About Style and Aesthetics - Baryshnikov and Godunov

[Meliss]

43 minutes ago, Helene said:

 

Godunov might have been told that Push Comes to Shove (from 1976) was "only for Misha," but that wasn't true by the early '80's, after Baryshnikov's return to ABT and when Godunov was still with ABT, because I saw Danilo Radojevic, another shorter virtuoso dancer, dance it twice in 1982.  Tharp has always kept strict control over the rights and presentation of her works.

As far as why a company would not want to try to get all of the rights in line to publish sub-standard video, it could be because they don't want sub-standard video circulating. 

Yes, the perception of art is very individual but at the same time there are gold standards as well. Sometimes it's rather surprising that some ballet critics compare a great dancer to an ox or start discussing the shape of his legs instead of his dancing.

As for Push Comes to Shove, the situation can be very simple. You can give the role to a dancer who can't dance it better than you, but if you've got a serious competitor you can say no, it's just for me. This is exactly what Baryshnikov said to Godunov when he asked him for a role in the ballet Prodigal Son. Robert La Fosse also danced it if I am not mistaken. 

Not long ago I saw an 11-second video capturing Nijinsky's jump. The video quality is a hundred times worse than you can imagine. It's a good thing that whoever posted it on the Internet didn't care about video standards.

 

Edited June 19 by Meliss

[Helene]

There is little video of Dowell from ABT: most of it was from his Royal Ballet days, not his ABT days. Bruhn's work on video is mostly from European sources plus appearances on variety shows like The Bell Telephone Hour. 

I think it is more strange that there isn't more video and footage of Godunov from Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and my archives opened, even for defectors.  He spent the most important part of his dance career there, and the Soviet TV filmed a lot of dancing.  His career at ABT was only a few years, and his dancing wasn't central to the Company. 

Bujones, who trained at the School of American Ballet, the feeder school for New York City Ballet, was touted as the first American to be as good technically as Baryshnikov, and he was the first American to win the gold medal at Varna.   He wrote extensively about why he left ABT in the autobiography that was published posthumously by his coach, Zeida Cecilia Mendez. ("Fernando Bujones: An Autobiography".  There are comments from different people as insets in the book; I'm not sure if he solicited them or if they were added by his coach, which they read like to me.) The gist is:

• He and many dancers were unhappy when Lucia Chase was pushed out and Baryshnikov took over, especially by the handling of the new Executive Director/corporate mouthpiece (my paraphrase) Herman Krawitz, who later was producer of two TV specials built around Baryshnikov.
• Baryshnikov built a clique around him and promoted dancers without the skills and experience; many dancers left the company at that time, dancers Bujones admired, and even the Soviet and Eastern bloc dancers and coaches who were hired by Baryshnikov were gone within two years; he lists Godumov among them.
• Bujones was getting a lot of opportunities to guest, and he was living the life outside of ABT, dancing with great partners (Pontois, Haydee) and getting great reviews, with one critic in France calling him "un nouveau Nureev," with Nurejev, not Baryshnikov, his hero.  He continued to guest all over the place while remaining at ABT until:
  • Maurice Bejart offered to create a ballet for Bujones at ABT.  His agent was negotiating with ABT, which seemed to be going back and forth at their usual pace.  When ABT's then executive director, Charles Dillingham, told his agent that ABT was not going to produce the ballet, Bujones decided not to sign the contract that ABT proposed, thinking that he might be able to re-join the company in the future. Critic Anna Kisselgoff contacted him, saying ABT sent a press release to say that he was trying to coerce the company to produce the Bejart Ballet,   Dillingham sent a telegram accusing him of coercion and accusing him of having broken an oral agreement.  He got a hand-written note from Baryshnikov accusing him of much the same, including rudeness and being ill-mannered.  He wrote back.

So he never planned to leave ABT, with his opportunities to spend the rest of his season guesting, and, in fact, left three years after Godunov left, not following him.  The joke was on the Company, because Bujones was in demand worldwide.

His autobiography is official news, by our site rules, because it was written by a ballet professional and is public-facing, and it was so worth $9.99 on Kindle!

37 minutes ago, Meliss said:

his is exactly what Baryshnikov said to Godunov when he asked him for a role in the ballet Prodigal Son.

What is your official source for this?

[Meliss]

2 hours ago, Helene said:

There is little video of Dowell from ABT: most of it was from his Royal Ballet days, not his ABT days. Bruhn's work on video is mostly from European sources plus appearances on variety shows like The Bell Telephone Hour. 

So, the problem was not related to the technical capabilities to shoot video. There are a lot of videos with Baryshnikov.

2 hours ago, Helene said:

I think it is more strange that there isn't more video and footage of Godunov from Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and my archives opened, even for defectors.  He spent the most important part of his dance career there, and the Soviet TV filmed a lot of dancing.  His career at ABT was only a few years, and his dancing wasn't central to the Company. 

I wonder whose dancing was central to the Company. He was a principal dancer (the most highly paid one in ABT).

As for Godunov's videos in Russia, there are some. But the problem was not only in the fact that the videos with defectors were mostly destroyed. Godunov wanted to defect to the USA in 1974 when he was on tour there. He told his partner Maya Plisetskaya about it, but she asked him to wait. The film on the ballet Anna Karenina was about to release. If Godunov defected, the film could not be seen by cinema-goers. Godunov promised not to defect that time. And then he started to refuse to participate in films. His other partner Lyudmila Semenyaka wanted to dance with him in a TV documentary about her. He refused. She could not understand why and insisted. He said that she would understand it later. He just did not want her film to be shelved or destroyed. He was a noble man.

2 hours ago, Helene said:

Bujones, who trained at the School of American Ballet, the feeder school for New York City Ballet, was touted as the first American to be as good technically as Baryshnikov, and he was the first American to win the gold medal at Varna.   He wrote extensively about why he left ABT in the autobiography that was published posthumously by his coach, Zeida Cecilia Mendez. ("Fernando Bujones: An Autobiography".  There are comments from different people as insets in the book; I'm not sure if he solicited them or if they were added by his coach, which they read like to me.) The gist is:

• He and many dancers were unhappy when Lucia Chase was pushed out and Baryshnikov took over, especially by the handling of the new Executive Director/corporate mouthpiece (my paraphrase) Herman Krawitz, who later was producer of two TV specials built around Baryshnikov.
• Baryshnikov built a clique around him and promoted dancers without the skills and experience; many dancers left the company at that time, dancers Bujones admired, and even the Soviet and Eastern bloc dancers and coaches who were hired by Baryshnikov were gone within two years; he lists Godumov among them.
• Bujones was getting a lot of opportunities to guest, and he was living the life outside of ABT, dancing with great partners (Pontois, Haydee) and getting great reviews, with one critic in France calling him "un nouveau Nureev," with Nurejev, not Baryshnikov, his hero.  He continued to guest all over the place while remaining at ABT until:
  • Maurice Bejart offered to create a ballet for Bujones at ABT.  His agent was negotiating with ABT, which seemed to be going back and forth at their usual pace.  When ABT's then executive director, Charles Dillingham, told his agent that ABT was not going to produce the ballet, Bujones decided not to sign the contract that ABT proposed, thinking that he might be able to re-join the company in the future. Critic Anna Kisselgoff contacted him, saying ABT sent a press release to say that he was trying to coerce the company to produce the Bejart Ballet,   Dillingham sent a telegram accusing him of coercion and accusing him of having broken an oral agreement.  He got a hand-written note from Baryshnikov accusing him of much the same, including rudeness and being ill-mannered.  He wrote back.

So he never planned to leave ABT, with his opportunities to spend the rest of his season guesting, and, in fact, left three years after Godunov left, not following him. 

Actually, I did not mean he left immediately after Godunov. But soon enough - only after 3 years of Baryshnikov's management.

2 hours ago, Helene said:

His autobiography is official news, by our site rules, because it was written by a ballet professional and is public-facing, and it was so worth $9.99 on Kindle!

What is your official source for this?

1 hour ago, Meliss said:

This is exactly what Baryshnikov said to Godunov when he asked him for a role in the ballet Prodigal Son. 

I don't know exactly how much this newspaper cost, but I hope the article was also written by a professional. I will find the information later.

Edited June 19 by Meliss

[Helene]

38 minutes ago, Meliss said:

So, the problem was not related to the technical capabilities to shoot video. There are a lot of videos with Baryshnikov.

Of course there were videos at the time.  There was plenty of footage of Maria Tallchief from TV, for example.  There was a series of Balanchine ballets with NYCB filmed in Montreal, a series in Berlin, and later, in the late '70's, a series filmed for Dance in America.  They are all commercial or institutional , and the producers including for  of the variety shows -- Ed Sullivan, The Bell Telephone Hour, Firestone Theatre -- were the ones extending the invitations to appear.  The US dance companies were not producing their own work.

No one extended the same invitations to Godunov, so unless there is promotional or news footage with some dancing clips in the Paley Center for Media or the archives of a news organization, his performances would have been filmed on company tapes, if ABT had them at the time, for their own internal archives, and the quality of those tapes in general were extremely weak, single camera versions at the time.  The only other source would have been pirates, and I haven't seen any published to YouTube for example.  I have no idea about whether pirate exist on Russian media.

38 minutes ago, Meliss said:

I wonder whose dancing was central to the Company. He was a principal dancer (the most highly paid one in ABT).

There were a lot of Principal Dancers. and not only Principal Dancers were central to the Company: it all boils down to where the Artistic Director puts his or her attention and how she or he distributes the roles.  Godunov was not the equivalent of an Etoile, more than any other Principal, and how much he was paid would have been determined in private negotiations with management.  At the time he was there, central to the Company would have been Baryshnikov, who was still dancing, Bujones, and Patrick Bissell, primarily among the men, along with Robert La Fosse, whom Baryshnikov was pushing strongly.  Among the women, Cynthia Gregory, Gelsey Kirkland was in and out at the time, and Martine van Hamel are the dancers I can think of off the top of my head.  There were also a number of younger ballerinas whom Baryshnikov pushed particularly when he was acting as Director and not just on the masthead after he'd wanted to leave, and he gave them opportunities that would normally have gone to more established dancers.  Among these, only Jaffe hit it big.

38 minutes ago, Meliss said:

3 hours ago, Helene said:

 

Actually, I did not mean he left immediately after Godunov. But soon enough - only after 3 years of Baryshnikov's management.

As he wrote, he was not planning to leave ABT when he did, after six years of Baryshnikov's management, in truth and in name when Baryshnikov wasn't really directing the company at the time -- Bujones called it leaderless by that point -- he left after a contract dispute, expecting to be able to join the company again -- and not only if management changed -- but the ABT press release and subsequent accusations by Dillingham and Baryshnikov, which he quotes, killed any chance of that.

[Fraildove]

As for Prodigal Son, wasn’t that a role that has been typically danced by shorter male dancers? I would have a hard time imagining it with someone 6’1. Also, the Balanchine trust might have also had a large say in who and who was not allowed to perform a role.

 

i loved Godunov. But as a former professional ballet dancer and now teacher, he did not hold a candle to Baryshnikov in technique. Baryshnikov could be a principal in any company even today. I do not feel the same way about Godunov. He was beautiful, but sloppy in his technique as were most men of that time. The stretch of the feet and legs, high Demi-pointe, placement of the foot in passe, etc would not hold up today. And I mean no offense. I loved his dancing. He had a uniqueness and presence that was all his own. 

[Quiggin]

Just for a note of clarification, dance "videos" come in three flavors: Film (all periods), Kinoscope (1945 to 1960), and Videotape (after 1958). Film is contrastier and has a classic tonality, Kinoscope, which was filmed directly off of a live tv monitor, comes with artifacts of band lines and highlights surrounded with black halos, and videotape seems both flat & shiny looking in tonality (like velour?), at least in the early days.

Anyway after following the discussion above, I enjoyed watching this videotape of Alexander Godunov and Natalia Makarova. Godunov does seem to have a presence and charm that's quite different from Barysnikov's.  I can see from this and other recordings why Nureyev was his model.

 

[Helene]

He certainly danced as if he didn't mind sharing the stage with someone else.

[Marta]

I've watched that DQ video many times, although for Makarova, not for Godunov.  I saw Godunov 2  or 3 times back in the day; once in Bayadere at the Met in 1980 with Gregory and Cynthia Harvey.  I was underwhelmed by him.  As someone remarked, he was a sometimes exciting dancer but frequently sloppy.

[Meliss]

On 6/21/2024 at 12:28 AM, Marta said:

I've watched that DQ video many times, although for Makarova, not for Godunov.  I saw Godunov 2  or 3 times back in the day; once in Bayadere at the Met in 1980 with Gregory and Cynthia Harvey.  I was underwhelmed by him.  As someone remarked, he was a sometimes exciting dancer but frequently sloppy.

Is he sloppy in this DQ video in your opinion?

Edited Saturday at 05:24 AM by Meliss

[Meliss]

On 6/20/2024 at 7:44 AM, Quiggin said:

Just for a note of clarification, dance "videos" come in three flavors: Film (all periods), Kinoscope (1945 to 1960), and Videotape (after 1958). Film is contrastier and has a classic tonality, Kinoscope, which was filmed directly off of a live tv monitor, comes with artifacts of band lines and highlights surrounded with black halos, and videotape seems both flat & shiny looking in tonality (like velour?), at least in the early days.

Anyway after following the discussion above, I enjoyed watching this videotape of Alexander Godunov and Natalia Makarova. Godunov does seem to have a presence and charm that's quite different from Barysnikov's.  I can see from this and other recordings why Nureyev was his model.

 

Thank you for your comment. I know that Godunov liked Nureev's dancing, but in my opinion Alexander was too independent and original to follow anyone as a model.

[Meliss]

On 6/20/2024 at 1:37 AM, Helene said:

Of course there were videos at the time.  There was plenty of footage of Maria Tallchief from TV, for example.  There was a series of Balanchine ballets with NYCB filmed in Montreal, a series in Berlin, and later, in the late '70's, a series filmed for Dance in America.  They are all commercial or institutional , and the producers including for  of the variety shows -- Ed Sullivan, The Bell Telephone Hour, Firestone Theatre -- were the ones extending the invitations to appear.  The US dance companies were not producing their own work.

No one extended the same invitations to Godunov, so unless there is promotional or news footage with some dancing clips in the Paley Center for Media or the archives of a news organization, his performances would have been filmed on company tapes, if ABT had them at the time, for their own internal archives, and the quality of those tapes in general were extremely weak, single camera versions at the time.  The only other source would have been pirates, and I haven't seen any published to YouTube for example.  I have no idea about whether pirate exist on Russian media.

Thank you for your detailed answer. Do you think these "company tapes" (if any) still exist? Who can know it for sure? Any ABT officials? As for pirates in RF, well, I know that there are some who illegally post the texts of books on their websites. As for the video pirates, I'm not sure. Well, as for the video of Raymonda with Godunov and van Hamel, we do not know who posted it and whether they had the right to do so. But all the numerous fans of Godunov are very grateful to them!

On 6/20/2024 at 1:37 AM, Helene said:

 

There were a lot of Principal Dancers. and not only Principal Dancers were central to the Company: it all boils down to where the Artistic Director puts his or her attention and how she or he distributes the roles.  Godunov was not the equivalent of an Etoile, more than any other Principal, and how much he was paid would have been determined in private negotiations with management.  At the time he was there, central to the Company would have been Baryshnikov, who was still dancing, Bujones, and Patrick Bissell, primarily among the men, along with Robert La Fosse, whom Baryshnikov was pushing strongly.  Among the women, Cynthia Gregory, Gelsey Kirkland was in and out at the time, and Martine van Hamel are the dancers I can think of off the top of my head.  There were also a number of younger ballerinas whom Baryshnikov pushed particularly when he was acting as Director and not just on the masthead after he'd wanted to leave, and he gave them opportunities that would normally have gone to more established dancers.  Among these, only Jaffe hit it big.

 

A lot of Principal Dancers? In a company having about 80-90 dancers all in all? Besides, to my mind, every principal dancer should be important for the company. Each of them is unique. But you are quite right saying that "it all boils down to where the Artistic Director puts his or her attention". Unfortunately Baryshnikov had been jealous of Godunov since childhood. Even people from the so called Baryshnikov's team admitted it. We can read in the autobiographical book by former ABT choreographer Elena Chernyshova: "Misha had never been very happy that Alexander Godunov was at ABT. Sasha's star quality was so mesmerizing that the public couldn't help but love him. Misha resented it, and Sasha made it easy for Misha to dismiss him by acting badly, often under the influence of alcohol. He was consuming a lot of that, and a lot of the company's oxygen as well; it seemed like everybody was complaining. " It is not clear what she meant by " acting badly" and why exactly everybody should be complaining. I have never read in any book or interview of the other Godunov's colleagues anything like that.

On 6/20/2024 at 1:37 AM, Helene said:

Godunov was not the equivalent of an Etoile, more than any other Principal, and how much he was paid would have been determined in private negotiations with management.  At the time he was there, central to the Company would have been Baryshnikov, who was still dancing, Bujones, and Patrick Bissell, primarily among the men, along with Robert La Fosse, whom Baryshnikov was pushing strongly.  Among the women, Cynthia Gregory, Gelsey Kirkland was in and out at the time, and Martine van Hamel are the dancers I can think of off the top of my head. 

But I still can't understand why the company paid to "not central" Godunov much more than to "the central dancers". Do you?

1 hour ago, Meliss said:

 

 

Edited Saturday at 06:36 AM by Meliss

[Meliss]

On 6/20/2024 at 7:59 AM, Helene said:

He certainly danced as if he didn't mind sharing the stage with someone else.

I'm afraid I didn't quite understand this remark. Could you please explain it?

[Meliss]

On 6/19/2024 at 8:26 PM, Fraildove said:

As for Prodigal Son, wasn’t that a role that has been typically danced by shorter male dancers? I would have a hard time imagining it with someone 6’1. Also, the Balanchine trust might have also had a large say in who and who was not allowed to perform a role.

 

i loved Godunov. But as a former professional ballet dancer and now teacher, he did not hold a candle to Baryshnikov in technique. Baryshnikov could be a principal in any company even today. I do not feel the same way about Godunov. He was beautiful, but sloppy in his technique as were most men of that time. The stretch of the feet and legs, high Demi-pointe, placement of the foot in passe, etc would not hold up today. And I mean no offense. I loved his dancing. He had a uniqueness and presence that was all his own. 

Could you please explain why this role should not be played by a tall dancer? I don't see how it could change the conception of the ballet.

 

[volcanohunter]

There are a couple of reasons why the Son is traditionally a role for shorter dancers. His solo choreography--the rapid jumps, fast, corkscrew pirouettes and punchy dynamics--are easier for a dancer with shorter limbs to accomplish. That's simply physics. In ballet height is also traditionally an indicator of age, as vocal range is in opera. There's a reason why the dancers who portray Siegfried's mother or Lord Capulet are usually very tall. Conversely the Son's short stature suggests that he is very young and naive.

Also, his encounter with the Siren is extremely effective when she is taller than he is. The audience understands that he is completely outmatched by her. This is not a recent idea. The original Siren, Felia Doubrovska, was among the tallest ballerinas of her time, and even 95 years later she would be considered above-average in height for a female dancer. She needs to have very long legs and should tower above the Son on pointe.

 

[Helene]

I don't have any numbers for how big the company was or how many Principals they had when Godunov was dancing.  All of my programs, which would have list company members and ranks, from that time are long gone.

Looking  at today's numbers  ABT has 18 Principals, (~20%) and 12 Soloists (~14%) of the 88 dancers on their roster.  NYCB has 21 Principals (~23%) and 22 Soloists (~24%) of 91 dancers on their roster..  ABT was doing a lot more triple bills in those days, compared to their reliance on full-lengths recently, so more opportunities for Principal and Soloist roles, but even with a summer season, it doesn't compare to the number of performances put on by Paris Opera Ballet, the Bolshoi, or the Mariinsky, all with two theaters.  ABT has always shared the theater with the resident opera companies and other dance companies.  Before moving to the Metropolitan Opera House, they performed in the same theater with New York City Ballet and the now defunct New York City Opera.

With relatively limited number of performances, being one of 18 is still a limited number of performances, even if roles are distributed equally.  I can't name a single company that's been written about here where some Principals and Soloists haven't been described as neglected, underused, passed over for opportunities, and others as over-hyped. 

From the times I saw Godunov live, I can't say I thought ABT should made him more prominent than he was. 

Principal contracts are negotiated individually, and there can be a wide range within a company.  Some Principal dancers were on salary regardless of their number of performances and ; others were paid by performance, and if they weren't cast, they didn't get paid.  Unless this is disclosed by the dancers, or if they are among the five most compensated employees in the organization, which will be disclosed on their tax from 990, no one knows how well Godunov negotiated his contract or the kind of contact he was on.

As far as company tapes, I don't know if ABT was among the many companies that made them for their own archives, often as a memory aid for reconstructing ballets or remembering parts.  If they did, there's no guarantee that they're in any shape, as media degrades, especially tapes, and they need to be transferred to more robust media.  Company tapes/recordings are used for whatever the Company wants, without the expectation that they will ever be made available to anyone but company insiders.

[volcanohunter]

This is would also be exceedingly difficult to do if the Son were tall.

 

[Helene]

And the dancer who plays the father is usually one of the tallest and strongest in the company or on staff, since it's a character role. 

[nanushka]

It's possible there are some recordings of Godunov in the collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts collection, which can be viewed on site. More info here.

Edited Saturday at 12:15 PM by nanushka

[Meliss]

3 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

There are a couple of reasons why the Son is traditionally a role for shorter dancers. His solo choreography--the rapid jumps, fast, corkscrew pirouettes and punchy dynamics--are easier for a dancer with shorter limbs to accomplish. That's simply physics. In ballet height is also traditionally an indicator of age, as vocal range is in opera. There's a reason why the dancers who portray Siegfried's mother or Lord Capulet are usually very tall. Conversely the Son's short stature suggests that he is very young and naive.

Also, his encounter with the Siren is extremely effective when she is taller than he is. The audience understands that he is completely outmatched by her. This is not a recent idea. The original Siren, Felia Doubrovska, was among the tallest ballerinas of her time, and even 95 years later she would be considered above-average in height for a female dancer. She needs to have very long legs and should tower above the Son on pointe.

 

Thanks a lot, but I'm sure Godunov knew all that and nevertheless wanted this role. Wouldn't it be exciting to watch him breaking the standards?

[Meliss]

51 minutes ago, nanushka said:

It's possible there are some recordings of Godunov in the collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts collection, which can be viewed on site. More info here.

Thank you for help, but videorecordings may be viewed only on-site at the Library. Oh, may be there is an extract from The Moor's Pavane there!!  https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b12159140

Edited Saturday at 01:11 PM by Meliss

[Meliss]

On 6/19/2024 at 7:06 PM, nanushka said:

 

Here are some YouTube videos that take a close look at Baryshnikov's technique:

https://www.youtube.com/@KentGBecker/search?query=baryshnikov

Thank you very much. I have watched some videos with Baryshnikov and I even liked some moments from them. Besides, there is a material about Godunov on this channel: 

 

Edited Saturday at 01:27 PM by Meliss

[Meliss]

On 6/22/2024 at 12:23 PM, Helene said:

I don't have any numbers for how big the company was or how many Principals they had when Godunov was dancing.  All of my programs, which would have list company members and ranks, from that time are long gone.

Looking  at today's numbers  ABT has 18 Principals, (~20%) and 12 Soloists (~14%) of the 88 dancers on their roster.  NYCB has 21 Principals (~23%) and 22 Soloists (~24%) of 91 dancers on their roster..  ABT was doing a lot more triple bills in those days, compared to their reliance on full-lengths recently, so more opportunities for Principal and Soloist roles, but even with a summer season, it doesn't compare to the number of performances put on by Paris Opera Ballet, the Bolshoi, or the Mariinsky, all with two theaters.  ABT has always shared the theater with the resident opera companies and other dance companies.  Before moving to the Metropolitan Opera House, they performed in the same theater with New York City Ballet and the now defunct New York City Opera.

With relatively limited number of performances, being one of 18 is still a limited number of performances, even if roles are distributed equally.  I can't name a single company that's been written about here where some Principals and Soloists haven't been described as neglected, underused, passed over for opportunities, and others as over-hyped. 

From the times I saw Godunov live, I can't say I thought ABT should made him more prominent than he was. 

Principal contracts are negotiated individually, and there can be a wide range within a company.  Some Principal dancers were on salary regardless of their number of performances and ; others were paid by performance, and if they weren't cast, they didn't get paid.  Unless this is disclosed by the dancers, or if they are among the five most compensated employees in the organization, which will be disclosed on their tax from 990, no one knows how well Godunov negotiated his contract or the kind of contact he was on.

As far as company tapes, I don't know if ABT was among the many companies that made them for their own archives, often as a memory aid for reconstructing ballets or remembering parts.  If they did, there's no guarantee that they're in any shape, as media degrades, especially tapes, and they need to be transferred to more robust media.  Company tapes/recordings are used for whatever the Company wants, without the expectation that they will ever be made available to anyone but company insiders.

Thank you very much. I hope we agree on the point that the more wonderful performances by great dancers are preserved the better.

[Meliss]

On 6/20/2024 at 7:44 AM, Quiggin said:

Just for a note of clarification, dance "videos" come in three flavors: Film (all periods), Kinoscope (1945 to 1960), and Videotape (after 1958). Film is contrastier and has a classic tonality, Kinoscope, which was filmed directly off of a live tv monitor, comes with artifacts of band lines and highlights surrounded with black halos, and videotape seems both flat & shiny looking in tonality (like velour?), at least in the early days.

Anyway after following the discussion above, I enjoyed watching this videotape of Alexander Godunov and Natalia Makarova. Godunov does seem to have a presence and charm that's quite different from Barysnikov's.  I can see from this and other recordings why Nureyev was his model.

 

Thank you for this post. I have seen this video a lot of times but opened it just to watch a little. Of course I could not take my eyes off till th end of it.

[Meliss]

On 6/22/2024 at 12:23 PM, Helene said:

I don't have any numbers for how big the company was or how many Principals they had when Godunov was dancing.  All of my programs, which would have list company members and ranks, from that time are long gone. 

 

  https://archive.org/details/americanballetth0000dona/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Alexander+Godunov

[Helene]

Thank you for the link, @Meliss.  That looks like a transitional time after many of the Principals from the ‘70’s, like Eleanor D’Antuono, Erik Bruhn, Carla Fracci, Ted Kivitt, Sallie Wilson, and John Prinz (who joined NYCB), left the company, along with Gelsey Kirkland.  Her partner in drugs, Patrick Bissell, was still at least listed. He was considered one of the most talented male dancers of his time.  He was important enough to the Company to keep hiring back despite his drug use and arrest and being in and out of drug rehab.  He was the dance equivalent of skating’s Christopher Bowman: all of the talent vs. all of the drugs.

It was from the list of soloists that Baryshnikov saw as the future, except for Susan Jaffe, still in the corps, and whom he pushed, many of them women, but among the men, La Fosse, who danced a lot of Baryshnikov’s roles and later left for NYCB, Ross Stratton, and Johann Renvall, who danced Prodigal Son with the Swedish Royal Ballet before joining ABT, and danced with Godunov in Godunov’s side projects.  They were treated as de facto Principals, although, like in many companies, their titles lagged behind.  (Plus, Soloists were compensated under the union contract, unlike Principals, who negotiated contracts.)

To go off topic for a moment, looking at the roster, I recognize two corps dancers, Patrick Hinson and David Moore, who later joined NYCB, and Amy Rose, who later became a soloist with ABT and left to dance with Pacific Northwest Ballet.  I saw her dance with both companies, and she was a lovely dancer.