rg

actually PMartins's PETITS RIENS was danced to Mozart's "Les Petits Riens" as follows: mus: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Les petits riens); cos: Barbara Matera; lighting: Mark Stanley. First perf: New York, New York State Theater, Jan 15, 1987; New York City Ballet. LES GENTILHOMMES is set to Handel. credits as follows: G. F. Händel (Concerto grosso, op. 6, no. 9, in F major); cos: Alain Vaës; lighting: Mark Stanley. First perf: New York, New York State Theater, May 14, 1987; New York City Ballet

if you'd like to see a filmed record of PNB in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, there is a DVD available of the co. performing the work in its entirety, made in London a few years ago, released under a BBC Opus Arte label. there you can see the climactic pas de deux that balanchine created to cap his 2-act ballet and which was not given in LA, according to a review i read. true, it's only a video taste of the full thing, and one at the mercy of camerawork, but it gives a sense of the full scope and scale balanchine intended for his DREAM.

NYPL listing: Paul, Antoine J., called L'aérien, ca. 1797-1871.

if mem. serves peter martins did have a farewell, at the 1000th performance of NUTCRACKER, partnering suzanne farrell in a prog. that included some special curtain calls.

in MIDSUMMER Puck finishes the ballet rigged to wires (harnassed at his waist) in HARLEQUINADE Pierrot must dangle momentarily from a missing balcony as he "falls" from a window (eventually he's rescued by other characters who take him down from his tether). in APOLLO (in the version NYCB has taken to identifying as being "with birth") Leto performs the opening atop a little platform and descends from it in the dark on the same piece's little stairway. in NUTCRACKER Mother Ginger must negotiate an entrance, circuit of the stage gracefully, and exit the scene while balanced on specially conceived stilts that keep the skirt of the character's costume spacious enough to hide the 8 polichinelle children whose dance dominates this scene. (i suppose the SWAN LAKE 'vision' refers to some moment in P.Martins's staging of SWAN LAKE, but the execution of this moment now escapes my memory and i'm not now set up to 'go to the videotape' - there is no such vision in the balanchine version of SWAN LAKE done at nycb). and indeed in feld's UNANSWERED QUESTION various stunts such as climbing a rope ladder and the wearing of a sousaphone as a costume are part of the ballet's choreographic plan. or so i variously remember. hope this helps.

looks like the NYPLibrary for the Perf. Arts listing isn't much more elaborate. but here it is fyi: Pas de dix (Motion picture): 1957. Description 17 min. Notes:Kinescope of L'heure du concert, November 5, 1957. Duration of ballet: 13 min. Choreography: George Balanchine. Music: Glazunov (Raymonda). Costumes: Esteban Francés. Cast: Maria Tallchief, André Eglevsky and artists of the New York City Ballet. i should think there are readers of this site who could identify the soloists. maybe you'll be hearing from them here, soon.

ask lacour's father is, i think, the conductor, christiansen (sp?); no program is handy to supply a first name. alexandra might well know.

here's my try: NEE-nah ah-nahn-YASH-vee-lee i think russian dancers are used to hearing americans address them as is usually done in English and in the States, therefore: Miss Ananiashvili should be accepted as respectful and polite. i am told that addressing such a russian by her first and her patronymic names is most polite of all. for example, i was told, it was much more polite to address, say, Galina Ulanova as Galina Sergeyevna than to address her as Mme (or Miss) Ulanova. still i think Ulanova would have realized that the latter form of address was meant with all due respect and politeness. that said, i do not, tho' i suspect some who read this site do, know Nina Ananiashvili's patronymic. so i can't help with that in her case.

LITTLE BALLERINA is the film alexandra mentioned.

from what i gather there is to be no tour this year, tho' i understand next year will involve a much more ambitious schedule. still i've seen nothing official regarding this year, or next.

tho' no techo-anything here, i have heard that low-end DVD players CAN have problems w/ the load-in/out tray and thus malfunction. this was noted in an article about the kinds of players given away w/ some promotions, so i assume they'd be the low-end ones. so i'd ask around when looking into acquiring a player. as for the dvd form itself i cannot say enough in its favor. it seems too that recordable players or at least those that are capable of transferring one's videotapes to disk are now becoming affordable, or nearly so. meanwhile just this weekend i learned that a NEW technology is around the bend, that will do this sort of transfer more smoothly, who knows. for now, we DVDs multiplying like shades out of a petipa underworld, tho' as has been pointed out here not nearly enough DANCE disks, a dvd player is a good investment. i gather btw re: the newer technology on the horizon that this will not make dvds obsolete, only make transference of videotape to disk more efficient.

i HAD a beta copy of a friend's beta copy, which came off the air to his beta machine years back, but haven't seen my copy in a while. (my friend has since died, alas) haven't had cause to look for/at my copy lately. but some of the betas i've looked at from a similar period have begun to go 'funny' it's just poss.that the recent paris perfs. of the work were filmed, but i'm not sure.

bausch's 'rite' was shown on A&E network a while back. i know of know of no commercial release of the tape either here or in europe, tho' perhaps w/ dvd there is something in euro-format now.

you may know these catalogued items but on the chance that you don't here are some clues to the co's life in NYPL dance coll. btw, as you may also know, the digital segment of catnyp, which became familiar to me because of a balletalert post, has a no. of fascinating photos of pavley. ARCHIVES & MANUSCRIPTS Author : Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet Russe. Title : Papers. Imprint : 1915-1950. Description : 5 folders (73 items) Notes : Holographs, typescripts, business records. : Includes correspondence (with some letters from Serge Oukrainsky), itineraries, and expense records of the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet. Personal correspondence to conductor and company business manager Adolf Schmidt is also included. One small notebook containing income and expense records for three tours made by the company between December, 1927, and January, 1929. Ballet news. New York. v. 1 no. 11, May 1980, p 42. Notes : Review of San Francisco exhibits: Russian theatre and costume designs at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Jan 19-March 9, 1980; Materials relating to the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet at the San Francisco Public Library. Oukrainsky, Serge, 1886-1972. Title : Scrapbook: Clippings, photographs, programs and typescripts Imprint : 1913-62. Description : 1 v. illus., ports. 41 cm. Notes : PARTIAL CONTENTS.--[Articles and reviews on the Chicago-based Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet Company]--Opera ballets staged by Serge Oukrainsky --20 years memorial of Andreas Pavley, by Serge Oukrainsky.

there seems to have been an article, or at least a mention of a film of Gayne in a February 1979 issue of DANCE MAGAZINE. also the leading character danced by Vycheslova in the film i saw is named NUNE not nina, Nina Anisimova is the choreographer. i now see the NYPublic Library spells the name of the dancer in question as follows: TATIANA VECHESLOVA

i suspect this film that alexandra saw is the same one from which the video cassette excerpts have been taken. i recall a horse somewhere in the CLASSIC KIROV selection.

i know there are excerpts on a few compilation video tapes in the US, primarily on one called CLASSIC KIROV. These excerpts indicate that there is a longer film of the ballet, perhaps one of the complete work in Russia. i have not, however, known of such a film's release, complete, as a commercial video or DVD in the States, or elsewhere. the excerpts we have on US tapes are included in compilations primarily to offer examples of the dancing of tatyana vycheslova, who dances in the film as nina, if memory serves.

this film was part of a recent "dance on camera" festival sponsored by dance films association and held at lincoln center's walter reade theater, i've heard of no plans to release the film commercially.

the only substantial film of FLAMES OF PARIS is the one on STARS OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET, a '53 film. it's on cassette from KULTUR, but rem. it is not the complete ballet, i know of no such film on the market but is given in this russian film as substantial excerpt: as follows (also available on amazon): http://www.kulturvideo.com/AB2046000/webpa...=6&WebPage_ID=3 Stars of the Russian ballet [videorecording] / Lenfilm ; released by Corinth Films ; directed by G. Rappaport.: U.S.S.R. : Lenfilm, 1953 ; U.S. : Kultur, c1988. (82 min.) : sd., col. Notes :Danced by members of the Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet. :Music performed by the orchestra of the Leningrad Theater ; conductors, V. Doubovksy, P. Felot. Swan lake (condensed version) Choreography: Konstantin Sergeev. Music: Tchaikovsky. Performed by Galina Ulanova (Odette), Natalia Dudinskaya (Odile), Konstantin Sergeev (Prince), V. Bakanov (Magician) -- The fountain of Bakhchisaray: excerpts. Choreography: Rostislav Zakharov. Music: B. Asaf'yev. Performed by Galina Ulanova (Maria), Maya Plisetskaya (Zarema), Igor Belskii (Nurahli), Petr Gusev (Girei), Yuri Zhdanov (Vaclav) -- The flames of Paris: excerpts. Choreography: Vasily I. Vainonen. Music: Asaf'yev. Performed by Vakhtang Chabukiani (Philippe), Musa Gotlieb (Jeanne), Yadviga Sangovich (Teresa) Narration and titles in Russian, with English subtitles. Subjects:Swan lake (Choreographic work : Sergeev, K after Ivanov and Petipa, M) Fountain of Bakhchisaray (Choreographic work : Zakharov) Flames of Paris (Choreographic work : Vainonen)

many thanks for this prompt and thorough reply. now i'll have to use some restraint and not fall into the library and wile away hours of surfing. much obliged.

i believe someone somewhere sometime on this site noted that the newyork public library catalogue had actual images - select prints and/or photos - up on catnyp. does this ring a bell with anyone? can anyone tell me how to access these digitalized images from the site itself? is there a special designation in the listing that indicates a pic. that can be called up? or do i hallucinate? w/thanks

i am acquainted with two excellent historians of english ballet, who are working on a long study of the camargo society. not quite a book but an extensive look at the group. i THINK part one of a propsed 2-part result has been finished and published in DANCE RESEARCH a british journal of dance history. i don't have the issue number in question and don't know anything firm about the second part. the NYPublic Lib. for the Perf. Arts would have a complete run of the journals, but as you are in london you might have an easier way of tracking down this down. wish i could be more specific, but that's all i know for now. if i learn more i'll post it.

perfect. how inspired when typos really hit the nail on the head. somewhat reminds me of some dance quiz answers by semi-alert students, one referred to a the famous ballerina solo called 'the dead swan'; another to the 'the sick swan' which in any number of instances seemed a more apt title to several performances of the otherwise entitled 'swan' or 'dying swan'.

i suspect that the staging given here as UNDINA is lacotte's 're-construction' of L'OMBRE from 1993. one NYPLibrary catalogue gives the information below. i believe this is the first time the work is being performed by the kirov: L'Ombre de Taglioni à Nancy. Danser. Paris. no. 112, juin 1993, p. 20. ill. Filippo Taglioni's 1839 ballet, L'Ombre, is revived by Pierre Lacotte for the Ballet de Nancy, with a score by Wilhelm Maurer.

the program notes to the video cassettes of macmillan's 'prince of pagodas' (recorded in 1990) spell out the action of Scene 2, Act II as follows: Princesss Rose's journey continues into a place of illuminated beauty, where the Prince of her betrothal is in exile. He is transmuted, almost faceless. Forced by the Fool, she follows him throught a shifting maze, thinking him a reptile, then falls exhausted. The Fool blindfolds her, and the salamander Prince, transfigured into human shape, approaches. She dances with him unseeing. When she removes her blindfold, he reverts to a reptile; but her compassion is aroused and she hesitantly comforts him. His ugliness and her pity confront each other as the curtain falls. The confusion that you note here concerning the libretto probably comes from the fact that macmillan re-worked the scenario for his 1989 ballet after the original one, worked out in 1957 by britten and john cranko, the first choreographer of the ballet (see particulars below). Prince of the pagodas (Choreographic work : Cranko) Chor: John Cranko; mus: Benjamin Britten; scen: John Piper; cos: Desmond Heeley; lighting: William Bundy. First perf: London, Covent Garden, Jan 1, 1957, Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet.//First U.S. perf: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, Sept 18, 1957, Royal Ballet. Prince of the pagodas Chor: Sir Kenneth MacMillan; mus: Benjamin Britten (The prince of the pagodas); scen & cos: Nicholas Georgiadis; scen: Colin Thubron after John Cranko; lighting: John B. Read. First perf: London, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Dec 7, 1989; Royal Ballet. pa-go-da (puh goh'duh) n. pl. <-das> 1. a temple or sacred building of the Far East, usu. a tower having an upward-curving roof over each story.