayadère from La Scala, taped last May with Zakharova and Bolle. Now I understand why the Royal Ballet's production was reissued at mid price. http://www.tdk-music.com/frame_content.php...ng&from_id=2578 http://www.tdk-music.com/frame_content.php...ng&from_id=2267

It is puzzling. The personal web site of Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky lists their scheduled performances in Paris. Perhaps additional information can gleaned from the personal sites of other ABT dancers. http://irinamaxballet.com/schedule.aspx

Apparently La Scala was less than impressed by that scene: La Scala may reslate 'Candide' without drunken world leaders dance http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/ennew...ra_070103120033

This doesn't qualify as a major company, but Kiev has an opera house specifically for children and young audiences, and its ballet company performs a version of the ballet reguarly. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you which version it is.

Yvette Chauviré said something similar in the film "A Portrait of Giselle." I'm sorry I can't reproduce the original French for you since it was dubbed into English, but Chauviré was translated as saying that Giselle ought to be "simple and noble, noble and simple, but she is a peasant. It could be that she has some noble blood in her veins. You know very well that the nobles always liked to dally with the peasant girls. That my be why Albrecht is drawn to her."

From a geographic standpoint Edmonton, Canada, is extremely remote, but some of the dancers to pass through here include Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun, Natalia Bessmertnova, Alexander Bogatyrev, Wayne Eagling, Darcey Bussell, Maria Almeida, Jonathan Cope, Errol Pickford, Irina Dvorovenko, Alexei Ratmansky and Mikhail Baryshnikov, in his White Oak phase. The National Ballet of Canada, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and to a lesser extent Les Grands Ballets Canadiens have always made a point of touring the western half of Canada, so the majority of leading Canadian dancers of the past 35-40 years have performed here at some point. Of course, I haven't seen every single one of them

Your detailed reviews, Azulynn, are very helpful for those of us who were unable to attend the performances ourselves. I look forward to the DVD and hope that the editors will find a way to work around Pujol's muffed ballonnés. I hope that the success of the run will send a signal to POB management and encourage them to schedule more classics.

Today France 2 evening news ended with a story about Maurice Béjart on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He was never much loved by American critics, but I wonder how Ballet Talkers feel about his work. Do you think Béjart was successful in "de-mystifying" ballet and bringing it to the masses? Or did you find his populist approach off-putting? The only one of his ballets I got to know well was Song of a Wayfarer since it was in the repertoires of the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. http://jt.france2.fr/20h/ From TF1: Maurice Béjart fête ses 80 ans à Lausanne

Oh, please, please, please I will be very sorry to see him leave the stage, but seeing him in the BMinC's chair would definitely compensate.

I imagine that Haydee and Cragun in Onegin could persuade even those most hostile to ballet. How wonderful that you can pinpoint the exact moment of your conversion!

Yes, JMcN, Alberta Ballet obviously feels fortunate to have him also since he's given many prize roles to dance. He's done the Nutcracker, Cinderella's Prince, Tybalt and was deeply funny as the Knave in Alice in Wonderland. Renna has also danced the leads in many other ballets by AD Jean Grand-Maître, including Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons, the Lead Angel in Vigil of Angels and Escamillo in Carmen. More recently he's done Balanchine's Rubies and was the Bearer of Time in Emily Molnar's Carmina Burana, which required him to dance "O Fortuna" as solos, no easy task. I also enjoyed him very much in Edmund Stripe's Unquiet Light. Alberta Ballet does not divide its dancers into different ranks, but Renna is a principal in all but name. Hopefully BT's small contingent of Alberta residents will be able to keep you informed about his performances. I look forward to reading your impressions of Northern Ballet Theatre performances. Many people in Canada still remember David Nixon as a principal with the National Ballet of Canada, as well as Yoko Ichino, of course. I can't claim to be especially familiar with Nixon's work as a choreographer, but I have seen his Madame Butterfly, which he staged for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet some five years ago.

I gather that Benjamin Pech has been injured, is unable to complete his run in Giselle and has been replaced by Mathieu Ganio. Which means that at the moment Ganio is scheduled to dance Coppélia on the 29th, Giselle on the 30th and Coppélia again on the 31st, with two more performances on the 2nd and 4th. Is it just me or does this sort of schedule strike anyone else as utter madness?

I remember at least one critic pointing out that although Jerome Robbins had access to the finest Broadway dancers, he cast two ballet dancers as Maria and Tony in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. (And Bernstein used opera singers for his recording of West Side Story, which makes me wonder whether the piece could ever be staged to everyone's satisfaction.) It's obvious enough that there is something ineffable about ballet dancers, even in our mongrelized aesthetic age. For my part, I wish ballet dancers wouldn't venture too eagerly into other styles of dance. They seldom have the necessary weighted quality to do modern works properly. Their centres of gravity are simply too high. Zizi Jeanmaire was a sensational jazz dancer, but many ballet stars attempting jazz come across as suffering from "goofy white guy" syndrome. More problematic is the execution of national dances. Even some great ballet companies look pretty silly doing the character dances in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Coppélia, and that's a serious problem. But back to the questions leonid raised. Certain body types have always been considered aesthetically superior. Long limbs have always been considered preferable to short ones. For at least the last 100 years slim dancers have been preferred to hefty ones. High insteps have always been preferred to flat feet. Dancers have always aimed to raise technical standards also. They've been aiming for greater turnout, higher extensions, faster pirouettes and bigger jumps all along. So why is it that when a Zakharova, with her long, thin limbs, bulging insteps, emphatic turnout, sky-high extensions and speedy fouettes appears on the scene, many ballet viewers, myself included, recoil in horror? I wonder, did people find Ekaterina Maximova's high extensions offensive? Were Alicia Alonso's quintuple pirouettes considered objectionable? What about Maya Plisetskaya's giant leaps? Or did the virtuosos of the past put their skills at the service of ballets in a way that the Zakharovas of today can't seem to grasp?

If I understand correctly, leonid's basic argument was "Great, but not in 19th century classical ballet!" Presumably he wouldn't object to Zakharova turning her pelvis inside out while performing William Forsythe. But I don't think the decline of the Russian style can be blamed on the Guillem effect. The vulgarization of Russian school traces its origin to the beginnings of the Soviet period with its Spring Waters-style throws and one-armed lifts. And it's not just the English style that's in decline today. Lis Jeppesen has bemoaned the deterioration of the Bournonville style at the Royal Danish Ballet, which she blames on the decreased presence of Bournonville ballets in the company's repertoire and the increased presence of foreign-trained dancers. How true. And it's possible that once sensitivity to stylistic variations is lost, ballet descends more rapidly into an acrobatic competition because the physicality is all that's left. Speaking as a former modern dancer, I objected to Zakharova's assertion that classical dancers can dance modern works (but not vice versa). In my experience, classical dancers often can't dance modern works very well at all. (Here I presume she's referring to modern dance and not contemporary ballet.) Specifically, ballet dancers from the former Soviet Union are particularly bad at rolling. But that's just an aside.

Of course a woman on pointe wouldn't actually grow her entire foot size because her instep is contracted. Isn't the rule of thumb that a man ought to be four inches taller than his partner? A 5'6" woman, unless she's got really long feet, probably wouldn't need a partner taller than 5'10". But then I suppose the RDB isn't really expecting to hire any men 6'5" tall. I see your point. Being pretty tall myself, I have bad memories of very awkward finger turns. Leigh Witchel's point about the company's particular needs at the moment is also very sound. I found this notice interesting in the NYCB context and the discussion about Martins hiring short dancers to cope with hyper-fast tempi. How odd that NYCB, which always had a reputation of showcasing tall dancers, should grow progressively shorter while the RDB, tiny stage and all, grows taller.

While we're still talking about height, here is a notice about forthcoming auditions for the Royal Danish Ballet. The basic requirements are: • Applicants must have strong classical ballet technique and be on an advanced level as a dancer. • Applicants must be 16 - 24 years of age. • Height/Ladies: 1.62 m – 1.68 m or 5.4 – 5.6 ft • Height/Men: 1.80 m – 1.95 m or 5.11 - 6.5 ft • The audition will include pointe work for ladies http://www.kglteater.dk/site/OmKunstartern...ons%202007.aspx What I found was strange was the height restrictions for women. If the RDB is seeking to recruit only tall men, why not also hire women taller than 5'6"?

What really struck me as I was reading Zakharova's interview was her preoccupation with the physical aspects of dance. For her, the body is something that must be conquered for the sake of conquering it. Not once did she state that the purpose of mastering the body is to make it as expressive an instrument as possible.

Zakharova, pt. 4 Asked what it feels like to be a star, Zakharova says that few people recognize her, certainly not traffic cops. (In fact, her family is reluctant to let her drive at all.) She doesn't go in much for discotheques or the movies, but likes to shop, particularly in Milan. She pays no attention to designer labels and is happy to find anything that fits. Asked about future plans, she mentions her recent performances in Parma, the first gala performances built around her. She'd like to do more programs of that sort, probably in Moscow, though she admits that so far she's done little to bring them into being. Evidently she needs someone else to do the organizing for her. Well, dear Ballet Talkers, I hope that's helpful.