Favorite Shades from La Bayadere

[artist]

I am referring to the scene from the Kingdom of Shades with the corps members dancing simultaneously. I didn't specify any cast so just say (if you want) what company with which dancers. If it was a live performance, which company was it? And, of course, please tell why.

artist

[carbro]

Whoops! I misread that this was a video question. Oh, well. My answer would have been "live."

And given that, I have seen -- ONE -- perfect Shades Act, and that was from ABT. The corps seemed to moved from a single breath, filling the stage in perfect, weightless unison.

This, however, was not typical of ABT's Shades Acts over the years, although sometimes it is very, very good.

I saw the Kirov's Shades live in the mid 1980s, when the company was dancing at a fairly high level. It was beautiful and lacked only the airiness to which ABT had accustomed me.

I have also seen POB live, but confess I don't have a very strong memory of anything beyond the sharp emphasis with which they slammed their feet together to make 5th. Rather jarring.

I did see a video of the RB's performance many years ago, but again the corps of Shades left no distinguishing memories.

[canbelto]

The first time I saw the POB Bayadere video I was impressed by the scenery and costumes, but I wasn't blown away by the dancing. Until the Shades scene. Seeing 32 shades descend the ramp, one by one, in perfect unison, without ever missing a beat, made me realize this was a great ballet company.

[richard53dog]

The first time I saw the POB Bayadere video I was impressed by the scenery and costumes, but I wasn't blown away by the dancing. Until the Shades scene. Seeing 32 shades descend the ramp, one by one, in perfect unison, without ever missing a beat, made me realize this was a great ballet company.

I love the POB shades. Not just for the descending down the ramp but also for the work on the stage, forming and unforming patterns. Just wonderful!

[canbelto]

Yes the 32 shades lined up in six columns, dancing really as one body, is amazing. Their developpes, perfectly in unison and legs all at the same level, is breathtaking, as is the final moments of the ballet, when the Shades form a circle surrounding Nikya and Solor. Beautiful!

I highly recommend "Dancer's Dream: La Bayadere" which is a documentary about the production of La Bayadere. There's a scene of the corps being relentlessly drilled. One coach yells, "We can stay here all day until you get it right!" The hard work pays off!

One interesting factoid I learned from the documentary was that Nureyev toyed with the idea of making a fourth act for the ballet, a la Makarova, but ultimately decided to go with the "gentler" ending of Nikya and Solor being reunited in his dream.

[bart]

I'm a Paris voter, too, having only seen this live in non-world-class performances.

My impression of uncanny precision may have been enhanced by the high quality of the videography, as compared to the Royal video, for insance. It's very effective to see something as ethereal as "shades" presented in sharp focus and strong visual contrast.

P.S. Great topic. Plus, I'm a sucker for these polls.

[Hans]

My favorite is (surprise!) the Kirov, both live and filmed. I think it is the incredibly consistent way the dancers are trained as well as plenty of rehearsal and relatively frequent performance of Bayadère that keeps them moving instinctively in such a similar manner with such a similar relation to the music. Although I know they are constantly watching each other and thinking about what they are doing, it appears spontaneous, like the simultaneous motion of underwater plants driven by an unseen current.

[artist]

it appears spontaneous, like the simultaneous motion of underwater plants driven by an unseen current.

ooh, I just love analogies. I can definitely picture your simile being related to the shades' dancers. Thinking on things I see on CAS, underwater plant life could be the music video for the Shades' piece! It would be unbelievable to hear that gorgeous piece of music while viewing the serene footage of the water life. Great simile, Hans!

[cubanmiamiboy]

One interesting factoid I learned from the documentary was that Nureyev toyed with the idea of making a fourth act for the ballet, a la Makarova, but ultimately decided to go with the "gentler" ending of Nikya and Solor being reunited in his dream.

Wasn't that he didn't have access at the time to the original "lost Act" score...?

I wonder what's the fate of this piece of music, and if exist in some russian vaults why it doesn't get used nowadays in modern productions of Bayadere

[sejacko]

One interesting factoid I learned from the documentary was that Nureyev toyed with the idea of making a fourth act for the ballet, a la Makarova, but ultimately decided to go with the "gentler" ending of Nikya and Solor being reunited in his dream.

Wasn't that he didn't have access at the time to the original "lost Act" score...?

I wonder what's the fate of this piece of music, and if exist in some russian vaults why it doesn't get used nowadays in modern productions of Bayadere

The Kirov have it, they're just not sharing.

[rg]

i don't know if kavanagh goes into this question of the 'lost' last act and nureyev's POB staging, but if mem. serves, the reason RN's plans were scuttled with regard to finding and staging the original, last act in the temple, was that RN's increasing illness prevented him from investigating the archives in Russia to get the score for this act.

for the maryinsky's 'original' scheme staging, the vikharev reconstruction team had to re-piece together this act''s music for it's staging b/c the intervening years and the revived stagings left the score in a patchwork of pieces during which process the last act's music was chopped up and moved to other acts.

for ex. the ponomaraev/chabukinani staging of the pas d'action for the betrothal sc. of their staging used the music from the eliminated last act.

so, when the team put the act back together, to the best of their ability and literally by re-pasting pages of the score, from what i read, they gave it a new copyright, to reflect their work.

they hold that copyright. i have heard of no plans to record their version, nor really to put it back on stage at the maryinsky.

[4mrdncr]

I'm a Paris voter, too, having only seen this live in non-world-class performances.

My impression of uncanny precision may have been enhanced by the high quality of the videography, as compared to the Royal video, for insance. It's very effective to see something as ethereal as "shades" presented in sharp focus and strong visual contrast.

So glad someone got it right, I'll have to find the POB's version--I've only seen RB and La Scala dvd's. During my own recent experience, it was quite a chore to shoot, even using professional HD, when Act 2 and Act 3 (Makarova's staging) had a stage-wide scrim throughout both acts, and the tech people hadn't figured out how to light it correctly so that the light levels (and consequently my exposure monitoring) varied continuously, not only during each act, but often during a variation or pdd itself! Case in point: My editor complained about a soft focus once, until I showed him that that shades var. was shot from a back balcony , through the scrim, with a too low light level, and at +9dB at the least.) Lucky for me I shot it more than once and could compensate.

**An interesting note about that scrim: I asked the dancers what they saw from their POV, and as I suspected, was told "a black wall". If you can't feel the audience's 'energy' or 'breathing' on the other side, it must be very strange.