cubanmiamiboy

longer clips were not available or suitable; most of them did not go on long enough for me

I know...I always get so frustrated when watching the truncated Black Swan Coda sequence with Toumanova , just after her fouetees and her partner's pirouettes a la second, when she kinds of gets into a position to do a backwards step,(and that's when the clip abruptally gets cut off) and it always leaves me wondering if she was going to do the controversial sequence of sautees sul le pointe en arabesque penchee that Mme. Alonso incorporated for NBC (giving the fact that her Ballet Russes experience is a major influence on her teaching and choreographic style).

From the past George Zuritch and Vladimir Vasiliev

From the present Jose Manuel Carreno and Carlos Acosta.

Helene Kaplan wrote a review of this production for danceviewtimes, and I've just added a few photos (all from the dress rehearsal, and all a bit dark, but they give you an idea of the dancing).

"Giselle" — Vividly and Happily Alive

I'll also take this opportunity to say that I wrote a piece about the review for my blog in DanceView Times' Sunday Section:

Piffle Pieces: Camargo in D.C.,"Giselle" in Phoenix, and dance criticism in America

Great job. Thank you, Alexandra.

Kolpakova, but like the Sizova, it may break your heart when you see ABT's...

really...? so i guess i'll stick with Sizova/Soloviev

I raised this similar question when trying to get the best offer on DVD for " La Bayadere", and the BT's advises were very valuable. Now that the ABT is bringing their own version to Miami, i would like to establish some comparisson. My only expossure to the whole "Beauty" is the lovely 1964 Kirov production with Alla Sizova, Yuri Soloviev and the great Mme. Dudinskaya as Carabosse, which i totally adore. I'm a self confessed traditionalist on ballet matters, but as nowadays we have a lot-(well, some more than before)-new releases of ballets on DVD maybe i should update myself a little bit on this work...?

So, my question is: Which other DVD of "Beauty" should i own, besides de Sizova/Soloviev production ?

um, that would be VLADIMIR vasiliev. ivan v. is the recently prominent vasiliev - now only about, 19(?) years old...

Oops!...Vladimir...sorry, i edited my post already...I was just watching a clip of Ivan while writing the Giselle post, and their first names got mixed up in my mind....

BTW...About this version I also wanted to note two things: the emphasis made of Giselle's mother mime scene on predicting Giselle's fate, a beautiful sequence mostly omited in the most of the productions, and the inclusion of the "Peasant Pas de deux" converted into a "Pas de dix" with a full display of bravura.

"Her Giselle is a miracle''

...said Mme Galina Ulanova in tears after watching the 1980 Alicia Alonso/ Vladimir Vasiliev performance of the ballet in Havana.

Natalia:

I searched amazon.com but could not find that announcement.

Finally, the Alonso/Vasiliev "Giselle" DVD is out in Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-5...e+alicia+alonso

BTW, i forgot to mention that for this one time only partnership, Mme. Alonso was personally coached by Anton Dolin , and Vladimir Vasiliev by Mme. Galina Ulanova

I often think the main ingredient missing is not the libretto, but the score. We're not going to make a narrative ballet durable enough to hand down to another generation without a great score.

OMG, Leigh, you just read my mind. That's why we lost so many Petipa's works...non transcendental music. That's why the Tchaikowsky trilogy doesn't has to show its dancing side to be enjoyable 150 %. (Actually, in the ballet programs in Havana the work get's catalogued under the composer's name instead of the choreographer, as in western tradition ) So, if we want a trascendental new ballet, first we need a brilliant new score...

Quite a controversial personality.

RIP Norman Mailer.

try actually dancing with a partner and see what it feels like to share a center and move as one. Waltzing would be good, but ANY form of partnered dancing will teach you something about how to pay little attentions to the person you're leading and responsible for.

Try salsa...

His jumps are so much airier than Malakhov's, whose sautes in arabesque remind me of Alicia Alonso's in Pas de quatre

I'm assuming, since the pros choreograph the dances, that they also pick the music.

Sometimes i just can't believe they call this a rumba, or that a cha-cha-cha, or a samba... Their vision of latin rythms is...funny..

I'm reading "Dark Victory," the new bio of Bette Davis, concurrent with "Young Stalin."

yummy!!...I'm working on Kavanagh's "Nureyev" at a very, veeeeeeeery slow rate, whenever the "Diabetic..." gives me a break...

While the Spectre should not of course be sexually assertive, why shouldn't he have a a certain amount of masculine sensuality?

For some reason, i don't see any shadow of "over-masculinity" in Misha's performance. On the contrary, the first time i saw his "Spectre", it made me smile to see his softness and sensuality...And then, considering that his portray is not as androginous as some like the dancers to be on this role, what's wrong with it...?, I mean, the girl is dreaming of a rose who has taken the human form of a boy, not of that of another girl, and boys can be masculine, right?...If Fokine's idea would had been that of "confusing" a little bit the audiences, he could had created the role for another ballerina, given the simplicity of the steps...I simply see this lovely duet as a little love story between, perhaps, two adolescents, perfectly defined in gender: the male one soft, yes, ethereal, yes, delicate, yes, but not androginous at all...

Nearly the entire review is devoted to how worthless the writer thinks the work is.

What do you think?

I've read this article several times, and the more i read it, the more outreagously mad do i get. Giselle is one of the few nice things that this world still has to offer to its habitants. It is a gift to the soul, a homage to beauty and a tribute to humanity. This topic touches me in a very personal level because this "worthless" work, as the insensitive, ignorant and probably frustrated dancer/reviewer calls it was, in times of desperation and struggling back in my homeland, a strong spiritual support, and i know that i'm also talking in behalf of thousands of cubans. This story of unconditional love has managed to survive and even thrive through the darkest decades in Cuban history within the NBC, and i know it will likely go on dancing gloriously until our country is finally free. That's the beauty and the glory of the meaningful themes of "Giselle": dancing through the darkness making every gesture matter and keeping hope alive through the cruelest of ordeals . That's why for me Giselle is a sacred thing and also it is for me easy to understand the reasons behind this masterpiece ballet being so beloved and venerated by the Havana audience, and why Alonso's Cuban dancers mean every step they take.

Some talentless people are likely to be dead, sunken into oblivion and totally forgotten into obscurity while Giselle will still be giving its trascendental message of love and hope for those capable to appreciate it...

.

I read the review of Ballet Arizona's "Giselle" in the Arizona Republic (thanks to dirac's Link) and was surprised to learn that "Giselle" should no longer be performed. Nothing wrong with the production -- if only we could see them in something meaningful!!!! But "Giselle"?

Nearly the entire review is devoted to how worthless the writer thinks the work is

OMG, back off, Satan! if my beloved Mme. Alonso read this, then i bet it would be fallowed by the most dramatic maddness/death scene ever experienced, but a real one, via Myocardial Infarction!

Unfortunately, as my mother reminded me last night, to get to medical school, one has to do very well in science courses that one is enrolled in

Oooooooh, yes... , and then wait 'till you are actually IN ...you'll look back wishing to have that extra time to read that you had pre-med school...Good luck!!

I'm trying so hard to discipline myself, but when Nijinsky's face is just beckoning me to buy the book...well, discipline is impossible.

And take my advise. Don't try to get through a Pharmacology chapter while Ballettalk is on right next to you on your laptop..it'll take you 3 hours to complete it while you constantly click in the "View New Posts" buttom...(from my own experience... :blush: )

The part requires a bit of perfume, a androgynous, feline quality. Misha simply doesn't have them. He looks too boyish.

I was revisiting my "Spectre..."clips on my Youtube account, admiring once more time my favorite Misha's performance

Baryshnikov here seems to be seducing and inviting the girl, rather than protecting and guiding her. He is 100% boy, even in this piece and his style may not be adequate for this particular role, but God bless him for not being the second ballerina on stage!. :blush:

Thanks Hans for the follow up, and to bring this back on track, I have sometimes observed that dancers of color, particularly AA, are advised to try their luck in Europe. This environment is described as one where they are more likely to be judged on their merits. Never having been to Europe, I have no idea how valid this may be. The existence of companies like "Ballet Black" suggests there may be similar obstacles in Europe comparable to those in the US. Does anyone have first hand information on this race, culture, and ballet issue outside the US context?

Reading Ruth Sunderland's article about Carlos Acosta, i recalled this old thread, and i thought it would be interesting to post this anecdote...

"In his memoir, No Way Home, he -(Acosta)-recalls an instance, after he had just joined the Royal Ballet, when he got talking to an elegant black man in a bar, who told him that because of his colour, the company had probably brought him over to play the jester. Acosta flew into a rage and replied: 'I only dance principal roles. I am Romeo, I am Siegfried... if there aren't any black Romeos, I'll be the first." :blush:

Others, however, were supreme classicists. I'm thinking of Allicia Alonso (whom I didn't see in the original cast of "Fall River Legend")

And this is what Mme. Alonso :blush: has to say about working her dramatic skills in "Fall River Legend" with Tudor:

"I was lucky to work with him. He had a marvelous sense of theater; Agnes deMille was a strong influence on me, but I think my work with Tudor was more important. I was impressed with the way he approached a ballet, how he studied every detail. He taught me--- and Agnes did, too, later, to use my whole body to express emotion, mood, the drama of the moment. My Latin emotions had been centered on my face..."

Mme. Alicia Alonso

31 October, 2007

Cuban National Ballet Celebrating 60th Anniversary

A special celebration was held on Sunday presided by Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto to mark the anniversary of one of the world’s leading ballet companies. During the ceremony, prima ballerina Barbara Garcia and lead dancer Victor Gili were presented with the Alejo Carpentier Awardl, granted by the Cuban Council of State, and a group of 13 artists and specialists from the BNC received the National Culture Award, conferred by the ministry of Culture.

In just over 20 years of her artistic career, Garcia has successfully interpreted most of the leading roles in the repertoire of classic and romantic ballet, leaving an imprint of the Cuban School of Ballet in the Monterrey Company and that directed by the Spanish master Victor Ullate. Gili has developed a brilliant professional career since his incorporation in the BNC in 1991, inspired in the example of his mother, the unforgettable prima ballerina Josefina Mendez, one of the "four jewels" of Cuban Ballet.

Among the activities planned to mark the founding of this beloved Cuban institution is a display at the National Library of a collection of books including a bibliographic compendium on Alicia Alonso and the BNC, and an exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts of artworks related to Alicia Alonso and dance.

The BNC was founded in Havana on October 28, 1948 under the name of Ballet de Alicia Alonso, and quickly became a center of creativity and innovation, laying the foundations to what would become known as the Cuban School of Ballet. (RC)

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art63.html

Reading Ruth Sunderland's article on Carlos Acosta posted by Dirac in "Links", i came across the following phrase towards the end:

"Cuba's loss is our gain: we are lucky to have him living and working here"

Cuba didn't loose Carlos Acosta. He is and always been very proud to belong 100 % to that island and he always make sure that that is recognized everywhere. He's just, as many of us, another cuban who had to leave our homeland to try to have a decent life, and i find very disrespectful to describe a "gaining" situation out of these sad circumstances.

And what if they're all men with shaved heads and pierced nostrils?

Then i wouldn't think they would be honoring the "everything is pretty in ballet" old wise saying...Pierced nostrils..in ballet...? NO,NO! Shaved Siegfrieds...? Give me a powerful reason, (medical, i would say), in a powerful dancer, and i'll agree. Otherwise, NO,NO! Tatoos?, we have a thread on those, and the poll speaks by itself...

are we really judging companies by such externals?

Don't we do it all the time...?,I mean, Isn't almost everything on ballet about external messages to the visual sense...?

I've looked at this website for a while now, and it has indeed beautiful pictures. Warning: It contains some mistakes in some of the ballerina's biographies. For instance, i don't know if it was corrected already, but Martine Van Hammel's Varna's Junior Gold Medal was dated 1965, when in fact she won it in 1966...