Dance-Actresses

[Two Pigeons]

I seem to remember a story about Galina Samova doing the fouettes in either Swan Lake or Paquita and someone taking a photograph using a flash which interfered with her spotting and she fell over and broke her foot. I definitely saw her do the fouettes in Paquita but I have a feeling she substituted some impressive turns in a manege (spelling?) In Swan Lake.

 

She is a dancer whom I think was far better than I remember. I think I was too young to really appreciate her when I saw her but I do remember seeing her in both the ballets mentioned and saying to my mother 'now there IS a ballerina'. Looking back on it I am really sorry I didn't see her as Giselle.

[annamicro]

 

By the way, did I once see Marianela Nunez substitute something else for the fouettes, or am I confusing it with something else?

 

I really hope not! It would be just crazy.

As it was quite crazy to have Nunez dancing the solo parts in Dances at a Gathering in the show that resulted to be the last one of Alina Cojocaru for nearly a whole year: there were two shows that Saturday and probably there was not time to make a full cast change, so Alina danced the partnered parts and Nunez the solos.

[alison]

I'm not sure what that has to do with the topic in question.

[MAB]

I can't remember what Seymour did as Odile but I do remember that when I saw Fonteyn she did a ménage of turns round the stage not the foutëes. Should she therefore not have been cast?

 

I saw Seymour in the role in 1964, she attempted but didn't complete them but was replacing Sibley at short notice, I believe she avoided the role in general.  I never saw Fonteyn substitute turns personally, she almost always completed the thirty two, occasionally she came to grief due to a problematic conductor (he was frequently booed by the regulars), I have seen her on one occasion carry on when the music had stopped.  I don't remember when she relinquished the role.  she was still superb in Beauty well into her fifties.

[LinMM]

I'm trying to remember the last time I saw Fonteyn do Swan Lake....it may have been around 1975

 

She did then do something different to the fouettés but some very fast turns anyway.

She must have been very nearly 60 by then though!

[DrewCo]

 

I somehow think that ballet's dramatic output in the mid twentieth century was a return to its nineteenth century roots after all it was not all Italian technicians. I think that a dancer like Carlotta Grisi must have had some skill as an actress when you consider that both Giselle and Esmeralda were created for her. Please remember neither of these ballets looked much like they do today when both have suffered from "improvements"by stager's afraid of boring the audience.

 

I think Fanny Elssler, too, has to be given a lot of the credit for turning Act I of Giselle into a dramatic tour de force--I'm thinking of the mad scene in particular which dance historians have credited to her 'version' of Giselle. 

 

A great dance actress who took over a lot of Nora Kaye's roles at ABT was Sallie Wilson. She would be on my list of great dance actresses that (uh...unlike Elssler) I actually got to see.

 

Dance actress is a meaningful category to me, but I don't tend to oppose it to dance technicians. Actually, I'm always made a bit uneasy by the opposition of acting skills to technique. I suppose it depends what someone means by the word "technique." But when non-narrative choreography is substantive, the dancing usually calls for more than technique even if what it calls for isn't acting. For example--there are qualities of musicality, phrasing, line, power, lyricism etc. that the word "technique" alone doesn't usually imply.

[FLOSS]

Fonty, Nerina did not explain why she was reprimanded perhaps she expected the reader to work that out for themselves from their knowledge of the way in which the company was run. Remember the extremely bossy character Webster the Maid in a Wedding Bouquet is thinly disguised portrait of de Valois.

 

Here are a number of factors that may have been of relevance to  the management's response to the occurrence,

 

!)The company's management has never been in favour of unauthorised amendments to a ballet's choreographic text and It remains opposed to bravura displays of technique other than those demanded by the choreographer who made the ballet.

 

2) In the past it did  not go in for ballets which in the form that they have come down to us are little more than opportunities for audience pleasing displays of technique. I think this explains why de Valois refused Nureyev's offer to stage Don Q for the company. She knew it would not suit her company and it did not fit in with the company's general ethos and aesthetic style. This does not mean that there are no technical challenges in Ashton's ballets, merely that they are hidden by the dancer's apparent ease of execution. 

 

3) I don't suppose that de Valois would have regarded Nerina's actions acceptable or helpful for her plans for her company. De Valois was anxious to secure and retain Nureyev's services as a dancer working with her company. She was unlikely to have  welcomed  any behaviour which Nureyev might have  interpreted as an insult or a challenge to his pre-eminent position. 

Edited June 11, 2016 by FLOSS

[Tony Newcombe]

So Nureyev, who did something that was not normally done in that particular production of Giselle, was offended by Nerina doing something different in Swan Lake!! What about recent Auroras who have murdered the music in Sleeping Beauty in order to hold balances for a ridiculously long time or perform multiple pirouettes when the music calls for two

[capybara]

 What about recent Auroras who have murdered the music in Sleeping Beauty in order to hold balances for a ridiculously long time or perform multiple pirouettes when the music calls for two

 

Never book for them again is my answer!

[FLOSS]

Dave.  The "entrechats incidents" took place over fifty years ago when de Valois was still an active force in the company which she founded. Maybe this is irrelevant but the changes which you dislike seem to have crept in at a time when the company was no longer run by choreographers but by former dancers. Perhaps they were more sympathetic to the performer's need to express themselves artistically. Perhaps they were more indulgent because they were afraid of losing the services of some of the dancers concerned . I do know that  some of the dancers who were responsible for reducing the Rose Adagio to an Olympic style contest have subsequently spoken about their frustration at being forced to reproduce the text and not being allowed to alter it. They did not seem to care much about the effect that their innovations had on the music.

 

There are two options.The first is to avoid those dancers whose only concern is to display their technique. The second might be to write to the director of the company in question. Have you ever tried that? I don't think that it would have got you very far. However it seems to me that the worst offender is now with another company. It will be interesting to see whether the forthcoming revival of Sleeping Beauty retains  the wholly unmusical style of performance of the Rose Adagio or whether it begins to shift back to a more musically sensitive approach to the choreography. If it does I imagine that there will be plenty of complaints that the company has cast dancers who lack the necessary technique to dance the ballet as well as it used to be performed..

[Fonty]

I wonder if the reactions of De Valois to the incident also had something to do with the fact that she wanted Fonteyn to shine above all the others, and didn't like it when dancers were perceived to be stealing the limelight.

 

I was thinking here about Moira Shearer's comments, that when she was performing Giselle, she went to Karsavina for advice and coaching.  De Valois was furious with changes she made as a result. If I remember correctly, when Shearer told her who had helped her, Karsavina was approached to coach Fonteyn in complete privacy, and nobody else was allowed to receive the benefits of Karsavina's expertise.  A very nasty thing to do, and I am not surprised some superb dancers got very down hearted. 

 

Regarding changes to choreography, it depends on what changes are being made.  Personally I don't mind slight changes to the steps to  suit certain individuals' physiques, provided they stay in time with music being played at the correct tempo. Would there be an outcry if a dancer altered the arms slightly in certain poses, because their arms are longer/shorter than the originator's?  If someone can fit a double pirouette into music where traditionally the choreography shows singles, good luck to them, as long as they don't set a trend that other, less speedy turners feel they have to follow.  However, I do have a very strenuous objection to someone throwing in a triple pirouette, and then missing out the next sequence of steps, or providing make shift substitutions, because they don't have time to fit the correct ones in.  .Imagine the outcry if an opera singer missed out some of the low notes in a score, and substituted ones a octive higher because they sing high notes very well!

 

Regarding the changes that some modern dancers have made to the Rose Adagio, I can't think of any that have actually enhanced the portrayal of Aurora.  I often thing that making it more ponderous makes it look as though Aurora is celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary. 

[Jamesrhblack]

I wonder if the reactions of De Valois to the incident also had something to do with the fact that she wanted Fonteyn to shine above all the others, and didn't like it when dancers were perceived to be stealing the limelight.

 

I was thinking here about Moira Shearer's comments, that when she was performing Giselle, she went to Karsavina for advice and coaching.  De Valois was furious with changes she made as a result. If I remember correctly, when Shearer told her who had helped her, Karsavina was approached to coach Fonteyn in complete privacy, and nobody else was allowed to receive the benefits of Karsavina's expertise.  A very nasty thing to do, and I am not surprised some superb dancers got very down hearted. 

 

Regarding changes to choreography, it depends on what changes are being made.  Personally I don't mind slight changes to the steps to  suit certain individuals' physiques, provided they stay in time with music being played at the correct tempo. Would there be an outcry if a dancer altered the arms slightly in certain poses, because their arms are longer/shorter than the originator's?  If someone can fit a double pirouette into music where traditionally the choreography shows singles, good luck to them, as long as they don't set a trend that other, less speedy turners feel they have to follow.  However, I do have a very strenuous objection to someone throwing in a triple pirouette, and then missing out the next sequence of steps, or providing make shift substitutions, because they don't have time to fit the correct ones in.  .Imagine the outcry if an opera singer missed out some of the low notes in a score, and substituted ones a octive higher because they sing high notes very well!

 

Regarding the changes that some modern dancers have made to the Rose Adagio, I can't think of any that have actually enhanced the portrayal of Aurora.  I often thing that making it more ponderous makes it look as though Aurora is celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary.

 

I fear that in opera there are indeed occasions when singers will omit certain passages in order to rest and prepare to interpolate high notes unwritten by the composer.

 

Conversely, some years ago, the Royal Opera actually issued a statement to explain why Mr Domingo wasn't singing the traditional high C's as Manrico in Il trovatore, as he and Maestro Haitink had determined to sing the role as it was written,...

[Fonty]

I know very little about opera, James.  I always assumed that opera audiences would start throwing rotten fruit at singers who took liberties with cherished scores. 

[FLOSS]

Fonty.I could not agree more with your comments about de Valois or those about modern performance practice and the Rose Adagio. I do wonder what the general audience's reaction would be to a more musical approach to the role of Aurora? How would an audience, most of whom have grown up in the era of the Rose Adagio danced as an Olympic event, react to a less extreme more harmonious  more historically informed approach to the choreography? What would their response be to performances that took a more authentic approach to Petipa's musicality rather than the distortions of the score that are required to accommodate modern "improvements" in technique?

 

I suppose the question that I am really asking is have we in the West finally succumbed to performing ballets as displays of technique rather than simply dancing them? it's what Danilova said she thought had happened to the  development of ballet in Russia after the Revolution. Whether or not this has happened and why it might have happened can be discussed on another occasion. A more pressing question is whether or not this is the time to abandon new "improved" Petipa in favour of greater authenticity in performance? Perhaps we should institute a " Campaign for Real Petipa".

Edited June 12, 2016 by FLOSS

[Jamesrhblack]

I know very little about opera, James.  I always assumed that opera audiences would start throwing rotten fruit at singers who took liberties with cherished scores. 

 

The interesting thing about the Trovatore situation was that the house was needing to explain to an audience why Mr Domingo would not be singing notes not written in the score but which have become "traditional."

 

In certain places in Italy, if a singer were to sing it "come scritto" rather than interpolate what has become traditional there might well be a riot and that's when the fruit would come out...

[Bleaden94]

 

 

By the way, did I once see Marianela Nunez substitute something else for the fouettes, or am I confusing it with something else?

 

Nunez is used as an example in the RBS and in the RAD syllabus, and by Bussell in one of her documentaries as having exemplary fouettes, so I doubt she would miss a chance to show them off!

 

I think she makes them look relatively easy and looks relaxed throughout, whereas I have seen dancers look fearful throughout!

Edited June 12, 2016 by Bleaden94

[Sim]

Fonty.I could not agree more with your comments about de Valois or those about modern performance practice and the Rose Adagio. I do wonder what the general audience's reaction would be to a more musical approach to the role of Aurora? How would an audience, most of whom have grown up in the era of the Rose Adagio danced as an Olympic event, react to a less extreme more harmonious more historically informed approach to the choreography? What would their response be to performances that took a more authentic approach to Petipa's musicality rather than the distortions of the score that are required to accommodate modern "improvements" in technique?

 

I suppose the question that I am really asking is have we in the West finally succumbed to performing ballets as displays of technique rather than simply dancing them? it's what Danilova said she thought had happened to the development of ballet in Russia after the Revolution. Whether or not this has happened and why it might have happened can be discussed on another occasion. A more pressing question is whether or not this is the time to abandon new "improved" Petipa in favour of greater authenticity in performance? Perhaps we should institute a " Campaign for Real Petipa".

Didn't Ratmansky do this for his recent Beauty for ABT? Try to go back to the more original/traditional choreography? It was very well received and I would love to see it.

[FLOSS]

Yes Ratmansky did just that while retaining some of the early twentieth century features, which were probably introduced after the  Revolution, such as the fish dives which are part of the Western performance tradition of the ballet. I think that the Bakst inspired designs are intended to show that his reconstruction is connected to the Western tradition of the ballet and in particular the Diaghilev revival ( London 1921). He restored the prince's solo which in its original form has far more terre a terre dancing in it than is now the norm. He even got the dancers to perform the steps in a period appropriate way something which the Mariinsky reconstruction failed to do thereby compromising the entire exercise.

 

Now if Mr O'Hare would consider adopting a similar approach and insist on period appropriate performance style for the new Swan Lake and the current Sleeping Beauty I should be very happy. .As Ratmansky has said that of all the great twentieth century choreographers Ashton's style is closest to that of Petipa it should not cause too much adverse reaction here and it might even restore some elements of Ashton performance style to his own ballets which have been diluted by the pose freeze pose style of the international Vaganova style of dancing.

[CHazell2]

Didn't Ratmansky do this for his recent Beauty for ABT? Try to go back to the more original/traditional choreography? It was very well received and I would love to see it.

 

Me too. I love reconstructions and The Sleeping Beauty is my favourite ballet.

[Jan McNulty]

 

I have to say Fonty that I absolutely agree that the ability to do 32 fouettes does not make a good Odette/Odile and I would hate to see a dancer missing a chance because of that.  I never count the fouettes so I wouldn't know how many dancers over the years have completed 32.  I personally prefer single fouettes to the more fancy doubles and triples because, unless the dancer is Momoko Hirata who can flash them out so fast you don't notice,  they are not usually in time with the music.

 

 

Getting back to fouettes, I will be publishing this article in the Links tomorrow:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/arts/dance/swan-lake-and-its-32-fouettes.html?_r=0

[Melody]

Going back to the dance-actress thing - it shouldn't be impossible to combine a strong technique with good acting ability, but if dancers and artistic directors are getting the message that acrobatics go down better with audiences than less showy techniques coupled with emotional projection, then I suppose it's going to be tempting to emphasise technique. Especially since that seems to be the major requirement in contemporary dance, which seems to be dominating repertoires more and more. I think part of the problem is that if audiences rely on acrobatics to be satisfied that they've watched something good, then they'll get bored unless the acrobatics get more and more showy and dangerous, which is a nasty slippery slope. Whereas when you have good acting and good dancing together, that touches the emotions in a way that doesn't need to be constantly ratcheted up.

 

I remember the almost awestruck response on this forum (and in reviews) to Yasmine Naghdi's debut as Juliet, and it wasn't because her technique was a million miles better than anyone else's.

[betterankles]

Just one remark Floss, the Prince's solo in Ratmansky's production is one later interpolated, as the original Prince did not dance a solo.  There is some discussion regarding who choreographed the later solo (which I understand was notated), and it certainly does not resemble any Petipa we have known before.  Appears to be far more in the Danish Bournonville tradition, choreographically and dynamics used with the music - it curiously ends with brises voles in a diagonal, normally only done by the Bluebird in his coda!   There are not the usual enchainements done three times, then a walk to the next starting position etc...

[A frog]

Didn't Ratmansky do this for his recent Beauty for ABT? Try to go back to the more original/traditional choreography? It was very well received and I would love to see it.

 

ABT are dancing it in Paris at the beginning of September, still plenty of tickets left.

[FLOSS]

That the Prince's variation looks Danish should not necessarily come as a surprise as I can recall reading, years ago, that the men in the company. not infrequently, went to Johansen for advice on their variations as Petipa was not necessarily that interested in choreographing for them. I wish I could remember where I read it.

[Fonty]

Getting back to fouettes, I will be publishing this article in the Links tomorrow:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/arts/dance/swan-lake-and-its-32-fouettes.html?_r=0

 

Interesting article, Janet. 

[Bruce Wall]

For those fouette watchers, here's a little something different by ABT's Gillian Murphy:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGjzBtiSJUy/

[lyn]

And speaking of that dance actress Zenaida Yanowsky,... a new poetry mashup by Will Tuckett, demonstrating some of that exquisite acting talent: 

Edited June 14, 2016 by lyn

[Ian Macmillan]

Lyn: My profound thanks for bringing that video piece to our attention - and, with due credit to Will Tuckett, it provides an excellent example of Ms Yanowsky investing the rhythm of speech with extra meaning.  From ritual acceptance of destiny as The Bride in Les Noces fifteen years ago to the zany clowning of the Red Queen in Alice more recently, she does so much with her face and eyes to make a role come alive, an ability that is at the heart of this short but intense performance.  If I have a regret in Dance, it is that there is probably no chance now of Cathy Marston being able to create one of her female protagonists on her in some major narrative story, but I'm thankful for what I have seen.  By and large, when she's on stage, I've little time for anyone else.  

 

PS:  I've never met her, but I'm sure that Simon Keenlyside must be a very fortunate fellow!

[Dance*is*life]

What an interesting thread - haven't been on for a few days so a lot to read and I missed the chance to react along the way, hope I'll remember the points I wanted to make..........

 

I went to a performing arts school, where dance was the main training, but we also learnt acting pretty seriously . When I was at the RBS we had mime lessons with Julia Farron and it was semi-acting.  I wonder if they still learn it?  I think it was a hugely important thing in the long run, that I studied acting, because in later life, I had a wonderful second career as a character artist and if I hadn't have known how to act, I couldn't have done that. I also think that in a way being able to act has made me more responsive to music in my dancing.

 

I have to say that in my performing experience, those dancers who were also outstanding actors and actresses elevated the performance to a new plane.  When I was still performing with the Israel Ballet, we always had a guest ballerina in Onegin and I know that one in particular (a Russian) was so brilliant as Tatiana that she influenced everyone on stage to respond more deeply in their roles - even the corps.  The dancers would watch from the wings as she did the final pas de deux and it would choke us all up every single time.  Similarly when I portrayed the Nurse (great tragi/comic role) in Romeo & Juliet, the wonderful character artist who was Lord Capulet actually upset me with his treatment of Juliet!  This was a man who was a good friend, a gentle patient man in real life - sadly he passed away a year ago - but in the scene when he forced Juliet to accept Paris as a suitor, he almost made me hate him, poor dear man!  That's acting! 

 

I saw Lynn Seymour in many dance/acting roles and she was truly amazing in them.  I will never forget her in the third act of Anastasia in particular.  MacMillan actually choreographed Romeo and Juliet on Lynn Seymour and Chris Gable, but of course they became second cast to Fonteyn and Nureyev, who had the bigger box office pull.

 

I would have loved to have seen Nerina's 32 entrechat six!  Much more interesting than fouettes!  She was an incredible technician and also, in her own way a dancer/actress - I have a DVD of Fille with her as Lise and she is adorable!  To be able to play understated comedy with charm is also an acting achievement.  So often nowadays comedy is overblown (ugly sisters etc) and becomes bawdy rather than funny.

 

I was actually surprised to read the comments about ballerinas not being able to perform 32 fouettes.  When I was training in the 60s we were expected to do 32 to the right and left and we did them - too terrified not to.  Wonder when that stopped being a requisite?  Of course nowadays it's gone to the other extreme - if you can't do double fouettes you may as well not bother!  I sometimes long for the days when perfection was not a run of the mill thing!  Even 9 year olds on youtube are doing fouettes and double pirouettes!

Edited June 18, 2016 by Dance*is*life

[Ian Macmillan]

If we can return for a moment to Zenaida Yanowsky, and with thanks to Ballet Association for spotting it so quickly, she is clearly, elegantly, poignantly telling us something in this brief video sequence ..... and perhaps we ought not to be surprised:

 

http://52portraits.co.uk/home/2016/6/20/zenaida-yanowsky

 

The sung text, if insufficiently clear, can be found under the Lyrics button at top left.

[Jamesrhblack]

If we can return for a moment to Zenaida Yanowsky, and with thanks to Ballet Association for spotting it so quickly, she is clearly, elegantly, poignantly telling us something in this brief video sequence ..... and perhaps we ought not to be surprised:

 

http://52portraits.co.uk/home/2016/6/20/zenaida-yanowsky

 

The sung text, if insufficiently clear, can be found under the Lyrics button at top left.

 

Poignant indeed...

 

She's doing the Philip Glass next season (one of my conductors is 'carving") but I do wonder if Marguerite and Armand might be the last we see of this fascinating dancer and actress (and will she get Bolle for that if it is the last show?)....

 

Given that she's not cast in Anastasia, for which she would surely have been obvious as the Tsarina, I wonder if she will dance a limited "Guest Principal" schedule next season.

 

Probably wrong to speculate and apologies if any offence caused. I think she's a most distinguished artist.

[Vanartus]

I'm hoping that she'll dance Elizabeth in Mayerling as well as Marguerite. She's one my favourites and I'm surprised she's been omitted from Anastasia. If she and Edward Watson retire next year, there's going to be an interesting group of dance-actors around if you include Galeazzi, Ferri and a few others. I seem to remember NDT3 was set up to maximise the potential of the older dancer, it'll be interesting to see what could take shape...

[Jamesrhblack]

I'm hoping that she'll dance Elizabeth in Mayerling as well as Marguerite. She's one my favourites and I'm surprised she's been omitted from Anastasia. If she and Edward Watson retire next year, there's going to be an interesting group of dance-actors around if you include Galeazzi, Ferri and a few others. I seem to remember NDT3 was set up to maximise the potential of the older dancer, it'll be interesting to see what could take shape...

Has Edward Watson intimated that this is a possibility?