Big Star Style!

[Leigh Witchel]

Today's question

If someone is a world-class dancer, a real star, do you mind if they don't seem to be working towards the style of the choreography?

Most times I can tell if someone is a star if they're doing something their way and I don't mind it. I can recall Ananiashvili as Lisa in La Fille Mal Gardee. It was a Star performance rather than an Ashtonian one. But the ballet could handle it from a real star. I'm sure Nureyev's Graham was way more Nureyev than Graham, and I bet it was still worth seeing. I also felt that way about Cojocaru's Cinderella, although not to the same extreme. Sylvie Guillem's Marguerite didn't work for me, but maybe it did for others by the same rationale?

[Mel Johnson]

Nureyev's Graham was actually remarkably restrained from him. Martha herself didn't exactly lay into him, but she worked pretty intensively on his execution of her work. Marguerite is a different kind of part, obviously, with not a whole lot of real technical work, but neither is it all perfume. The strongest works by great choreographers can withstand a tremendous amount of fiddling, but the lighter-weight things can't take it. The grand pas de deux in Sleeping Beauty can withstand almost anything. The Paquita grand pas can't.

[Nanatchka]

I would ALWAYS rather see the choreography. Time was, this was the difference between ABT and NYCB. Stars, choreography. Not that the choreography was always better in one place than the other, and not that the dancers were better in one place or the other. But a difference in emphasis.

[ToThePointe]

While viewing a star powered performance can be incredible, I think dancers should maintain the integrity of the choreography. Small things can be fiddled with, but the overall picture should remain the same.