whetherwax

Just guessing here. I recently saw The Jerome Robbins celebration in Melbourne and thought that the choreography of The Cage in particular was so complex that one couldnt just pass on a written list of the steps( e.g. plie with bottom wriggling)for any company that wanted to do it. So must a company employ someone who has danced or taught the steps so that they will be correct each time it is put on? So is it the Repetiteur who fills that role and who works with the ballet master? If this is so, it means that ballet is a little like Zen Buddhism where lineage and the passing of knowlege through the generations is very important. In other words ballet really is like a religion!!!

Mr Acosta is getting a great deal of coverage here. He is appearing in the Australian Ballet's Celebration of Jerome Robbins, in - Afternoon of a Faun . Some people feel that his talents are not being used in such a short ballet. I unfortunately went to the matinee and didnt see him. I did enjoy the selection of Robbins works done by the Australian Ballet though. Interviews have appeared in several papers covering his childhood and the film in the pipeline - nothing new though.

I think it is fascinating . In this time of global change ALL our narratives will need to include aspects of saving the planet. It seems timely that such things are entering the 'high' arts. The news media continually deals with narratives that are coloured green - certainly here in Australia one cant read a daily without some reference to the problems of woodchipping or water rationing etc etc. So I guess even opera must respond to the zeitgiest. How it will manage seems very problematic.

I meant to add that they are doing; The Cage, Suite of Dances, Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert.

Even at the other end of the ballet world we are having a Jerome Robbins celebration in Melbourne. The Australian Ballet is doing some short works of his this June. I even have a balcony seat to a matinee. (I'll have to take my binoculars.)

Svetlana Zarkarova doesnt do that mad little dance in this version. Does anyone know why? It is the Markarova production but this dance is omitted. Could it be because her body -type is wrong for such a dance? Asylmuratova and Guerin look wondrous doing this variation but maybe Zarkarova is just too long and elegant to sway her hips so fetchingly.

I just want to say that it was those backward hops by Mia Slavenska in Ballet Russe DVD - i saw it last year - that startled and intrigued me so much and caused my re discovery of the glorious world of ballet. I couldnt believe that someone could make something SO difficult look so beautiful.

I've been hunting for sheet music - I have NO ear - suitably easy for a very beginner pianist, without luck. I wish I did know more about music to understand why it is such an exhilerating piece. I guess it works up to a speedy finale. I have seen it danced by a Russian dancer in one of those head framing folk headresses on utube and it is very exciting. I play Marcelo Gomes and the Female russian dancer often and find myself dancing round the house at great speed.

Could anyone tell me the name of the Russian dance piece performed in the ABT Swan lake by Mr Gomez. I would like to try to teach myself to play it.It sounds like troikas pursued by wolves in the most exciting russian folk tradition and is likely to be impossible to learn for a novice.However...

Thanks all for advice and responses re the Cornejos. Re the other thread Chrisk217 I will take your advice - I take your point about MidSND as I am always drawn to the "faerie" aspect of ballet. I am getting ready to learn about Balanchine having just read Taper's biography with pleasure and I find that the Australian Ballet is putting on Ballet Imperial in month or so!!

Carbro put me onto their La Sylphide - for which I am foot lickingly grateful - and then the ABC put on the ABT's Swan lake two nights ago and there they were delighting me again. Am i right in saying that Herman has extreme ballon? How i'd love to be able to see them dance in the flesh.

Just last night on non commercial TV( i.e govt sponsored ) a variety program had a piece called "Men in Tutus" Yes you've guessed, it was even worse than trocoderos. A take off of Swan Lake in false eyelashes and blue eyeshadow so vile as to stunt my growth for sure. Cringeworthy to the extreme. Until society doesnt need to massage gender difference we're going to get this stuff - but this is, I think, different from the sense of belonging to a different physical team. The gender reinforcement is one thing , but baracking for a different form of phsysical activity is another.

Guiltily I confess to an absolute wallow in Terry Pratchet land. In particular Wintersmith. I love the way he weaves folk wisdom and witty connections into his stories. Making witches into village social workers was pretty good. I seem to be off serious stuff at present . Its all kept for my ballet DVDs.So sad though to hear that he has alzheimers.

In Australia there is a large audience for ballet considering how sports mad we are supposed to be,yet to my horror anytime a any media outlet wants to get a laugh they put some big yobbo footballer in a Tutu. I think it is changing but slowly.

Thanks to all. I am blown away by the leaps of the Cornejos - wow. So this is what the Bourneville stuff is about. And have now watched every James on U tube.!! I was delighted to see there Ghislaine Thesmar as the Sylph - she seemed so kind in Dancers Dream coaching Isabel Guerin. I did buy Prince of Pagodas ( still digesting it) and there is a documentary there on MacMillan which has made me brave enough to try Manon.

Thanks, I'll check these. I've steered clear of Modernish ballets ( romeo and Juliet for example) for fear of pain. - What a coward - Manon is probably in that category BUT I have to find more ballets to watch so....

I have amassed various DVD versions of Giselle ,Swan Lake, La Bayadere,Sleeping Beauty and a Don Quixote, Sylvia, and Coppelia. Could people give me some advice as to where to go next. I thought perhaps Pharogh's ( sp) daughter or Prince of Pavillions or Paquita. I am using them to learn as much as i can. I dont think I'll try Balanchine until later. I fear that whatever I look at next will not have the depth of the BIG white ballets that have been so rewarding. I found Sylvia a bit lightweight although pleasing. I guess there are only those 4 biggies that carry such a charge. So any advice would be welcome.

I'll just add that for me as a newcomer the Joker is a good thing if well danced. In the Kirov version he seems to be a counterpoint to the tutor and sets up that contrast between the joy of life and the need for duty that is behind Siegfried. Gives a bit of metaphorical depth to Siegfrieds psychology. Also visually for me he is a balance for the prettiness of the revels. In the La Scala version the Joker seems warm and affectionate again a balance against the formality of court life. So I spose I'm responding to the psychological aspects of the drama rather than understanding the aspects of technigue that others would value.

The Nureyev version is not a good experience on DVD - minimalism might have helped. I thought Rothbart looked like a Huntman spider - common here - not a Horned Owl at all, and he had a sort of jerky movement which seems reminiscent of some indigenous dances I've seen. And poor Fonteyn floating off with her head down as if she really was looking for minnows.

Thank you Paul Parish this is the answer to a question I mistakenly posted elsewhere. It is the psychological dimension that is so compelling about the Bourmeister version and it also seems to give the male lead dancer more to do.

In some ways it was a surprise because with a DVD you are sort of directed by the camera to look at certain things - which I have grown to like. So I was surprised by the fact that the whole ensemble was clammering for my attention. Odette was just one of the people on stage usually , and that fragile, febrile, isolation which the camera provides, was lacking. I was in the balcony just 2 rows back but I still seemed a long way away. This meant of course that I could see the spatial relationships and the patterns of the corps very well. The lighting was a big thrill too - a kind of rosy glow shone from all the dancers. I would however, like to see a a big classical ballet on a big stage and I would try to get a closer seat in the stalls next time, but at the moment I am happy with the DVD. The close ups and the chance to see the technical stuff appeals on DVD because I'm very much in learning mode more than just enjoying at present.

Bart, I love the La Scala ballet too but I am confused about the ending. Does Siegfried's leap into the lake ( so well portrayed) mean that because he was READY to die he was able to overcome Rothbart? There seems to be no psychological reason for the ending at all. Also just by the way do you think that the two horns of Rothbarts cape sticking up as he goes down the plug is intended to remind us of the Russian Owl which is apparently two horned?

For the price of a live performance $92 in Australia I can buy 3 DVDs. Even more worrying is the fact that DVDs are usually made of crack companies with great stars. There is a great deal of money spent on design the stages are capacious, effects really good. As well, we get superb close ups of the dancers which can be impossible unless you have THE very beat seats in a live performance. Does anyone think that DVDs will have a lasting impact on attendance?

This was only my second live performance and the other was 55 years ago!. I wasnt disappointed. The principals Natalia Domracheva and Viktor Ishchuk, were excellent, and the corps was precise and delicate. Natalia's black swan was wonderfully nasty and lively. There were a few things to set me thinking. The Palais theatre is old ( you know that smell of dust in old theatres ( I wouldnt want to have asthma) and the stage small but they managed to perform without obvious reigning in. The orchestra seemed a bit scratchy, the backdrops were in rather garish taste - almost disneyish. The costumes were lovely. The first act was pretty useless. The dancing was fine but there was no narrative established - the tutor waffled around to no point, the queen didnt seem to have any comment on the illicit get together, there was no joker - just a lot of pretty girls and boys dancing( all very delightfully). So someone with no knowlege of the story would be a little lost. The performers are all very young and the whole Australian tour must be a good learning experience as I heard that in rural outback places they dance to CD. They seem to be in a new place every night -some stages must be very small and unsuitable. So its a bit like a tour of the provinces for the youngsters. However they gave a great deal of pleasure to fans even though they were dancing under some difficulty.

I have DVDs of the Kirov and La Scala versions - I like both. The Bournmeister seems to have much more for Siegfried to dance. What are the general preferences of board members ? Which do dancers prefer?