Balanchine & applause

[silvy]

On watching a tape of Balanchine's Symphony in C, I reflected on whether Balanchine did (or did not) object to audience clapping between the different movements in his "symphonic" or "concert" ballets.

The reason why I enquiry this is that I know Balanchine held music in high regard (he had a sound musical training), and as we know, audiences do not clap between the movements in a concert in a concert hall.

Personally, I do not like the business of audiences applauding and dancers bowing, in between - I felt it cuts the flow of the work.

As far as I know, and this is :offtopic: Wagner did not like his singers bowing in his musical dramas.

I would welcome both clarification, and your opinions!!!

Silvy

[Cygnet]

On watching a tape of Balanchine's Symphony in C, I reflected on whether Balanchine did (or did not) object to audience clapping between the different movements in his "symphonic" or "concert" ballets.

The reason why I enquiry this is that I know Balanchine held music in high regard (he had a sound musical training), and as we know, audiences do not clap between the movements in a concert in a concert hall.

Personally, I do not like the business of audiences applauding and dancers bowing, in between - I felt it cuts the flow of the work.

As far as I know, and this is :offtopic:  Wagner did not like his singers bowing in his musical dramas.

I would welcome both clarification, and your opinions!!!

Silvy

Andris Liepa mentioned in "Gergiev and the Kirov" that in Petipa's day, it was expected that the ballerina would take as long as she wished for applause, regardless of the music. Also, the audience clamored for the courtseys. The PDD, variations or coda could each be show stoppers.

Perhaps because of his musical training, Balanchine rebelled against chopping up the music for applause. (?) Maybe he didn't want to adapt that 'custom' for his company. He didn't believe in slowing down the tempo for a dancer either.

Think of it this way: If Albrecht completes his variation in Act 2 by collapsing from 'dance exhaustion,' it looks absurd if he leans up on his elbow, smiles, acknowledges applause and lies back down on stage.

[Mme. Hermine]

:shrug: a friend once saw helpmann do just that; except he got up, took a bow and got back down again, she said!

[carbro]

Think of it this way:  If Albrecht completes his variation in Act 2  by collapsing from 'dance exhaustion,' it looks absurd if he leans up on his elbow, smiles, acknowledges applause and lies back down on stage.

Jose Carreno does this, as if reaching for Giselle, and while on the one hand it is not a seamless keeping of character, the ovation for his variation invariably does seem to demand some kind of acknowledgement.

Back to Symphony in C, I do not feel that applause after each movement is inapporpriate. Each of the first three movements has its unique cast, and the sections are separated by a pause. On the other hand, the habitual announcement before Goldberg Variations advising the audience to please hold its applause until the end of the ballet smacks of grandiosity , even though applause there is disruptive.

Edited March 13, 2004 by carbro

[Mel Johnson]

Balanchine did not object to applause during "Symphony in C", but certainly disapproved of it during "Divertimento #15". The request to hold applause during this ballet is still printed with the program notes, and still routinely ignored.

[Helene]

The issue with Divertimento #15 is that the applause comes between variations and between the pas de deux, in the middle of the movements. There aren't as many points during the movements of Symphony in C that call for spontaneous applause. Francia Russell in a post-performance Q&A noted Balanchine's request about Divertimento, but did say that the dancers live to hear the applause for their variations. The dancers must have been disappointed with the crowds after opening night was attended by Dance Theater of Harlem, which gave rousing ovations after each one.

Goldberg would be impossibly long if people clapped between movements. With two themes and 32 variations, the audience would get "applause fatigue" fairly soon into the performance, and the dancers might have trouble hearing the piano for their next entrances, as well as being demoralized by the fall-off.

[Farrell Fan]

I wonder what Balanchine thought of applause during Apollo. I'm thinking specifically of the applause after the muses' variations. What usually happens is that after Calliope does hers, there is little or no applause, perhaps because the ending comes as a surprise and Apollo is obviously displeased. His displeasure at Polyhymnia is less clear-cut and her variation is livelier, so she gets a nice round of applause. By the time Terpsichore has her turn, both Apollo and the audience are more receptive, so she gets strong applause. Then if the pas de deux is halfway decent, it brings down the house. Except for the sometimes embarrassing smattering that Calliope gets, all this clapping doesn't really bother me, although it certainly breaks the mood. What I thoroughly dislike is applause during Davidsbundlertanze. To me that ballet relates an unfolding tragedy, and both music and choreography brook no interruption.

[MJ]

Who reads the program notes? If you can find them sandwiched between the ads for Luxury items I don't want.

A politePA mention that

"The Choreographer prefers you hold your applause until the end. The use of flash photography will cause the ballerinas to catch fire and explode. Strong perfumes tend to annoy those seated around you. Please use a throat losengz if you need to cough. Exits are located to the right and left and in the rear of the auditorium. If there is a sudden decompression of the aditorium, this means a Tornado has hit the building. It is against regulations to smoke in the restrooms.

Enjoy the show!"

MJ

[Michael]

I don't mind a smattering of spontaneous applause in media res. It's a subjective reaction, it salutes the dancers and it doesn't distract me.

As for applause in the structural breaks in a piece, the conductor and the dancers themselves have great influence over how long and even when the audience applauds. When the dancers and the orchestra actually stop for and invite it, it can't be argued that it is inappropriate.

You might wish, though, that a company invited it less. And when, as sometimes happens, the orchestra and dancers halt for applause but are greated with widespread indifference, or halt for more applause than the audience wishes to give, it is just embarassing. Everyone, I think, can remember such moments.

[Manhattnik]

I suppose the most (in)famous example of Balanchine's reaction to audience applause came during City Ballet's first Russian tour, when an audience was so taken with Eddie Villella's solo in Donizetti Variations that they brought the performance to a halt with noisy demands for an encore, which Villella and the orchestra's conductor eventually supplied. Needless to say, Balanchine was not pleased, and Villella details in his autobiography the somewhat humiliating way Balanchine got the message across.

[Ari]

One thing I know that Balanchine disliked was applause before the music has stopped playing. This bothers me, too. It's as if the audience thinks that once the dancers have stopped moving the ballet is over -- that the music isn't an integral part of the ballet. If nothing else, it's rude to the musicians, treating them as accompanists rather than participants in the work.

[MJ]

I believe the female Bluebird solo in SB/AW ends several seconds before the music, and the ballerina does a little pantomime. Audience always applauds early.

MJ

[Hans]

MJ, are you sure? I never remember that happening; in fact Princess Florine's variation always seems to end with an obvious flourish.

[bobbi]

One of the places where applause irks me the most is in the middle of Apollo, just as Apollo rests his head on the palms of hands of the three muses. It's the very moment when he sees his destiny as a god. Why people applaud there I will never know: if people are really paying attention to the music they should be able to hear that it's not over. In Balanchine's day (at least from the time I started viewing NYCB), there used to be just a smattering of applause -- from the newbies -- but it quickly died out. Nowadays, it's the other way around: more people applaud at that moment than don't. I'm sure you can all come up with other moments of inappropriate applause in other Balanchine ballets, but this I find really irksome.