assoluta

Dmitry Gudanov, the only premier at Bolshoi who could properly be termed danseur noble, just retired. This is the raison d'être behind Lopatin's nomination, a stylist of limited emploi, it must be admitted. A great artist with similar limitations to Lopatin, Emmanuel Thibault, will be retiring from the Opéra next week, never attaining the rank of étoile.

5 hours ago, Sim said:

Is that usual, Capybara?  I will post the link in Doing Dance, in case anyone's DSs would like to audition.

No, this is not usual. This is a sign that they urgently need dancers.

58 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

The works shown were "grossly incompetent" in your opinion.  That opinion may not be shared by everybody.

What I said:

8 hours ago, toursenlair said:

 

I really don't think it's appropriate that you should dismiss everyone who disagrees with your judgement as not a "competent professional" and with your assumption that all "competent professionals" would agree with your judgement, and indeed are always right.

You are yourself making assumptions and you are distorting what I did say. Your collection of excerpts doesn't change the tenet of my message: grossly incompetent works get praised and there are limits to "subjectivity of reception". The works shown were grossly incompetent. Reducing everything to "subjectivity of reception" nullifies the whole notion of "competence", and my message was an attempt to remind the readers of this thread about it.

On 6/22/2017 at 16:11, Duck said:

In order to provide a few additional opinions about the programme and thus illustrate that the reception of artistic endeavours is indeed subjective, I’ve done a search on the web for reviews and posts about the programme.

This may illustrate just as well that every kind of incompetence can find a champion which is not surprising in view of the fact that anybody today can be a "critic". When Edward Villella was saying

There is a lot of mediocrity around. A lot of mediocrity is highly praised and highly funded and highly supported.

he obviously was not interested in vindicating mediocrity and basic incompetence in terms of "subjectivity of reception", and I am with him on this issue rather than with those who try to reduce everything to subjective feelings.

Much more pertinent to this particular case is, however, what I learned later from the very people whose works were shown: the "Academy of Choreography" whose demise is being lamented by some, likely to be not very well informed "critics", was little more than a facade, they had few opportunities to learn anything from their supposed "master" and, as a result, didn't learn much.

I could not resist posting here a photograph of Sergei Vikharev with Mona Inglesby taken at her Sussex house in 2000, because it is the loveliest photograph of Sergei I am aware of.

I took it from the recent article by Ismene Brown devoted to Vikharev.

I agree with every word of what you have written, Janet, it is however depressing to witness works of such incompetence produced at the Opéra de Paris.

There are also such things like "basic incompetence". These are best left to be judged by competent professionals and are not discussed in public fora, for this reason I will not be discussing them here besides registering my opinion that the pieces shown were grossly incompetent.

7 hours ago, Duck said:

Brigitte Lefèvre organised a number of – I understand informal – choreographic events for the company’s dancers when she was at the helm of POB. Benjamin Millepied changed this into something more formal and set up a Choreographer’s Academy, with Sébastien Bertaud, Simon Valastro, Bruno Bouché and Nicolas Paul – all dancers with POB – participating, and with William Forsythe as – then – mentor (I’ve read somewhere that Aurélie Dupont has since put the Academy on standby, and I can’t see any choreographic events scheduled for next season at all). The mixed programme at Palais Garnier last week presented the results of the Academy’s work. I saw the performance on Sunday afternoon.

If these are the results,  Mlle Dupont is making the only sensible decision ; in fact, after seeing all four pieces, my first and foremost question was "who on earth permitted these pieces to be shown on the stage of Palais Garnier?". Two of the four works are so inept they may be contenders for the title of the worst ballet ever shown on the Grand Opéra stage. The only piece choreographically enjoyable, despite its glaring faults, was Bertaud's Renaissance.  Concerning the information in the opening sentence, similar events were taking place before Lefèvre.

On 6/11/2017 at 22:35, Yaffa said:

Wow, just saw that the prizes include $100,000 each for Grand Prix dancer and choreographer:
http://www.medici.tv/en/moscowballetcompetition/prizes-and-awards-bolchoi/

 

An attempt to attract high quality competitors, and a futile one at that: no Royal Ballet, no Opéra, no Bolshoi dancers, no Vaganova students showing up, two weak dancers from Mariinsky. Mr Usmanov, their secretary discovering the cause of their absence: "they are scared of competition"

1 hour ago, Amelia said:

From discussing Lopatkina's retirement we somehow moved to other ballerinas. By the way, this is Lopatkina's view of Mezentseva:

"And Mezentseva – oh, she was serene, she was a queen, she had poise, beautiful lines and a profound dramatism. She could cast a spell effortlessly. The strongest impression anyone has made on me was Mezentseva with her Dying Swan."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galina_Mezentseva

Absolutely!

Yes, Mezentseva, as well as Asylmuratova, were the last representatives of that glorious Kirov style that cast a spell on so many of us.

2 hours ago, MAB said:

Russians, both dancers and audiences, experience love at first sight with Ashton's choreography, how I would love them to bring their Sylvias to London, I am heartened by the fact that as the Brits cool towards the master, Russian interest is being ignited.

If by "Russians", you mean "Mariinsky", then it must be added that for "Russians" Sylvia feels difficult and not their home territory, this is what Tereshkina herself admitted. It is understandable if they are not eager to dance it in London. This season, in particular, they danced it only twice (Batoeva's debut, Kolegova).

Raymonda is, well,..., politically incorrect

She was indeed exquisite when young. Her 1994 Adagio in Balanchine's Symphony in C is one of the most memorable things I witnessed on ballet stage during the last 30 years (later she lost that fresh tenderness she had been been displaying when she was very young, her dancing acquired a certain aura of deliberate preciosity, in particular, the Swan Lakes of her middle age were not moving me the same way).

In reality, that era ended several years ago, I am afraid.

Ulyana Lopatkina retired from the Mariinsky (according to an announcement by the Mariinsky).

On 5/28/2017 at 18:30, loveclassics said:

Today's Telegraph quotes an airline industry consultant talking about the current situation at Heathrow: "Customers and from the airline's point of view - manpower, dealing with the backlog of aircraft out of position, parking spaces for the aircraft - it's a challenge and a choreographic nightmare."

 

Now there's a good plot for a ballet!

 

Linda

As much as I like your post, "a choreographic nightmare" doesn't sound to me very promising. Last night I saw 4 new ballets and two of them surely were "choreographic nightmares".

On 6/5/2017 at 15:32, Bruce Wall said:

THIS IS BRILLIANT NEWS .... THIS IS A GREAT BRITISH DANCER ...

 

I don't know how many people here have seen him dance ... but he is spectacular ...

 

Perhaps, he was spectacular, I saw him several times recently and was not impressed at all, and that was in the company that lost this year two of its best male dancers.

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

 

(...) might I ask for someone who knows their theatre history to give us a guide to the old stage divisions, with maybe a reference or two? (...)

A "standard" definition of the traditional 3 genres of classical dance was put forward in 1817 by Pierre Gardel, who had been at the helm of the Paris Opera ballet since 1787, and his assistant and a distinguished choreographer, Louis Milon.

La danse noble exige une taille élevée, bien proportionnée et surtout une physionomie noble. Son genre embrasse tous les mouvements d'airs connus sous les noms suivants : la sarabande, la passacaille, l'adagio à 3 et 4 temps, la loure, le menuet noble, la chaconne à 2 et 3 temps, l'air marché à 2 temps, tel que marche, etc., la gigue lourée, la gavotte noble, qui approche du mouvement de chaconne à 2 temps, et généralement tous les grands caractères tels que faunes, tartares, polonais, furies, etc.

    La danse demi-caractère exige une taille moyenne, svelte, gracieuse, et une physionomie agréable. Son domaine renferme : la romance, la sicilienne, la musette galante, le menuet gracieux, l'andante, la pastorale agréable, le 6/8 idem, la gigue ordinaire, la gavotte, le passe pied et généralement tous les caractères de zéphirs, sylphes, troubadours, bergers français, grecs, romains, etc.

    La danse comique exige une taille peu élevée plus forte que fine ; une physionomie enjouée, riante et vive ; voici quel doit être son apanage : la musette champêtre et montagnarde, le menuet de genre et comique et grotesque, le 4 temps louré, le 3/8-6/8 et 12/8, le tambourin et généralement tous les airs de pâtre, contre-danses françaises, allemandes et les caractères comiques ou de genre, tels que le chinois, le lapon, l'anglaise, la cosaque, les furies, les sauvages, etc.

11 hours ago, MAB said:

Danish character dancers are drawn from all ranks, but so much of the Bournonville rep requires acting skills that all are potential character artists.

 

I think it is only in Russia that dances are earmarked for such roles early on.

In Russia at least, character dancing is not as much about acting as it is about dancing, sorry if this sounds as a tautology. The Kings, the Queens, the Bathildes, and so on, are character artists, not dancers, while the proper character dancers, the ones who produce orgies of energy, speed, and colour -- or supple elegance in obligatory Mazurkas and Polonaises, in various Russian productions, cannot be drawn from the ranks of retiring soloists and principals for obvious reasons. Also in Russia, a former principal can at his later age become a stately King or Prince on stage. There is also a separate category of comic dancers, situated between these two extremes.

The absence in western companies of properly trained dancers doing character dancing is reflected in inferior quality and often severely truncated form of the character dancing segments of Petipa's ballets. As much as I love almost everything about how the French train their dancers, character dancing is perhaps the weakest part of their productions of Classics, I am sure not because Nureev would oppose it (on the contrary, he early formation was character dancing), but because they have no specialized artists to do the job well.

I am afraid the current discussion may focus more on the titles and positions in the company than on the essence. Are we concerned about having properly behaving and looking Kings and Queens on stage, great comic actors who can do some dancing, or about having properly trained character dancers?

37 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

It is possible that Kevin will defer making any appointments to the rank of principal dancer until well into next year. There are so many really talented dancers in the company that he may well want to avoid making mistakes about appointing new principal dancers as any appointment he makes will have the effect of blocking advancement to others who may prove to be even more worthy of that status in the near future Perhaps we shall have to wait until after the 2018 performances of Giselle and Swan Lake for the next principals to be named.

How much a given (young) dancer is worth may not be apparent to the public but is transparent to those who observe those dancers in class and during rehearsals, the rest is just hard work and gaining experience. This is by the way a rationale behind promoting early to the top: time is very precious in dancer's career, and those who are really special must be given a chance to develop early and have long careers. It goes without saying that a wise artistic director of good character will support and encourage any dancer in the company to strive for perfection and artistic development, and will recognize the results when they come.

5 hours ago, alison said:

 

But Character First Soloist sounds really weird

I don't believe any Principal has ever moved into character roles: I think it would have been regarded as a retrograde step.  Possibly things have changed, though.

It does. On the other hand, in some companies it is an accepted practice that the former Principals become (Principal) Character Artists, with little or no dancing.

4 hours ago, bridiem said:

Actually whenever I see there's been a new post on this thread, I now hold my breath in fearful anticipation as to what his next move is. Which is very sad really. However I'm very much looking forward to the film, not just because he's in it!

Whenever I see there's been a new post, I anticipate primarily heaps of fresh scorn poured upon him...

5 hours ago, penelopesimpson said:

Sorry, I was obviously being dum!  Perhaps he could dance the length of the corridor, feather duster in hand.

i guess Sergei is settling for being a personality now rather than a dancer.  Sigh.  How long before we see him on Love Island or I'm a Celebrity?

He always was a personality. I believe he has interests different from "being a personality" thus I am not worried about seeing him on "Love Island" et caetera.

This is not a partisan gossip, this is a common knowledge, e.g., Igor Stupnikov mentions this in Dancing Times.