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Favorite pas de deux?

dirac

By dirac
in Aesthetic Issues

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dirac

dirac

Posted
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printscess' thread on favorite variations made me want to solicit similar thoughts on pas de deux. Do you have a favorite or favorites, and why do you like them? Do you have a Most Heartily Disliked Pas de Deux (and perhaps we can have a special subcategory for Most Superfluous Pas de Deux)? Opinions, please.....

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ngitanjali

ngitanjali

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Oooo, this should be fun :), but honestly, dirac, you should have started us off :)

Well, my Pdd favorites depend on the couple dancing. A Gillian Murphy/David Hallberg Manon isn't going to pack the same punch that a Ferri/Bocca or Vishneva/Malakhov one will

Well, there's one: Manon Bedroom Pas. So...sweeping, yet so intimate.

Giselle pdd, espec. when done with TASTEFUL dancers. Even though the subject at hand is quite sad, it's so...peaceful, and for that brief moment in time, we feel calm when watching the ballet, though the rest of it is frentic Act II "Save me from death!".

Bayadere Act III. Same as Giselle, just a moment of calm after the craziness of Act II.

Black Swan: Naturally! Where else does the girl put her foot down and dictate the show?? :D

Don Q Act I. This one is ignored in favor of Act III (which is just as fine!), but I love the one-upmanship and flamboyance displaced here, that is somehow missing in Act III. Act III is focused more on the two in love and being a little more restrained, but Act I is "Go flirt with them all you want, it doesn't bother me!" *stunning jump of frustration* and all that flirting and banter :D

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printscess

printscess

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I am sure I will log in on this question a number of times because I cannot remember all of them in one sitting.

The first that comes to mind is the pas between Jock Soto and Wendy Whelan in Chris Wheeldon's "After the Rain". It moves me to tears.

Christopher Stowell (AD of Oregon Ballet Theatre) choreographed a wonderful Midsummer Night's Dream this past fall season. The pas was beautiful and intimate. I felt as though I was seeing a private moment (but in a nice way) between 2 lovers. Did anyone else see his Midsummer?

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JMcN

JMcN

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Some of my favourites are:

The Grand Pas from Sleeping Beauty

Oberon and Titania's duet from The Dream

Butterfly and Pinkerton from David Nixon's Madame Butterfly

Cinderella and Prince (I'm an ordinary man) from Christopher Gable's Cinderella

All the above are, to me, so beautiful that they bring tears to my eyes

And finally the greatest and happiest tear-jerker of them all - the final duet from Two Pigeons (especially as danced by Nao Sakuma and Robert Parker on a sunny afternoon in Birmingham a couple of years ago and in the same weekend to similar effect by Ambra Vallo and Chi Cao)

Does this cover just the pdd itself or particular performances that have elevated the dance to the status of unforgettable. In this case I would also add two perfornances of the final duet in Manon - one danced on a Bank Holiday afternoon by Alina Cojacaru and Johan Kobborg and the other on a cold February evening by Caroline Cavallo and Andrew Bowman.

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PeggyR

PeggyR

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I've got to go with Giselle Act II. I don't remember if I heard it or read it, but somebody, somewhere, sometime said that when Albrecht lifts Giselle, it shouldn't look as if he's lifting her, but as if he's holding her down, keeping her from floating away from him. If the performance has that quality, that's it for me: get out the Kleenex!

And I'd have to add the Les Sylphides pdd. Haven't seen that in years (come to think of it, does anybody even still perform the ballet anymore?).

Edited to add: At SFB I'm seeing the pdd from After the Rain this weekend, although not with Soto/Whelan, of course. I loved the Summer pdd from Wheeldon's Quaternary (although I think the extraordinary Muriel Maffre had a lot to do that) so I'll be curious to see how After the Rain measures up.

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dirac

dirac

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honestly, dirac, you should have started us off

I'm sorry, I was a bit pressed for time yesterday and I wanted to get the topic started before I forgot about it -

My two favorites off the top of my head are Giselle Act II and the “Diamonds” pdd, which is like a story in itself and so gorgeous, especially in the Farrell-Martins video (although I liked Julie Diana in it when she was with San Francisco Ballet and Uliana Lopatkina, too, when she was here on a visit).

My favorite bonbon pas de deux is “Le Corsaire” in the filmed version with Fonteyn and Nureyev. The two of them are such a classic contrast in style, and nobody can perform the ending with the boffo flourish that Nureyev gives it; he makes his ballerina a goddess, and no other dancer looks so at home in harem pants.

Well, my Pdd favorites depend on the couple dancing. A Gillian Murphy/David Hallberg Manon isn't going to pack the same punch that a Ferri/Bocca or Vishneva/Malakhov one will

Interesting point, ngitanjali. How do others feel? Are there pdd you think are dependent on who's dancing them, or are some dancer-proof?

Thanks, everyone. Keep talking!

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bart

bart

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I have to go with dirac --the pinnacle for me are ...

-- Giselle Act II (which fuses the story element so beatifully and subtly) and

-- Diamonds (which exists in a lofty realm in which stories seem irrelevant). My most recent Diamonds, with Catoya and Sarabia, is still running visually in my head.

Some pdds stand out for one or two reasons, if not for the entire package. If we're allowed to included pdds that don't fit the classic format, I'd go with Balanchine's

-- Agon (for the inventiveness and brilliancy of movement),

-- Firebird (for the music),

-- Sonnambula (for eeriness),

-- the "Who Cares?" pdd from Who Cares? (for attitude),

-- the second pdd in Stravinsky Violin Concerto (see Agon above),

-- the second pdd from Baiser de la Fee (for unpredictability) ....

:smilie_mondieu: it's hard to stop.

For the inexpressible joy of excess: Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus. I love the video which cross cuts the original cast (Vasiliev and Maximova, 1968) with Makhamedov and Semenyaka from 1989. It's included in thhis clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDILxsmZ5Uk

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aurora

aurora

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someone asked earlier whether any are dancerproof. I don't think they are--my enjoyment is always dependent on who dances.

So...a few from me:

Balcony pdd from Macmillan's R&J--especially with ferri and bocca

white swan pdd when danced by Part and Gomes--I like this one normally, but I've never been brought to tears except by them

Corsaire--it is trite perhaps, but it really is a fabulous one--any bravura dancers will do. I don't have specific dancers for this one.

black swan pdd--because how can I not include it. It is a show stopper and rightly so.

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popularlibrary

popularlibrary

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No one has mentioned what I've always thought one of Balanchine's most sublime duets - from the Act 2 divertisement in Midsummer Night's Dream. The epitome of perfectly balanced, perfectly shared love and deeply felt passion, it presents the ideal of love to set against all the hopelessly imperfect loves of the other characters. He sets the primal, selfish world of the forest against the achievement of a civilized ideal, and (when well danced, which it isn't always!) one of the most powerful and moving moments in ballet.

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popularlibrary

popularlibrary

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Several members cited it on a similar thread, pop. It's one of mine, and maybe I'm underestimating it, but I wonder if it would affect us as much without context of the full ballet as, for example the Don Q does.

I think it would be a gorgeous pas de deux anywhere, but you're right - it is intensified greatly by the context. Unlike Don Q or similar great duets, it's not a display piece in spite of the divertissement label; it's a carefully placed piece of drama, the climax of this portrait of the aspects of love, and I think its moving splendor of male-female union would be lessened without not only all that's gone before, but the quiet irony of the ballet's anticlimactic return to the primal woods and its male-female elements dispersing into separation.

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dirac

dirac

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I'm still thinking about this.......this is a fun thread.

Several have mentioned the pdd from Diamonds. Along the same line I would add the pdd from Rubies.

The "Rubies" pdd is truly unique. And there's the "walking pas de deux" in "Emeralds," which has an otherworldly quality unlike any other I can think of offhand.

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Rosa

Rosa

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What a fun thread! I'll play, too.

White Swan PDD

Emeralds "walking" PDD

Rubies PDD

Giselle Act II PDD

Cinderella Act III PDD -- Possokhov (The most moving reunion of Cinderella and the Prince I'd ever seen, very tender while also a bit sexy. Zakharova and Filin were beautiful.)

Theme and Variations PDD -- with Kirkland and Baryshnikov

Tchaikovsky PDD

Nutcracker Grand PDD -- Nureyev

Sleeping Beauty Grand PDD

Paquita PDD

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Solnishka79

Solnishka79

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I absolutely love Gamzatti and Solor in Bayadere as well as Nikiya/Solor in Shades. (I'm a big Bayadere fan-sorry!!) I also love the Balcony Scene pas from MacMillian.

My llllleeeeeeaaaaasssttttt favorite pas is Spectre de la Rose. I just can't stand the premise, the music, the costumes, the choreography. My vote for "most unnecessary pas" is Peasant Pas in Giselle.

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carbro

carbro

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When Peasant Pas is part of the entertainment for the hunting party's visit (surprisingly it isn't always :) ), it makes just as much sense, IMO, as the national dances in Act III Swan Lake. And if you get a wonderful pair of dancers, ... I've seen a few Giselles where the PPdD was the high point of the night, and while that does not sound like a good thing, in some instances it was. :)

I thought I could live without Spectre, too, until I saw Herman Cornejo dance it. Now I can't wait to see him do it again. And again. And again!

But when I think of the topic of this thread, I do not think of particular dancers in the roles, or else I would be tempted to list some very bad ballet as danced by rather extraordinary individuals. Kind of an "I never thought I'd ever enjoy that, but wow!" Nah, that's giving the choreography credit for something the dancer did.

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cubanmiamiboy

cubanmiamiboy

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This is a fun thread! :smilie_mondieu:

My favourite pas de deux are:

Diana and Aceteon

Black swan

Alaskan Rag from Elite Syncopations

Muñecos

Don Quioxte act 3 pdd

The leaves are fading

Prokofiev PDD

Charming Lise, we're in the same boat...

Out of your seven choices, i'll take D&A, BS, M and DQ. To the list i'll add Tchaikowsky PDD and Flames of Paris PDD

(BTW, did you ever get to see Munecos with Cary and Fernandito ( RIP) ?

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Solnishka79

Solnishka79

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When Peasant Pas is part of the entertainment for the hunting party's visit (surprisingly it isn't always :smilie_mondieu: ), it makes just as much sense, IMO, as the national dances in Act III Swan Lake. And if you get a wonderful pair of dancers, ... I've seen a few Giselles where the PPdD was the high point of the night, and while that does not sound like a good thing, in some instances it was. :wub:

I actually like Peasant Pas but if it isn't in correct context (like the hunting party, etc.) it's like a random piece inserted. I think it would be a wonderful concert piece and it's a shame it's not used in that sense more often.

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Solnishka79

Solnishka79

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I've thought of a few more!

Sleeping Beauty Act II Vision Pas

Apollo

Agon pas de deux

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated-think Sylvie

Satanella-for cuteness.

Les Sylphides was mentioned and I completely agree!

This is such an interesting topic and I'm sure all of us could keep going for months as we recall various pas

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