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What's That Doing in the Ballet?


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Ok, I'll admit it, this curmudgeon hates it every time little children / dance students 12yrs or younger intrude on a ballet other than Nutcracker that I paid good money to see PRINCIPALS, SOLOISTS, or COMPANY CORPS perform. I'd rather NOT pay to see pre-to-none-profesional recitals for adoring parents at the Met or other large venues.

Those two children in "Songs of the Auvergne" also are too cloyingly sweet for my taste too. But I guess it would ruin the "family picnic" effect without them?

I will TOLERATE:

1)The pages in ABT's (and others?) Corsair, because they simply walk on & then thankfully off again. Ditto any other supernumaries who don't dance. (Sorry parents, but save it for final school performances or Nutcrackers, which, as I've said previously, I avoid partially for this reason.)

2) Lander's "Etudes" and Wheeldon's "Scenes de Ballet" of course wouldn't make sense without the children, but it is still hard for me to sit through those sequences waiting for the more advanced dancers.

PS. I like the cygnets, because they aren't just another waltz. (And I used to dance it, so soft spot for it maybe.) I don't like the Corsair Pas de Trois, however historical it is, (or others outside of Manon's) because a third party usually is intrusive, causing the action/flow of the pdd to degenerate into a series of truncated sequences. And poor Ali gets only one chance to dance his heart out--and enjoy the company of fellow harem slave Medora--in a 3hrs of being amazingly loyal, helpful, and subservient to Conrad, and he has to share.

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I don't like the Corsair Pas de Trois, however historical it is, (or others outside of Manon's) because a third party usually is intrusive, causing the action/flow of the pdd to degenerate into a series of truncated sequences. And poor Ali gets only one chance to dance his heart out--and enjoy the company of fellow harem slave Medora--in a 3hrs of being amazingly loyal, helpful, and subservient to Conrad, and he has to share.

:blink:

Ali is always my avourite character in the ballet, maybe for this reason. I'm always wishing he and Medora could get together. Or that he at least gets Gulnara.

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One of my favorite ballets, Balanchine's Walpurgisnacht, has a weird moment I cannot get over. At the end of the female principal's variation, she finishes her diagonal in a tendu derriere (arms fifth high I think, but I could be wrong), and then the dancer randomly and rather sharply (which I dislike SOOO much) brushes her skirt while bringing her arms into a first arabesque elonge, head to the audience, to end the variation. I suppose it is so odd for me because after her diagonal sequence, she already has a posed ending position with her arms fifth high. To make another movement seems rather pointless to me. Almost as awkward as forced applause from an audience during curtain calls.. (another one of my pet peeves). I suppose something had to be done there to fit the music, but in my personal opinion, there could have been something different and less awkward. Perhaps I am going overboard with this little thing, but I can't even describe my emotion when watching this from the audience. It is almost remorse for the dancer because the movement looks so odd, and out of place no matter what dancer performs it! ....sigh. Ah well. It is still one of my favorite ballet's of all time. If I ever get to dance saute, glissade, pas de chat in that finale to that incredible music, my career will be complete!!!! (and now I will go turn on the finale music and attempt to travel the step in my meagerly sized living room).

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The dumbest thing in Peter Martins' Romeo and Juliet has to be that quintet of little boys.

I'd say that was a rather bold statement considering the amount of competition they have :smilie_mondieu:

In any case, wasn't the original topic: " Are there moments in any classic ballets, or in ballets you otherwise love, that puzzle you and leave you cold? "

;)

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I can't even describe my emotion when watching this from the audience. It is almost remorse for the dancer because the movement looks so odd, and out of place no matter what dancer performs it!
Well, no. It was an archetypical Farrell flourish.

Almost the opposite thing to that bothers me with the ending of the Second First Shade variation in Bayadere. Standing there poised in attitude front? On pointe? The music's over, but that can't be the end of the variation!! Very dissatisfying. :smilie_mondieu: The whole variation -- music as well as choreography -- seems at odds with the idea of the afterlife it's supposed to inhabit.

Edited by carbro
Thanks to Hans (#37, below) for setting my Shades straight!
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Almost the opposite thing to that bothers me with the ending of the Second Shade variation in Bayadere. Standing there poised in attitude front? On pointe? The music's over, but that can't be the end of the variation!! Very dissatisfying. The whole variation -- music as well as choreography -- seems at odds with the idea of the afterlife it's supposed to inhabit.

I've never seen it end that way before--have always seen it finishing in 5th position en pointe. Do you mean the allegro one with all the relevés in arabesque at the end or the one that starts with cabrioles?

As for the bed, I really think a choreographer of Balanchine's caliber could have come up with something more creative than a beruffled rolling hospital bed for all that divine music, which is supposed to accompany spectacular effects involving the transformation of the scene to the snow forest. Maybe he spent the production's budget on the tree?

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I've never seen it end that way before--have always seen it finishing in 5th position en pointe. Do you mean the allegro one with all the relevés in arabesque at the end or the one that starts with cabrioles?
Cabrioles. Or I may be transposing. :dunno: But somehow, mentally running through the one with the arabesque releves, I "saw" a pas de chat into B+. Am I rechoreographing Maestro Petipa? :smilie_mondieu:
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While I always *secretly* thought that Prince Seigfried had an mistaken identity issue, Rothbart did trick him with his magic afterall. So, I give it a pass. But, in the ABT '05 production with Murphy and Corella, Rothbart as the evil magician is very Midsummer Night's Dream to me. Not to mention I kept focusing on one oddly placed leaf in his groin area. This has me thinking, what was THAT doing in the Ballet? Perhaps I will search around for a costume faux pas thread... :smilie_mondieu:

Didn't anyone off stage in costume notice this obvious oddity (obviously not); or anyone else here? Or was I eh hem, under Rothbart's spell?

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I was contemplating the whole bed situation. I have to say that after being in the production, I appreciate is SOOO much more because (at least in the 2 company productions I was in) .. there is a dancer on his hands and knees pushing that bed around with all their might. I know that many dancers get knee problems after this, which is a shame. In any rate, I don't necessarily care for the bed scene.. (perhaps a pas would be better...) but I have come to respect it because of what the dancers have to do.

Are there any productions where the bed is motorized?

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speaking of Snow pdds.... has anyone seen the snow pdd with Eddie Villella and Patty McBride? It is phenominal!!!!!!!!!!! I believe it was a televised version if I'm not mistaken. And I am thankful at the progression of snow costumes to date after seeing the snow scene in this particular production. For some reason, the Blue Bird pdd is also included in this version of the Nutcracker. I don't remember the dancers' names, but they were amazing as well!

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I suppose this doesn't belong in this topic...

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Hmm.. I'm not sure if it is commercially recorded. I will get back to you later today. I taped my version off of the tv when i was like 10 and it is now sitting as one of my treasured belongings in my living room. In any rate... I will do some research, and let you know.

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Glad I'm not the only one who hates Balanchine's bed!

God, i SO HATE that bed WANDERING AROUND BY ITSELF!!!. :smilie_mondieu: ..For some weird reason, everytime i have to get throught it i can't stop thinking about "The Exorcist"!!!! :dunno:

I like the bed. It's a sort of realism that is so out of place it's striking and even surreal. It looks like there'll be real human-type sleeping there, although insomnia problems do come to mind, as they sometimes have when I've seen TV couples shutting out the lights and turning on their sides away from each other in too small a double bed. Also, don't object to the angels, but maybe I just don't know 'Nutcracker' well enough.

I did mention somewhere else that I don't like the way Aurora snatches the roses out of hands in the Rose Adagio, at least the way Viviana Durante does it. I haven't seen enough productions to know if this is traditional, instead of to take them more gently as I would have expected.

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Exactly, Helene.

Figurante's mention of the dancer under the bed strikes me as another reason to get rid of it. If it were me, I would think, "I worked my behind off for ten years to become a paragon of classical elegance and grace and they make me crawl under a bed?!" :tiphat:

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