innopac

Has anyone every written about the pressure on dancers to denounce their colleagues? Or written specifically about political pressures/threats - direct and indirect - that they felt during their own careers? I have been reading about a very respected ballerina who publicly "criticized" Shostakovich and others who denounced Valery Panov. And yet dancers like Vasiliev and Plisetskaya seem to managed to avoid succumbing to what must have been similar pressure. I was wondering if there have been any articles written about this with particular reference to the ballet world of the Bolshoi and the Kirov.

clips on youtube - search on: bolshoi amsterdam spartak

Ted Shawn lived from 1891 to 1972 and Karsavina lived from 1885 to 1978 so I found it interesting to juxtapose the two. The aspects that I valued reading about were: The serious prejudice Shawn had to deal with as a male dancer. The fear of the sexuality of dance which was strong enough in some communities to stop or censor performances. The physical life of a dancer on tour. Frances B. Wright begins a review of the book by saying, "Shawn's book contains a considerable amount of contemporary dance history. Arrogant as he may seem, Shawn is unquestionably a part of that history and as such must be granted a hearing." Ethnomusicology, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sep., 1961), pp. 241-242 Shawn didn't strike me as arrogant -- just passionate. And he has a nice sense of humor, dirac, which comes out in the writing.

I loved this story from his memoir where Ted Shawn writes about getting ready for a performance in which he played Pan. "I labored over the rest of my costume, designing footgear that looked like hoofs, and sewing black worsted into tights to give the effect of shaggy furred legs. On dress rehearsal night, I decided that the tights of Pan joined my bare torso with an unaesthetic line, and asked one of the dancers to get me fresh leaves from the woods behind the theater. He dashed back to my dressing room with vines that I quickly wound around my middle to conceal the obvious string top of tights. Carried away by the sylvan effect, I even draped some of the leaves over the tops of my ears. The Pan costume was strikingly realistic with the touches of greenery which, unfortunately, no one backstage recognized as poison ivy." from page 147 from One Thousand and One Night Stands by Ted Shawn.

Speaking about his new project: the Edward Scissorhands Ballet. Interviewer: So you're calling it a ballet? Bourne: "I've given up trying to call it something else. People understand what a ballet is. It's a dance theater in the style of the other pieces I've done, but it's not strictly speaking ballet because I'm not a ballet choreographer, but I think for me, most people understand ballet as a narrative, but it's definitely not a musical." Although, it looks like he has dropped the "Ballet" from the title for the final production.

Thanks for the clips, Bart. You wouldn't want a king who paced up and down!

In 50 Contemporary Choreographers: A Reference Guide the authors write about The Highland Fling, Bourne's take on La Sylphide: "Once again the dance vocabulary is a combination of different styles, although ballet is the predominant one." (page 35) And they also refer to parody. I haven't seen this work but I wondered if any ballet choreographers have parodied ballet or if only modern dance choreographers like Jiri Kylian and Bourne have done that.

In the Links on Wednesday, July 23 Dirac wrote: "I note, while we’re on the subject, that in future reviews and articles on Bourne and this production will only be linked to in this space if there is significant relevance to ballet. Bourne is not a ballet choreographer even if the popular press does not understand this." To show my ignorance I am wondering why Bourne is not considered a "ballet choreographer". This is not about whether you like his work or not . What are the criteria needed to define someone as a "ballet choreographer"?

Available through iTunes: The Royal Opera House Podcasts 15 July 2008 Three Short Works: Serenade, L’Invitation au voyage, Themes and Variations Exclusive interview with Pat Neary with George Balanchine insights

Has anyone see either a performance of these - live or on the VAI dvd? I would like to know more about these two works.

Here is a description of the documentary for those of you that may be interested.

Do ballerinas have more say in who their partner is than the other way around?

Many. Mme. Alonso had one of the most famous partnerships in the ballet history with Igor Youskevitch-(to the point where people thought they were romantically involved)...while hardly ever danced with her own husband, dancer Alberto Alonso! Do you know if she chose him to be her partner?

Has there ever been a "great partnership" where the dancers do not have an emotional affinity for each other?

I have read that Robert Helpmann was given Margo Fonteyn as a new partner and that Plisetskaya chose Godunov as her partner. I was wondering about the beginnings of other famous partnerships. For example with Maximova and Vasiliev -- was their partnership already developing when they were children , as they had been in class together from a very young age?

The tempi of the national and character dances in the dvd of the 1957 Swan Lake with Plisetskaya seem extraordinarily fast. Was this usual at that time?

Have you searched youtube? Two youtube search suggestions are: spartacus ballet vasiliev spartacus ballet mukhamedov

A glimpse of this dvd can be seen on youtube if you search: Don Quixote National Ballet of Cuba.

From the TDK Catalogue search term = nureyev Raymonda Dancer's Dream Opèra National de Paris, 1999 Marie-Claude Pietragalla · Elisabeth Platel Manuel Legris · José Martinez · Laurent Hilaire ALEXANDER ANISSIMOV Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev Sleeping Beauty Dancer's Dream Opéra National de Paris, 1999 Elisabeth Platel · Manuel Legris Clotilde Vayer · Nathalie Riqué VELLO PÄHN Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev La Bayadère Dancer´s Dream Opéra National de Paris, 2002 Isabelle Guérin · Elisabeth Platel Laurent Hilaire VELLO VÄHN Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev Romeo & Juliet Dancer´s Dream Opéra National de Paris, 1999 Elisabeth Maurin · Manuel Legris Aurélie Dupont · Jean-Guillaume Bart VELLO PÄHN Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev

Does anyone have an idea of what a rouble would buy at the turn of the century? What its value was at the time?

Anatole Chujoy clarifies the Russian Imperial Theatres' benefit system. (page 60) Benefits were "given in honor of a dancer, singer or actor either as part of the contract between the artist and the theatre or to mark a special occasion, such as the tenth anniversary of the artist's being on the stage of the Imperial Theatre, his retirement from the stage, etc. All the money collected from the sale of tickets went to the beneficiary...." Each ballerina and premier danseur -- 1 benefit once every two years unless otherwise stated in their contract (some dancers were allowed one a year) Soloists -- 1/2 a benefit once every two years Coryphées and coryphés -- 1/8th a benefit once every two years The unit of the corps de ballet -- 1 benefit a year Chujoy then goes on to describe how Nicholas Bezobrazov, a balletomane with talent at organizing benefits, collected ticket money, gathered subscriptions for a present for the dancer, assigned seats and organized a supper in honor of the dancer. The amounts of money mentioned make today's ticket prices look minuscule!

There are other videos of Joseph Phillips on his blog.

There is an arrangement for a book, published by Melbourne University Press., which will include some commissioned articles and essays as well as the papers given at the symposium. The publication should be publicized on the Ballets Russes web site.

I enjoyed this story published in an article about the Ballets Russes Symposium held in Adelaide last month. From The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 May 2008. page 16. At the Symposium Irina Baronova spoke of their first tour to Australia in 1936. To the multinational troupe of dancers recruited in Paris and London, "Australia was a mystery", said the Russian-born Baronova, just as the ballet was a mystery to many Australians. "I remember at a matinee of Cinderella, a family left after 20 minutes. The papa told the theatre manager, 'We want our money back.... We've been here 20 minutes and no one has said a word.' Slowly, they [the audiences] came to understand... Thank you for not forgetting us."

I disagree with Julie Kavanagh's assessment of Simon Robinson's book A Year With Rudolf Nureyev as "sharply observed", "amusing and poignant". I wouldn't praise it quite so highly myself. However, here is a passage from Robinson's book that I found interesting and thought that it might interest other non-dancers as well. "One of the first things Rudolf did when he went into the theatre at Verona -- or into any theatre -- was to walk the stage, every square foot of it. To the audience, a stage is a stage. To any good dancer, a stage is a minefield. Rudolf demonstrated this. Some boards are good and some are not. The bad boards are stiff, the good boards springy. 'Dance on bad board, you don't get any air. Dance on good board, you get extra six inches.' So he found out the geography of the stage and shifted his performance accordingly. He also had a keen eye for dust." page 124 "Blue" [simon] then goes on to describe the importance for Nureyev that the stage was swept from the centre out to the wings to really clear the dust. Nureyev wouldn't tolerate the stage being swept by starting in the wings and working across to the opposite side. He was concerned about the dust causing a slippery spot for the dancers.