Blackface in the Bolshoi's La fille de pharaon

[MadameP]

20 hours ago, Laurent said:

If Americans are haunted by some ghosts in their closet, I suppose, it is a problem they must be addressing without imposing it on the rest of the world. A Nubian princess who is, by the way, in no way an "African-American", is supposed to look like a Nubian. La fille de pharaon is a wonderful early example of the grand ballet genre, one of the two genres prevalent in the last third of the 19th Century. I love Lacotte's re-staging for an opportunity to experience that genre by modern day audience, including lovely Pugni's music who was a great master of  ballet scores. Another reason why one should want to see it is that Pierre Lacotte revives some of the lost, and now forgotten, gems of the 1860-70-ies ballerina craft. My three favourite casts are, in the order of performance, Zakharova/Rodkin, Obraztsova/Ovcharenko, Stepanova/Skvortsov.

Can only say, I completely agree with this - except perhaps your favourite casting, and we are all entitled to our favourites!  

[canbelto]

Also Pierre Lacotte is French. And Frances definitely does have a very ugly history of racism towards its colonized territories and also towards its large minority populations.

[canbelto]

As it happens I went on YT this morning and it seems as if how much body makeup to wear has been at the discretion oft he ballerina portraying Ramze.

Here is Nina Kaptsova who is wearing a lot:

Anna Tikhomoriva wearing way less:

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by canbelto

[CharlieH]

6 hours ago, MadameP said:

Here is Olga Smirnova in the beautiful "underwater" scene from Pharaoh's Daughter.  I love her grace in this, the choreography, costumes, scenery, music - everything.  I am very glad to see this fabulous ballet back in the current Bolshoi repertoire and hope they perform it again next season.   In my opinion, it IS well worth its place in the repertoire, and far more so than some of the current horrors currently wasting space in the playbill!  

 

 

Another heartfelt “thanks” to MadameP for this lovely clip of Smirnova leading the Underwater scene. I’m only sorry that Lacotte revived (rethought) only three of the six River Variations, as there were originally six and all exist in the Stepanov notations. Didn’t PNB’s Doug Fullington once revive all six of the River Variations? 

[Quiggin]

7 hours ago, canbelto said:

As it happens I went on YT this morning and it seems as if how much body makeup to wear has been at the discretion oft he ballerina portraying Ramze.

Here is Nina Kaptsova who is wearing a lot ... Anna Tikhomoriva wearing way less ...

 

On the whole, toned down or toned up, both productions look like minstrel shows, at best parodies of minstrel shows. Kind of surreal.

[cubanmiamiboy]

10 minutes ago, Quinten said:

You may be on to something here.  Ancient Egyptians were not white, as evidenced by tomb paintings, etc., yet they are being played by white people.  Where are the Egyptian complected dancers who should be dancing these roles??  Why didn't Lacotte insist on a fully Egyptian cast?  Something is not right about this. My head is spinning. 😵

But no darkened skin makeup for the Indians of Bayadere...🙄

[Drew]

14 hours ago, MRR said:

Drew, I believe it was Ramze's Act II variation with the four children that was restored from the notations, which Canbelto linked to above.

Thank you for the information. Not feeling at all well today or I would have tried to go in search myself.

I suppose I should forbear comment on the make-up (or choreography) of the children which seems to me anything but an "innocent" attempt at nineteenth-century multiculturalism in the absence of actual black dancers.  There are obviously all kinds of racialized codes in play EVEN in Russia whatever the historical/contextual differences.

I appreciate Fraildove's comments and appreciate her sharing her husband's experiences; we have had related conversations on Balletalert in the past on these issues. But both Lacotte (who is, as both Canbelto and myself have underlined, French, as was Petipa) and the current Bolshoi leadership are in a position to know the problematic history of these kinds of images. The Russian context may be different, but that doesn't mean that "blackface" has some entirely other meaning there especially in the context of a ballet that reflects enthusiasm for things Egyptian during the time of the building of the Suez canal and showcases various other orientalist fantasies -- the aristocratic English explorer, the opium dream etc. Are we to think all of those ethnic/racial codes are in play -- as they obviously are -- but not those associated with blackface? In a ballet in which the Englishman dreams of an Egyptian princess who would rather drown than marry a Nubian, and falls in love instead with an embodied Egyptian God who just happens to look exactly like an English aristocrat? That's a hard one for me. (Quinten and cubanmiamiboy just posted as I was typing this...Edited to add: Mashinka corrects me on one element of plot in a post below.)

I don't question Russia's very different history--different from that of the United States or France or England--but that doesn't mean that the Bolshoi and Lacotte live in a different galaxy when it comes to the symbolic freight of these images.

All of the above also doesn't mean I want to ditch every nineteenth-century convention that I wouldn't like or expect to see in a contemporary ballet. And I know contemporary ballets will themselves date in some respects. I'll even admit that, though it's against my better judgment, I enjoy much of what Lacotte has done. I find it to be the occasion of delightful dancing and rich scenic effects even if I don't take it very seriously as ballet history --  and certainly not as Petipa "reconstruction."  But ballet is a performing art, which means it lives and dies in the "now" of performance so that, especially in a more or less pastiche attempt at recreating Pharaoh's Daughter that premiered in 2000, some tweaks can reasonably be made. 

Whether Pharaoh's Daughter might not in fact benefit from EITHER a more historically strict attempt at reconstruction OR, on the contrary, a looser adaptation with a new libretto along the lines of the Smekalov Paquita is hard for me to say.  I do like the idea of a suite of dances based on the notations -- and it would be great to see that done by a major company.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Drew

[Buddy]

1 hour ago, Drew said:

 I'll even admit that, though it's against my better judgment, I enjoy much of what Lacotte has done. I find it to be the occasion of delightful dancing and rich scenic effects even if I don't take it very seriously as ballet history

Goin’ Back

I think I'm goin' back

To the things I learned so well in my youth,

I think I'm returning to

The days when I was young enough to know the truth

 

But thinking young and growing older is no sin

And I can play the game of life to win

 

Then everyday can be my magic carpet ride

 

So catch me if you can

I'm goin' back

 

Songwriters: Carole King / Gerry Goffin

 

Hope that you're feeling much better as soon as possible.

 

[Drew]

15 minutes ago, Buddy said:

Hope that you're feeling much better as soon as possible.

 

Thank you....

[Buddy]

36 minutes ago, Drew said:

Thank you....

And thank you. 

Wisdom is commendable -- So is Joy

[Mashinka]

7 hours ago, Drew said:

In a ballet in which the Englishman dreams of an Egyptian princess who would rather drown than marry a Nubian, and falls in love instead with an embodied Egyptian God who just happens to look exactly like an English aristocrat? That's a hard one for me.

Actually she's in love with Tahor and resisting an arranged marriage.  On the other hand Radames rejects an Egyptian princess for a Nubian slave,   They are just theatrical plots no matter how bizarre.

[Drew]

4 hours ago, Mashinka said:

Actually she's in love with Tahor and resisting an arranged marriage.  On the other hand Radames rejects an Egyptian princess for a Nubian slave,   They are just theatrical plots no matter how bizarre.

Thanks—don’t know why I misremembered that. 

I do believe that even silly or odd theatrical plots can’t help but let loose meanings....and if I were wrong about that, then I could still wish this ballet didn’t feature blackface dancing.

[CharlieH]

Does the Royal Danish Ballet still perform Bournonville’s Far from Denmark? That one has a wince-enducing (but still cute, IMO) little dance for a black servant couple, Jason and Medea, and their retinue of kids banging drums...all white dancers, in blackface. I’m wondering if the company’s progressive AD, Hubbe, has eliminated this ballet from the rep because of the Jason/Medea dance?

Here is the joyful music for the dance, to Gottschalk’s Le Bananier:

Alas - or maybe thankfully, some would say - the ballet is no longer on YouTube. 

Edited July 23, 2018 by CharlieH

[canbelto]

3 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Does the Royal Danish Ballet still perform Bournonville’s Far from Denmark? That one has a wince-enducing (but still cute, IMO) little dance for a black servant couple, Jason and Medea, and their retinue of kids banging drums...all white dancers, in blackface. I’m wondering if the company’s progressive AD, Hubbe, has eliminated this ballet from the rep because of the Jason/Medea dance?

Here is the joyful music for the dance, to Gottschalk’s Le Bananier:

Alas - or maybe thankfully, some would say - the ballet is no longer on YouTube. 

This is a false equivalency. Something Bournonville choreographed in the 19th century would have 19th century values about race and we can't hold it against Bournonville.

Pierre Lacotte's Pharaoh's Daughter is not even a reconstruction of Petipa's ballet, but a fantasy "based on" Petipa's ballet that he made at the end of the 20th century. There is no particular reason Ramze has to look out of a minstrel show for the ballet to function.

[Laurent]

No, Pierre Lacotte's La fille de pharaon is not a fantasy "based on". It is a recreation aiming to preserve as much of the feel of the ballets of that period as possible, including lost and forgotten "small steps" (petits pas).

[CharlieH]

3 hours ago, Laurent said:

No, Pierre Lacotte's La fille de pharaon is not a fantasy "based on". It is a recreation aiming to preserve as much of the feel of the ballets of that period as possible, including lost and forgotten "small steps" (petits pas).

You’re absolutely correct, Laurent. It’s not merely a fantasy. Lacotte’s La Fille du Pharaon is a real treasure in the Bolshoi’s rep. God bless Pierre Lacotte and other stagers of these 19th-c ballets, with appropriate designs and the music as intended to be heard. If only the RDB also cared enough to return its Bournonville gems to the stage as they should be presented! For example, to remove the concept of Christianity from Napoli (and other Bournonville works) is like banning wine from French restaurants. 

Edited July 24, 2018 by CharlieH

[Mashinka]

13 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Does the Royal Danish Ballet still perform Bournonville’s Far from Denmark? That one has a wince-enducing (but still cute, IMO) little dance for a black servant couple, Jason and Medea, and their retinue of kids banging drums...all white dancers, in blackface. I’m wondering if the company’s progressive AD, Hubbe, has eliminated this ballet from the rep because of the Jason/Medea dance?

I last saw it at the Bournonville Festival under Frank Andersen, don't think Hubbe has revived it.  The RDB does however seem to have dropped Whims of Cupid and the Ballet Master, far earlier than Bournonville of course bur perhaps even more offensive to those posting here than Far from Denmark.

[CharlieH]

2 hours ago, Mashinka said:

I last saw it at the Bournonville Festival under Frank Andersen, don't think Hubbe has revived it.  The RDB does however seem to have dropped Whims of Cupid and the Ballet Master, far earlier than Bournonville of course bur perhaps even more offensive to those posting here than Far from Denmark.

Thanks, Mashinka. The 2005  B’ville Fest was the last time that I saw Far from Denmark and other B’ville rarities...which they’re all becoming. Re. Whims - That, too, is unfortunate. 

[cubanmiamiboy]

I might be cyber-shot here with my next statement, but I have seen the opposite phenomenon. In certain interviews with Misty Copeland on TV which heavily relay on her "first African-American Principal dancer" agenda, I have seen her wearing makeup that dramatically darkens her natural skin,  along with very curly hair, whereas onstage in certain roles her face can be seen definitely whitened and her hair is more straight than mine.  

[canbelto]

3 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

I might be cyber-shot here with my next statement, but I have seen the opposite phenomenon. In certain interviews with Misty Copeland on TV which heavily relay on her "first African-American Principal dancer" agenda, I have seen her wearing makeup that dramatically darkens her natural skin,  along with very curly hair, whereas onstage in certain roles her face can be seen definitely whitened and her hair is more straight than mine.  

And? Misty has to keep her hair straight in ballets because that's the look. Many ballerinas have short/curly hair and wear wigs/extensions/falls to achieve the classical ballet hairdo. In real life Misty doesn't wear her hair the way she'd wear it in Swan Lake.

This is a really different issue from Pierre Lacotte making a ballet that has a costume that's so offensive to 21st century sensibilities and looks like a minstrel show. It isn't like a screening of D.W. Griffiths' Birth of a Nation where you can accept a work made in a different time and era. Pierre Lacotte made this ballet in 2000.

[Laurent]

I am much more scandalized by the majority of opera and ballet productions today that are made to reflect "21st sensibilities", to be concerned by the fact that some self-appointed censors consider Pierre Lacotte and 19th Century ballets "offensive" to those sensibilities.

[cubanmiamiboy]

3 hours ago, canbelto said:

And? Misty has to keep her hair straight in ballets because that's the look. 

I was also referring to the darkening and whitening of her skin depending on the purpose, on the message being conveyed. Beyonce has also done it. She might wear an afro and DEFINITELY darkening makeup in certain events when she wants to look more African American. Certain famous social activists like Shaun King and Rachel Dolezal have been infamously criticized for "passing" as blacks while being white using, among other things, darkening  makeup and African-American inspired hair styles. This examples might be different instances than Pharaoh's or Bayadere -(although perhaps even more scandalous), but they exist...and they exist with a purpose. 

[canbelto]

8 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

I was also referring to the darkening and whitening of her skin depending on the purpose, on the message being conveyed. Beyonce has also done it. She might wear an afro and DEFINITELY darkening makeup in certain events when she wants to look more African American. Certain famous social activists like Shaun King and Rachel Dolezal have been infamously criticized for "passing" as blacks while being white using, among other things, darkening  makeup and African-American inspired hair styles. This examples might be different instances than Pharaoh's or Bayadere -(although perhaps even more scandalous), but they exist...and they exist with a purpose. 

And? Ballerinas (or celebrities) can choose the makeup they want on any particular day without there being a sinister nefarious purpose. Certain celebrities use bronzer when they go on TV because of the lighting.

What Lacotte did was entirely different which was he is using Caucasian dancers and slathering them with blackface makeup in order for them to look like an African parody.

[Jayne]

8 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

Certain famous social activists like Shaun King and Rachel Dolezal have been infamously criticized for "passing" as blacks while being white using, among other things, darkening  makeup and African-American inspired hair styles.  

Goodness the thread has strayed from the original discussion topic.  But I must correct the error:  Shaun King is bi-racial, his mother is white and his biological father was mixed black and white.  

https://www.snopes.com/news/2015/08/19/shaun-king/ 

Also, if you did not grow up with American minstral shows or segregated Hollywood, the offensive “clown show” is harder to wrap your brain around.  To put it in better context, think of the Andy Rooney “chinaman” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.  

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Jayne

[canbelto]

Also the good thing nowadays is that most TV appearances are preserved on YT. So I did a quick hit to see some of Misty's TV appearances and not in a single one does she appear to have either darkened her skin or overcurled her hair. So everyone is entitled to their own opinions about misty but you're not entitled to alternative facts.