cubanmiamiboy

As we know now, Rolandito Sarabia is no longer part of the Miami City Ballet roster. Thanks to CarolinaM, it looks like now he is is listed in the cast of the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami for their upcoming presentation of Le Corsaire in the Festival de Peralada, Cataluna-Spain. Now, the interesting part is that he's listed as a member of the Houston Ballet-(!) This is the casting, from their website. Lorena FEIJOO (San Francisco Ballet), Xiomara REYES (American Ballet Theatre), Rolando SARABIA (Houston Ballet), Taras DOMITRO (San Francisco Ballet) Miguel Ángel BLANCO (Joffrey Ballet) and Hayna GUTIÉRREZ, Kaleena BURKS, Raydel CÁCERES, Valia GONZÁLEZ, Christine HODGES, Jordan LONG, Grace POWERS, Gleidson VASCONCELOS

Wow..those are great news. We can actually dissect this post and fill some gaps of info in some others-(MCB, Rolando Sarabia, CCBM, etc...)

You're absolutely right, dirac. On my way out after the concert I overheard a conversation which referred to Tilson in a similar situation a year ago, which he resolved just walking off the stage. I don't know what did the musicians did when faced with this challenge...although I was very tempted to ask.

Last night I happened to witness a shocking scene that needs to be recounted in this thread. I was attending a night at the New World Symphony, where right after the intermezzo its director Michael Tilson Thomas was to conduct the orchestra in Dvorák's "Symphony No. 8 in G major". Now, as we know, the second movement of this wonderful symphony is a very subtle, low, almost imperceptible Adagio, which requires just almost a contention in one's own breathing in order to be able to listen to the notes. I was, as usual, reclined in my chair in almost another world, eyes semi-closed when suddenly a super loud crash resonated in the auditorium, to which the orchestra stopped. I stood up right away just to see Mr. Tilson turn around, and with his baton in hand still fresh from hitting it against his music sheet to stop the orchestra, and with furious, piercing eyes he looked down to the first raw and shouted "Turn if off...NOW!!!". Yes, it had been the sound of a cell phone-(not sure if in a texting situation or a ring, but I'm inclined to think it was the first one, because I did not hear any ringing...). I had NEVER seen something like that before...the whole place was dead silence-(a packed house)-and after the offender had done what ordered, Mr. Tilson slowly turned around and proceeded to start the Adagio all over again. Even if I wasn't the owner of the cell phone, I felt very embarrassed...

I knew it...but as it was never official, I couldn't say it here... If anything, I think Sarabita was never comfortable with the company's repertoire. He's definitely not a "Balanchine boy".

Oh, of course Carbro...if you look at my original post, I actually questioned the use of the slightly releve position used by some dancers during the grand pirouettes, instead of the full flat one done by the Cubans. The incorporeus detail came from me explaining how do I justify the use of the attitude turns on pointe after the grand pirouettes. About the bravura...weeell, a little dose here and there has always been a part of Giselle...starting with S's solo and Act I to the very grand pirouettes that we're discussing now, right...?

I think this should be always the very purpose of ballet viewing. There will be always some Macaulays out there, of course, to dissect and strip every single chunk and second of a dancing's night, but as for the rest, non expert audience-(which should be ALWAYS the receipent of honor in a ballet night)-then probably Alonso's comopany will work. Wow.

I just wanted to know the background of the step-(if there's any)-and as for how appropriate it is, I think it is just the continuation of the pirouettes. I've always perceived as if in that very moment Giselle becomes even MORE incorporeous...the final sign that she finally becomes totally detached from the ground and her grave and prepared to go into the air... But again...this falls, I guess, on Macaulay's recent "bizarre" clasification of the company's dancing and takes on choreography...probably not for eveyone.

Thanks Peggy for the heads up! Already ordered my Sylvia and Firebird/Noces DVD's.

Thanks Mel, Peggy and Doug for your responses. Mel: My question rose after reading a comment from a Youtube poster who seems to have followed Alonso's career very close since the 50's, according to all that he usually recounts. In one "Initiation" clip he wrote: "Since the late 50's Alicia has kept this version of Giselle's graveyard exit, where she executes the last three pirouettes in attitude rising on pointe. Alonso-who for many years was a leading exponent of this role-maintained this technical difficulty during her performances, even when vision problems made much more difficult for her to maintain the shaft during the rotations. But if the technique is said to keep staring at a distant point and head back to that same point while turning in order to keep the balance, how is it possible that Alonso having no vision in her last 20-year career kept those turns on pointe? I read an interview years ago with Erik Bruhn, who said that he was surprised to see Alonso try to pirouette from fourth position with eyes closed, maintaining control of her body, and that when asked how he could do that, she had responded that she had found that the distant spot would not work with her specific limitations, so she had develope this form of exercise to keep the speed of the head, and that the point had to be found within one's body, instead of a physical object on the outside. It is true that with the passing of the years, those attitude/turns on pointe of the "Initiation" have been refined in the CNB, having been ballerinas to do them with excelled virtuosity..." Then, I started watching all the clips that I could find to compare, and even from the oldest ones I watched of this scene-(Makarova, Mezentseva, Bessmertnova, Fracci)-to the very recent ones -(like Cojocaru or Zakharova)- they all just finish the turns by lowering the working leg and spinning some more before the diagonal, but with both legs on the floor...(sometimes even in demi-pointe). Also, some of them seem not to be totally flat on their supporting leg while turning-(which I suspect gives them more speed, like the clip with Osipova). Doug: That piece of information on how it is notated in Stepanov is priceless...after that there's really no more to add. Thanks! Peggy: It is funny, but on my way from work tonight I was thinking on how silly that I forgot to ask Miss Serrano a couple of questions that I had elaborated about old pieces of choreography when she was recently here to receive a lifetime achievement prize during the last Miami Ballet Festival. I knew that she started dancing all those roles in Ballet Theatre right after Alonso left the company for Cuba in 1960, so she might have remembered some details. Well, I just got her autograph on my playbill and forgot to ask her anything... Also, it is interesting to note that Dolin-(and Markova sometimes)- coached Alonso during her lifetime, even for the 1980 performance with Vasiliev... Here's another example: Miss Barbara Garcia doing the attitude turns on pointe... vs. Makarova spinning her final three with both legs... to Mezentseva just omiting the whole thing just to go straight to the diagonal of jumps...

Through my ballet viewing years in Cuba I got to get used to certain steps and variations in some ballets, which surprisingly I found to be different compared to the standard versions-(Kirov, Bolshoi, ABT etc...). One of my first posts in this board was regarding those sautees on pointe in the Black Swan coda, which I ended up suspecting came from a version by Toumanova and picked up by Alonso during her guesting with the Ballet Russes. So now the question goes on Giselle, specifically the "initiation" scene in Act II. When Giselle is summoned by Myrtha to execute her devilish dance, she starts with the famous fast turns before the diagonal of jumps. So my questions-(actually 2 of them)-are... 1-Is the Cuban practice of raising on pointe with the working leg in attitude to finish the last three-(and sometimes four)-pirouettes done in other companies...? 2-Is it common to see the supporting leg flat during the turns-(as in the Cuban version)-instead of doing it in relevé...? 3-(This is probably more difficult to answer, but still let's try...) Does anybody remembers how were these steps done in the pre-Makarova times....? Thank you in advance...!

But remember, Richard, what we all have agreed about in this board at some point..a video will never "tell" you in a 100 %what that live performance was...(Even Suzanne Farrell in her book says that watching her own videos she just want to tell people that this is not really her, and that this is not the way she wants people to remember her). Alonso's Giselle was in 1980...well, I was lucky enough to see her still dancing the role in 1991 and 1993-(mostly fragments)...and THOSE are just some of the VERY FEW really MAGICAL moments of my whole ballet viewing history that I treasure...It's definitely impossible to describe it, as this is just something that comes from the very deep inside...but most of all-(and I don't get tired of repeating it)-from the very fact that all those performances were taken by us, the youngsters, as part of something else...bigger, misterious, NOBLE...a nurturing feeling, a reassurance message to us by Mme. that in each and every one of her performances she would be there for us, one more time, making us forget the miseries of the daily living. I should write about this at some point. The ballet during the horrifying 90's was sometimes all we had to dream a little, to go home without thinking too much on the empty dishes...it was Mme's duty to make sure that we all had a beautiful night. From the moment that you were able to grab that ticket after hours in a line-(and sometimes the whole overnight)-until many days post performance, you were part of SOMETHING...a surreal, nurturing, marvelous bond that included hundreds of us. I still can't explain it very well with words-(language barriers also doing their thing)-but if anything, just think on a loving mother praising her kid with blind eyes despite the probable absence of some virtues which can only be seen by her as a result of a rooted, unconditional love. That's how I remember those performances, and that's why I ended up placing ballet in my life as something that goes beyond aesthetics... Many years have passed, and many great technicians have I seen onstage doing all sorts of tricks...NEVER have I felt what I felt watching Mme's performances. Here's the final scene from her 1991 Giselle, trembling thumb and everything. She was 71 years old.

Not at all, Simon, just go ahead and abandon your allies at a pivotal moment in the battle. That's my boy...!

Lovely photo, rg... Well, now I think I have to pay a visit to that old "Most beautiful male dancers" thread...

On Friday night I went to another running of Program IV, hoping to maybe "get" Dances this time, for which I had planned to bring a more refreshed, open, but still vigilant approach. It did not work. At first I attempted to scribble my usual notes on the dancers, choreography and so on, but after some pathetic lines I realized that this wasn't working and gave it up altogether. From that point on I decided to just relax, so I sank deep in my chair and tried just to enjoy the whole thing without being too analytical. I think this was a better idea, for which the dancers and numbers were passing by freely while the mellow music surrounded everything to almost made me get TOO relaxed-(which prompted me to seat up again on my chair and try to be more alert). Next thing I knew the ballet was over, bringing down the house. The audience LOVED it. Just a little final detail that I almost decided not to share given the high probability of it being considered silly or out of context, but which was something that stroked me from Dances. Toward the end of the ballet, the full cast gets together onstage facing the audience, one girl kneeling and the opening male character surrounded by everyone else. Right then and there they suddenly gazed upward at the distance at unison, then proceeding to move their heads slowly from left to right, like following something with their eyes...their look that of enormous sadness. Well, THAT little detail, believe it or not, moved me tremendously. It just hit me right away, reminding me of a very similar scenario from the real life. Thing is, in Cuba over and over we would go to the airport to say bye to friends or family members leaving the island for good, eyes following the plane disappearing in the sky without knowing when would we see them again-(in the case that it would ever happen). The last time I was in that undesirable position I was looking at the plane that was taking away my mother. Other times, whole families-(the reason for why the group of dancers reminded me of this)-would gather together to see their loved ones leave...eyes full of sadness. Oh well...I know this is crazy, but still...I just wanted to share it.

One time I saw a Giselle's Initiation scene-(Act II)-in which her veil got stuck in her face-(probably in some hair pin)-during that sharp pulling off. Poor girl just stayed there while someone obviously kept frantically pulling it from the wing until it finally got detached.

So it was still hidden for some years even after being rediscovered until orchestrated...?

I think this music was discovered in 1953-(can't remember where did I read it), but also it is interesting to note that not even this PDD was part of the very first score of march '77...it was added a month later, due to the whole Sobeshchanskaya/Petipa/Minkus/Tchaikovsky ordeal. If anything, I would love to see how the original Minkus music for S.PDD before Tchaikovsky substituted by his own was like, and also how the original Pas de Six looked like, given that this was the original "Grand Pas" before S. commissioned her own. Also, would like to see what happened to that extra variation that T. composed for her to be added to the existing PDD-(would that be a "lost" piece of music?). The two merrymakers-(dropped "Tempo di Valse" included)-PDD is also intriguing...being so grand its Entrance for such secondary characters. It looks as if Act I, in between the Pas de Trois and this PDD was more exciting...

But I think that he uses the oboe variation from Act III Pas de Six as Odile's solo, instead of the original one-(TPDD). (Still...orrect me if I'm wrong)

Peggy...I know how Feijoo has the ability to "get" you...I was lucky enough to see her in her very beginnings back in Cuba, and now subsequently with the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami in all major roles-(Giselle, Medora, Carmen). The current debacle that the company is facing has mresulted in the much anticipated Sleeping Beauty of hers to be canceled...a real tragedy. Promotion photos had been taken already, and she looked beautiful in her Aurora costume...agrrrr! I wonder is she will still come to dance Kitri in their upcoming Don Quijote.

Get it while it last, people...! Last time it popped in this board, also thanks to rg, I got it...

Ah, what a lovely photo, rg! Modern productions of this ballet seem to have lost some volume in their tutu design...Love how fluffy they used to look back then...

Just one year has gone after rg opened this thread, but I guess we can use it again...right..? So, Happy Easter 2010 everyone...! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Ug629_Zys

Opportunities to get a glimpse of Imperial Dancers on film are very rare. In this clip Prima ballerina Vera Karalli dances in the Russian silent film "The Dying Swan" from 1917, directed by Evgeni Bauer. Besides her dancing Miss Karalli also received her place in Russian history due to her infamous involvement in the killing of Rasputin along with Prince Youssupov-(although she was never arrested or charged). Enjoy!