cubanmiamiboy

Glad you enoyed Coppelia, bart. I'm sure you will always remember your first live Swannilda for the years to come, and I think it was great that it wasJeanette who did the honors. I totally agree with you. She NEEDS to start guesting around to be exposed to the Romantic/classical grand repertoire that MCB lacks. For some reason I think she would make for a wonderful Esmeralda. Also agree with your assesment of Rebello. I don't know if that was the case in Palm Beach, but over here they always paired him in the Mazurka with the tallest dancer of the company, Miss Manning, and he still lifted wonderfully at all times. I know that as a barrel turn, which he finished over here with a great revoltade, but maybe there's a more proper name for it.

Same here.

Well, I'm open for meeting. If interested, let me know.

I will be there...worth to jump on a plane.. BT'niks who want to meet, hit me with a PM, e-mail @ christianrey78@yahoo.com or by phone @ 786-873-6198..!! Would LOVE to put some more faces on screen names..

How do you watch sports? I don't watch sports! The only sport I watch during the Olympics-(as a lifetime practitioner/devotee)-, is the swimming, and then there's nothing after...I go online to watch the different international competitions.

Oh wow, even ravens, ah...? Never thought there would be so many birds onstage..! Thank you all for your great responses, and keep'em coming..!-(could there be more around..?. )

I stopped watching TV and paying for cable altogether years ago.

I've somehow succeded in having a partial idea on some ballets Grand pas music and choreographies-(SL, SB, Nutcracker, DQ, and more recently Coppelia)-but Paquita...uff, how confusing...! I really can't get into it... If of any help. here's the transcription of the Youtube user MrLopez2681, who gives a detailed account of the variations as danced in the Bolshoi reconstruction, along with the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw8P8kjBgXA&feature=relmfu **The origins of the variations - 1. Variation danced by Yekaterina Shipulina. Music by Riccardo Drigo (1903). Variation for Anna Pavlova. Taken from Petipa's 1868 "Le Roi Candaule", which the Ballet Master revived in 1891 for Carlotta Brianza. The ballet combined Plutarch & Herodotus's tale of how the Shepherd Gyges usurped the throne of the Kingdom of Lydia from King Candaules via his Queen, Nyssia. In the context of the full-length ballet, this solo was performed during the celebrated bathing scene, when Nyssia dances to her slave's harp. For some reason the Bolshoi has re-orchestrated the music so that the strings are more pronounced, but it is still heard in Drigo's original orchestration in the Mariinsky's staging. Interestingly, this solo also turns up in the Vaganova School's rarely seen "La Sylphide" pas de deux. This was one of Pavlova's favorite variations - she danced it many ballets. 2. Variation danced by Yekaterina Krysanova. Music by Riccardo Drigo (1902). Variation for Olga Preobrajenska (?). Taken from the Ballet Master Achille Coppini's 1902 staging of the Delibes/Minkus "La Source" for the Imperial Ballet. This solo is, I believe, taken from an extra Pas de deux that Drigo wrote for the ballet, which is still performed on occasion by the Vaganova School under the title "The Stream" Pas de deux. The music is always incorrectly credited to Delibes. 3. Variation danced by Natalia Osipova. Music by Ludwig Minkus (year unknown). Modern dancers & balletomanes will recognize this variation as being taken from "Don Quixote", but it is nowhere to be found in the original 5 act piano score. The Bolshoi's program credits this variation as being taken from Jules Perrot's 1855 grand ballet "Armida". Since Cesare Pugni wrote the score for that work I suppose it was written by Minkus ad hoc much later, perhaps for a revival staged by Petipa. Perrot's original production of "Armida" was a dismal failure & did not last long in the repertory, which would make a revival by Petipa unlikely. Interestingly, the music has the same melodic structure as Solor's variation from "La Bayadère". 4. Variation danced by Mariana Ryzhkina. Music by Riccardo Drigo (1901). Variation for Pierina Legnani. When the great Legnani gave her final performance in Russia in 1901 before retiring to her native Italy, she performed in Ivanov's revival of Petipa's 1872 "La Camargo", which told the story of how the 18th century dancer Marie Camargo & her sister Madeleine were abducted for one night by the Comte de Melun. Drigo wrote this variation especially for Legnani's performance, which is legendary in the annals of ballet history - on that evening she demonstrated just why she was the first to obtain the official title of 'Prima ballerina assoluta'. It was very appropriate for the greatest ballerina of the late 19th century to give her farewell performance as the greatest ballerina of the 18th century! 5. Variation danced by Anna Antonicheva. Music by Riccardo Drigo (1891). Variation for Maria Gorshenkova for Petipa's "Le Roi Candaule". This solo survives at the Vaganova School under the incorrect title of "Vestalka", the Russian title for Petipa's 1888 "La Vestale". **The variations - I have tried my best to identify the origins of all of the variations that are included in the Bolshoi's reconstruction of the "Paquita" Grand pas classique. I have utilized my complete piano reduction of the pas, as well as the répétiteur for two violins of the Imperial Ballet's production of the full-length "Paquita" that was created ca. 1900 (this répétiteur can be found in the archives of Harvard University's Theatre Collection as part of the Sergeyev Collection). If anyone notices errors or has any questions, please contact me! All of the different versions of the Grand pas that are performed throughout the world today typically contain various combinations of about 13 variations (& sometimes more!). It is important to note that the majority of these variations are all that remain in performance of whichever 19th century ballet they were extracted from, & many of them were arranged especially for some of the greatest dancers of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. Unfortunately most ballet companies have no clue that these solos are really valuable little pieces of ballet history unto themselves, & all to often know nothing of their history. Even the Bolshoi has gotten some of the information concerning the variations wrong - http://www.bolshoi.r...s/281/libretto/ I have spliced together 2 different performances in order to show all of the variations for completeness. I was even forced to add in a variation from a Russian news-cast since it was not performed on my DVDs!

Fonteyn...?

Take note, MCB...

Kronenberg/Reyes..? WOW...that IS weird. I don't remember having seen her dancing any "couple ballet" with anybody but her husband... Rebello's Franz is an EXCELLENT idea. I might see that...

Well, the music is certainly very long and slow, and none of the choreographies I've ever seen really conveys the mistery and glamour that I guess such Arabian fantasy crafted by Russian and French hands was supposed to have had back in the XIX Century. The peacock costume reminds me of that of the Coq d'Or...there's some cute vintage feeling to it-(reminding us about a time when dancers and designers were not afraid of over the top head pieces and lavish costumes... ) Thanks for the clip, Kerry!

She looks like a Pin-Up model..!

http://img3.photographersdirect.com/img/262/wm/pd2797502.jpg http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfhzppDava1qdcdizo1_500.jpg http://cdn.dipity.com/uploads/events/cfe8b7fc49cd503f7903a72f40cc84ff_1M.png http://www.rohedswanlake.org.uk/cont/yolanda/von_rothbart.jpg

Nice... http://www.exploredance.com/upload/gallery/3/316_2250.jpg

Coq d'Or, right..!

Barbara... Benois design.

Oh, ABT's Swamp Thing is certainly far from its original conception, Barbara..!

Once I saw a kinescope of Alonso during the early 50's in the final scene at BT rising on the air. It was filmed so you could see all the activity in the wings on her back, so one could see the cables used to lift her. Anyway...it occurred to me then that there's certainly a difference in the concept of her being elevated to the heavens as a beautiful , forever young spirit in final redemption vs. going back to the earthy ground in body form, hence hinting the idea of body, human matter decomposition in the audience. I liked very much the kinescope clip.

We have the black swan Odile, the white swan Odette, the owl Von Rothbart, the yellow canary fairy of Beauty, the red Fokine's Firebird, the blue companion of Petipa's Florine, the generic one in Bolm's Peter and the Wolf and Ashton's funny chicken. Are there more birds around that I forgot in this list...? (Oh, just being silly... )

He is in the documentary and is wonderful in it. Yes, he is, and they show him at a gym doing some weights..! The excerpts with him trying to follow a bossy Krassovska around in a studio complaining in Russian while attempting at rehearsing a bit of Giselle is priceless. They're both so charming and cute..they even shared a French kiss on the lips there...

It's interesting. I had only seen the flowers picking by Albrecht while in the fly in Cuba, and then when I came here I saw the other version of him just picking them from the floor. In Havana the best bailarines would venture to get the lilly mid-air, while others, more cautiously, would have Giselle stand in a long balance in arabesque holding the flower upright for him to leap next to her and get it. About the bed of flowers, that's just the way Alonso still does her Giselle, but the bed of flowers is placed all around her grave, covering a door trap with a device that goes up and down, so the final scene is very effective, for which Giselle really dissapears in the middle of the flowers...actually during the very last second, when only her hands are visible to Albrehcht and the audience, she grabs two lillies and pass them to Albrecht before completely dissapearing on the ground.