Grand Pas Classique

[Hans]

I decided not to add this onto the already unwieldy "Variations" thread, though it could easily go there. I am going to be dancing the variation from "Grand Pas Classique" in June and wanted to ask about different versions of it. I've seen the version with Sylvie Guillem and Manuel Legris (the tape of them at the Hans Christian Anderson awards) and wondered if there were any other versions out there--perhaps a more Russian one...? I don't know how much the choreography changes from one dancer to another, but I imagine that in a gala piece like GPC, it probably gets changed around quite a bit.

[Alexandra]

Wasn't that a French piece to begin with? Gsovsky worked in Paris (he taught, among many, many others, Violette Verdy) and that was his big hit, choreographed for Yvette Chauvire and Vladimir Skouratoff. I'm sure there are variations -- Cynthia Gregory lit a cigarette, but that's probably not what you're after -- but I'm not sure going for Russian here is ...appropriate? authentic?

[Dale]

There is one with Platel on one of those Nina Ananiashvili and Friends tapes. It's put out by VAI - http://www.vaimusic.com/VIDEO/69213_Ananshv3.shtml

It's much more, as you put it, Russian style. I also think there is one on the Russian Ballet series with historical items. I can't get to the tape now but it was with Soloviev [a great model of Russian style] with Kolpakova, I think, or another female dancer.

[Manhattnik]

This just came up on the boards fairly recently. There's a film of Komleva and Soloviev doing GPC, which was made in the early Seventies, I think. It's quite amazing, and very different in style than the French ones I've seen, with some choreographic tweaking here and there. What Komleva does with the fouettes in the coda must be seen to be believed, and Soloviev's beats are awe-inspiring. Well, to me they are.

It's available on a compliation called Russian Ballet, the Glorious Tradition, Vol 3 -- it's a sensational video, with many, many wonderful bits:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=video&n=507846

[Hans]

Thank you for the links, Dale and Manhattnik--I've actually been wanting to see the Soloviev and Komleva pas de deux for quite some time, as I didn't know it was commercially available. And I'm always happy to watch Platel .

Alexandra, if it were a more choreographically important pas de deux like Sleeping Beauty or Giselle, I would worry about that more, but since I'm only dancing the variation and it's such a "gala" piece, I'm not as worried about invoking the wrath of the Ballet Gods.

[Estelle]

Hans, Agnès Letestu and José Martinez also were filmed in this ballet about five years ago, in a gala honoring Yvette Chauviré at the Paris Opera. However, I doubt it's available commercially- but perhaps it can be found in libraries?

[Hans]

Thank you, Estelle; I will look for that tape, though I don't think I'll be very likely to find it anywhere very nearby--my town's public library system is not the greatest.