cubanmiamiboy

Not bad at all for Nestle's Quick!!!!! What's Nestle's Quick...? (Sorry about my ignorance... )

Thanks, atm for the wonderful memories. Igor Youskevitch has a special place in the way Cuban male dancers created their own style. This is a name that Mme. Alonso has always revered, and I remember countless times during interviews and the like in which she would talk about him with such much passion and, above all, a profound respect. On her eyes there has been no male dancer in history who could compare to him on the subject of partnership. When faced with Mme's visual impairment, he developed the ability to always be right where she was supposed to land, let's say, during a daring fish dive. She had total confidence on him. Sometimes she would start running in a diagonal and wouldn't realize that she wasn't going exactly his way, but instead she was running like in a curve. Well, apparently he would move quickly onstage so the mistakes were not that noticeable, and she says that she always KNEW that he would be there for her. During the formative years of the Cuban ballet she decided that she wanted Youskevitch as a role model for her men to look at and shape their style...masculine, stylized, ATTENTIVE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5cX6ZnJ61g&feature=related And here it is...

A short but lovely clip. I hope you'll enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8JSYnlIyJE&feature=sub

This is coming as tonight's pick... Will report back.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...!!!! Here's a turkey-ballerina. I couldn't find a more stylized one... http://lh4.ggpht.com/_thouvfO1d1s/SxwFfmutZKI/AAAAAAAABjo/uxjDhTvIkJM/DSC02007.JPG

bart...what a complete PITY you couldn't see Jeanette and Panteado dancing Alonso's and Igor's roles. Let me tell you...I'm sure Mme. would have been very proud to see the ballerina's part danced with the right energy and sharpness. I really hope that Miss Delgado NEVER tones her dancing down, and that she keeps being her extravagant self. Watching her I feel transported to my old Havana days...

Viva Jennifer!!!

Sometimes I just think this is just a matter of which choreographer has influenced one's viewing the most during the formative years as an audience member. bart just mentioned about having grown with Balanchine's aesthetic, and hence, I suspect that after all those years watching creation after creation-(perhaps some of which he can't really recall, or were not that remarkable)-, "something" that is truly representative of Mr B's works-(the way he moves his dancers, the absence of storytelling, the repetition of certain dancing patterns/steps etc...)-got somehow engraved in his brain. When this is the case, and one has had the opportunity to watch beautiful pieces that come from REAL schooled, brilliant choreographers, then it is easier to "see" that something is "wrong" here and there when there is. Lately I have been very much in contact with Lacotte's recreations-(via La Sylphide and Paquita). Right after a while watching the first one, I "saw" something, which I just confirmed some nights later during the other one. Lacotte's way is to make the whole stage busy at all times. Even during PDD's and solos, he moves the corps in a way that there's really TOO MUCH to look at, so it is easy to loose control over the primary couple or dancer. Sometimes they even get lost in the middle of all this non-stopping dancing-(this happened a lot in La Sylphide). I mean, the design of the steps was beautiful, but there was simply to much going on and on and on... When I saw Paquita, this happened again during the reconstructed scenes. Now, when time came for the children's mazurka and the Grand Pas, there was such a change of shift in the stage design, that I truly felt that THEN I was going to start to relax and watch the real thing. It was amazing...all the chaos came to an end, and the perfectly structured Pas spoke for itself. It was from night to day, and then I thought..."Ah...here's a really GOOD choreography..." Of course...Mr P. In a few words, innopac...exposure/comparisson to great stuff does wonders.

I was just listening to it today in my car, Patrick!...can't get over the thought of being moved EVERYTIME-(musically)-by the simplest combination of descending scales repeated over and over... But again...this is coming from a guy who loves Van Doren in "High School Confidential"

bart, I also felt that the choreography has been somewhat wattered down during some segments. For example, there's the moment when the corps couples are rushing toward center stage to meet in pairs. Now, this is a part where the dancers ought to be very energetic, and right at the moment when they meet , arms raised up, women on pointe, they should do it as if they are THROWING themselves, after RUNNING, to finally JUMP to meet the other couple face to face before backing up to keep running. Well, here I didn't see any jumping...they just kinda rushed toward the center and made the pose, sans the very effective jump. Definitely a miss...

What about "Waltz Academy"...? From the Trust site... "Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994) was educated in Milan and Rome. He composed the music for the ballets Barabau and Le Bal for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, both choreographed by Balanchine. He also composed operas and orchestral and other instrumental works in the neoclassical style. He came to the United States in 1940 and collaborated with Balanchine on a number of ballets, including Waltz Academy for Ballet Theatre". http://balanchine.com/content/site/ballets/59 True. And from ABT's Repertory Archives: WALTZ ACADEMY Music by Vittorio Rieti Choreography by George Balanchine Scenery by Oliver Smith Costumes by Alvin Colt World Premiere: Boston Opera House, Boston, Massachusetts, 10/5/44 Original Cast: Margaret Banks, Mildred Ferguson, Barbara Fallis, Roszika Sabo, June Morris, Fern Whitney (Pas de Six), Janet Reed, Albia Kavan, Harold Lang, Fernando Alonso (Pas de Quatre), Miriam Golden, Diana Adams, John Kriza (Pas de Trois), Nora Kaye, John Taras, Rex Cooper (Pas de Trois), Nana Gollner, Paul Petroff (Pas de Deux), entire ensemble (Finale) © Copyright 2003-2007 Ballet Theatre Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. It's understandable though that Waltz Academy isn't thought of much as it is very rarely, if ever seen in the US and T&V is part of the active rep. Thanks, Richard, for the info. Interesting to note that Fernando Alonso-(part of the original cast for the Pas de Quatre and Alicia's ex husband)- is still very much active and keeps staging ballets and rehearsing ballerinas in Cuba. Here's a pic of Alicia in the ballet. http://www.ballerinagallery.com/pic/alonso03.jpg

I'm SO GLAD that ballerinas like Osipova and Valdes, with all that joy and fire, are rescuing ballet from its ever expanding ranged of bland/boring/soulless/generic performances... So THANK YOU GIRLS, for all that excitement...! And to compare again, here we have these two dynamos dancing Kitri's coda... What do you think...? Vi. Natasha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxf7qemjYs

What about "Waltz Academy"...? From the Trust site... "Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994) was educated in Milan and Rome. He composed the music for the ballets Barabau and Le Bal for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, both choreographed by Balanchine. He also composed operas and orchestral and other instrumental works in the neoclassical style. He came to the United States in 1940 and collaborated with Balanchine on a number of ballets, including Waltz Academy for Ballet Theatre". http://balanchine.com/content/site/ballets/59

I'm so excited. Tonight I will be seeing Haydn's masterpiece "The Creation", a joined effort between the Miami Symphony Orchestra and the Master Chorale of South Florida at the Trinity Cathedral. Will report back...

Oh, dear. (Are you sure you weren't watching me in Intro Flamenco class )

Thanks for your report, Jack. As I told you, I was trying to make to Broward at least for T&V, but couldn't make it, thanks to some paperwork that needed to be done...precisely by Sunday... I'll see if I can catch Albertson-(the only one I didn't see in the role)- in West Palm. I'm glad you liked Kronemberg on Sunday. When I got to see her, she wasn't really up to the role, IMHO. Guerra, even not being a super-technician, is always pleasant to watch, although the main course, of course, was to me the fired up duo Delgado/Panteado.

Thanks Jack for the wonderful insight. Many years ago there was some talking done by Alonso about staging the ballet for the Cuban company, but apparently the idea went nowhere. During each edition of the Havana Ballet Festival she usually presents a couple of old BT's repertoire pieces-(during the present one it was de Mille's 1934 "Three Virgins and a Devil", plus her more contemporary 1970 "A Rose for Miss Emily"). I would love to see Billy the Kid...

So during this past week two different orchestras decided to present programs where ballet scores was the main course. First I went to the New World Symphony's All-De Falla night, where they played "The Three Cornered Hat"-(El Sombrero de tres picos)-,which was based on the novella by the same title of Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, and was commissioned by Diaghilev for his troupe with choreography by Massine to be presented in 1919. At some point during the performance, a flamenco singer-(a woman)- showed up onstage and sang in Spanish along the orchestra. Interesting, but not really my thing-(never been a huge fan of flamenco). Then yesterday I went to an All-American music night by the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra, where they played Gershwin's "Rhapsody in blue"-( ) and Copland/Loring's 1938 "Billy de Kid". I'm very curious about this folk-tuned inspired ballet now, so I was wondering if anyone here has seen it by any chance...?

It is certainly hard to see this PDD now after watching it here in all its real glory, IMO... bart...this one is for you, but be quick, before it's gone for good...

I guess it all comes naturally after years of ballet viewing, so I'd venture to say that you should watch and watch and watch, and then...keep watching, and you'll see that at some point after-(or during)-all this watching, you're finally gonna "see" it...

I liked Reyneris in the role better than Garcia-Rodriguez. He looked VERY serious onstage...almost frightening!

...so imagine when Mme would still dare to die onstage...! I still remember...it used to be pandemonium...so magical... The and screaming start around 5:25 all the way to 6:43... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vALJHzZBSiA&feature=related

Jack...glad you mentioned Miss Zien, as I've always found her particularly noticeable...

So still no Catoya, I see...

I've been listening lately to the Dutoit's SL in my car, and I was just thinking about coming back to this thread. I've come to the conclusion that the only secret to a successful act IV is just to follow Tchaikovsky's design of the score and forget about Drigo's reworking. SL's last act is not like other warhorses, where all the way 'till the end we're still waiting for bravura moments-(some of them has the most difficult stuff right toward the end, like Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker). The focus of SL at the very end is not technical but rather dramatic, which reaches its climax at the suicide scene. Hence, I don't think we need to endure an endless series of dances for the corps that goes on an on with no purpose. I don't have the combined timing of the two pieces added by Drigo, but I know they're quite long and I don't feel they quite work with the over-dramatic quality of the last minutes of the ballet. Without them Act IV is shorter, more condensed and easier to digest...I think. So let's stick to the '77 score, AD's!! 1895 Act IV order of numbers. -Entr'acte -Scène - DELETED -Dance of the Little Swans - DELETED -Drigo's Interpolation no.1 - Valse Bluette. (Valse des Cygnes, a.k.a. Waltz for White and Black Swans, orch. by Drigo from Tchaikovsky's Op.72 for Piano - No.11 Valse Bluette) -Scène Part 1. (ends at bar 26. Continues after the next number) -Drigo's Interpolation no.2 - Un Poco di Chopin. (Scène Dansante, inserted after bar 26 of Part 1, orch. by Drigo from Tchaikovsky's Op.72 for Piano -No.15 Un poco di Chopin) -Scene Part 2.(continues at bar 27. The so-called "storm music" was deleted) -Scène et final. Apothéose