'Romantic Era' video

[papeetepatrick]

Most are probably familiari with this filming of 'Grand Pas de Quatre' as well as 'Giselle' Adagio divided between the 4 earlier on, and some pas de deux at the beginning, cest-a-dire, Peter Schaufuss, Michal Denard, James Urbain and Jorge Esquivel joined the ladies at the beginning and even danced solos themselves!

Charming conversations among Fracci and Alonso especially, with Thesmar and Evdokimova (I'm not familiar with her), before all numbers, which give an interesting modern-day form of the 'Grand Pas de Quatre', Alonso slightly dominating in both. Several of us have been discussing her a great deal lately, and I now could remember some of the more charming moments of her dancing in 1979 when I saw a lot of it. She's got a lot of comic talent in the Grand Pas as well, and there is just the daintiest femininity all over the place. Have to admit that for pure pleasure in watching dancing I probably love Fracci the most, and every time I've seen her (never in person, unfortunately), it's always got this ethereal quality. I always enjoy Peter Schaufuss's most unique definition of what 'grace' might mean, and Denard is also a great favourite of mine. Anybody have 'Giselle' preferences among these which are cleverly allowed to all dance part of Act II Adagio?

[sandik]

I like this video very much, and used it often when I taught dance history -- the ambience of the theater really fits the works they dance. I appreciated a full-length PdQ, and thought that Alonso and Fracci exemplified what we think we know about the Romantic performance style.

The tag team Giselle pas de deux always seemed a bit gimmicky to me -- I would be happy watching one couple, but distracted by the change in personel, only to have the whole thing repeat after I'd settled in to watch the 'new' couple. It chopped up what should be an extended sequence into smaller bits.

(and, copping to a guilty pleasure, I love Fracci's accent in the interview session)