innopac

A friend has asked me to post this... Watching Jonathan Cope in the Prince of the Pagodas, I wonder how he plays both the Prince and the Salamander the costumes are so different, even the tights, and the changes are so quick. Does anyone have an idea?

Here is another Firebird story. This anecdote is from Irina Baronova’s autobiography, (pg 241-2). This incident of sabotage happened on the opening night at the Met when she was on tour with Colonel de Basil’s company in about 1937. She writes: “On one occasion, someone played a nasty prank that was meant to ruin my performance in The Firebird.” Baranova then describes the Firebird’s entrance leading up to the long pas de deux with the Tsarevitch, who in this case was Paul Petroff. Luckily she has a real sense of humour. "Well, on my second set of jumps across the stage, the right elastic shoulder strap holding up my bodice snapped. An audible ‘Oh’ from the audience!. No time to do anything about it. On the third set of jumps I start picking at the apples and, horror of horrors, my second shoulder strap snaps, to a louder ‘Oh, oh!’ from the audience. [she describes wanting to flee and then with a rush of adrenaline tries to hold her bodice up and keep dancing.] Paul Petroff was magnificent! As he caught me, he placed his hands over my boobs instead of on my waist, whispering in his funny Russian accent, ‘My God, my God, I’ll hold it, I’ll hide you when I can!’ He did, bless him, lifting me by my bosom instead of by my waist and helping me all he could to keep me decent, all with his usual elegance and aplomb. The audience, of course, followed the proceedings with interest, and I was told that some were betting on whether my boobs would pop out. The end of the pas de deux was met by an ovation! The critics praised our performance. Whoever sliced halfway through the elastic of my shoulder straps badly misjudge the effect it would have. Instead of ruining my performance, it turned it into a great success and generated a great deal of publicity."

From my google searching it sounds like this topic is a book waiting to be written. Have you tried looking for web resources/books on costume design as well as ballet? Here are a three possible resources that might lead you to what you are looking for. Katherine Bromberg's thesis has a chapter -- "A short history of the tutu"" This encyclopedia may give further references that could be useful: International Encyclopedia of Dance: A Project of Dance Perspectives Foundation Victoria Looseleaf's article in Dance Magazine "The Story of the Tutu"

I can't stop laughing!!

Here is another story of a disaster during a ballet performance from the book Dancing into the Unknown: My Life in the Ballets Russes by Tamara Tchinarova Finch. This happened when Tchinarova was touring Europe with Leon Woizikovsky and the second company for de Basil's Ballets Russes. (around 1938?). page 91. Our booking was in Milan. To our dismay we found that the Quirino Theatre was an old, abandoned building awaiting demolition - dusty, dirty and damp, at the end of an arcade that may once have been fashionable, but was derelict now.... Les Sylphides was seen through a cloud of dust. In Le Spectre de la rose, the Rose leapt on to the stage and disappeared. The floorboards gave under him. He was found, by a frantic stage manager, looking for a way out of the basement, worried that he could still here his music above, but unable to get back on again.

This wonderful story of a mishap, or sabotage, comes from Dancing into the Unknown: My Life in the Ballets Russes by Tamara Tchinarova Finch. This is from a section about Preobrajenska, page 31. She shone in Coppélia, Raymonda and Paquita, but the role of Lisa in La Fille Mal Gardée was monopolised by Kschessinska. After a decade, it was given to Preobrajenska, but her rival stopped at nothing to spoil her performances. Mysteriously, the door of the cage holding live chickens was unlocked, and during Preobrajenska’s solo variation they came out onto the stage and created a panic amongst the people in the wings. Preobrajenska did not bat an eyelid. She smiled charmingly, pretended the chickens were part of her solo and, dancing carefully amongst them, received one of the biggest ovations of her career.

What production would have the most sinister Dr Coppelius you have seen?

Thanks for that -- I hadn't thought about the availability of all the stories - although they were written around the same period they might not have been published freely. I have read that Hoffmann had a fascination with but also a horror of automata. In the passage from "Automata" about the nutcracker though he expresses the wonder of a childhood memory. I see the potential for a travesty of humankind versus the magic of childhood (however dark) as underlining the difference between Coppelia and Nutcracker, between the characterisations of Dr. Coppelius and Drosselmeyer. What do you think?

I am reading The Best Tales of Hoffmann translated by E F Bleiler. (Dover Publications, 1967) In this collection there is a very dark story entitled "Automata". And at the story's center is The Talking Turk - a seemingly magical automaton with amazing powers. I am curious to know if this story, as well as "The Sandman", influence the creation of Coppelia. Also, here is a passage from "Automata" which relates to The Nutcracker. "I must tell you," said Lewis, "that the moment I went into the room the figure reminded me of a most delightful nutcracker which a cousin of mine once gave me at Christmas when I was a little boy. The little fellow had the gravest and most comical face ever seen, and when he had a hard nut to crack there was some arrangement inside him which made him roll his great eyes, which projected far out of his head, and this gave him such an absurdly lifelike effect that I could play with him for hours. In fact, in my secret soul, I almost thought he was real. All the marionettes I have seen since then, however perfect, I have thought stiff and lifeless compared to my glorious nutcracker." page 88

My favorite Drosselmeyer is Victor Levashov who dances the role in the dvd of the Bolshoi Nutcracker with Maximova and Vasiliev. Although it is off topic I would love to know more about him. For me he gives the role a playful touch behind which is the mystery and power of a real magician.

What a wonderful review! I am on the wait-list at the public library for this book and you have made me very impatient

Watching the POB dvd of John Neumeier's Sylvia the other night it struck me that his choreography celebrates a real love of movement and the body. And he is so connected to the music. I wondered if dancers feel that when they perform his ballets. For me Neumeier's choreography expresses beautifully and sensitively the human condition with its many, often conflicting, emotional and psychological levels. Does anyone else feel this way? I find it interesting that on BT there really isn't much discussion of his choreography and works.

Dancing into the Unknown: My Life in the Ballets Russes by Tamara Tchinarova Finch was published April 2007 and is available in hardcover on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk "Tamara Tchinarova was born in Romania in 1919 and began her dance training in Paris with emigre ballerinas from the Imperial Russian Ballet. She danced professionally in Europe with the touring Ballet Russes companies that emerged in the 1930s after the death of the entrepreneur Serge Diaghilev, and she went to Australia in 1936 with the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet, returning in 1938 with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet." "In 1939 at the conclusion of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet tour, along with a number of her colleagues, Tchinarova elected to stay in Australia where she met and married the actor Peter Finch and worked with him on a number of films before leaving Australia to make her home in London. But Finch had caught the eye of the glamorous actress Vivien Leigh, wife of Sir Laurence Olivier, and the love triangle that developed was to have devastating consequences. This fascinating autobiography highlights Tamara's incredible life in Romania and her worldwide dancing career, the tempestuous marriage to Peter Finch and her involvement in his notorious affair with Leigh, through to her subsequent career as adviser and interpreter for many Russian ballet companies." quoted from Amazon.co.uk

The director of the upcoming movie will be Bruce Beresford. Beresford's other films include Breaker Morant (1980), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Black Robe (1991). Li Cunxin has just published in Australia a children's book. The illustrated picture book is called The Peasant Prince. Perhaps in a few months it will be available in a U.S. edition?

It also gives further reading which is very useful -- for example searching on "Baryshnikov" comes up with the following: II. Books Relating to Balanchine Baryshnikov, Mikhail. Baryshnikov at Work: Mikhail Baryshnikov Discusses His Roles. Edited and introduced by Charles Engell France. With photographs by Martha Swope. New York: Knopf, 1976. Includes a chapter on Theme and Variations. Smakov, Gennady. Baryshnikov: From Russia to the West. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981. Includes a chapter titled 'With Balanchine and Robbins.' Tributes: Celebrating Fifty Years of New York City Ballet. Conceived and edited by Christopher Ramsey; preface by Peter Martins; foreword by Mikhail Baryshnikov. New York: William Morrow, 1998. Includes photographs, designs, poetry, and writing, as well as a chronology (1948-1998) and lists of repertory, dancers, music, and videography.

Alas, they're no longer up. There is a link to a video clip here...

Has anyone seen The Legend of Joseph ? How would you compare it to Neumeier's other works?

My favorite part in Bourne's Nutcracker is Arthur Pita dancing the sleezy spiv, Knickerbocker Glory. He was wonderful. For me, under all the humor and the romping there is a dark layer to this ballet. Leaving the cruel and hypocritical world of the orphanage Clara is not able to get into Sweetie Land without the required ticket. When she manages to sneak in to Sweetie Land we see a world of glitz and gluttony where a celebrity styled romance and wedding are played out in front of the huge wedding cake. Only at the very end, after leaving Sweetie Land, is Clara able to find a true relationship and love in her real world. I did like the touch that it was kindness of her bespectacled, daggy and very human friends/guardian angels that helped her along the way. However, if I were to choose one non-traditional Nutcracker it would be Graeme Murphy's The Story of Clara because that pulled me in emotionally which Bourne's Nutcracker does not.

In her autobiography Irina Baronova wishes Cotillon ("a tender, mysterious dream of youth") and La Concurrence ("inventive and funny with brilliant choreography" were revived. She describes how in La Concurrence Balanchine had Toumanova, Riabouchinska and herself line up and "execute thirty-two fouettés in unison, a thing never seen before" and how both the company during rehearsal and the audience during performances reacted with excitement. She comments that it wasn't a problem for the three ballerinas--they "could do the fouettés on one spot, travelling in any direction or on diagonale" and that it was "great fun". (Irina: Ballets, life and love. Page 76)

Thanks carbro for telling us about viewing via the website! I just discovered several other interviews by searching on the word ballet (or dance) via the key word search.

One of my special favorites is a Czech film -- Jiri Menzel's Closely Watched Trains(1966). And another is the heart-rending Italian film The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) by Ermanno Olmi And... And...

I am confused - the amazon site says this is a cd. But the cover picture is the same as the Decca dvd. Maybe it is so expensive because it is Chemiakin's production?

Here also is a beautiful photograph of Alicia Alonso taken around 1945 Alicia Alonso

Is it possible to attach a word document to a private message?

Last quote from Irina Baronova's autobiography. I just thought this was too good a story not to post. From Irina: ballet, life and love. Viking 2005 "On a tour of Barcelona a couple of years later we went again to see the gypsies dance, and a young gypsy boy took our breath away with his faruca, a flamenco dance. Massine was so impressed that he sent the boy a note via the waiter, inviting him to join us at our table. The note read, 'I am Massine. Please join us--we'd love to meet you.' But the waiter returned with the response: 'I am Antonio. So what?' Antonio did not join us." page 98