Anne

It is sad indeed, but these dancers choose to stay with the NYCB in spite of that and out of their own free will, which means that there must be some kind of reward. It is probably artistically one of the most challenging places in the balletworld with a repertory you don't find anywhere else, and who knows, for a new yorker New York might seem exactly big enough to satisfy one's hunger for fame. So maybe it's only sad for us, the not-new-yorkers!

Thank you for all these informations! That makes one hope that some day this footage will make it's way to the shops. Are you absolutely sure, that the Balanchine Celebration has come out on dvd? I have looked for it for ages (cursing myself for having deleted the tape I made from the television transmission - I hadn't had my Balanchine revelation yet at the time when it was broadcasted and only kept the bit where Nikolaj Hübbe dances ). When I browse the internet it only appears on VHS, and from the prizes I can see that it must have turned into a collector's item (more than 100$ for a used videotape!).

I don't think you're quite right about the Royal Ballet promoting Johan Kobborg at expense of other male dancers, Volcanohunter. As far as I know he has only come out on one dvd on the newest Giselle. I know that he should have danced the Nutcracker Prince in the latest dvd-production but was replaced by Ivan Putrov because he was injured or ill. But please let me know, if I have overlooked a ballet-dvd with Kobborg, I'll buy it immediately! I think he's fabulous.

I quite agree with you! But I always had the impression that the NYCB somehow didn't want very much to have their productions filmed or broadcasted, a bit in line with their less stardancer-fixated image, compaired to f.ex. ABT. But maybe I'm wrong and it all comes down to limited financial ressources in that case too. There are a couple of dvd's with Balanchine ballets, mostly footage from the seventies, which are very interesting but aesthetically rather dull and very seventies-like (not the dancing, I think of some of the costumes, the settings and especially the lighting). It would have been great to have an impression of the style of later generations conserved on a recording too.

It's great to have another Danish-based ballet talker with us! I'm really looking forward to reading your interviews with Hübbe and Schandorff and I hope you'll give some reports on what you see on the stage. As I'm living in the wrong part of Denmark I see far to few perfomances of the RDB, but I'm always greedy to read other's reports. Hübbe had a lot of publicity, when he started out as ballet master in Copenhagen this summer, but there has been more quiet lately, so I'm really curious to read your interview. I hope he's not toot disappointed already. He aired some heavy disappointments on behalf of the dancers and their (lack of) working ethic in an interview in a newspaper some months ago. I must admit that my first thought was, that he should have kept these thoughts to himself or inside the house. My second thought was, that I hope he's not too frustrated already, because in my opinion he has a lot to give this company, both technically and dramatically, and I really hope he'll stay with us. It needs some patience to turn around a big ship like the royal ballet AND it's audience with years of bad habits on it's history. To be among the audience on a rainy november evening for a balletperformance where most of the seats are sold beforehand in a mixed subscription-packet of opera-/ballet-/play-performances can be a most depressing experience. The audience show absolutely no enthusiasm, even if the performance is great. Maybe they do enjoy it but they don't show it. I sometimes think it must be difficult for the dancers to keep up the enthusiasm when the audience seem to be so indifferent. That is one of the reasons I enjoy so very much going to a balletperformance in for example Paris, because there you have the feeling of being among people who can really value what they see and give the dancers the applause they deserve, if they deserve it (what most of them mostly do!). I think we - and by we I mean the Danes in general - should be better at showing appreciation and enthusiasm. And we should also be more courageous and curious and not only attend the traditional and wellknown programmes.

You can't know everything! I ended up taking the tickets in the upper level. Thank you for bothering to answer me even if the answer was a "dunno"!

I just tried to book tickets online for a performance of Don Quixote in the Au-Rene Theatre in the Broward Center and I got confused about where to sit. In the category we want, I could choose between the front row (A) in the wings of the Orchestra-section and right in the middle of the fourth row (D) in the mezzanine. Can anyone recommend one of these two? It looks like a huge theatre to me and I would like not to be to far from the stage, but on the other hand it isn't nice either if one cannot see half the stage because one is sitting too far on the side.

I’m completely overwhelmed by all the helpful addresses and tips about where to go in Florida and where not to. Thank you everybody for taking your time. As Jack Reed puts it, who needs a guidebook when such helpfulnes is pouring down on one! You did quite a good job yourself, Jack, I’d say! I’ll bring my winter’s wardrobe as well as my bikini, taking your advice seriously (and try hard on my crooked running, too! ). I spent most of last night browsing through all the internet websites you listed up for me, cubanmiamiboy, and I suddenly regretted that we have only settled for 8 days. There is so much to see, though it seems that Mid-February is kind of off-season. Most performances and many exhibitions are either before or after our vacation. I’m happy we stay with (distant) family as it seems that most hotels are either expensive or noisy. It sounds like the traffic is a real nightmare in Florida, and maybe especially around Miami. I was especially happy for the information you gave me, Jack Reed, that Edward Villella gives some preperformance talks. I hope we’ll be lucky when we’re there. Do you think it is announced on the company homepage beforehand? I was surprised he’s alive. He’s so much of a legend that one automatically (or at least I do) thought he must belong completetly to the past. I would have been happy to see one of the Balanchine programmes, as it sounds like it’s the real core of the company’s repertoire. An other time it would be great to meet some of you BT's, but this time I'm afraid we're occupied with family. But thank you anyhow for your kind offers!

Thank you for the tip, Pegasus! Unfortunately I will be well back in Denmark at the end of February, so I will miss that one. But thanks anyway! It seems that Florida, and Miami especially, has a lot to offer on classical ballet. I have heard of the Everglades, Bart, and have already planned to go there. Hope to see an alligator! I will take a close look at the clouds, as they seem to be a central figure in the landscape. Maybe the sky is more important when the land is flat. The western part of Denmark is very flat and watery too, and people there always talk proudly about how big the sky is in their part of the country.

Thank you for your kind answer, Bart! I think I'll buy tickets for the Don Quixote, then. It's not my favourite ballet but performed well it can be quite a feast. I was pleasantly surprised by the ticket prizes, I thought it would be much more expensive. I suppose there are no subsidies from the state or county for cultural activities in Florida. That's why it surperises me, that the prizes are absolutely comparable to the prizes in many european theatres, where the government subsides heavily. I'm happy to hear that the climate is good and not too hot at that time of year. I feared a bit about the heat and humidity, being used to the chilled Danish climate!

I'm going on holiday to Florida next February, more precisely somewhere near Fort Lauderdale, and I wonder if somebody on this site would fancy giving me some good ideas about where to go and what to see? I don't know much about Florida, but of cause I have heard about Disney World, Kennedy Space Center and all these big and famous things. What I am curious about is where to find some more special things like good places to hear music, dance venues etc. Something that might not be in my tourist guidebook about Florida. I have found out so much that there are at least two classical ballet companies in Florida, Miami City Ballet and Ballet Florida. How are these companies? MCB have a production of Don Quixote on the programme when we are there. Is it worthwhile seing it?

You're right about Des Grieux: you need a believable Des Grieux as a counterpoint to Manon and all the the other dubious yet more colourful characters to outbalance the drama. The difficulty is probably to find a dancer who can make us believe both in his innocence AND in his corruptability. He actually ends up committing murder and that can be hard to believe if the dancer is too "milky". But if well done it's a fantastic story about how fragile we all are if our life gets caught in the storms of passion. Des Grieux's gullibility always makes him realize too late what he's been trapped into, but he hasn't got the strength to free himself again, and because of his education and upbringing he's always painfully aware of the sins he commits, which makes their devastating effect on his character even worse. It's like operations without anaestetics.

I'm quite familiar with these "amazon frenzies" . It's dangerous if they last too long!

True! Dowell and Penney - especially Dowell - are very English and lack the rawness as you put it so well. And you're right to about the staging too, the RD-version is a bit muddy in the colours and the costumes, especially the women's, are not very flattering. I wonder why you don't buy dvds over amazon. I got my Manon (new!) for about 10$ + shipping costs from the American amazon. You might have the problem with the codes then because you live in Australia, but if you have a dvd-player with a decoder that shouldn't be a problem. Just a friendly suggestion - you might already be aware of that possibility.

I agree with you that Lopatkina is a very good Odette (I have only seen her on video with the Kirov), and I love her ability to make beautiful lines and arches with her body, she's so flexible! As Odile, though, I prefer Agnes Letestu with the POB, who is the most dangerous Odile I have ever seen. Her contemptuous smiles and expressions could make one's heart freeze. As Odette I missed some more warmth, though her interpretation is absolutely comitted. It's only a pity that Nureyevs Swanlake is so deadboring in any other aspect! Someone mentioned Nathalie Nordquist from the Swedish Ballet, whom I have seen both live and on video, and I aggree that she's the most lovely Odette ever, all vulnerability and sweetness, but as Odile she's just not dangerouos enough - yet!

I often wondered why MacMillans Ballets were not discussed more often in this forum, but I can see that there's plenty of interest, as soon as the topic pops up! Sometimes MacMillan's ballets are dismissed as bad taste, and after having seen Mayerling on video I somehow understand why. Like Bart wrote, one only waits for it to end! But with Manon it’s quite another matter, I simply think it’s one of the best story ballets in recent years, only equalled by Cranko’s Onegin and Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet. And I love the music, though there's not much left of Massenet in it! The only weakness is it’s overlength, many of the crowd-scenes in the street or in the brothel could easily have been shortened. My first encounter with Manon was a performance with the RDB with Rose Gad and Mads Blangstrup. She had all the right qualities for Manon: the perfect looks, exuding this confusing mixture of naivety and calculation, which is necessary to make the story believable, and then of course great dancing. Blangstrup was a bit blank in the role as des Grieux and had some difficulties with the many adagio solos, which aren’t exactly his field. I thought these solos were boring until I saw them performed by Anthony Dowell on the RD-video. It is so obvious that these solos are made for him, suddenly they make sense and he can fill these steps with meaning. He is not my favourite dancer (his lack of turnout always disturbs me, but I love his lightness and seeming effortlessness), but he has all the right poetic qualities for this part. I have seen the Australian dvd too, and I think it has some good qualities, but it’s not half as good as the RD-version. It has a lot of smooth dancing, but when it comes to characterization and timing it’s far behind the older version. Especially the first pas de deux of Manon and des Grieux is beyond all comparison: when one has finally got used to Jennifer Penney’s long and ”flaky” arms and her 70’es looks, most other performances seem pale and insignificant. What is also good about their perfomance is the timing, especially in this pas de deux and in the next one in the flat of des Grieux. It is so close on the music, it’s thrilling. Thrilling too is the drunken pas de deux of Lescaut and his mistress in the second act: What David Wall and Monica Mason can do togehther is a small wonder in elegant timing, all these nearly-catch-the-hand-and-missing-it and all the nearly-stumbling (not to mention the final black out where he falls flat on the back, I still don’t understand how he manages without getting hurt) are so hilarious, I can see it again and again! Compare that pas de deux with the Australian version, and the Australians fail completely. But I think the Australians win in the third act of the ballet. Justin Summers and Steven Heathcote are much more moving in the final tragedy than Penney and Dowell (one just doesn’t believe it when Dowell takes to the knife!), and their dancing is more passionate and effective too.

I have seen Lacotte's La Sylphide on stage in Paris some years ago (with Isabella Ciaravola as the Sylph and a very young Mathieu Ganio as James), and and I noticed that in general his characters are less complex than the Bournonville ones. Lacottes witch is very much just a "standard witch", who would mostly leave you in peace if you don't come across her path or treat her badly like James does. One is wise to keep oneself out of her way. But the way she is characterized doesn't make you wondering who she "really" is or what her past might have been. She's probably born a witch and will stay like that for another 200 years. If she's offended she'll revenge herself and that's that, and in this case it's the end of James. One thing I liked very much in the Paris version was the scene in the first act, where the Sylph mingles into the pas de deux of James and Effie, making it a pas de trois. Like a ghost she goes between them, only seen and felt by James. It is a real coup de theatre. I'm not sure if this pas de trois was in the original version by Taglioni or if it is an invention by Lacotte. But in any case it was a terrific moment.

I have seen the Onegin ballet a couple of times on the stage, and it is in effect very effective, though of course musically a bit "thinner" than the opera. I think it's one of the most moving ballets I have ever seen, especially the many pas de deux’ which really portrait the persons and their relationship. It’s very poetic too. The opera is one of my favorites among operas, and the newly released dvd from the Met is just gorgeous! I often wonder why there are so few Cranko ballets on dvd. I once saw his Romeo and Juliet in a television transmission, and the Zürich Ballet had his version on the repetory for many years which I happened to see many times. I think it’s one of the best Romeo and Juliet-ballets, only equalled by Neumeiers version. If the RB Onegin comes out with Cojocaru and Kobborg, it’s just fabulous!!

I can see your point. But somehow the sylph IS a bourgeois dream, a purely romantic figure. Today she would of course look different. But I think it's nice to be free to add these extra features to her in your mind instead of having them done for you on the stage. That makes her ONLY bourgeois and not bourgeois AND many other things.

I had that notion myself! She did indeed suck life and brain out of him by that kiss. There was not much tenderness in it. Like the dementors she maybe hoped to have him transferred to her world through that kiss, and when he dies instead, she despairs. In the small video Alexander Kølpin has made about this very performance you can actually see that scene in a very short glimpse from a rehearsal room. I made a link to this video in an other post on this board earlier this summer on July 30.

Thank you for making this link to the ETUDES article by Alexander Meinertz. I didn't know that ETUDES has so many "faces" depending on where or by whom it is performed. It was really interesting and I enjoyed a lot reading it!

Yes, it's true, most productions abroad are made by Danes, but I guess they feel much more free to experiment when working abroad and with foreign dancers. When Peter Schaufuss made his version of La Sylphide with the RDB som 15 years ago, he met a lot of opposition among both dancers and from parts of the audience too, who thought he was not true to the original. He didn't experiment a lot, but he changed the dress of the sylphs, with more laces, foliage on the skirt and a string of pearls round the neck, a bit like a porcelaine figure from the early 19. century. The Sylph was very bourgeois. In the time after the premiere those extra features "disappeared" one by one, and when Schaufuss left the post as balletmaster, they turned back to the old sets and costumes. He made the same production in Berlin a couple of years ago (I haven't seen it, but it looks like the same from the pictures and the description), and it runs for the third season now and seems to be a succes. A foreign company and a foreign audience are more open, but maybe also less critical because they don't know the original. They can't compare.

A new book on La Sylphide has been published in Denmark some months ago: Anne Middelboe Christensen: "Sylfiden findes. En svævebog". It's a terrific book for all lovers of Bournonville's Sylphide, the only problem for most members of this board is that it is in Danish. But if you understand just a little scrap of Danish, the book is a treasurebox full of facts about the history of the ballet, it's interpretations and it's interpreters, AND some absolutely fantastic black and white stage- and backstagephotos made especially for this book by the photographer Jan Grarup, who normally makes warzone-photos. There are many pictures by other photographers too. The book is worth having for the pictures alone. You can see some of the photos if you zap around in the homepage for the book: Anne Middelboe Christensen: Sylfiden. En svævebog The title means something like: The Sylph exists. A floating book. The last word "svævebog" is an invention of the author and doesn't exist in Danish, but of course it's an allution to the floating world of the sylphs.

Thank for that highly interesting information! It's certainly a very radical interpretation to make Madge an attractive woman, and it makes it more believable that she and James have had some sort of relationship in the past. But somehow I think it blurs the contrasts in the cast: It's a giant step from having Madge played by a man, as she was by the premiere in 1836, to letting her be a young and attractive woman. It makes the psychology very modern and less archetypical, less fairytalelike. In my opinion it narrows down the interpretation instead of broadening it. (Madge was, I must say, also played by female dancers in Bournonville's time, but she was always very witch-like.) It also takes a lot of weight from the contrast between Effy and the Sylph, when you let in a third "rival". Somehow I could imagine that it makes the dramatic balance topple from being a conflict between the safe, wellknown world, represented by Effy, and the dangerous, but compelling forest world, represented by Madge and the Sylph, to being a conflict between to forces of nature, which leaves Effy a bit lost on the sidelines. Maybe I'm just influenced by the Danish tradition, where a lot of effort is done to make Effy and Gurn real and likable characters and thus representing a true alternative to the Sylph-world. But it's really interesting to hear about these different interpretations! It shows that the ballet is full of possibilities. Maybe it's easier for not-Danish companies to make these experiments because they are not bound by tradition. And I think it's good so, because it helps highlighting some aspects of the story which might be overlooked in Copenhagen because of the closeness to the subject. But also in Copenhagen I think they are very good at keeping the ballet alive: none of the many performances I have seen of La Sylphide with the RDB have been alike. It seems that the limits of experimenting with the charakters and their psychology are very wide, even in the same production. Only when it comes to the more general setting there are very definite limitations. And it probably has to be so in the house where the Sylph was born and kept alive for 172 years. Like Nikolaj Hübbe said once and I quote from memory: There's no need to add colours to a Rembrandt. A new book on La Sylphide has been published in Denmark some months ago: Anne Middelboe Christensen: "Sylfiden findes. En svævebog". It's a terrific book for all lovers of Bournonville's Sylphide, the only problem for most members of this board is that it is in Danish. But if you understand just a little scrap of Danish, the book is a treasurebox full of facts about the history of the ballet and it's interpreters during time, AND some absolutely fantastic black and white stage- and backstagephotos made especially for this book by the photographer Jan Grarup, who normally makes warzone-photos. There are many pictures by other photographers too. The book is worth having for the pictures alone. You can see some of the photos if you zap around in the homepage for the book: Anne Middelboe Christensen: Sylfiden. En svævebog The title means something like: "The Sylph exists. A floating book". The last word "svævebog" is an invention of the author and doesn't exist in Danish, but of course it's an allution to the floating world of the sylphs.

Hey, thats an interesting topic! I would like to warm it up. I have always interpreted Sorella Englund's Madge as being in love with James, as a contrast to many other witches who just incarnate evil. Until recently I only knew her Magde from the dvd and I read her expression in the end as far from triumph, it looks more like despair to me. One subtle thing she does, right at the end, just before the curtain falls, is the way she holds her arms lifted: for a long time the curve of her arms is exactly the same as the the arms of the sylphs behind her. That made me think that somewhere inside she is an old and withered sylph. But back to Madge's love for James: I was confirmed about this interpretation as I saw Englund as Madge this April when she danced in the farewell-performance of Nikolaj Hübbe, doing his last James: After the death of the sylph, James asks her "why?", falling to his knees in front of her. Englund then took his face between her hands and kissed him, and he fell to to the ground, not yet dead but completely destroyed and very close to madness. Afterwards he was forced by Madge to watch Effy passing by with Gurn, and then he broke down and died. This Madge was certainly in love with James! It was one of the most an horrifying moments I have ever experienced in the theatre.