fallers and falling

[bart]

The NYCB forum has a report about what one poster calls "another Bouder fall," followed by a quick and triumphant recovery. Apparently some dancers are more prone to this than others. And -- following the "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again" tradition -- they can be quite popular for doing so. Is it the dancer? the company? the choreography? the training? is it as prevalent in all places as it appears to be in New York? is it more or less frequent now than it used to be?

I have to admit that in decades of ballet-viewing I've never seen a major fall, though I do have memories of slips and flops from the the NYCB corps in pre-Lincoln Center days. I'm also grateful that I've never seen an episode on stage leading to a major injury (that the audience was aware of).

Do you have any stories about famous fallers or falling episodes? Our thoughts about why, how, etc., they occur?

[Gina Ness]

The most spectacular fall I ever witnessed happened to Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. They were the guest artists for Alan Howard's Pacific Ballet in San Francisco circa 1971. I was dancing with Pacific Ballet at that time and was watching our fabulous guest artists from the wings. Ashton's "Thais" pas de deux....the part when Dowell press lifts Sibley aloft with two arms directly over his head...she is "sitting" in his hands with her legs crossed in an almost meditative position, her arms held aloft in an East Indian pose... As he lifts her fully aloft, he lost his balance and they both fell sideways like the leaning Tower of Pisa (she was WAY up there) into the wings! We were absolutely terrified that they were both seriously injured...but what did they do? They both picked themselves up and resumed right where they left off! This time though, Mr. Dowell was positively shaking like a leaf getting her up over his head. I feel he was quite traumatized by the event, but the pas de deux continued and finished, and I have never heard a more appreciative audience (vocally and HUGE applause)...Who knows why dancers fall sometimes? Jet lag...slippery floor...misjudgment of distance dancing together...nerves...many things can contribute to falls. After all, it is live theater and they are only human!

[ViolinConcerto]

One of Bouder's falls (there were three big ones that year) was live on National TV -- I think for the 10th Anniv. of the Diamond Project. As Carbro said, she just gets right up, and snaps back. I've always felt it is because she puts herself into things so fully, and thought that Balanchine would really be pleased. It is scary tho.

In 1986 or so, NYCB went on tour to CA, and I went out there to drag my SF and East Bay friends to see them. I went to four of the performances, and in three of those, someone slipped in exactly the same spot downstage left (Lourdes Lopez among them). It must have been something on the floor in that instance.

One of the cutest falls I ever saw was in TARANTELLA back in the early 80's. Yes, it was in one of those deep, deep plies in second on point, and kaboom, the girl (I do remember who she was, and I won't tell!) went down on her butt.

[carbro]

I can't remember ever seeing a man fall. I wonder, though, whether this would be so if they wore satin shoes.

Some of my favorite dancers have been chronic fallers -- Gelsey Kirkland, Melinda Roy, and now Bouder. While I certainly applaud their composure and ability to recover quickly, it is not the falling that draws me to them (or the recovery) but the go-for-broke approach -- gravity be damned -- that makes them more prone to such accidents than other dancers.

Suzanne Farrell certainly had the approach, and I've seen her recover from the most precarious situations when no partner was around, but I never once saw her fall -- or do anything obvious to break one (such as put a foot down early). I'll bet she'd make a fortune if she sold her secret.

[canbelto]

When the Kirov came to Detroit I saw a rather bizarre fall. It was during the Vision Scene, and the corps were dancing in a circle, when all of a sudden one of the girls just seemed to slip and fall straight on her butt. The corps stopped for a split second to allow her to get up again, and then continued right along.

[Hans]

I don't think falling has anything to do with training. Some NYCB dancers never seem to fall, whereas Viktoria Terioshkina of the Kirov could barely stay on her feet at the Kennedy Center.

[Paul Parish]

Balanchine is said to have encouraged dancers to 'take a chance" and not minded if they fell. In fact there's an (apocryphal) story about young Darci Kistler, who kicked so hard in a grand battement that she knocked herself off her standing leg -- at the BARRE!-- and he told the class that that was the spirit he liked to see.

One of my favorite dancers at SFB, Elizabeth Loscavio, could fall like it was nothing and bounce back up as if she'd just invented a new step. Tomasson built a fall into a role for her -- "Nannas Lied," to music of Kurt Weill -- where she fell out of arabesque forward into a noisy crash, and she made the most of it -- it was TRULY shocking, totally appropriate to the character, who'd been getting knocked around by her boyfriend-- I guess it was in the song "Surabaya, Johnny"-- she was fearless, irrepressible. What a great dancer.

......

A propos of the general subject, I remember taking class from the SFB star of old, Atilla Ficzere, who said that when he was a child, the first class he'd ever had, back in I guess Hungary, the teacher brought in thick gymnast's mats. strewed them over the floor, and spent the whole first class throwing hte boys around the room, so they'd never be afraid of falling. "Relax into it -- use your plie! Don't be afraid!"

Wonderful guy.

[ViolinConcerto]

Suzanne Farrell certainly had the approach, and I've seen her recover from the most precarious situations when no partner was around, but I never once saw her fall -- or do anything obvious to break one (such as put a foot down early).  I'll bet she'd make a fortune if she sold her secret.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I recall that Farrell was DROPPED once -- by Alexandre Proia in one of his early performances of IN MEMORY OF..... he was lifting her up from a split on the floor (I think he was doing the role that Adam Luders originated, as the "Angel of Death"). I guess if you did not know the ballet, you might think that it was part of the choreography. For those of us that did, it was a heart-in-the-throat moment.

[Farrell Fan]

I've been searching my (failing) memory trying to remember if I ever saw Suzanne fall. The closest I can come is seeing Jacques d'Amboise fall. I don't remember the ballet but he was dancing solo at the time.

[drb]

Suzanne has fallen on stage, and found that the experience has improved her quality of life!

".... I've had situations where my partner has forgotten to come in, to catch me. So you have to think on the spot. I've fallen down onstage. Believe me, you don't know how fast you can move, how quick you can think, and how smart you can become, until you are in a situation where you have fallen, and people are looking at you. Those are the situations that you learn from. .... If I can handle something like that in front of people looking at me, then I feel I can handle anything. Maybe I don't know how, but I know I can, and that's very good."

The full quote can be found at:

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/far0int-3

[Mel Johnson]

I can remember her falling out of a penché during the forest scene pas d'action in Don Quixote during its opening week. She was up left, took the penché, then just tipped a bit too much forward, and fell through it, walked flat-footed in a small circle, and continued the diagonal after. A second viewing later that week showed that had been a fall and not a choreographic doodle.

[carbro]

I went to four of the performances, and in three of those, someone slipped in exactly the same spot downstage left (Lourdes Lopez among them).  It must have been something on the floor in that instance.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There was a slick spot on the Met's stage, downstage right, for a whole season in the late '70s. Nothing they tried gave it traction. Those in the audience who knew could see trouble coming, but I guess sometimes the dancers either forgot or were just plain unable to sidestep the hazard.

[Helene]

In fact there's an (apocryphal) story about young Darci Kistler, who kicked so hard in a grand battement that she knocked herself off her standing leg -- at the BARRE!-- and he told the class that that was the spirit he liked to see.

That one may have been apocryphal, but Suzanne Gordon wrote in her book Off Balance that Kistler's "peers" at SAB laughed at her because she threw herself so intensely into a move in class that she was unaware of her space and fell.

[scoop]

I think Darci in an interview talked about how, when she was learning Symphony in C, she tried to touch her forehead to her knee during a penchee the way she remembered someone (Suzanne?) doing, and ended up rolling into a somersault! But she added she eventually was able to do that without falling over.