volcanohunter

Thank you for reminding me about that. As far as I know, that recording is not available in North America, so I'm sorry to say I've never seen it. You'd be hard pressed to find anything with Sylvie Guillem.

Yes, much as I admire Christopher Gray, I was sorry not to see Yukichi Hattori. When I heard he was joining Alberta Ballet I thought, wow, what a coup. A soloist of the Hamburg Ballet on whom John Neumeier had choreographed several ballets moving to Calgary to join Alberta Ballet. I suspect he would be a very good reason to revive Prodigal Son. For that ballet he wouldn't even need a short partner. A Siren taller than the Prodigal produces a very powerful theatrical effect.

According to the Kultur web site, New York City Ballet's "Accent on the Offbeat" is scheduled for release on November 21. www.kultur.com I wonder what it would take to get a NYCB performance less than 10 years old onto DVD.

I suppose that since the video screen has been paid for, they'll probably keep it. I didn't find it distracting, but I basically ignored it. So much for trying to create a multimedia piece. I wonder what the effect was like for people sitting at orchestra level. I have always preferred to watch ballet from the balconies, so my perspective might have been different. Certainly reading opera surtitles is easier from above. I wonder if it's the same for video installations. Who else did you see perform, taoofpooh?

One of my strangest experiences with bowing took place during a performance of Sleeping Beauty. The women dancing the jewels in act 3 finished their bit, took a bow to the right, and then as they were about to bow to the left the applause just died. I'd never seen anything like it. There hadn't been anything wrong with the performance, but the audience, perhaps anxious to see the Bluebird pas de deux, all stopped applauding at the exact same moment, and the dancers walked off the stage in complete silence. I felt terrible and hoped to make it up to those women at the final curtain call, but they didn't come back out. I can't really blame them.

Yes, frequent bowing is quite normal at ballet performances. It allows the audience to acknowledge dancers individually. Which production of Sleeping Beauty did you see?

Just a reminder that Celia Franca: A Tour de Force will air on Canada's Bravo network tomorrow, 23 October, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/6:00 p.m. Pacific. www.bravo.ca

At the risk of appearing as though I posted this topic simply so I could answer my own question, here is a link to the DVD on the TDK web site: www.tdk-music.com Who ever said that Manuel Legris was the POB's most filmed danseur? It seems that Nicolas Le Riche is racing to the lead: Le Train Bleu, Notre Dame de Paris, Ivan the Terrible, Sylvia, Clavigo, Appartement and now Jeune Homme and Carmen. And he's still only 34 years old. Mind you, Marie-Agnès Gillot isn't doing too badly in that department either.

Alberta Ballet has "dual residence," so every program is presented in both Calgary and Edmonton, which, incidentally, have an identical venue for opera/ballet/musicals, etc. (The rivalry between the two cities is very intense, and the provincial government often finds it easiest to give both cities the same thing rather than risk offense.) Every year A.B. joins forces with Ballet British Columbia to present a Nutcracker in Vancouver, Victoria and Spokane, as well as Calgary and Edmonton. It's basically Alberta Ballet's production with a few dancers from Ballet B.C., which is a smaller company dedicated to contemporary ballet. This year Alberta Ballet also took its production of Romeo & Juliet to Vancouver and three Prairie cities, which was a first. I think the problem it faces with expanded touring is that the Royal Winnipeg Ballet has established itself so firmly as a touring company (29 cities in Canada and the USA this year) that it's hard for others to break into that limited market, though the young Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada is certainly trying. This year Alberta Ballet will finally get a national TV broadcast, which will help its national reputation, I'm sure. I'm guessing that for many people, "Alberta Ballet" is still an oxymoron. On another note, one of the things I find interesting about Alberta Ballet's 40th-anniversary celebrations is that the history of Calgary City Ballet seems to have been expunged. The official A.B. history mentions the merger with C.C.B. in 1990 and the subsequent move to Calgary, but that's about it. Ruth Carse is listed as sole founder of the company, and the anniversary film doesn't include any interviews with people tied to the old C.C.B. You get the impression that since Alberta Ballet was the older and larger company, it basically swallowed Calgary City Ballet whole. But then Alberta Ballet's history in late 1980s was so messy that no one wants to recount the details, especially since everything worked out in the end.

I really enjoyed myself at Alberta Ballet tonight in Edmonton. The evening began with an onstage greeting from artistic director Jean Grand-Maître and guest of honour Karen Kain, followed by a short film to mark the company's 40th anniversary, featuring interviews with artistic directors past and present. (I'm fairly certain that Mikko Nissinen was incorrect when he implied that "Rubies" was the first Balanchine ballet the company acquired, under his watch, of course. "Allegro Brillante," "Donizetti Variations" and "Glinka Pas de Trois" had preceded it.) The first ballet on the program was "Rubies." In the pas de deux Maki Matsuoka was rock solid in her balances and pirouettes, though I wish her pliés in second position had been deeper, to emphasize the difference between low, medium and high space. Understudy Christopher Gray was terrific, as always, as her partner: big movements, huge jumps, very speedy. Sandrine Cassini, new to the company, was a very aggressive "tall girl." Not being particularly tall or long-legged, she compensated with snaky arms and forceful pointes thrust into the stage like daggers. It's been years since I'd seen Ali Pourfarrokh's "Butterfly Dream," set to music by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich. A softly lit pas de deux for dancers in gray unitards with swirling accents, the piece is lyrical and serene, though the final lift is a little perilous, reminiscent of circus acrobatics. I admired Galien Johnston, recently arrived from the Hamburg Ballet, for her smoothness and beautifully nuanced dynamics, as well as the control with which she rolled down her pointes. Reid Bartelme matched her line well. Grand-Maître's "The Winter Room" is a wonderful piece that conveys more metaphysical truth than most ballets. It begins with two bundled-up dancers walking through a dark, thick fog, which captures the brutality of Canadian winters perfectly. Suddenly their hats and coats fly upwards, and stage becomes blindingly white, with a dead tree hanging at the back of the stage. The dancers' white costumes are reminiscent of abbreviated burial shrouds and their attempts at big sweeping movement invariable turn withered and brittle, just like the tree. Man cannot return to Eden in his fallen state. The dancers gave it their all. Leggy Leigh Allardyce, who I thought would be cast in "Rubies," was fabulously incisive, and Kelley McKinlay was notable for his silent landings. This piece got the biggest ovation of the night. The final work was Emily Molnar's new "Carmina Burana," which now replaces the John Butler staging in Alberta Ballet's rep. She divides the piece into three sections: Society, Tavern and Court of Love. The dancing takes place on a white oval in the center of the stage, and the choir, dressed in basic black, stands in back. There is another white oval above the stage used for video images, though I don't think these add much to the piece. In Society the dancers wear gray tanks and bottoms, skirts for the women, shorts for the men, and soft shoes. There is an Archpoet, performed by handsome Kelley McKinlay, one of the company's most popular dancers, and a Bearer of Time, danced by Jonathan Renna. Tanya Dobler, who has decided that her 14th season with Alberta Ballet will be her last, appears as the Figure of Instinct, dressed in a long-sleeved red leotard. The dancing is expansive and energetic. In Tavern, an all-male section, the dancers appear shirtless and wearing black trousers. Molnar seems to have a particular view of the way men interact. As in her "Portrait of A Suspended Grace," she depicts men as fundamentally unsympathetic to each others' distress and pain. The scene then shifts to the Court of Love, where the women, now on pointe, look like bathing beauties in their red leotards. They provide the Archpoet with the comfort and sympathy the men in the Tavern had denied him. At the end, the scene returns to Society, though it no longer seems so joyous. Generally, I think that Molnar's ensemble dances are more interesting than her solos and duets. I was a little disappointed that the emotional climaxes between the Archpoet and the Figure of Instinct culminated in conventional kisses and embraces. I would have preferred a little more movement invention for those moments. Jonathan Renna, who had the unenviable task of dancing the biggest and loudest sections of "O Fortuna" as solos, has been given one of his best roles, with the possible exception of his Knave in Edmund Stripe's "Alice in Wonderland." Molnar uses his forcefulness and high arabesques to great effect. In the ensemble sections, Christopher Gray, Igor Chornovol and Blair Puente, who had worked with Molnar on the creation of "Portrait," and newcomer Hamilton Nieh seemed particularly attuned to her movement vocabulary. Among the women I liked sensual Laëtitia Clément, statuesque Leigh Allardyce, fluid Galien Johnston and Alexis Maragozis, who easily takes the prize as Alberta Ballet's sexiest asset. Because Pro Coro is a relatively small ensemble, and the acoustics of the Jubilee Auditorium, while improved in recent renovations, are still not great, the singing was amplified and inevitably sounded "canned." Baritone Doug MacNaughton struggled mightily with his part, and I would have preferred a soprano who sounded less matronly than Laura Whalen, but the musical shortcomings didn't detract from the excellent dancing. Judging by the audience response, it's fair to say a good time was had by all.

Has anyone heard anything about a forthcoming release of Roland Petit's "Le Jeune homme et la mort" and "Carmen"? I stumbled across this listing on Amazon, and a release date of 21 November 2006 is given, but apart from that the details are very sketchy. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IY06A2

Perhaps someone more familiar with the POB than I am can answer a question. This video is chock full of future étoiles: Gillot, Moussin, Osta. In the corps there's Mathieu Ganio as a very unlikely gypsy. (Just look for the guy with the longest arms!) Am I correct in thinking that Hervé Moreau is one of the bull fighters? I can't be sure under those hats.

Did Ferri ever dance Romeo & Juliet with Angel Corella at ABT? Certainly they danced it together at La Scala. There's a DVD to prove it. My own feeling is that Roberto Bolle is too tall for her. He may be the biggest dance star in Italy, and it's very nice of her to introduce him to New York audiences (that bit at the Turin Olympics didn't really show him off that well since the cameramen didn't have the slightest idea of how to film dance), but I have a sneaking suspicion they're not all that compatible physically. I'd very much like to hear the opinion of those who have seen them dance together.

This day was bound to come eventually, but it's still inexpressibly sad news

Does anyone know if the there have at least been any recent telecasts that may someday make it to DVD? I know that the National Ballet of Canada's production was telecast back in 1965, with Veronica Tennant and Earl Kraul. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also filmed the bedroom pas de deux for separate TV specials on Tennant and Karen Kain, neither of which is available commercially either. A nearly complete ballroom scene was filmed by the National Film Board of Canada for a film called Gala. This may be available through some libraries. I've posted a link about it below. www.nfb.ca

I haven't had a chance to see the show yet. I have tickets for next weekend in Edmonton and I'm looking forward to it very much, especially now that I've read your positive reaction, taoofpooh. I'm especially curious how the new Carmina Burana turned out. I really liked Emily Molnar's Portrait of A Suspended Grace to Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" from a couple of years ago, so I'm curious to see this new piece. What did you think of it? I imagine many people on this forum are familiar with Rubies. I first saw The Winter Room right after Jean Grand-Maître became artistic director in 2002. He presented it along with another one of his pieces, Celestial Themes, a gorgeous piece for eight dancers (originally four) set to Thomas Tallis' "Spem in alium," which I hope Alberta Ballet will revive also. The Winter Room is set to a piece called "Kyrie" by Canadian singer Laurel MacDonald. It's a pas de deux that I call "Adam and Eve after the Fall" whenever I try to describe it. There's a striking backdrop, a withered tree that appears to have been pulled out of the ground along with its roots. The program notes put it this way: "A man and a woman meet in a desolate, icy environment and try, in their impassioned movements, to recapture the beauty and purity of Eden." That sums up the mood pretty well. Very stark, almost blinding in its whiteness, and riveting.

If anyone is still looking for information in English, there is a brief description of the National Opera and Ballet on the Ardani Artists Management web site. But it only includes information about the company's production of The Nutcracker and a handful of its soloists. www.ardani.com/ukrabout.htm

Sure it's a problem, but the system hasn't collapsed completely. St. Petersburg and Moscow, forced to deal with a westward talent drain, are still recruiting dancers from opera houses in Ukraine, for one. Leonid Sarafanov, now at the Mariinsky, graduated from the ballet school in Kiev in 2000 and danced at the opera house there for two years. Denis Matvienko, who guests at the Bolshoi and danced at the Mariinsky previously, graduated from the Kiev Ballet School in 1997. The Kiev Ballet School was still functioning well enough to produce Alina Cojocaru (1998), Ivan Putrov (1997) and more recently Sergiy Polunin. I don't think the year each spent at the Royal Ballet School could have compensated for a completely debased ballet education in Kiev. And don't forget about Svetlana Zakharova, who spent six years studying in Kiev and one in St. Petersburg. Ballet companies the world over, but especially in Europe, include lots of non-Russian principals and soloists from the fSU, who received the bulk of their training in their home countries: in San Francisco - Tiit Helimets (Estonia) and Davit Karapetyan (Armenia); in Hamburg - Alexandre Riabko (Ukraine), Ivan Urban (Belarus) and Arsen Megrabian (Armenia); in Amsterdam - Ruta Jezerskyte (Lithuania) and Alexander Zhembrovskyy (Ukraine); in Vienna - Aliya Tanikpaeva (Kazakhstan), Irina Tsymbal (Belarus) and Mihail Sosnovschi (Moldova); in Stockholm - Elena Gorbatsch (Ukraine) and Andrey Leonovitch (Belarus). My sample certainly isn't comprehensive or scientific, and it doesn't take into account the dancers who are just starting their careers, but I think it illustrates a pattern in companies large and small. I predict that the number of dancers from the fSU working abroad, including non-Russians, is likely to grow. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the prospect of finding a job with a European opera house wouldn't actually encourage parents to enrol their kids in ballet school. Of course, this exodus presents a huge problem for the ballet companies back home, but I don't think the problem lies in the training itself. Quite the opposite. As for the recruitment of boys from folk dancing, this is a huge advantage eastern Europe has over North America. Many, many boys, especially in the Caucasus, enter ballet via folk dancing. North Americans may view ballet as effeminate, but the reputation of east European folk dance is certainly macho. If you've ever seen Georgian folk dancing, you know what I mean. It's just about the butchest form of dancing in all creation. For many years my mother has taught music in a public school. The music curriculum includes a modest dance component, primarily folk dances, social dancing and creative movement, which she has always augmented with the viewing of classical ballets and old movie musicals. Her school has a large population of Ukrainian children, and the vast majority of them, girls and boys, take lessons in Ukrainian folk dancing. The boys in particular love to show off their Cossack moves. Over time these kids begin doing a character barre, and if they stick with it long enough, they'll probably end up starting each lesson with a ballet barre. Perhaps they'll even take supplementary ballet classes. I'm not saying that my mother's former pupils include a bevy of professional male ballet dancers. Canada isn't exactly conducive to such a career. The same kids that take Ukrainian dance lessons also go to hockey school. (To the best of my knowledge, one of the boys did turn into a jazz bunny and spent some time dancing on a cruise line.) But you can see how it could this sort of exposure could lead to the serious study of ballet, if the necessary conditions are in place.

I think drb has hit the nail on the head. The English-speaking world, at least, hasn't really had a ballet superstar, male or female, since Baryshnikov. If you were to ask the proverbial man in the street to name an active ballet dancer, I doubt he'd be able to. I don't think it's the fault of the dancers. The sad fact is that the ballet boom of the 1970s is long gone. It ended when Balanchine died, followed by Tudor and Ashton. Unfortunately, ballet companies didn't seem to realize that the golden age had passed, continued to behave as before, and by the late 1980s and early '90s many of them (very notably ABT) were in real crisis. During the 1970s and even '80s the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was still in the habit of showing the National Ballet of Canada, with productions of Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, La Fille mal Gardée, Onegin, The Merry Widow, plus the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Romeo & Juliet. The NBoC toured frequently, and its stars weren't unfamiliar to the public at large. By the mid-1990s it had shrunk from a company of 70 to a company of just over 50, its dancers were no longer guests on chat shows or subjects of stories on national news programs, and ballet began to fade from the public imagination. Again, I doubt the average Canadian could name any of the National Ballet's dancers. Sonia Rodriguez is more famous for being married to figure skater Kurt Browning than for being a principal with the NBoC. I expect the situation is quite similar in the United States. When was the last time a ballet dancer graced the cover of a large-circulation news magazine? Does anyone still remember the days when A&E ("Arts and Entertainment," remember?) showed operas and ballets on Thursday nights? High art has always been a hothouse flower dependent on patronage. Forced to compete on the market, it degenerates. At its inception, Canada's Bravo network set aside Mondays for dance. Initially it featured worthy programs from the CBC and Dance in America archives. By the late 1990s there was an endless stream of Riverdance. Now you've lucky to see a B movie musical in between the cop show reruns. It's not surprising that Europe is in better shape. State pensions and exemptions from military service are still strong incentives for boys to enter ballet school. I think what ballet really needs is choreographers capable to amazing and delighting audiences. (Sorry, I don't think that Forsythe or Wheeldon, for different reasons, are capable of this.) I don't see the tendency to dumb down ballet as a solution either. Thus far poppish music and film-inspired librettos haven't spawned a new dance boom. Balanchine entertained his audience while pushing the art form forward. Okay, he was a genius and they don't come around too often, but until ballet companies give audiences something really worthwhile to see, they won't come, nor will TV networks be in any hurry to give them airtime. If the public at large doesn't have the opportunity to see ballet, that means on television, they can't discover potential dance superstars. Until the new male superstars are crowned (by the public, superstardom can't be manufactured by management), you won't have too many boys eager to follow in their footsteps.

I finally saw this film on TV the other day. Not being a big Robert Altman fan, I didn't rush out to the movie theater to see it. I do prefer films with plots. I am baffled by Neve Campbell's desire to include "Blue Snake" in the film. Perhaps her personal experience clouded her thinking, but there was never going to be any way to pass off a nearly 20-year-old ballet as a sensational premiere. You may find this difficult to believe, but when it was first performed the piece did get an ecstatic reception from audiences. The National Film Board of Canada made a documentary about the ballet's creation and it included a complete film of the opening night performance. You can hear the audience laughing and cheering with delight. The National Ballet of Canada brought the piece to the Met in 1988, and while a few viewers in the front rows walked out demonstratively, most of the audience ate it up. Anna Kisselgoff didn't exactly pan it either: "Color and shape have much to do with 'Blue Snake' and its new-age music by Ahmed Hassan and John Long. Mr. Desrosiers's works are an acquired taste, but beneath the wackiness there is great imagination and seriousness. "The theme of 'Blue Snake' is spiritual rebirth. Evil reigns in the form of the huge monster face, strikingly designed by Jerrard Smith. Good triumphs through a white god, part Shiva, part unicorn, who is expelled from a blue snake, the symbol of fertility and the flow of energy familiar in yoga as kundalini. The dancers, as fantastic animal creatures or embodying geometric shapes, are purified through transformation and regeneration. "One favorite moment is bound to include the Muppet-like plants that come tumbling in. If the imagery and ideas are not always matched by the choreography (Mr. Desrosiers's most recent work has no such lapses), 'Blue Snake' is always marked by a poetic inventiveness. Sarah Green's dance as a pointy-headed creature attached to a balloon is a study in apt dynamics, the double duet between Raymond Smith's Triangle Man and his double, Mr. Ottmann, an essay in human duality while the whirling fantasy creatures tell us that a spiritual dimension may lie hidden where least expected." In fairness, the screen version of the piece was hampered by the fact that the original music wasn't used. It was a percussion score with strong Balinese elements, throat singing and the occasional didgeridoo. Instead it was replaced by some gawd-awful quasi-Caribbean Hollywood score with string-instrument overload. Still, everything about the ballet screams 1985, and there was absolutely no way the piece was going to age well. Incidentally, the bit where Neve Campbell's character falls down on stage and bangs up her arm is based on fact. As recorded in the NFB documentary, the original Balloon Head, Gretchen Newburger, fell during the dress rehearsal and sprained her wrist. She performed the part the next day anyway.

Yes, I agree that the French and the Danes have the best batterie. It's enough to watch Nikolaj Hübbe or Mathieu Ganio as James to convince yourself of that. To my mind, it's not good batterie unless the upper body is completely serene. In one interview Agnès Letestu specifically identifies batterie as the hallmark of the French school, though perhaps it isn't emphasized as much as it once was: "It’s true that the French School used to be more distinctive, with an emphasis on the petite batterie, yet now I think it’s a bit of everything. Now we do everything, classical, contemporary, and because of the current cultural interchange it all gets mixed. The roots remain discernible, but there is an enrichment with elements from other schools." In another interview David Hallberg talked about the time he spent at the Paris Opera Ballet School: "Every day I would dread the petit allegro because it was almost impossible, and the kids there just pulled it off and it was amazing to watch. They have a great sense of relaxing their body and moving very, very small; the faster it gets, the smaller they dance. They don't look tense when they're doing it, because they've done it since they were in school, so it's in their body to move like that. Their upper body is so calm, but their legs are moving like lightning." I'm sure Bart is correct in saying that the Bournonville repertoire has a lot to do with Danish excellence in batterie. I had always assumed that Bournonville's choreography was shaped by the fact that the stage at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen is only slightly bigger than the proverbial postage stamp, which conditioned an extremely vertical sort of jumping with lots of zigzag floor patterns, whereas the large stage of the Mariinsky Theater lead to the development of large jumps that eat up space, usually on long diagonals. But I wonder if Bournonville's batterie isn't simply a French thing. After all, Bournonville's father was French, and he studied in Paris himself. Are there any history buffs out there that can speak to this? Incidentally, does anyone remember seeing London Festival Ballet's staging of Ashton's Romeo & Juliet? I saw it in New York in 1989. If I'm not mistaken, Ashton choreographed his version for the Royal Danish Ballet before he, or anyone else in the West, had seen the Lavrovsky version that influenced Cranko and MacMillan so strongly. For me, the most peculiar moment in the ballet came at the opening of the ballroom scene because instead of the usual weighty pavane you see to the Dance of the Knights there was a stage full of dancers performing entrechats. Obviously he was looking to emphasize the RDB's strengths.

Oh, I hardly think ABT is above this sort of discussion. What do you suppose "Born to Be Wild" was all about? Those shots of José Carreño among his progeny and Ethen Stiefel riding his Harley were certainly intended to counter certain stereotypes.

For those of you living in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta Ballet is currently conducting a contest on its web site for tickets to its October program, which includes Balanchine's Rubies, Jean Grand-Maitre's The Winter Room, Ali Pourfarrokh's Butterfly Dream and Emily Molnar's new Carmina Burana. Visit www.albertaballet.com to play.

Thanks, mom2, I look forward to reading posts from your part of Canada too. There isn't too much ballet on Canadian TV, and our companies don't tour quite as often as they used to, so eyewitness reports become really useful in keeping up with dance in this country. And I hope mmded won't be too shy about posting opinions. I'd very much like to share impressions about Alberta Ballet performances with you. I'm also anxious to see "Dancing Joni" since I always look forward to new ballets by Jean Grand-Maitre. He hasn't disappointed me yet. I'm glad that his "Winter Room" and "Cinderella" are back. I liked Emily Molnar's "Portrait of a Suspended Grace," so I'm hopeful about her "Carmina Burana." I love "Rubies," and I'm thrilled that "Serenade" is coming. I can never get too much Balanchine. If Yukichi Hattori is still around next season, I think they ought to revive "Prodigal Son" for him. And if I'm not mistaken, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens brought Nacho Duato's "Without Words" to Edmonton a few years back. I liked it then and am looking forward to seeing it again. On paper it looks like a very good season, so I think you and I ought to inject some life into the "other Canadian companies" forum. P.S. I noticed that the Alberta Ballet is currently conducting a contest on their web site for tickets to their first show. Who knows, you could win a pair.

Do you suppose CBS has something to do with the dumbing down of the award? I don't know what sort of ratings their Kennedy Center telecast gets, but I wonder if the growing tendency towards "popular" entertainers isn't an attempt to increase viewership. If that's the case, we'll see more and more representatives from film, television and mass-marketed music, and artists who work in theaters, opera houses and concert halls will be increasingly marginalized. As for the dance side of things, the awards thus far have definitely been New York-centric. To a large extent this is justified, but I wonder why so little has been done to acknowledge those who brought ballet to places like San Francisco, Boston, Seattle and Houston. I'm happy that Maria Tallchief and Edward Villella were honored, among other things, for their work in Chicago and Miami, but I doubt they would have received the award if they hadn't been stars with NYCB first.