innopac

LMAO!! I do this all the time! A few months ago, I mentioned "Quentin Crisp" to a friend and he said, "I didn't know he was a ballet critic!" And recently, I was searching for an interview with Clement Crisp that I read 4 or 5 years ago - but I typed "Quentin Crisp" into google - and I kept getting THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT. This went on for 15 minutes until I realized... but The Naked Civil Servant is a wonderful film.

Have any of Nureyev's biographers discussed the effect of being HIV in terms of the possible neurological and psychological effects on his personality and behavior? Or the affect of social attitudes towards HIV/AIDS on his emotional and mental state during his last years? From what I have seen in life it seems to me that impatience, loss of judgment, anxiety, anger and other symptoms of stress can often accompany illness. Not everyone is able to manage a graceful acceptance in such circumstances. And I am surprised that there is so much writing about Nureyev's "bad behavior" during his later years with no reflection on the influence of his medical condition on his psyche.

Massine writes in My Life in Ballet that the Paris Opera's "raked stage, which is unusually steep, made my long solo dance even more difficult. I found it very difficult to keep my balance as the dance progressed, and I was always afraid of falling into the orchestra pit." page 58 Wouldn't Massine have been use to dancing on raked stages, coming from Russia? Why would the Opera's stage be considered "unusually steep"?

'Classicism,' he [Diaghilev] often said, 'is the university of the modern choreographer. The dancer and ballet-master of today must matriculate in it, just as Picasso must know his anatomy and Stravinsky his scales.' My Life in Ballet by Léonide Massine. page 85

Vasiliev sounds like he is also a very dignified man with great humanity. This is what Valery Panov wrote about the period when Panov was being vilified and ostracized by his colleagues: Of the people who continue to see us now, those with no connection to the dissident or emigration movements had a special courage. They were not crusading to change anything in Russia and didn't dream of leaving it. They simply refused to abandon friends, no matter how many times they were interrogated and intimidated. It came as no surprise that the one dancer who felt for us was from Moscow. This was my old Bolshoi friend Vladimir Vasiliev, now dancing more spectacularly than ever. When I bumped into him, he had won every prize going and was a Deputy to the Supreme Soviet. He suggested a walk. "In your position, aren't you scared to be seen with me?" I asked. "You're damn right I'm scared, who isn't?" But he went on to say what he thought of our treatment. On trips abroad, while others were calling me "an unknown, third-rate hack, an invention of the Western press," his remarks to Western journalists required real bravery. To Dance by Valery Panov, p.360

Thank you, Natalia. I hadn't thought to search the posts but now have found your following two threads: 1. Kultur DVDs of 1980s Vids WARNING, poor-quality image (cloudy) http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...st&p=170443 2. Natalia Bessmertnova's Legacy, filmography (Where you talk about the cutting/editing of performances) http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...st&p=221677 I had assumed that the new release Kultur dvds would be of a superior quality but now have decided to stick to the older issues of VAI.

Is one of these companies better than the other? Kultur Films seems to be releasing dvds that are also currently being sold by VAI. For example : Anna Karenina with Plisetskaya and Spartacus with Vasiliev. I was wondering if the quality of the dvd would be the same from either company.

John Percival writes this about the source of music for Onegin. "John told me that the piece of music in Tchaikovsky's opera that most attracted him was Gremin's aria in the last act, and he had envisaged this as a love duet when first thinking about the ballet. His idea had been to use an arrangement of the music from the opera, and there was talk of his creating the ballet at Covent Garden for Fonteyn and Nureyev, but the Board of Directors there would not hear of using opera music in that way and, as it turned out, neither would Dr Schafer at Stuttgart. However, Kurt-Heinz Stolze undertook to arrange a new score from mainly unfamiliar pieces by the same composer, using not a single bar from the opera. page 174 of Theatre in my Blood: a biography of John Cranko by John Percival.

Thank you very much RG. I will follow this up.

What are your favorite dance/ballet segments in opera? I would like to explore this area and would really appreciate your suggestions on the best place to start.

I just finished "A Leap Into Madness". My feeling is that, taking into account the medical knowledge of the time, with different treatment by the family, friends and medical profession around him he would not have deteriorated to such an extent. Even without thinking of his genius and talent I came away from the book feeling he was a victim. Also, what strikes you throughout the book is the disconnect between Romola's statements and the medical reports.

Are you interested in watching a dramatic story ballet? If you are you could have a look on youtube at the clips of Manon. There is a wonderful dvd of Macmillan's Manon with Penney, Dowell, Wall, Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (1982). There is also an Australian Ballet version but I prefer the Royal Ballet one.

If you are enjoying this biography you might also like to read To Dance by Valery Panov. (There are some second hand copies available in Australia on AbeBooks.com.) He was pulled out of a tour to the US when they got to San Francisco. This was in 1959 and Panov was 21. After years of discrimination and eventually total ostracism (including fear for his life) he and his wife were allowed to leave for Israel in 1974. Nureyev apparently visited Panov shortly before the Kirov tour to Paris/London and asked Panov what had really happened to Panov in America and wanted to know how he was treated when he returned to Russia.

On a more serious note this is not a "disaster" but is an example of the power that chance holds over even the most developed technique.... From an interview with Balanchine from Dance is a Contact Sport by Joseph Mazo, page 255. Balanchine: "Toumanova, you know, had wonderful balances. She practiced all the time. She stood like this" (he sketches in a pose on pointe); "her mother brought her lunch while she stood. It was in France; she got paid in cash and she signed, balancing." He mimes taking an envelope and signing the receipt while on one foot. "So in Le Baiser de la Fée, I made a passage for her in which she stands on one foot, looking for him." He shades his eyes with his hand, looking into the distance. "In rehearsals, it was fine; she stood there forever. In dress rehearsal, she stood. Opening night, the curtain went up and -- she fell. This is the way it happens."

The following book probably won't have Serafina Astafieva listed but it might give you a lead on how to go about finding her grave. It is available on Amazon UK. Who's Buried Where in England by Douglas Greenwood "The final resting places of illustrious men and women exercise a mysterious attraction to the traveller, and in this book the burial sites of over 350 prominent figures in English history are listed with a wealth of interesting detail." Publisher: Constable; 3Rev Ed edition (12 Jul 1999)

This looks like this is the source of the youtube clip. I also found this post by Mashinka. In 1977 "Liepa played the title role in TV-version of “Galatea” (choreography by D. Bryantsev)." quote from this link

There is a clip on youtube.... search with this spelling... Maksimova Liepa. It is from the ballet film Galatea which was based on My Fair Lady.

I think this would be a wonderful idea even if it was only done for one ballet like Giselle. There could be two optional commentaries - one perhaps focusing just on the steps and another like John Neumeier has on the dvd of his Illusions like Swan Lake where he discusses the production as it unfolds.

"On Feb. 15, 1979, the Nureyev legend in San Francisco reached its climactic moment. Anthony Dowell, who was to dance with Natalia Makarova in the American Ballet Theater's "Swan Lake," had become ill the day before. To replace him, Nureyev was flown from New York, at Makarova's insistence. There was no time for a newspaper announcement, but by word of mouth balletomanes filled the Opera House and its standing room for a Thursday matinee that became historic. " From: "Nureyev a Hero of S.F. Dance" by Robert Commanday. The San Francisco Chronicle. 7 January 1993.

Spartacus. Legend of Love or Stone Flower?

Here is a description on Alida's induction into Ballet Rambert: The next day Rambert coolly announced that I would dance Giselle on the Saturday matinee. This time I had a day to learn an entirely new production of Giselle with a new company. Each of Mim's demands seemed more audacious than the last; in these past few days I had begun to discover that she was not only a hard taskmaster, but also incorrigibly Machiavellian. My one rehearsal day was a shambles. It took place on the narrow strip of carpet between the front row of the stalls and the orchestra pit. While the rest of the company were rehearsing other sections of Giselle, their new leading lady was navigating herself around the kettle drums and the conductor's podium.... Apart from Ken [Ken Bannerman], who I had already been told would dance the role of Albrecht to my Giselle, I had not the foggiest notion who else was in the cast. I presumed that I would recognize Hilarian by his villainous make-up and attire. But how would I recognize the friends with whom Giselle had supposedly grown up?".... When I balloneéed out of Giselle's cottage on that Saturday matinee, I felt so disorientated that I might as well have landed on the moon. I tried to familiarize myself with my new terrain, new props and people as quickly as I could. It wouldn't do to look as if I didn't recognize my own front door! Once again I was steered through most of the first act by assorted helping hands, Ken's brilliant partnering and some (at times conflicting) instructions from the wings." Page 200 of Out of Step: A Dancer Reflects by Alida Belair

Out of Step: A Dancer Reflects is an extremely disturbing autobiography. Alida at the age of six starts ballet lessons and after a few lessons goes on pointe. Soon after she entered the Borovansky Ballet Academy. The book is threaded with the verbal cruelties and unrealistic expectations of Madame Borovansky, Marie Rambert and others; the compulsions of anorexia and the isolation of a child too soon thrust into an adult world. Biographical information from web and newspaper articles. She is married to Simon Sempill with two children and is one of Australia's leading pilates practitioners. She has also written "Travel Pilates: Fitness To Go" and "How to Look Like a Dancer (Without Being One)".

I have been shown a clip recorded from television of 'L'Apres-midi d'un Faune' with no credits. The faun is a tall blond dancer. There are no sets and the effect of woods is achieved only through lighting and mist effects. This is not the same choreography as POB and there are only 3 female dancers. I cannot find a match on youtube. Would anyone have any idea of whose production this is?

Yes, Bart. I didn't expect this but it is really one of those books that pulls you in and gets you thinking... Here are two more quotes that struck a chord with me. "You could say that in general there are certain rules in art, but no laws, You must know the rules and you many break the laws." page 151 "Because, if an adult is a good person, in his heart he is still a child. In every person the best, the most important part is that which remains from his childhood". page 136

A wonderful anecdote about Tchaikovsky in Balanchine's words.... I recently was told of an extraordinary example of Tchaikovsky's craftsmanship. Anna Sobeshchanskaya, a prima in the Bolshoi Ballet in Tchaikovsky's day, danced in the mediocre Moscow production of Swan Lake. In order to liven up her benefit performance Sobeshchanskaya asked Petipa to create a pas de deux for her, and she inserted it in the third act of Swan Lake. She wasn't worried that Petipa had done the pas de deux to music by Minkus! Learning this, Tchaikovsky protested, "My ballet may be good or bad, but I alone bear the responsibility for its music." Tchaikovsky offered to write a new pas de deux for the ballerina, but she did not wish to change Petipa's choreography. So, taking Minkus' music, Tchaikovsky wrote his own pas de deux which fit--measure for measure--the dance Sobeshchanskay had already learned. She did not have to relearn anything, not even rehearse, thanks to Tchaikovsky. From: Volkov, Solomon. Balanchine's Tchaikovsky. Conversations with Balanchine on his Life, Ballet and Music. Page 149.