MakarovaFan Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 If you could go back in time, what are the top 5 dancers and ballets you would most like to see in live performance? Mine are: 1) Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maximova, Maris Liepa and Olga Temifeyeva in SPARTACUS 2) Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov in SWAN LAKE 3) Tanaquil LeClerq in LA VALSE 4) Olga Spessivtseva in GISELLE 5) Violette Verdy in EMERALDS Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 hmm i like this question! if i can only have 5 i think it would be: Nijinsky and Karsavina in Spectre Spessivtseva in Giselle Danilova, Franklin and Massine in Gaite Parisienne Fonteyn in Sleeping Beauty in 1949 at the Met The first performance of Serenade in 1934. Link to comment
MakarovaFan Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Great call, Mme. Hermine, about Fonteyn in the 1949 SLEEPING BEAUTY. What I wouldn't give to have seen that performance. Link to comment
Mashinka Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 1) Fonteyn & Nureyev's first performance together in Giselle. 2) Ulanova in Giselle. 3) Dudinskaya & Nureyev in Laurencia. 4) Soloviev in Le Corsaire. 5) Markova in Tudor's Romeo & Juliet. Link to comment
perky Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Carlotta Grisi in the premiere of Giselle Mathilda Kschessinskaya in Esmeralda, and I want to be able to try on all the precious jewelry her royal lovers gave her. Fokine's Cleopatra with Ida Rubinstein, Anna Pavlova, Karsavina and Nijinsky. Nijinsky in The Afternoon of a Faun Premiere of Balanchine's The Prodigal Son. Marie-Jeanne in Ballet Imperial. Two lost Balanchine ballets when they were still being danced, Roma with Tanaquil LeClerq and The Seven Deadly Sins with Allegra Kent. Margot Fonteyn in Ashton's Cinderella and Apparitions. The premiere of Agon. Gelsey Kirkland dancing Barocco. Suzanne Farrell's return to NYCB in 1975, I think it was, dancing 2nd movement Symphony in C. Suzanne Farrell dancing Sanquinic in The Four Temperments. I could of course go on and on, but will stop here. and I just realized that is way more than five, sorry! Link to comment
dido Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Karsavina in Firebird (or anything really) Plisetskaya in Swan Lake (or anything really) Spessivtseva in Giselle Danilova in Coppelia Alonso in Giselle Link to comment
sandik Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Karsavina in Firebird (or anything really) Only five? Yikes! 1 - Karsavina, definitely. 2 - Ballet Comique de la Reine, or any of the big court ballets. 3 - Laban's movement choir "Vom Tauwind und der Neuen Freude" (The Spring Wind and the New Joy) which was scheduled to be performed in conjunction with the 1936 Olympics but was cancelled by Goebbels after a dress rehearsal. 4- The premiere of Sacre du Printemps 5 - Hanya Holm's Trend or Doris Humphrey's complete New Dance (they were both Bennington events, so can I list them together?) My personal view of the afterlife is that, if I'm a good girl in the here and now, later on I get to see anything I missed, and if I really like it, I get to learn to dance it! Link to comment
carbro Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Oh, gosh! Having seen quite a few of those mentioned, I feel o-l-d! Karsavina and Nijinsky in anything, but probably mostly Les Sylphides and Giselle. LeClerq in Barocco and 4T's. Taglioni's Sylph. Kolpakova's Raymonda. Fonteyn's Swan. Plisetskaya's Kitri and Odette/Odile. Danilova's Myrtha and Swanilda. Lifar's Apollo (has anyone else seen the electrifying snippet of him in Faune?) Pavel Gerdt, Russian hearthtrob. Bournonville in . . . Bournonville. Link to comment
ConstanzaElisabeth Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Im not very educated about ballet history and all that, but there is one that I would absolutely love to see-the original Pas de Quatre. Link to comment
Hans Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 I have to cheat and divide it into two centuries: 19th Century: Taglioni in La Sylphide Pas de Quatre Legnani in Swan Lake Brianza in Sleeping Beauty Virginia Zucchi in just about anything 20th Century: Karsavina/Nijinsky in Les Sylphides and Le Spectre de la Rose Sizova in the legendary Sleeping Beauty at the Met in the 60's Kolpakova in Sleeping Beauty Kirsten Simone and Henning Kronstam in just about anything Kschessinskaya in her prime...I suppose in Swan Lake Link to comment
MakarovaFan Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 I was wrong to limit everyone's choices to 5. So let's expand it to 10. Here's my extra 5: Fonteyn in SLEEPING BEAUTY Kirkland & Baryshnikov in GISELLE Makarova in LA BAYADERE Plisetskaya in anything Soloviev in anything Link to comment
Giannina Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Straying from the topic a bit, I was surprised to find a video of Sleeping Beauty with Solovyov (same as "Soloviev, right?) as Desire. Bought it from Kultur. Sizova is Aurora; Dudinskaya (in her mid-50's and on pointe) is Carabosse; Makarova and Panov dance the Bluebird pdd. It was filmed in 1965. Giannina Link to comment
Helene Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 My top 5 (not in order): Premiere of Liebeslieder Walzer, primarily for Verdi and Ludlow (Talk about greed!) Tanaquil LeClerq in Symphony in C (2nd movement) Lew Christensen in Apollo Henning Kronstam in Apollo Premiere of Agon (More greed!) Next 5 (not in order): Farell with Balanchine in Don Quixote Tallchief with Moncion in Firebird Plitsetskaya in Swan Lake Bruhn -- I have to defer to people who saw him to tell me what role I should choose. I want the best one, because I'm greedy! Marie-Jeanne in Ballet Imperial. (Hard choice between that and Concerto Barocco) Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted March 19, 2004 Share Posted March 19, 2004 Me, I wanna go watch a tweenage Louis XIV dance Apollo; I hear he was pretty good. Link to comment
glebb Posted March 19, 2004 Share Posted March 19, 2004 I would like to see Elizabeth I dance La Volta. Link to comment
cargill Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 My number one I think would be the original Sleeping Beauty. And my number two is the 1949 Fonteyn Sleeping Beauty. And my number three is the Diaghilev Sleeping Beauty. My number 4 is the 1979 Bournonville Festival--I was there and I want to see it all over again with the same casts and productions. If I have to limit it to 5, I guess my final one would be the original Bayadere. I would love to see what it looked like. Link to comment
exballetstudent Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 I would go for every single great performance in the last 40 years....the limit of 10 just wouldn't cut it for me... Link to comment
tempusfugit Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Ulanova in anything, but especially Giselle Tallchief in the 1949 premiere of Firebird Nerina doing 32 entrechats-six in Swan Lake by way of a reply to Nureyev, was it? The 1956 premiere of Divertimento no. 15 with Adams, Hayden, Kent, LeClercq, and Wilde Giannina's production (but live) of Beauty with Soloviev and Sizova one of the Royal's Beauties from the early sixties with Fonteyn and a galaxy of supporting ballerinas such as Seymour, Parkinson, Mason, etc. (this occurred...) Verdy and Villella in La Source and of course Verdy in Tchaik pas, Emeralds, Liebeslieder, etc McBride and Villella in the premiere of Tarantella LeClercq in anything at all that she ever danced Plisetskaya as Kitri Link to comment
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