cubanmiamiboy

Thanks for bringing up this topic bart. I know it would be dangerous to give an impulsive answer to those questions, but God, is so frustrating to go to half empty theatres with absent courtain calls ballet performances! Believe me, at least here in Miami this situation get's at horrific levels. Currently , we're having our infamous International Miami Ballet Festival, and i really have no words to describe the disaster so far. The magic word for a huge part of the success of ballet companies and festivals, in my opinion, is one: PR.

Personally, i'm happy with having Beauty brought over our lost city. It will be, i'm sure for lots of miamians, the first time to see the whole production live, me included. Of course, i would love to be able to watch more of the "ABT's adventurous and eclectic repertory", but in a way, it always occur to me with ballet as with books...every time i try to go and adventure into contemporary less known works, i realize that there's still a "classic" out there that i still have to take a look at before.

I went back last night to re watch this production, and again, i understood why do i love it. Is the "old fashioned" feeling of it...the lovely lightness of Bessmertnova, who had a beautiful body and very graceful dancing. I also love the dramatic atmosphere of the betrayal/madness scene, and the well adjusted organic corps. The dancing gets at its very best also because of the wide open stage and minimal sets. Personally, i like Bessmertnova better in Act I, wearing that cute fluffy skirt , although IMO she does a beautiful II Act too.

. Absolutely. I would also like to note that he comes from that 70's 80's generation of cuban dancers (Esquivel, Salgado, Candia) that were highly influenced by the Bolshoi style . Oh, and i almost forgot t to add that he is uncle of ABT's principal Jose Manuel Carreno.

Mme.Alonso on "Theme and Variations": "In 'Theme and Variations" Balanchine kept testing me all the time, stablishing a kind of fight between my technical strenght and his choreography. So he would ask me, for instance: G.B-'Do you think you could do entrechat-sixes here...?' A.A-'I'll do them!' ...and then he would say... G.B-'So, could you do now pas de chat en tournant..?' A.A-'If you want to, i'll do it!' ...and so he would keep torturing me , adding new steps, new dificulties, to see if i would say 'No, i can't ', but i never gave up! That's why the version of 'Theme and Variations', as it was presented on the premiere, was technically and musically very, very complicated. When other ballerinas danced the role later on, some of them that were my friends-(among them Maria Tallchief, who was Balanchine's wife)-would tell me 'But Alicia, how did you let him put this ...?!, or that ...?!, now we are in trouble!', and I would answer: 'Well, it was Balanchine who put it there!...'Another thing that i can't forget is that with 'Theme and Variations' Balanchine made his debut as orchestra conductor, and aside for the importance of it, I will always rememer this because the tempo was madly fast. We all ended up breathless!"

Houston Ballet’s Head Master Lazario Carreno’s Master Class Dancin’ School would like to welcome Houston Ballet’s Head Master Lazario Carreno. A native of Cuba, Lazaro Carreño joined Houston Ballet's artistic staff in November 2003. Mr. Carreño began his professional ballet career in 1969 when he joined Ballet de Camagüey, and he began dancing principal roles with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba the following year. He has been a guest artist with a variety of renowned companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Nacional de Caracas. After winning numerous international awards in the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Carreño was awarded the Cuban National Arts Medal, the highest artistic honor in Cuba. He began teaching at Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1972 and was granted the title of ballet master in 1976. He is a respected guest teacher worldwide and has previously taught at Toronto's National Ballet School of Canada, Britain's Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Mr. Carreño was appointed Principal Teacher and Coach at Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy. Saturday, September 29 1:00 - 2:30pm: Intermediate Class 2:30 - 4:00pm: Advanced Class Cookie Joe's Dancing School 1415 Hwy. 6 A100 Sugar Land, Texas 77478 (281) 265-1042 www.cookiejoedance.com

I know...

I love Mme. Fracci's mad scene, but again i still stick to my favorite: Mme. Alonso /Plisetsky. Like i said earlier, this production is from 1965, but in this scene the angles a wide open, the music goes at a fair tempo, not like other productions that i've seen where it gets truncated or killed in a super fast way, and the madness is recreated by Alonso in such a exquisite way...paying attention to simple and beautiful details (like Giselle following and fingerpointing to a non existent bird, or butterfly on the air ).She doesn't overact nor she gets into frenzy runnings, like i've seen too, but simply delivers pure insanity...

Last night i revisited my old Nureyev-Seymour VHS (BTW, it's never been released on DVD, right?), and indeed, the effect of the necklace/crown pulling is quite effective. About Seymor , IMO that for some reason, right from the mad scene 'till the end of the I Act, she looked as she has aged a lot to me. I think she did a great characterization of a suddenly mentally ill woman, but at the same time, when all the "joie de vivre" seems to have drained from Giselle, Mme.Seymour doesn't really convince me anymore that she is a young adolescent. I know that she was filmed way past her prime, but so were Mme.Fracci and Mme. Alonso when their respective Giselles were filmed, and i don't find this problem with them.

That's sad to hear...RIP Luciano Pavarotti...

I'm with you, OldFashioned...

Here's an updated list of participant companies and performances and a link to the Festival official web site: http://miamihispanicballet.com/international_calender.html International Young Ballet Medal Winners Manuel Artime Theater 900 S.W. 1st Street, Miami, Fl. Saturday, Sept. 8, 8:00 PM Modern and Contemporary Ballets Colony Theater 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Fl. Sunday, September 9th at 5PM For the first time in Miami Proyecto Titoyaya from Spain with the premier of “Portrait of Oscar Wilde” With other guest companies Rastro Dance Company (New York) Compania Colombiana de Danza (Colombia) Brazarte Dance Company (Miami) Giovanni Luquini Performance Troup (Miami) Classical and Neoclassical Gala Kravis Center for the Performing Art 701 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach, Fl. Thursday, Sept. 13, 8:00 PM Ballet Estable Teatro Colon (Argentina) Ballet de Santiago (Chile) Ballet De L'Opera National De Paris (France) Ballet Du Capitole – Opera de Toulouse (France) Staatsballett Berlin (Germany) Bayerisches Staatsballett (Germany) Compañía Nacional de Danza (México) Ballet de Monterrey (México) Warsaw Opera Ballet (Poland) Compañía Primavera (Poland) Proyecto Titoyaya (Spain) Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland) Ballet San José (USA) Carolina Ballet (USA) Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami (USA) Demetrius Klein Dance Company (USA) Margot Fonteyn Ensemble (USA) Grand Gala Homage to Roland Petit recipient of the “A Life For Dance” Lifetime Achievement Award Presenting the best of his repertoire by the Roland Petit Company Star Ensemble Ziff Ballet Opera House-Carnival Center for the Performing Arts 1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Fl. Friday 14, 8:00 PM Etoile’s Classical Grand Gala For the first time the “Criticism and Culture of Ballet Award” to be presented to the venerable former New York Times critic Clive Barnes Ziff Ballet Opera House-Carnival Center for the Performing Arts 1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Fl. Saturday, Sept. 15, 8:00 PM Ballet Estable Teatro Colon (Argentina) Ballet de Santiago (Chile) Ballet De L'Opera National De Paris (France) Ballet du Capitole – Opera de Toulouse (France) Staatsballett Berlin (Germany) Bayerisches Staatsballett (Germany) Compañía Nacional de Danza (México) Ballet de Monterrey (México) Warsaw Opera Ballet (Poland) Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland) Ballet San José (USA) Carolina Ballet (USA) Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami (USA) Margot Fonteyn Ensemble (USA)

And speaking about remakes, "Valley of the dolls" is coming...so let's see...

I have fond memories of Bocca dancing in Havana during the 90's, particulary his incredible "Diana and Acteon". He, indeed, danced his farewell to the cuban public at the XX International Havana Ballet Festival. Here is the comment made by Margaret Willis on the event from "Ballet Magazine" "Showing off a different form of seduction was the Argentinean heart-throb Julio Bocca back at the festival again with his tango team. Most importantly however was his farewell performance in ‘Swan Lake’ in which, twenty years ago at the 10th Festival, he had made his debut. His warmth and added touches brought a bit more sense to this production. When the curtains finally closed, there was a short film of Bocca’s achievements—astounding—and then his Siegfried took one last bow alone. " Margaret Willis

Mme.Alonso on Balanchine's Theme and Variations" staging with her and Youskevitch. Alonso's variation: "About my variation, i sill recall the intense rehearsals. Balanchine would take musically a tempo of four counts of repetitions of a given step and would ask me to dance 5 of them, and that was crazy, because i would listen to the music catching up while i was still turning! But then, he would establish a phrase system in which one,somehow, would connect the end just in time with the music. That was a hard mental and physical test for the ballerina. It was a divilish game between music and technique, very typical of Balanchine." Mme Alicia Alonso

In any case, for the Alonso/Vasiliev resurrection...!

...and "Moulin Rouge" and "Bewitched"...Yep, she's, with no doubt, the Queen...

My old long time dream finally comes true... :yahoo:

"The Steppford Wives' also popped up on my mind today. I remember watching the original Forbes 1975 original as a kid, and i still have memories of this sci-fi-going-comedy bizarre story, and even being frightened by the female characters...Then, when i went to see the 2004 Oz's version, i was totally dissapointed...the magical wicked absurdity was gone, and i left the movie theatre not knowing exactly what was all that about...

..."Jardin aux Lilas" included...?

Steven Soderbergh's 2002 "Solaris". The soviet 1972 original was way better that this boring version, (even with George Clooney on it)

I was recently reading an old program from Ballet Nacional de Cuba from october 2000, when Mme. Alonso organized a program called "Gala tribute to George Balanchine" during the XVII Havana Ballet Festival. The program notes is based in an interview in which Mme. Alonso describes some of her experiences working with Mr. Balanchine. I thought it would be a good idea to translate some of these notes . Here they go: Mme.Alonso on Balanchine and the music/interpretation/pure dance issue: "I remember the polemic discusions in United States, between those in favor of psichological/dramatic ballets, a la Tudor and Agnes de Mille, and then the tendency basically represented by Balanchine, in which form and music were enough reason, ojective and starting point. Some would criticize Balanchine for he would not create ballets with a story to tell, with an argument, to which he angrily answered "I create ballets to dance, not to suffer. To have that, i would rather go to a dramatic theater play!" In fact, his position wasn't as closed as it would appear, because in some ocassions he tried to create this "meaningful" type of works, althought he never achieved with them the success of his abstract and non-argument creations. With Balanchine i couldn't dance a ballet the way i was used to, for i had to go and interpret a score no by its melody, but basically by its rythm. Even though the dificulties, i totally enjoyed his choreographies. It really amazed me the fact that musically, he maintained a specific rythm, and that he would play with it due to an imagination that seemed to have not limits." Mme. Alicia Alonso

I'm reading Paulo Coelho's "Veronika decides to die". I also had read from him "Eleven minuts". In "Veronika..." Coelho writes about the meaning of madness over its main character, Veronika, a young girl who attempts to commit suicide. He also celebrate individuals who, like her, don't fit into patterns considered to be "normal" by society.

I do too. I like the old school body type of well developed thights in female dancers. Those extremely long skinny legs don't do it for me at all...

I taped it and watched again tonight. Listening to Lacotte's narration, i was going back in time and thinking that it most be hard to understand for the western culture sometimes how terrified one could have been out of something that would go against the government, and defection is one of the worst things. I was observing the answers when the interviewer would ask to the russians about their thinking over Rudy's decision and the impact that it had on their life . Almost all of them would describe the event as a chaos, and with certain bitterness and negativity. Wanting to leave the country, the goverment that had given him everything, as they would proclame , was a crime, and it was viewed as a very bad thing. I remember when i was a teen, all the good students would automatically join the CYU (comunist youth union). Generally, the entrance to this organization would be denied to those who were bad students with pro-delinquent attitudes. Basically, the good people were "awarded" the entrance, and it was not necesarily a political thing. Those who didn't belong were outcasted, and generally trouble makers. There were very few cases of apolitical students, who never asked to join the organization and were left out too. Those were generally considered rare specimens, (i was one of then). Nowadays Nureyev's situation would look as a very old and out of reality story with Marinsky and S. Petersbourg back in the vocabulary, (i must confess that i still call it Leningrad, as i learnt it), but let's not forget that there are still communist governments and struggling dancers who still defect and have to pay the consequences of being outcasted from their own countries . Please, next time we watch Rolando Sarabia (Miami City Ballet), or Lorena Feijoo (San Francisco Ballet, to mention just two examples of the loooong list), let's not forget that they are the modern cases of this phenomenom, and that they don't have the privileges that others who have decided to colaborate with the cuban goverment have.