perky Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 I was rereading a piece Gia Kourlas wrote in the Autumn 2003 DanceView where she mentions that Peter Martins ballet Thou Swell is one of her greatest guilty pleasures. So what's your's? It could be a ballet that's cheesy, over the top or just plain dumb. A ballet or dancer your friends think is silly or useless but that you secretly like or even love, even though you're embarressed to admit it. My quilty pleasure is an old Soviet era pas de deux called Spring Waters. It's really more acrobatics than ballet. The ballerina runs and launches herself headfirst into her partner's arms. There's lots of "ta-da" posing. Lots of very fast partnered spins better suited to an ice rink. And it has those lifts where the man holds the woman over his head with one arm. I call them five finger crotch grab lifts. So why do I love it? Mostly because of the performers. I've seen the Boshoi do it. Because they dance it with such speed, energy and great flair, and they seem to be having the time of thier lives doing it, I can't help but start to smile and respond to it with enthusiam. So what's your ballet quilty pleasure? Link to comment
pugbee Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Just an echo here, but I adore Spring Waters. It's so quick and captivating, and I could watch it all day long. Have you ever seen that documentary (I think it's called "Ballet Adagio") that is a slow motion tape of Anna-Marie Holmes in Spring Waters? Fantastic!!!!!! I tried once to find a commercial copy of it, but could not. Link to comment
cargill Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 A few years ago the Kirov brought the Fountain of Bakschiserai to New York, and I absolutely loved it. All that harem scarum, and wonderful slinking around for Zarema. Also along those lines, I love Scherezade. Link to comment
canbelto Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 My guilty pleasure is definitely the hyper-flexible, "vulgar" ballerinas like Irina Dvorovenko, Sylvie Guillem, Allegra Kent, Svetlana Zakharova, even Alina Cojacaru and Alessandra Ferri. Although Ferri and Cojacaru are not "vulgar", just extremely flexible. Yes I admit it: the higher up the leg goes and the more the head can touch the butt, the happier I am. Link to comment
klingsor Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Grigorovich's "Spartacus" Bejart's "Bolero" Link to comment
Alexandra Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Petit's "Carmen" and "L'Arlsienne." Carmen is perfect, for what it is. "L'Arlsienne" has a lot of quirky padding, but what a great role for a male dancer! Link to comment
socalgal Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 The Kirov's performance of "Sheherazade" on their latest tour left me agog.....I was lifted off my feet. Igor Zelensky put me in the 'hot zone'! :shhh: Thanks for reminding me of Bejart's "Bolero" ... (Oh my!) Link to comment
fandeballet Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Frankly, I would love it if ABT does Spartacus. They have the male corp to do it. Can you just salivate for the casts they can put together !!!!!!!!! I know the guys would die to do either of the two lead male roles.......esp. the bad guy(Crassius?!). :yes: Link to comment
Alexandra Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 I hoped that Dance Theatre of Harlem would do "Spartacus," back in the days of Eddie J. Shelman. Link to comment
nysusan Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Le Jeune Homme et la Morte - what fun that was to watch! Link to comment
Helene Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Eifman's Red Giselle, performed by his own company. Danced with the conviction that they are witnessing a Biblical miracle, and complete kitsch. Up there with soap operas, really trashy novels, and pizza with goopy cheese. Link to comment
floss Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 I love Chrissie Parrott's Coppelia for WA Ballet. It's a hilarious 1960's take complete with beehive hairdo's, platform shoes, beerbelly dad, and barbeque. Link to comment
sandik Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Eifman's Red Giselle, performed by his own company. Danced with the conviction that they are witnessing a Biblical miracle, and complete kitsch. Up there with soap operas, really trashy novels, and pizza with goopy cheese. His version of Hamlet is in the same vein -- I can't say that it's a guilty pleasure, because "pleasure" wasn't the experience I was having, but he's one of the few choreographers we see here (Seattle) that indulges in sheer "over the top" work. Kitten with a whip, indeed. Link to comment
Farrell Fan Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Another Eifman confession: I enjoyed "Who's Who," his grandiose attempt to link the music of Duke Ellington and Rachmaninoff, and the American immigrant experience with the plot of "Some Like it Hot." It was the only Eifman I'd seen until "Musagete," about which nothing more needs to be said. Link to comment
klingsor Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I do remember enjoying Bejart's "Firebird", though it was more Phoenix than Firebird. Don't know if I should feel guilty about it, though. Link to comment
Marga Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 My guilty pleasure is definitely the hyper-flexible, "vulgar" ballerinas..... Yes I admit it: the higher up the leg goes and the more the head can touch the butt, the happier I am. Then Lucia Lacarra must really get you going! My guilty pleasure was Balanchine's Afternoon of a Faun in the 1960's. It was almost like being allowed to be a peeping-Tom, watching the very personal goings on of two people in their bedroom (which the set that depicted a studio reminded me of). No matter who danced it -- Allegra Kent, Melissa Hayden, Patty McBride, Suzanne Farrell, Kay Mazzo -- with Moncion, Villella, D'Amboise, Ludlow, Martins, etc. as their partners -- I was mesmerized! Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Actually, that "Afternoon of a Faun" was Jerome Robbins'. It's not a "guilty pleasure" because it's an acclaimed masterpiece. Now, my guilty pleasure was Jacques d'Amboise's "The Chase" set to Mozart's K. 447 Horn Concerto #3. It was a takeoff on Swan Lake transplanted to a fox hunt. It bombed critically, but I loved it! I especially liked the old Duke, danced by Shaun O'Brien, who was allergic to foxes, and the Fox-girl who had to be partnered while figuring in her tail! Link to comment
carbro Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I have been searching my brain for something to top the "less-there-than-meets-the-eye" Sinfonietta by Kylian, but to no avail. Its end, with all those bodies leaping through the air, makes me almost giddy. Still, Sinfonietta is not bad enough to merit guilt. Link to comment
Marga Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Actually, that "Afternoon of a Faun" was Jerome Robbins'. It's not a "guilty pleasure" because it's an acclaimed masterpiece. Whoops, right you are! I attributed it to my personal "Balanchine Era", hence the senior-moment mistake! And. two for two, it isn't a "guilty" pleasure, in the sense of the expression, but a true pleasure -- AND a masterpiece! Link to comment
koshka Posted July 19, 2004 Share Posted July 19, 2004 Especially hammy productions of DonQ, preferably for audiences composed mostly of kids. Link to comment
Old Fashioned Posted July 19, 2004 Share Posted July 19, 2004 Kylian's 27'52" and Nacho Duato's Cor Perdut. Hmm...are those even considered ballets? Link to comment
Juliet Posted July 19, 2004 Share Posted July 19, 2004 Long runs of Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty.... tiny, very good jellybeans to get me through Les Sylphides Most of my pleasures I feel no guilt about... Link to comment
silvy Posted July 19, 2004 Share Posted July 19, 2004 Those Bolshoi ballerinas from the '70s and '80s who are broken wristed, who have sway-back knees, very big insteps, very high extensions and who are not so turned out - like Maria Bilova Link to comment
colwill Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 Any Ballet were the audience is largely school children. The anticipation before curtain up. The spellbound silence during the dancing The enthusiastic applause and cheering when the Ballet is over. Wonderful. Link to comment
justafan Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 Robbins' I'm Old Fashioned I know it is a bit treacly and designed to be nothing more than a crowd-pleaser. Many people hate it. But I just love seeing Astaire and Rita Hayworth on a big screen. And I also love the ending where the dancers just turn to watch them in salute. It appeals to my more sentimental side, but I don't care. It appeals. Link to comment
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