Mashinka

First of all I have to say that civil law is pretty much in its infancy in Russia at the moment, but if Volochkova chooses to sue she doesn't have good grounds for winning. The Bolshoi has probably sacked her more for her antics in the past week than for any other reason. The short contract she was offered reflects the fact that Ratmansky, the new director designate who takes up his post in January, may well wish to review Volochkova's position within the company. Volochkova was imported from the Kirov along with her partner Ivanov. Why the Bolshoi engaged her when it had so much more interesting female talent and why she went on to perform more often than any other dancer, remains a mystery. Now that her partner Ivanov is injured through partnering her and the other male dancers have all refused to replace him, that does in effect make her redundant within the company. In 1994 principal dancer Gediminas Taranda sued the Bolshoi for unfair dismissal and lost. His circumstances were very different, as he had been fired for dancing abroad without prior permission. Just about all the other dancers were doing the same thing and it appeared that he was being made an example of to deter the others. In a British court he may have won as his case was a strong one, but the weight of the Bolshoi bore down on him and he lost the case. Volochkova, it could be said, has become a public nuisance in the past few days and I think the courts will uphold the Bolshoi on this one.

For those not familiar with Volochkova, this BBC video link may be useful, both an interview and a clip of her dancing are included. Scroll down and click onto:- "Fat" Russian Ballerina hits back at Bolshoi over weight claims. It's in the far right column. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/default.stm Though I wouldn't claim to be a fan of AV, I find the media coverage of her present situation rather distasteful.

I'm surprised that Irina Zhelonkina's name isn't included.

Its something of a strange coincidence that a question about Mam'zelle Angot should appear as I was listening to the Richard Bonynge recording of the ballet over the weekend. R>S Edgecombe asks:

I was told that Eric Bruhn, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer. John Cranko died after a seizure on a plane journey. John Gilpin's death I also consider tragic: after battling with alcoholism and surviving thrombosis (he was lucky not to lose his leg), he at last found happiness after marrying his long time friend and confidante, Princess Antoinette of Monaco. He died of a heart attack only months after the wedding.

Ivanova is the most confusing name of all as different families pronounce it with the stress on different syllables, so the only way to be certain is to ask Nureyev is one of the most difficult names to pronounce, even for Russians, as it's not a Russian name. In France his name is spelt as Noureev so perhaps pronouncing it as Noo-ree-yev comes closest.

That seems to be the case. A favourite source of Giselle information is The Romantic Ballet as seen by Theophile Gautier translated by Cyril Beaumont. The book contains a lengthy letter written by Gautier to Heinrich Heine outlining his creation of Giselle. Wilis are the ghosts of dead dancers with no mention of marital status or lack of it. They may however be suicides as Giselles mother mimes: <You will dance forever, you will kill yourself, and, when you are dead, you will become a Wili > Gautier's original idea for the first act of Giselle was a great ballroom, proving a magnet for the dance-loving Wilis. Their Queen touches the dance floor with her magic wand to inspire the guests with an insatiable desire to dance and at the end of the evening the Queen of the Wili's, invisible to everyone, would have singled out Giselle and "laid her icy hand on her heart". Needless to say, Gautier later had second thoughts.

Your list of dancers certainly conjured up some memories for me Jane D, some very idiosyncratic choices there if you don't mind my saying so. Interesting that you mostly preferred corps de ballet dancers to principals such as Dowell or Wall who were the acknowledged forerunners at that time. I was very happy to read what you had to say about the late Michael Batchelor though. I used to know Michael quite well as he frequently took outside classes at Pineapple Dance and when I finished my class I would always go to watch his. Afterwards we would go to the canteen for a good gossip: he was very funny and VERY indiscreet! but I always thought that his personality was a little too assertive for him to flourish in a ballet company though. I'm so glad that you remember him. I'm surprised you didn't care for Julian Hosking as I always remember him as a very popular dancer. Many of us considered his Arabian dance in Nureyev's Nutcracker a kind of benchmark performance in the role. Sadly he died young also.

As predicted here in April Roland Petit, Ilze Liepa and Nikolai Tsiskaridze were awarded the State Prize for Queen of Spades. The award was conferred on them by President Putin at the Kremlin. Petit is the first non-Russian ever to have received this award.

The biggest problem I had with Bintley's Les Saisons was that much of the of the Glazounov music was already familiar from Ashton's ballet Birthday Offering and I found myself comparing what I was watching to the more familiar variations created by Ashton. I'm told that Bintley has already done a Four Seasons ballet at BRB using the Verdi version of the music, an odd choice as a Four Seasons by Kenneth MacMillan, also using the Verdi score already exists. Why he chooses to create new versions of ballets already familiar to his audience is something of a puzzle. Nevertheless there was much to enjoy in this ballet, the Spring pas de deux with Cojocaru and Kobborg was ravishingly lovely, though many might argue that it is Ms Cojocaru's dancing that makes it appear so. I too, admired the sets and some of the costumes, but a number of the headdresses were very ugly, particularly for the men and the ballet was badly let down by some very poor dancing from the male dancers in the autumn section: virtuoso steps for non virtuoso dancers. On the whole I felt the critics were a little too harsh. It's an entertaining work but not a work of any significance.

Marc, Do you have any information about the casting for London next month? Or indeed, any information regarding who is likely to be included in the London season. Thanks.

Tatiana Terekhova and Elena Pankova, both formerly from the Kirov. Terekhova's was the highest and most impressive, Pankova's the prettiest. Both can be viewed and judged on video.

I've always considered the Monte Carlo Ballet to be a small gem of a company. Good dancers and (in my opinion) a good varied rep. When I saw them dance Balanchine's Who Cares? it was danced with very obvious enjoyment and enthusiasm. They are also able to present an historically accurate Scherherazade mercifully free of Isabel Fokine's revisionism. That Bejart is over the top and down the other side, is a view shared by just about everyone in the English speaking ballet world and if you go to watch one of his ballets, in the main you get what you deserve. All the same it should be remembered that his ballets eclipse those of almost everyone else for popularity in continental Europe. Some of his smaller scale work I have actually enjoyed. His beautiful Songs of a Wayfarer created for Nureyev and Bortoluzzi was a hugely memorable work and I also have warm memories of Sonate danced by Suzanne Farrell and Jorge Donn. To judge the Paris Opera Ballet on just one generally unliked new work is absurd. This is arguably the finest company in the world, though one would never think so from reading this very ill judged review. Finally I have to say that I find the use of the word "Eurotrash" deeply offensive. American reviewers won't achieve any credibility on this side of the Atlantic if they persist in using that term.

Although I haven't yet been to a live performance of Queen of Spades (I plan to see it in Paris in January) I have seen a video of this ballet. I appreciate that opinions on this board are often highly subjective, but I feel I must protest at the description of Roland Petit's choreography as "lousy". Petit's choreography is often highly idiosyncratic but never less than craftsman-like and competent. Frequently it is inspired. Queen of Spades is a ballet of highly charged dramatic dancing with truly astonishing performances from both Liepa and Tsiskaridze. It is a ballet that burns itself into the mind thanks to the outstanding talent of those involved.

A pity you never saw Fonteyn after 1949. You would have found that in later years Nureyev warmed her up considerably. As someone who first saw her in Swan Lake in 1966, the last thing I would have described her as was cold.

Yes, as you say a long time ago, a good thirty years and I can't remember too much, though I think it was a one off with Fonteyn guesting with Festival (now ENB) Ballet, possibly a fund-rasing performance. I'm racking my brains but can't remember the other lady in the cast. Gilpin was wonderful, the best dance-actor Britain ever produced, confused and driven as the poet. Fonteyn seemed serene and compassionate and slightly spooky when she carries him off to her tower. That's about it I'm afraid. I'd love to see it again, also Bouree Fantasque once in Festival/ENB rep too but now sadly a misty memory as well. Who says Balanchine wasn't a diverse talent?

It's known as Night Shadow in the UK. Sadly it hasn't been danced here for decades. The last performance I saw was Margot Fonteyn and John Gilpin.

And who can forget Bryony Brind in the Queen video "I want to break free"?

Perhaps if the reviews and audience reaction to this work are totally unsympathetic, it might be dropped before it gets to London. Didn't Valery Panov have some connection with this company back in the 1980's?

I was in Paris over the holidays and can confirm that everyone WAS going to the Garnier. But what an audience! I was almost blinded by the number of flashlights prior to the start. Okay so I'm a foreigner in Paris myself but I'm always amazed by the number of tourists that seem to make up the majority of the audience. Does the Bastille attract a different audience because its building is less attractive and hasn't had a book/film/musical written about it? By the way I thoroughly enjoyed Sylvia, its a masterpiece compared to the tacky piece of Kylian that we've just had foisted on us in London.

I feel that the clumsy plot line of Paquita hinders Lacotte's reconstruction as much as the problems of style. Whereas his "Daughter of the Pharaoh" in Moscow presented spectacle and glamour, Paquita looked dowdy by comparison. Personally I found the story too flimsy to hold the interest in the first act. D of P also has a silly story, but things Egyptian still fire the imagination (look at the success of The Mummy) and the hero is an archaeologist just like Indiana Jones, who gets to wear some very sexy costumes. Of course in D of P Lacotte didn't have a big existing chunk of Petipa to work around so his reconstructions look more seamless there than in Paquita. But the inadequacies in Russian training showed up in the Moscow production when it became apparent that fast terre a terre choreography isn't the easiest thing for the Bolshoi to dance. Having now seen both these productions I rather surprisingly prefer Daughter of the Pharaoh, I say surprisingly because I've always had a particular affection for the surviving Petipa. Perhaps D of P is the better-structured work; certainly it could hold a place in the repertoire whereas Paquita (except in its previous form) may not. A final word about Patrice Bart. Londoners still remember him from his years with Festival Ballet. In Harold Lander's Etudes he danced the fast virtuoso sections better than any one else I've seen with his flickering quicksilver feet. Dancers with excellent batterie are becoming a misty memory these days but Patrice Bart was right up there with the best of them.

I never saw Nureyev as Oberon but responses from those that did were extremely mixed. The one role he danced that I deplored was as De Grieux in Manon, he was totally wrong. I would have cast him as Lescaut. I was pretty much coerced into watching Guillem as Marguerite by a close friend who accused me of being a hidebound reactionary when I reacted with horror at the thought of reviving Marguerite & Armand. The actual performance was even worse than my imaginings and if Guillem was wrong for her role, Nicholas Le Riche was even less suited to his. Ashton never intended those roles to be danced by anyone else and said so in print somewhere but to my annoyance I have so far been unable to find the actual quote. It seems Sylvie Guillem now regards Marguerite as a major part of her repertoire and will dance it at the Nureyev gala in Paris later this month with (according to rumour) Dowell in the role of Armand's father. If she was so desperate for one of Margot's roles she should have asked Petit to revive Paradise Lost for her. That would suit her down to the ground. Apart from technique, temperament and personality there is another factor that comes into play when considering casting and that is looks. Please casting directors, don't put the best looking man in the company into the role of Paris in R & J and even worse, don't even think about a good-looking Hilarion. Those of you who ever saw the RB's Julian Hosking as Paris or the Bolshoi's Gediminas Taranda as Hilarion will understand perfectly the point I'm trying to make. Just one more thing: thanks for the mention of Dance & Dancers Alexandra. All those that remember it feel its loss acutely. It was the most reliable ballet criticism I've ever read.

This is becoming an interesting exchange of views. Could the infamous Bolshoi claque have been involved on this occasion? It took me some time to distinguish between genuine enthusiastic applause and the noise created by these rather sinister people, but I'm now quite well attuned to the Bolshoi audience and able to differentiate between the two. According to a newspaper article I read a few years ago in the UK, the Bolshoi claque operates on two levels, offering its services to provide over-long and over-loud applause to artists prepared to pay for this or, more unpleasantly, threatening to disrupt the performances of those that don't. Examples of this disruption included a broom being thrown onto the stage and an alarm clock being set off in the auditorium. I personally had a brush with one of these people two years ago when a rather unkempt man barged into the box I was sharing with two friends during the Polovtsian act of the opera Price Igor. He loudly and ostentatiously cheered and applauded the woman singing the role of Konchakovna (she was dreadful), as did several of his "comrades" from strategic areas of the auditorium. Unfortunately neither my friends nor myself had sufficient Russian to deal with this man effectively and it was as well that we didn't seek help from a member of the theatre staff, as apparently the staff is known to frequently collude with them. By the way this is not something I've ever witnessed in the UK and I'm told it is unheard of in the US also.

Has anyone ever used the music of Philip Glass's Low Symphony for a ballet? In particular the middle section, Some Are, cries out to be danced to.

The Envelope by David Parsons is very, very, funny indeed. What about the ballets of Massine? He seems almost forgotten now. I used to love Mamzelle Angot and the last time it was revived (about 20 years ago) some wag at the RB had the bright idea of casting two dancers as Mamzelle A. and the aristocrat who in real life were also fighting for the affections of the same man. A prime example of life imitating art.