David Hallberg's directive to Australian Ballet about arms

[canbelto]

I made this video about David Hallberg's directive about arms:

So David Hallberg made a video demonstrating what he wants arms to look like -- free and flowing, and not held at a very fixed angle. He cites the way NYCB, Mariinsky, or Bolshoi do it. I found examples of what he's talking about. In the first video (a variation from T&V), the Laura Hecquet POB has arms held in a very stiff, formal angle throughout the variation. It's very classically correct. In the second video, Tiler Peck of the NYCB does what David Hallberg demonstrates -- her arms fly higher as the music crescendos.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2021 by canbelto

[pherank]

The classical look can be beautiful, but it all depends on how this port de bras is being used. Tyler Peck is working at a blinding speed (as usual) which is going to require some adjustments just to get from one articulated position to another without looking like a bird flapping its wings. But relatively few dancers can match Peck's simultaneous speed and articulation. Is Hallberg working on a particular ballet's aesthetic? Or is he trying to develop a new overall approach for the company?

[Quiggin]

Thanks for posting that comparison, very helpful. Agree with pherank about Peck – it's is too fast for my eyes, nothing there for them to catch on – maybe in person it's different. There seems to be a tendency of City Ballet dancers in the past 20 years, who were always speedy, to put the locus of that speed at the elbows and wrists without it coming from the body and along whole arm. It seems like a kind of rococo ornamentation of the choreography, the lacy finish of a splash of water. Maybe it was always there in the Balanchine works, maybe it comes from Verdy rather than Farrell, but seems to have become emphasised in recent years by the more virtuosic dancers. Hallberg may want something freer, but not as staccato.