cubanmiamiboy

It's been a real pleasure to be part of this. Thank you all!

Never say "never"... , but hey...she's danced Taglioni, Lissette, Odile, Cinderella and some other major roles that some Primas of MCB also will probably never get to dance either, so...

You lucky NY'rs...

I will never forget one of my first History of Music lessons back in the conservatory as a teen, where my late great professor Miss Alfonso, in her very first class, told us that with her we were only to use the "Musica Culta" or "Musica Docta" terms, as opposed to "Musica Clasica", which we were supposed to use only to denote the 1750-1820 period between the Baroque and Romantic ones. I googled a proper English translation to the Musica Culta term, but it always directs me to Classical Music...

I don't think so.

40 in Pas de Quatre-(she was born in 1920, and that video is from 1960). I think Roberto el Diablo is from 1979 or 1980. What I find tragic is how scarce productions of GPDQ or even Chopiniana are nowadays. I could even make a wild guess as if unless I go back to Havana, I will never see the former again. A little while ago I ran into Magaly Suarez, ex AD of CCBM, and she told me she was trying to gather 4 Cubans to stage it here. How great if that could be done with the Feijoo sisters plus maybe Reyes, Almeida or Gutierrez.

Just from last November. The Romantic style is still alive..!

Me too. One good thing is that she provides the three tnraslations in a very fast manner, and she's definitely a great dressed woman! My French friend had no problem understanding her at all.

Well, Tom...here you go, the respond as I would had liked to give it at first hand...(actually, I wrote a similar one at first and deleted right away, for which I suspected that the most orthodoxes ballet lovers would had jumped in disagreement right away). But hey, it is now THE Helene talking now, so we better listen...good for you Ms. Kaplan !

Well...here are some great contemporary moments, bart.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3juCYewTGE and...taking the liberty to include the Mega Homage to the Romantic period. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUiIC-TNE_E

Some nice signature balances here..he,he. ...and a texbook Kitri variation with some impressive pirouettes in attitude...

At one point I have to do a proper homage to Giselle. I know my life long love for this ballet AND its character is very personal. When I was a very naive teen and still living in the provinces, Giselle went on tour to my local theater and after the revelation of that night I decided that I wanted to see much more of it, and thus had to move to Havana, which eventually happened. Then, during the dark 90's in Havana, Giselle was there, once again, countless times to brighten up my and my peers battered souls and it did help me go thru big time. I sort of feel her-(thru whoever is her physical incarnation at any given night)-as a kind, friendly spirit that always comes back to me to whisper "here I am once again, Cristian, and I will my best to make you happy tonight". When I saw Jeanette Delgado in the role here, I felt again that Giselle was still around... dear...I know you will love her as much as I do.

How ridiculous...

Happy Valentine's Day my friends..!

Tikhomirova and Nezhdanov, 1958.

I still do old school whenever I go. I never buy tickets in advance-(at least ever since I got out of Cuba). I have NEVER been in a sold out ballet performance anywhere I've been here, and so I just wait for my days off and right in the morning I decide where I want to go...say opera, ballet, concerts, etc. Actually when I went to see the non show performance of Vishneva/Osipova in Bayadere, I got to my hotel just an hour before that evening performance-(Seo/Muntagirov), and just took the subway and got to the MET right in time to buy an excellent discount ticket in orchestra, waaaaaaaaay cheaper than the Arsht Center. I was still wearing my ripped out traveling jeans. In Miami that would be a cute fantasy to dream about.

Blonde Odile or a wig...?

It looks like a box now, but here're some hopeful renderings...

Yes...the ballet is enclosed in an isolated venue, very far away from residential Miami. I'm lucky I live right across the bridge in Miami Beach-(which on can see right at the left of the venue in the next pic)- but I know that for the majority of non beach residents, getting there is a total pain in the neck. And still...a couple of times I haven't even been able to make it thru the bridge on time for a given performance...

Yes...the ballet is enclosed in an isolated venue, very far away from residential Miami. I'm lucky I live right across the bridge in Miami Beach-(which on can see right at the left of the venue in the next pic)- but I know that for the mojority of the non beach residents, getting there is a total pain in the neck.

Can we consider the fact that Miami has the particular distinction that you will NEVER walk pass the Arsht Center where an attractive programme-(whatever the genre is)-may captivate your eye...? This is a driving city...one HAS to has a driving plan for everything...you can't just go walk and do stuff. Going to se a ballet performance requires a pre-existing knowledge of the place and the performance, multiple driving/parking plans and a strong desire to beat the endless expressways and horrifying traffic to get there and out of there. A Miamian will NEVER see a ballet performance by chance, as a walking NY'er can do by approaching the Lincoln Center out of a relaxing walk by curiosity.

Well, generally in life if I feel capable of offering an answer, I try to do so. Giving the run around to a neophyte ballet companion would not be right. I offer what I know and believe in, and then if the person in question wants to advance his/her view, the homework is never ending, as we well know. Plus, usually there's nothing about this subject in ballet programmes. Non ballet numbers are usually refered to as "pieces", or "choreographies", and all the Petipa/Balanchine/Robbins et al on pointe are always refered to as "ballets". Having a newbie make a primary, clear distinction in between pointe work and the rest I strongly believe is a good start. At the end, it is not too common they will be faced with a Fokine's Sheherezade or Yakobson's Spartacus in regular basis.

As a general understanding, and without getting into too complicated stuff, it is considered that Taglioni's La Sylphide-(lost, 1832 but recreated in 1972 by Pierre Lacotte and back into the repertoire of POB), Grand Pas de Quatre-(lost, 1845, recreated by Dolin in 1941 and back in countless companies ever since)-along with the surviving Bournonville's La Sylphide-(1836)-and Giselle-(1841)-are the very few examples of the romantic ballet period we can count on today. The Romantic era can also be seen as a pre-Petipa era. 1847 marks the date of Petipa's first choreographic attempt in Russia, a revival of Paquita. From then on, all the way to the never premiered La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon-(scheduled for 1904)-and right before the 1910's French break trough of Fokine's The Firebird, many of us tend to denote the classic ballet period.

100% agreed here. In fact I think the music is a major part of why I find this variation "manic." Would love to know how Mathilde and Anna-(so different in personality)- approached this very moment and music...