cubanmiamiboy

Mmm...I read "Snow Queen and King", and I like that .... Who's choreography-(or staging)-is this...?

Oops...i misplaced the Playbill-(I'm kind of frustrated...it has Franklin's autograph) Hope i'll find it.

Miss Long is another emerging star from the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, being formed under the wings of Miss Magaly Suarez, her teacher and Director of The Art of Classical Ballet School in Pompano Beach. I really think she deserves her little space on this Forum, and it's a pleasure to me to open it for her. I've seen Miss Long in various performances, ever since she was a teen, and most recently her Nikiya and now her Diane. Congrats, Jordan, and keep the hard work going! Here's a pic of her as Diane. http://www.flickr.com/photos/26624336@N06/2868275432/ ...and my little review of her last performance. http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...mp;#entry233801

Interesting

Here's Mme.'s rendering of Douverbal's little masterpiece. She was 44 at the time. Colas is Azari Plisetzki-(Maya's brother).

You just have resumed the whole point. Good.

Oh, yes...the pairing of Lorna Feijoo and Maximiliano Guerra in Havana around 2000. It was the Closing of a Ballet Festival, and midnight already, and they danced Diane&Acteon. They brought the house down, and it has been, 'till today, one of the most memorable partnerships i've ever seen.

And why is that not all the Auroras turn around in Promenades by the Suitors, but rather stand still during the balances...? (Fonteyn does it in the color clip, as well as Sizova, but not the totality of ballerinas I've seen)

“Definitely Mamicha is doing a hell of a job”, I thought after seeing Miss Jordan Elizabeth Long's performance in the "Diane and Acteon PDD" at the closing Gala of the XIII International Ballet Festival of Miami last night. Miss Long, a very sweet young lady and a member of the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, Magaly Suarez'-(AKA Mamicha)-troupe, has definitely channeled herself , going from the lovely but a bit shy Nikiya that she danced last time I saw her during the CCBM's production of "The Kingdom of the Shades" to the powerful and commanding Greek goddess that I was expecting. To make a bit of history, I would like to share some info on Long, who began her training at age 7 at the Southwest Virginia Ballet, to keep going to Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Joffrey Ballet School, North Carolina School of the Arts and most recently to our great Mamicha at her “Art of Classical Ballet” School. But back to last night. There and then, she reminded the audience that the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami is definitely hot, hot, hot right now, as the perfect Russian-Soviet-Cuban compliment to our Balanchinized MCB public, and a perfect vehicle for which we are getting to see works that otherwise would be totally unknown to the young Miamian audience. For pure spectacle, the highlight of the night was definitely the "Diana and Actaeon PDD", in which Long's partner, elegant Miguel Angel Blanco's pyrotechnics were matched by Miss Long’s radiant precision and stage command. Raised on pointe and showing beautiful and effortless balances, Long drew cheers as she finally spun herself through a dizzying number of fouettes at the Coda, which were preceded by some well extended and elevated noiseless jetes, as a substitution for the usual but extremely hard diagonal of fouettes “avec le tir a l’arc” that the Cubans perform.(Psst, Jordan, try and do it next time…I KNOW you can! ). Long, a stern and pale Diana, was Blanco’s perfect foil, matching his airborne stunts with a whirl of supported pirouettes in which she.totally commanded the trick and flickered through the end of the piece like a shaft of sunlight, utterly assured. It was a great pleasure to have her beautifully made offering of this piece, and more in my case since I hadn’t seen it live ever since my days in Havana some years ago. To wrap things up, I should also mention that Miss Long has danced with the Southwest Virginia Ballet, the North Carolina School of the Arts and in August 2006 performed in Balanchine’s “Don Quixote” with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland. I really hope to see more of Jordan Elizabeth Long in the future dancing more of this kind of daring, demanding roles . Thanks, Jordan, for the beautiful dancing last night, and good luck in your future, which I can envision belonging to the great leagues!

The Festival closed with a beautiful Gala offered at the Fillmore. The night was full of great dancing, and if I just could find the program then I would be hopeful that Alzheimer is still out of sight, which I'm doubting lately. Still, I'll do my best to search for it and honor the participating dancers. Only a couple things I want to highlight out of my short term memory-(which still kinda works). The Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami's rendering of "Majisimo", Hayna Gutierrez dancing "Flower Festival" with footwork to die for and the stunning Jordan Elizabeth Long as Diane, from D&A. (Oh, boy, did I loose my voice screaming "Bravo!"

Oh, well, Sizova, hands down, please. A while ago, before ABT came over with their Beauty, i asked some advice to BT'rs on who to watch to get some comparison, being the Soloviev/Sizova film the only SB that i ever owned-(which i have memorized from the thousand times I've seen it). Taking some advices, I did some digging around Youtube-(Durante, Bussell, Zakharova, and some others)-just to reaffirm my total devotion to those glorious soviets Aurora/Desire.

If Odile starts skipping the 32 fouettees, and Aurora her balances, and all due to lack of technique...what's next...? We might as well start skipping pointwort and keep making changes, so maybe one of this days we will be able to see Britney Spears dancing the roles...why not!

Oh, THAT i know about-(saw them both)...! MCB, of course Perfect entrechats: Nureyev or Soloviev?

I guess i have to pick Morris, but just by process of elimination!!! Carabosse. Dudinskaya-(Sergueiev's)- on pointe or Van Hamel-(McKenzie's)- in character shoes?

Last night was the “Grand Gala of the Stars”, as part of the XIII International Festival of Miami at the Carnival Center. Every year the Festival gives the lifetime Achievement Award to a renowned personality of dance, which in the past has been given to stars like Fernando Bujones, Carla Fracci, Violette Verdy, Roland Petit, Katia Maximova and Volodia Vasiliev, among others. This year the recipient of the award was announced to be Mr. Frederic Franklin, which I guessed was going to have somebody to pick it in his behalf. Well, that proved wrong. They announced the award, and Mr. Franklin came out to the stage, to receive an outstanding ovation. It was a beautiful momet, and he himself got emotional and first of all thanked us for make him be who he is. He took the microphone and gave a short speech, with some clever jokes and some anecdotes about his famous partnership with Danilova. He also mentioned that the last time he has been here in Miami was to stage “Les Sylphides” with Natasha and Misha. He repeatedly thanked Pedro Pablo Pena, the founder of the Festival, for his labor of love, announced that he, at 94-(!)-, still gets amazed at the sight of dancers onstage, then gracefully bowed and left the stage in a middle of another ovation. During the first Intermission I approached him and had a few words with him, while he was signing my programme. CMB-“Hi, Mr. Franklin, would you be so kind to sign my programme?” FF-(Jumping from his seat very attentive to my request) Oh, of course I can…! CMB-Can I ask you a question? FF-Please, do… CMB-“How do you remember Alexandra Danilova…?” FF-(Pausing and daydreaming)…Well, you know, when I started dancing with her, I was very young, and she was already a famous ballerina, 13 years my senior. I was young, and she was very, very tough. But let me tell you, she was a beautiful human being and after a while we made a beautiful partnership” He was a truly gentleman, extremely clever and with more energy than some people half his age. No glasses, no canes, no hearing devices, nothing…amazingly healthy and sharp. Then the night went as follows: “Love Duet:” from SL Act II. Petipa/Tchaikovsky Elena Pris/Wieslaw Dudek. Slovene National Opera Ballet, Slovenia. A very lyric couple, with a little bit exaggerated port de bras…not my favorite performance of this PDD. “Madame Butterfly” Nixon/Puccini Keiko Amemori/Keneth Tindall. Northern Ballet Theater, England. A very well done version of the tale, with lots of lifts and acrobatic features-(reminded me of some soviet choreographies of Lavrovsky). “Flames of Paris PDD” Vainonen/Asafiev Misty Copeland/Joseph Phillips. ABT, USA. OK, Phillips was a revelation to me. A very solid guy with great jump and precise turns. Very dramatic projection also…a truly stage persona. Got the most applauses of the night. (A friend told me that he used to be at MCB a while ago, but frankly, I don’t remember him). Copeland was good also, although he upstaged her. I had some trouble getting used to her physique also, which I won’t discuss so I don’t get in trouble afterward) “Don Quijote PDD”from DQ. Petipa/Minkus Hayna Gutierrez/Miguel Angel Blanco. Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, USA Oh my…and I mean, OH MY!, Hayna is just star material in waiting. Balances of steel, perfect attitude turns, usual perfect 90 degrees a la seconde fouettes, singles and done in a dime space, the works…and a characterization that should be filmed so some dancers can see finally how Kitri is supposed to be, move and act. Miguel Angel, as usual, the perfect partner, doing some one hand overhead lifts just to throw her at the end up to the sky before catching her in an spectacular fish dive. It was out of this world. “Romeo and Juliet”. Van Dantzig/Prokofiev. Vanessa Lawson/Jaime Vargas. Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canada. Hum,,another R&J. The usual stuff, yes, very lyric and beautifully danced, but nothing different from what we all know from Lavrovsky, MacMillan or Martins…There was a moment that I couldn't tell where were they taking stuff from…still, very well danced, as I said. “Dying Swan”. Fokine/Saint-Saens Mayuko Nihei. Compania Nacional de Danza, Mexico. A very young performer, almost a teen, very sweet and obviously very influenced by the Makarova videos, but with way too open extensions for my taste, and too much emphasis in pure technique. It lacked some personalized accents. _(oh, I wish dancers would watch more often the raw Pavlova’s characterization of the role that is floating over Youtube. I love it, and it lacks the over softness that nowadays this piece is being permeated with) “Cor Perdut”. Duato/Bonet Ana Maria Lopez/Francisco Lorenzo. Nacho Duato Compania Nacional de Danza, Spain. The usual Spanish/flamenco-influenced modern choreography, which I’m not to much inclined to. Can live without it. “Pas D’Esclave” PDD from Le Corsaire. Saint Georges&Mazilier/Adam Cecilia Kerche/Vitor Luiz. Ballet do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Very good dancers, great technicians. The ballerina, although obviously being past her prime, danced with perfect control of the choreography and he did some very powerful pyrotechnics, particularly while jumping. The thing is that this is not a very well known choreography, and the audience didn’t seem to follow very well the pattern of the dancing at moments, me among them. “Black Swan” PDD from SL. Petipa/Tchaikovsky. Shoko Nakamura/Ronald Savkovic.Staatsballet Berlin, Germany The male dancer wasn’t Savkovic, which was injured and had to be substituted by another dancer, which I couldn’t get his name. Still, whoever he was, did a very decent job in partnering Nakamura, who was glorious. She has a beautiful physique, and her fouettes were very daring, full of risks-(lots of triples in between, to finish with a quadruple). Perfect pointwork and amazing balances. I only wished that she could have donce the cuban sautees on pointe in penchee on the coda. Not in this choreography, which fallowed the traditional pattern of flat backward sautees/releve and so on. Still, she had great success, and I loved her dancing. Bravo!

I couldn't go to the Kravis, due to tight work schedule . I would have loved to go and see Hayna Gutierrez doing Giselle. I'm very curious as why isn't she still signed with any major ballet company, neither her partner Blanco-(their pal Domitro recently signed as a Principal with SFB). Anyway, I'm planning to go to tonight's performance at the Carnival Center, "The Etoiles Grand Gala",after work. The recipient of this year’s “ A Life for Dance” Lifetime Achievement Award, which is given every year to a Grand Star, is Frederick Franklin, as a well deserved homage to his amazing life as a dancer, choreographer, ballet director and premier danseur with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Here are some of the companies participating: StaatsBallett Berlin, Germany Stuttgart Ballet International Guest Artists, Germany Slovene National Ballet, Slovenia The Royal Ballet, England Paris Opera Ballet, France Florence Opera Ballet, Italy Nacho Duato Compañia Nacional de Danza, Spain Ballet do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canada National companies participating: San Francisco Ballet, USA Houston Ballet, USA Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, USA

Coppelia. Oh, how do i miss it! I read somewhere that George Balanchine once declared "Giselle" to be ballet's great tragedy and "Coppelia" its great comedy. Both are equally popular in Cuba. I would say that it is no accident that both became signature pieces for the Havana troupe, for which we cubans' love of these two works runs deep, and Mme.Alonso has spent a lifetime refining each to perfection. The breathtaking results of her devotion to "Coppelia" really shows on her version. One have to remember that Alonso's involvement with "Giselle" is legend, but she in fact danced Swanilda in "Coppelia" first, in Nikolai Yavorski's 1935 production in Cuba when she was only 15. She collaborated with Leon Fokine, at the time a teacher at the Alicia Alonso Academy in Havana, on her first "Coppelia" staging in 1948 with her venerated Igor Youskevitch as her loving Franz. Then in 1957, Andre Eglevsky was her Franz, in that other historic "Coppelia" mounted at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles-(from which there's that clip that i posted in the videos forum). Then the 1968 Alonso "Coppelia" for her Ballet Nacional de Cuba became, like her definitive 1972 "Giselle" for both the Paris Opera Ballet and the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, the standard by which I always judge all other choreographic versions. On the other side, let's not forget that Fokine influence on Cuban ballet is at least as strong as that of the Italian Enrico Zanfretta or any later Russian influence. The sensual and exquisite boundaries of the Cuban style are defined by Alonso's "Coppelia" as much as by her "Giselle." Alonso's historically informed reconstruction of the original 1870 Arthur Saint-Leon and later Marius Petipa versions of "Coppelia" carries the unmistakable post-Romantic line and flavor that marked the Fokine revolution in the early 20th century. The superhuman demands on virtuosity are more than in any other "Coppelia" production: Swanilda's Act 3 solo alone demands the technical fireworks of, say, a couple of Rose Adagios with Giselle's Act 1 extended pointe solo added for good measure-(and believe me, the Cuban audience shows no mercy if what is expected is not delivered in a 150 %, both technically and artistically). But more than all the classical complexity-(and hey, Cubans toss off impossible steps as if they were the easiest thing in the world )- there is real humanity in Coppelia's dancing. Basically, for me Mme.Alonso's "Coppelia" matters because it makes me believe in the power of dance to reaffirm the best in all of us...and yes, this is enough of a reason for me to take this ballet very seriously...if I may. +

I just found this wonderful clips of AP, which maybe you guys knew about already, but which were totally unknown to me. Before I had only seen the Dying Swan one, but this ones are form the interview of Makarova to S F. Ashton, in which they discuss Pavlova. The Fairy Doll (?) fragments are beautiful, and I can't help but being amazed at her perfect footwork and liquid bourrees... Here they are... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nIoixCVy3k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcZzarh8ve0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frzfws7DTEU...feature=related

Right. And then, the old names tend to stick for a while. I have russian clients whose whole lives took place in the Soviet Union, and now are living here-(there's a large russian community in North Miami Beach). The majority of them still use "Leningrad" when referring to St. Petersbourg. (Well, even I still use it... )

No, she did not perform it here either, and i was really looking forward to it...damn!

From clip 10 at first we see Miss Rosario Suarez-(the Divine Charin, ultimate CNB's technician of the 80's and 90's, now in exile in Miami)-on the solo entrance with her great developpes...then yes, there is Mme. Alonso who does the super fast batteries sequence, and finally we have Mme. Mendez-(RIP)-doing Giselle's "Minkus variation". Bravo!

SFB seems to have a great eye to catch potential and recruit right away..good,good.

Here are some interesting pics of Alonso during his years with Ballet Russe. Alberto Alonso in "Petrouchka", his master interpretation, with the Pro-Arte Ballet School. Havana, 1944 http://www.danzaballet.com/UserFiles/Image...e/Scan10008.jpg The Tree Ivans Alberto Alonso, standing. N. Matouchak and Sobetchevsky, front (1939) http://www.danzaballet.com/UserFiles/Image...mage/tmpB3E.jpg Alberto Alonso as The Blackamoor and Tamara Toumanova as The Dancer, in Petrouchka, Original Ballet Russe, Australian tour, His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, May 1940 http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3995243 Tamara Grigorieva, Irina Zarova, Alberto Alonso (as the Dwarf in front), Georges Skibine and Nicolas Ivangin in Pavane, Original Ballet Russe Australian tour, 1940 http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms8495-23-2-s67-b2 Alberto Alonso as The Deer (left), Paul Petroff as The Young Musician (lright) and artists of the company, in Symphonie fantastique, Third movement, Original Ballet Russe, Australian tour, His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, April 1940 http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3963542 Irina Baronova as The Siren (kneeling front right), Anton Dolin as The Prodigal Son (front right), Alberto Alonso as the Vagabond (standing centre with urn), and artists of the company, in Le fils prodigue, Covent Garden Russian Ballet, Australian tour, His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, March 1939 http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4175266 David Lichine as The Prodigal Son (third from left), Tamara Grigorieva (?) as The Siren (centre bending back), Alberto Alonso as the Vagabond (fourth from right), Lorand Andahazy as a Friend of The Prodigal Son (far left), and artists of the company, in Le fils prodigue, Covent Garden Russian Ballet, Australian tour, His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, March 1939 http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4175190