Royal Ballet Sleeping Beauty, 2019-20

[Richard LH]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

Here is a clip of Claire Calvert

I love her in this role...

[Geoff]

2 hours ago, Fonty said:

Ah well, if we are going to post up film from Youtube, here are the following.  I am going to make no comment at all about this, I shall wait for others to draw their own conclusions!

Here is a clip of Claire Calvert which must be fairly recent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0eqzWD1HH8

Compare and contrast with one of Marguerite Porter in the same role.  She comes on at 5.46:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8kj260hvCk

 

Thank you Fonty. As has been said before, if only someone would find where the (previously easily available) clip is hiding of the great Beryl Grey dancing this variation in the 1950s. 

[Ivy Lin]

I saw the cinemacast. I loved Fumi as Aurora and Bonelli as the Prince. I thought Kaneko was lovely in the Rose Adagio and Vision Scene. I did notice that in the fishdives of the Wedding pas de deux the timing was not as snappy as it's been in the past. The working leg free leg didn't go up at the same time as the free leg. For an example of impeccable fishdive timing here's Cojocaru and Kobborg:

 

 

I agree about Gina Storm-Jensen as Lilac Fairy. It wasn't that her variation had some bobbles (I've actually never seen anyone do this variation without some gear-shifting). It was that she didn't exude any graciousness or charm. She looked rather stern and businesslike. 

 

I loved Naghdi and Ball as Florine and Bluebird and thought that the production remains the crown jewel of Sleeping Beauty productions.

[Balletfanp]

Somewhat late with my impressions of the cinema broadcast, but here goes.

 

Well, Fumi was a triumph. It’s a big ask to take on a nerve-racking cinema relay in that particular punishing role at short notice (although I’m sure she must have known she was on standby since Lauren’s injury). But she rose to the occasion magnificently and her Rose Adage almost brought me to tears. I felt ridiculously nervous for her (I don’t know why as she always has such reliably good technique!) and I couldn’t stop myself from uttering “YES!!” as she finished! It was also lovely to see the faces of the dancers behind willing her on - Annette Buvoli with a huge smile on her face as she finished (now there’s a future Lilac Fairy, on the strength of her recent solo offerings? She has a lovely serenity and grace which would suit the role). And I’m sure I saw Hannah Grennell fighting back tears!

 

Bonelli always looks the part as the Prince and I have always liked him very much as a dancer but I was a little disappointed in his solos - he has lost something of his control and ballon - but then I had only seen Muntagirov a week before and it doesn’t do to compare....! 🙂 He acted the role extremely well and Fumi must have appreciated his excellent and reliable partnering - his care and attention for her was palpable and it was lovely to see.

 

My other highlights were Magri, O’Sullivan and Pajdak (she is so expressive) each time they appeared onstage in their various roles. I’m not normally a fan of Matthew Ball in classical roles and couldn’t really see him as the Bluebird, but I was very happy that I was proved wrong - he was excellent, and with Naghdi as a wonderful Florine it made for compelling and enjoyable watching.

 

I was nervous to hear that Storm-Jensen was to be the Lilac Fairy in the livestream, having read comments about her on here. However, I’m going to cut her some slack and say that there was lots to enjoy in her performance. She wasn’t perhaps the most compelling Lilac Fairy I’ve seen, but I don’t think most audiences would  find too much cause for complaint. She has a lovely smiling face that made for a very benign Lilac Fairy. Lovely long legs and feet and a very graceful and elegant way of moving, and clear mime. Her variation wasn’t perfect but then it’s horribly difficult and even with lots of practice I’m sure it’s one of those solos that dancers probably dread as there is so much that could go wrong in it! I think at present she doesn’t quite have the technique or the stage presence to carry off the role fully, but that may come later - she managed very creditably, and judging by comments on social media, the wider public enjoyed her performance and didn’t see anything amiss with her.

 

Of course McNally was just sooooo good as Carabosse! Although I confess I was hoping to see Mendizabal do it (yes, I know she would have been tied up in Onegin rehearsals!), but that’s a pleasure for another time!

 

The production itself really lends itself to the big screen - it looked sumptuous. The cinema audiences in Plymouth aren’t ones for applauding but lots of admiring comments and enthusiasm picked up in intervals.

[AnnabelCharles]

Saw the live screening and loved it so much had to go to an encore as well. Agree with all previous comments about Fumi Kaneko  - Monica Mason at an Insight session in November said that Aurora could be interpreted in different ways but must be radiant. Fumi had radiance in spades. I thought she got better and better through the performance - and what made her special for me was the way she used her beautiful neck, arms and eyes,  her interaction with other characters and the audience and her gorgeous smile. The vision scene had me in tears - and I too was muttering YES - well done, Fumi, at various points.

 

Always love Federico Bonelli and thought he was a gorgeous prince and a very good partner. Yasmin Naghdi and Matthew Ball were outstanding as the bluebirds and thought James Hay, Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Mayara Magri were excellent as Florestan and his sisters. 

 

I agree with Balletfanp, Gina Storm-Jensen wasn't quite on top of the LF variation, but her mime, her warmth and her lovely smile made her a benign Lilac Fairy. Kevin O' Hare could have made safer choices - but I like the fact he is prepared to give less experienced dancers a chance. As others have said - a wonderful end to the run.

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Annabel and welcome to the Forum!

[HopelessMummy]

This came up in my feed

 

DOpl9nMptPg

 

I think it's from Thursday night...

[Fonty]

I am rather late to the party with this, and everyone is now moving on to the latest Onegin performances.  However, having finally seen it yesterday at one of the Encore cinema performances, I am going to post a few thoughts.  

 

Overall I enjoyed it and I agree with all the comments regarding Kaneko.  I thought she made a lovely Aurora.  The fairy variations were much better than they were the last time I saw it, (about 10 years ago) which was a relief.  I also enjoyed the 3rd Act.  Normally, I find the White Cat and Red Riding Hood stuff tedious.  I think this is one advantage of seeing it at the cinema.  The close ups make them much more interesting.  I do find it strange that Red Riding Hood comes on after Florine and the Blue Bird, I've never liked the fact that a comic piece comes on after some lovely classical dancing; it spoils the atmosphere for me somehow.  Naghdi and Ball were very accomplished in their roles, but I wouldn't have expected anything else from them. .

 

Here comes the But.  Everyone has commented on the Lilac Fairy of Storm-Jensen.  This is a tricky role, because for the majority of time it is a non dancing one.  She is a very attractive lady, and she looked wonderful in the close ups when she was simply standing and wafting her wand around.  However, as everyone has pointed out, there is one very tricky bit of dancing which she simply didn't pull off.  It wasn't just her dancing, it was the overall style. 

 

I am slightly disappointed that nobody else commented on this when I posted the two different clips of an LF from a previous generation, and one from the current batch.  Porter looked so light and ethereal; she looks as if she is about  to fly away.  I didn't time it, but it felt as though the tempo for Calvert was slightly slower..  Or it could just be the different style of dancing.  Calvert  performs the steps capably, and manages to exude a calm authority, but she seems so solid and grounded in comparison.  And this is the problem I had with Storm-Jensen.  Not only did she not manage the solo steps, which could happen to anybody, but she just looked too big and strong.  She never convinced me that she was a fairy.  

My point will probably vanish without trace now the SB run has finished, only to be resurrected  next time the RB performs it!

 

[bridiem]

13 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Here comes the But.  Everyone has commented on the Lilac Fairy of Storm-Jensen.  This is a tricky role, because for the majority of time it is a non dancing one.  She is a very attractive lady, and she looked wonderful in the close ups when she was simply standing and wafting her wand around.  However, as everyone has pointed out, there is one very tricky bit of dancing which she simply didn't pull off.  It wasn't just her dancing, it was the overall style. 

 

I am slightly disappointed that nobody else commented on this when I posted the two different clips of an LF from a previous generation, and one from the current batch.  Porter looked so light and ethereal; she looks as if she is about  to fly away.  I didn't time it, but it felt as though the tempo for Calvert was slightly slower..  Or it could just be the different style of dancing.  Calvert  performs the steps capably, and manages to exude a calm authority, but she seems so solid and grounded in comparison.  And this is the problem I had with Storm-Jensen.  Not only did she not manage the solo steps, which could happen to anybody, but she just looked too big and strong.  She never convinced me that she was a fairy. 

 

I didn't have time to watch the Calvert/Porter clips when you posted them, Fonty, but I have now done so (in fact I've watched all the 1978 fairy variations, with great pleasure). The difference between  Porter and Calvert, and between all the fairies then and now, is enormous. My eye has of course adjusted over the years, and I am full of admiration for the skill, strength and artistry of today's dancers. But they train differently, and so they look different and dance differently. It's difficult to be as physically strong as dancers are nowadays and also look ethereal. But my problem with Storm-Jensen wasn't her physique, which could have been used to great effect; it was her lack of dramatic skills.

[LinMM]

Looking at those Fairy clips I would be interested to know who did the other variations ...was it Lesley Collier in the songbird variation and the first one looked a bit like Vergie Derman who quite often did the Lilac Fairy variation back then.

I may have this wrong but I thought they always seemed to pick the taller dancers for the Lilac Fairy role ...as a general rule. So slightly more of a challenge to be fairy like. Marguerite Porter is not quite so tall ( I know I’m taller than her from seeing her around YBSS classes) A couple of years ago when I was at YBSS she and I think Ricardo Cervera ( not sure of that spelling) went into an impromptu pas de deux practice in the corridor for something they were taking part in and she still looks pretty good ...must be in 60’s by now!! 
I wonder if the variation looked more secure in Porters hands because of the quicker body positioning especially in those fouette turn thingys ...perhaps not having to worry about getting the leg higher than 90 etc? The slightly lower leg means you can do the movement faster and with more confidence.

I do think the Lilac Fairy has a couple of tricky solos to pull off but especially in that role they need to be done with confidence. 
I quite liked Gina Storm Gensen in the role she just needed a little more projection but had a nice air about her. Isn’t this her first really big role? 
Im sure was it Deanne Bergsma who used to do the Lilac Fairy .....I seem to remember her as being very radiant in this role. Don’t know if there is any film of her. 

[Fonty]

It wasn't Storm-Jensen's height, or indeed her physique that bothered me.  There have been plenty of tall Lilac Fairies in the past. Geoff mentioned Beryl Grey, and I know there used to be a wonderful snippet of her on Youtube, showing exactly how this variation should be danced.  I think she was considered to be a bit of a whopper in her day, wasn't she?  

 

It was the way in which Storm-Jensen danced, which I think also shows in the Calvert clip.  The steps don't flow, somehow. 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by Fonty

[Balletfanp]

I saw a clip of Beryl Grey dancing that variation some time ago, and it struck me how much faster the tempo was when she danced it. It makes it much harder to do those very difficult steps at a slow tempo - and, I imagine, more difficult to make it flow or look light.

[LinMM]

So why would the tempo be slower then if it’s easier to take it faster?  Is it to accommodate the higher legs? 

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

 

 

I am slightly disappointed that nobody else commented on this when I posted the two different clips of an LF from a previous generation, and one from the current batch.  Porter looked so light and ethereal; she looks as if she is about  to fly away.  I didn't time it, but it felt as though the tempo for Calvert was slightly slower..  Or it could just be the different style of dancing.  Calvert  performs the steps capably, and manages to exude a calm authority, but she seems so solid and grounded in comparison.  And this is the problem I had with Storm-Jensen.  Not only did she not manage the solo steps, which could happen to anybody, but she just looked too big and strong.  She never convinced me that she was a fairy.  

My point will probably vanish without trace now the SB run has finished, only to be resurrected  next time the RB performs it!

 

 

Sorry Fonty but I've only just looked at the clips.  I love Porter, she looks so delicate but so strong at the same time.  

 

I am most familiar with the SPW production for BRB where the Lilac Fairy is a non-dancing role and her variation is danced by a 6th fairy.  I've got to admit that only one or two of the dancers I've seen over the years have done the variation justice.  I think it must be very hard for any dancer to do the role justice in terms of both the dancing and the stage presence needed to face-off Carabosse.  I think that is why I prefer LF as a non-dancing role and we have seen some glorious Lilacs over the years at BRB - Andrea Tredinnick springs to my mind in the recent past.

[FLOSS]

I trust that this does not offend anyone but Marguerite Porter's Lilac Fairy is not an ideal exemplar with which to compare later exponents of the role save where tempo is concerned. Where the 1978 recording of the ballet really scores is in the dancer's relationship with the music. Apart from the Crystal Fountain variation which is slower all the other dancers in that recording are within seconds of the tempi set by Previn in his LSO studio recording of the score and Collier is a second or two faster as the Fairy of the Songbirds.From my recollection this degree of acute musicality is true of the entire recorded performance which is worth watching to understand what the ballet should look like in performance even if not all the cast is ideal when compared with the company ten years earlier.  To return to Porter's Lilac Fairy her account of the role was not that highly regarded at the time. It was generally thought that compared with the likes of Bergsma who had been the great Lilac Fairy of the 1960's and Beryl Grey who had been the great exponent of the role from 1946 until she left the company and went freelance Porter lacked the authority which comes with a powerful technique and obvious mastery of the choreography. I think that Arlene Croce said as much when she wrote about the company's New York performances in the late seventies commenting on Porter's approach to the role by saying that she was beneficent rather than authoritative, dominating and powerful.

 

The truth is that since 1978 Sleeping Beauty has fallen victim to the great Petipa go slow caused among other things by the idea that legs should go much higher and the mistaken belief that the audience wants to see static poses rather than transitions. This has happened because no one wanted to set the company's performance style in aspic and the alteration was incremental.rather than an overnight change. Another factor to add to the mix is that hardly anyone on stage today has had any real involvement with Cecchetti training whereas in the 1970's everyone who had come into the company via the school, and the bulk of the company did just that, had some experience of Cecchetti training.

 

Perhaps I am wrong about this but I sometimes think that the Royal Ballet occasionally suffers from its self imposed  self-sufficiency when it comes to coaching roles like the Lilac Fairy and the Fairy Variations. I recognise that when so many casts have to be prepared to dance the leading roles in this ballet preparing dancers to perform the Fairy Variations may have come to be seen more as a matter of logistics than of artistic exposition but I am not convinced that the company has got its coaching priorities right when it comes to these roles. It is almost as if the company has persuaded itself that the dancers appearing in them require less artistic polish and nuanced plastique than those dancing Aurora need. Fortunately the days when the casting of the Variations seemed to be undertaken by drawing names from a hat at random are over  but we are rarely presented with a full line up of dancers who are equally accomplished in their roles and manage to persuade the audience that they are all there as of right.  It is as if the company has forgotten that the Variations were originally devised to showcase Petipa's own leading dancers which suggests to me that they should not look as if they have been mass produced with little concern as to how their performance will read in the theatre, only that there should be enough of them. Each of these variations requires sufficient technique to reproduce the choreography after which it is largely a question of understanding and nuanced presentation. What I fail to understand is why, when Bergsma was invited to help with the revival of Enigma Variations, she was not asked to coach this season's Lilac Fairies as well or why Thoroughgood was not invited to polish the other fairies as she must have danced everyone of them at some time in her career after being coached by de Valois and Ashton.

 

I may be being unfair but it really should not be a matter of luck as to how much impact each individual dancer makes in the Fairy Variations. If the Insight Evenings are anything to go by then it would seem that these roles are prepared for the stage by ballet mistresses few of whom have been great exponents of any of these roles themselves. Perhaps it is no wonder that they look somewhat mass produced rather than individually crafted. Is it somehow a matter of personal pride that those who could deal with technical issues and the artistic aspects of these roles play no part in reviving this or other ballets? The company has fine coaches and excellent ballet masters and ballet mistresses but they are not infallible. Beryl Grey is still alive and I imagine that she could still contribute a great deal to giving the Lilac Fairy's gestures meaning and getting the speed and the focus of the variation right. I can't help thinking that the insights and expectations of the likes of de Valois and Ashton and the way they polished these roles is all that is now missing. Sleeping Beauty is a nineteenth century ballet perhaps the company should make the brave decision to dance it in a Cecchetti inspired style rather than a style heavily influenced by Guillem. Only a thought.

 

Perhaps I should point out that in the Dark Ages the Royal Ballet never tried to field more than a couple of Lilac Fairies at any one time with the result that they got the coaching the role requires and the opportunity to dance the solo at the right speed enough times to achieve true mastery of the role and its nuances rather than merely paying it a flying visit every  two or three years,as happens now. In addition dancing any of these variations entirely flat on and completely vertical  removes any opportunity for nuance and is incredibly boring.

Edited January 21, 2020 by FLOSS

[LinMM]

Beryl Grey I think is 5ft 7ins so tallish and especially for back then. 
I think making the dance flow is a combined confidence and experience thing. 
I am supposing ( from my very limited experience as an amateur in these things) that when you first learn a role you may be concentrating more on the steps and getting it right etc. 
But eventually you do have to find the ‘dance’ in it which may seem a strange thing to say! You can’t just ‘ do the steps’ Familiarity with the music and choreography should enable you to ‘relax’ into the dance aspect ( sorry not making this as clear as Id like) I don’t know ...find the dynamics more of that combination of steps which should make it flow more. 
I wonder if as much attention is given to dynamics today ..  am not sure. 

[LinMM]

That’s a terrific post FLOSS we were posting at same time so only read after I had written mine. 
I think Lesley Collier in her fairy variation ( the clip that Fonty posted earlier) is a supreme example of what I was trying to explain! She is not just doing the steps ...she’s found the core of the dance in that role ...very inspiring. 
Lesley Collier is still coaching at the RB so perhaps she could be let loose on the fairies!! 

[Mérante]

Margaret Porter was very tall, for that time, and that variation is difficult for a tall ballerina.  The 19th Century ballerinas were in the main, just over 5 foot tall.

 

However, the differences between 1978 and 2020 are of course, glaring.

 

It starts with Miss Porter creating an excited stir in the room, as she glides unhurriedly downstage.  I repeat, unhurriedly.  This is not the teenage Aurora rushing on. 

 

Luxuriating in the port de bras, Miss Porter then draws herself up to her full height, whereby her fingers seem to brush the uppermost flies.  There are three different positions of the head in that port de bras, and she gives full value to each.

 

We move on to the battement à la seconde which despite the downbeat in the score, is taken unstressed, almost as a blur.

 

Each sissonne-arabesque is differently accented.  Remembering that the sissonne should look, and feel, like a tiny explosion of the unexpected UP AND AHEAD ! AND AHEAD!  It is not a stretching movement!

 

Overall, the in-between steps are much faster, lighter an un-accented.  This makes it possible for a tall dancer to play with rubato and keep up with the music - by blurring the in-between steps.

 

The dance is not frontal, but makes full use of all the points on stage.  Tutto tondo - 360°.  Miss Porter thus avoids the pasted-on, full-frontal Radio City Rockette GRIN.

 

Despite the difficulty of the fouetté-arabesques for such a tall long-limbed dancer (centrifugal force),  each stage of the movement is clearly marked - while the final arabesque nonetheless creates a little stir of excitement each time.

 

Over the years, the orchestral tempi are perhaps 15 to 20% slower.   This alone would suffice to make dancing the classical roles properly next to impossible.

 

Personally, I believe that the main, if not the only, reason, these Imperial ballets still draw in the crowds is Tchaikovski's scores, which are built to MOVE, and are magnificent.   Tamper with the scores by disregarding the correct tempi, and one kills the Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs.

 

The major issue we are now facing, as others here have commented, is that today's dancers do cross-training, owing to the dangerous "choreography" if that is the word, they are called upon to perform.  They fear injury, and dance hoping to avoid it.  Muscle--bound, and trained to dance on the position, rather than on the movement and the in-betweeness of movement.   The bad news is that classical dance is not about positions, it is about movement.  The positions are there as facilitators of movement.  They canalise it. 

 

Now if we go back to Margaret Porter in this variation, but this time, watch only the in-between steps ... there may be much to learn.

 

[Fonty]

17 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

I trust that this does not offend anyone but Marguerite Porter's Lilac Fairy is not an ideal exemplar with which to compare later exponents of the role save where tempo is concerned. Where the 1978 recording of the ballet really scores is in the dancer's relationship with the music.

 

 

Floss, I am so glad you posted.  I was hoping you would do so.  The reason I put this clip up is not because I thought Porter was giving a definitive account of the role, but because it was the only one I could find from an earlier era.  There used to be a lot more.  Beryl Grey for one, both dancing and coaching.  And there used to be one of Lucette Aldous,  dancing in one of the Fonteyn videos. 

What I think the earlier clip clearly shows is the feature that you mention.  The change from the faster, continuous flow of movement,  to the slightly slower, pause-and-hold style.  The result from the latter is that the dance looks slightly sluggish, and makes the choreography look a bit dull.  We shouldn't be thinking, "Wow, this is a difficult variation."  They are all difficult in their own, way.  We should be thinking, "Wow!  This is wonderful, those steps show both the ethereal qualities and the quiet authority of the leading fairy!"

 

Edited to add, thank you Merante.  You must have posted while I was still writing mine.  A very clear explanation of the different in styles.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Fonty

[Richard LH]

36 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

hardly anyone on stage today has had any real involvement with Cecchetti training

 

Although does this indicate a resurgence of interest? 

Dancers: The Royal Ballet - James Hay, Christina Katsura, Romany Pajdak Birmingham Royal Ballet - Ruth Brill, Laura Day, Brandon Lawrence, Lachlan Monaghan Artistic Director and Master Teacher - Diane van Schoor Introduced by Dame Darcey Bussell DBE Director and Producer Ross MacGibbon Catalogue numbers: OASP4102BD Release Date - November 2019 Opus Arte  DVD + Blu Ray

Edited January 21, 2020 by Richard LH

[maryrosesatonapin]

46 minutes ago, Mérante said:

 

the pasted-on, full-frontal Radio City Rockette GRIN.

 

today's dancers do cross-training, owing to the dangerous "choreography" if that is the word, they are called upon to perform.  They fear injury, and dance hoping to avoid it.  Muscle--bound, and trained to dance on the position, rather than on the movement and the in-betweeness of movement.   The bad news is that classical dance is not about positions, it is about movement.  The positions are there as facilitators of movement. 

 

This!  Firstly - the grin - I'm afraid that is what I felt about Storm-Jensen's expression.  It was a fixed grin which I felt was insincere (and I am sure was insincere as the poor girl was struggling with the steps at times).  I agree with others that she was very clear on the mime though.

Secondly - the gym work.  I've noticed and mentioned before that RB female dancers in particular seem to have over-developed legs nowadays, with bulging calf muscles which are not as visually appealing and which are very different from the legs of, say, Fonteyn - or indeed, very different from those of many Russian dancers whom I therefore assume follow a different regime (cf Zakharova's legs for example).

Edited January 21, 2020 by maryrosesatonapin

[maryrosesatonapin]

Something that struck me about the scenery and costumes for this recreation of the 1940s Sleeping Beauty: it is very pretty but also does not impinge on the dancing.  It's a backdrop, a framework.  I find this much more appropriate than that of the current production of 'Swan Lake' where the design can be overpowering.

[LinMM]

Have now exhausted myself on Lilac Fairy clips! 
I have found one clip where the dancer has captured the beauty of the carriage of the leg in the initial part. Most kick the leg up without then showing this carriage that well. The dancer I found who I don’t know but others might is Marie Agnes Gillot of Paris Opera ballet. In her variation she carries the leg around with the body in a lovely way so makes that bit of choreography look less ‘pedestrian’. Others may kick the leg higher especially in some Russian versions ( which can be painfully slow) but still haven’t shown the beauty of this movement. 
The sissone step has become really almost boring these days! It’s now taught as a very upward jumping step instead of what I thought (maybe wrongly) was originally a forward moving step .. there is still an upward element to it ...but the excitement was in the forward travelling movement of the step across the stage. 
Of course the music for this variation has got a slight dragging quality to it especially when played too slowly .....I imagine it’s supposed to have a ‘commanding’ quality which is why I think Gillot has lent something to this choreography. 

I can’t find the Beryl Grey version unfortunately. 
 

[Mérante]

The question of what we call "strength", is relative.  Relative to the task.

 

And there is little relation between the efficiency of a muscle, and its visual "size".

 

Japanese Judokas for example, may only be 5 foot 6, weigh 9 stone and look like the classic "I was a 100 lb weakling".  While they are TERRIFYING.

 

The more one forces the turnout to get the visual effect of being "very turned out", the more one tends to use the wrong muscles to shore up the increasingly-unstable edifice.

 

Normally, the turnout should be so elastic, that it holds virtually "as of its own volition". 

 

A few years back, someone asked why dancers today "no longer have those beautifully-lifted buttocks" of the 1950s.  And everyone laughed.  Well, it was funny, in a manner of speaking.  An accurate observation nonetheless.   

 

If the weight be properly distributed over the heels (70% on the heels, 30% mid- and forefoot, as per Cecchetti's thinking) i.e. with the weight coursing UP and DOWN on either side of the plumb line,  the floor will "push us upwards", effortlessly - so to speak.  The turnout will be coming from inside the body, up from the pelvic floor (excuse my French) and the buttocks will indeed be "lifted"; the whole body including the back SEEN FROM THE BACK will be "turned out".   

 

This only works if we avoid over-turning.  

 

Whereas, there are two main differences between the way we danced, and the way we force the dance, today:  picking up the leg, and over-turning.

 

The moment we begin to over-turn, aiming at today's 175° turnout,  we have no option but to over-engage the leg muscles in the front of the thigh, to stop us from tilting backwards, along with a host of other disorders. 

 

Again, although the turnout is indeed the Alpha and the Omega of all classical dance systems - it is nonetheless just a facilitator.  Not the Reason Why - But the Reason How.

 

As for Zakharova et al., the Russian girls are in the main, nearly six foot tall with very long limbs and a short torso.  Selected virtually from birth for unusual ability to turn at the hip, prenatural laxity (an accident waiting to happen) and long flat muscle fibre, we are never told what happens to them at age 50, or what the "kill-rate" so to speak, is.  Many of these girls seem to lose up to six centimetres of height as soon as they retire, an indication of severe osteo-arthritis.  One would not necessarily wish to promote what is currently referred to as the "Vaganova" School approach to the turnout.

 

 

[Ivy Lin]

Actually I've stood next to Zakharova (I'm 163 cm) and was surprised that she wasn't particularly tall. She was willowy for sure but in terms of actual height she wasn't an Amazon. 

[LinMM]

Zakharova is 1.75 metres or 5ft 8.8 inches....so not far off 5ft 9 inches in fact.. quite tall for a classical dancer who has to wear pointe shoes!

Your height is 5ft 4inches actually much more ideal for ballet really😊

Edited January 21, 2020 by LinMM

[Mérante]

Lest we forget - the more time people have to spend in the gym merely to SURVIVE, the less time they have to read, attend concerts, museums and generally refresh and work other areas of the mind which - HERE COMES THE BAD NEWS - happen to be intrinsic to the profession of a theatrical artist expected to perform the classics.  It gets to the point it's all BODY BODY BODY.   

 

These "old-school" dancers were working in the realm of the imagination.  Quicksilver.

 

There's a Chinese "dance" troupe touring France at the moment, called  Shun Yen I believe.  Horrific contorsionism.  But most people watching that sort of thing today, will say "WOW  they out-ballet the ballet dancers".  

 

Quite.

 

 

[Fiz]

Yes, I’ve seen some so called Chinese “ballet”. It’s hideous. 

[LinMM]

In the course of this thread have just discovered that I share a birthday with Marguerite Porter!! 
Im exactly one year older so back in 2015 she must have been in very good nick indeed! Absolutely doesn’t look her age at all. 
Sorry this nothing to do with anything really but enjoyed finding this out anyway, 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, LinMM said:

Looking at those Fairy clips I would be interested to know who did the other variations 

Vergie Derman

Wendy Ellis (definitely double ronds de jambe - I didn’t see that clearly from either dancer I saw this run) 

Alfreda Thorogood (love the way she uses her head - I suppose its the angle and timing. Lovely shimmering pointe work). 

Lesley Collier (so bright and musical) 

Laura Connor (such beautiful arms and warm femininity) - Nijinska's choreography. 

 

[LinMM]

The only ones I was pretty certain of were Vergie and Lesley and wasn’t sure if it was Laura in the last one or not! But many thanks for this info as the film quality wasn’t brilliant 😊 But the dancers were!! 

[Sharon]

20 hours ago, Richard LH said:

 

Although does this indicate a resurgence of interest? 

Dancers: The Royal Ballet - James Hay, Christina Katsura, Romany Pajdak Birmingham Royal Ballet - Ruth Brill, Laura Day, Brandon Lawrence, Lachlan Monaghan Artistic Director and Master Teacher - Diane van Schoor Introduced by Dame Darcey Bussell DBE Director and Producer Ross MacGibbon Catalogue numbers: OASP4102BD Release Date - November 2019 Opus Arte  DVD + Blu Ray

Loved this clip.

How fantastic is James Hay? Perfect!

Enjoyed seeing Romany Pajdak too.

I did wonder though why the men were wearing shorts & t.shirts, while the women were all in matching purple leotards and tutus? Is it like this throughout the dvd or just in this particular clip?

[capybara]

One of the dancers is, of course, Chisato Katsura.