How much original choreography is left in the Classics?

[DVDfan]

I was surprised to see that parts of RB's Sleeping Beauty are by Ashton, Wheeldon and Dowell. Can someone enlighten me as to which parts, please?

[Jeannette]

The Garland Waltz is Wheeldon’s version. Ashton: Aurora’s Vision Scene solo, Florestan & Two Sisters Pas 3,  & maybe the “finger” fairy variation in Prologue. Dowell? I don’t remember!

[zxDaveM]

8 minutes ago, Jeannette said:

Dowell? I don’t remember!

 

the Prince's solo in the forest scene (before the vision scene) was made on him I think - though don't know if he choreographed it himself. He may have had some input into the version before the current one (itself revised from the 40's, if I'm rememberng correctly) - I should remember some of these things from Insight evenings and some of the books I've read - but my brain turned to mush over these last few months! 😞

[Jane S]

The ROH Collections lists the additions in the current production as:

 

Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Act II: Aurora's Variation, The Prince's Variation; Act II: Florestan and his Sisters (after Marius Petipa)

 

Choreographer: Anthony Dowell
Prologue: Carabosse and Rats; Act III: Polonaise and Mazurka (assisted by Christopher Carr)

 

Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon
Act I: Garland Dance

[Beryl H]

1 hour ago, Jane S said:

The ROH Collections lists the additions in the current production as:

 

Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Act II: Aurora's Variation, The Prince's Variation; Act II: Florestan and his Sisters (after Marius Petipa)

 

Choreographer: Anthony Dowell
Prologue: Carabosse and Rats; Act III: Polonaise and Mazurka (assisted by Christopher Carr)

 

Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon
Act I: Garland Dance

I think Ashton's Act Two solo for Aurora is beautiful, it matches the music and mood perfectly.

[Jeannette]

4 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

the Prince's solo in the forest scene (before the vision scene) was made on him I think - though don't know if he choreographed it himself. He may have had some input into the version before the current one (itself revised from the 40's, if I'm rememberng correctly) - I should remember some of these things from Insight evenings and some of the books I've read - but my brain turned to mush over these last few months! 😞

 I see that Jane S has provided the correct info (thanks).  With regard to the Prince’s solo in A2, I usually think of Nureyev but, of course, it’s not the case here.

[Sebastian]

There is a further issue, the question of authenticity to the Sleeping Beauty as Petipa, Vsevolozhsky and Tchaikovsky created it, ie how much of what we see now goes back to 1890, in style as well as detail, even in those sections where there is no new (interpolated) choreography. This goes beyond questions of what was (and was not) notated by Stepanov and bleeds quickly into more general questions about, for example, the tempi the work gets conducted at, something which has been discussed here a number of times in the past.

 

The production you ask about - the Sleeping Beauty we know best in London - grew out of Sergeyev and De Valois working together at Sadler's Wells before and during the war. We have one clue that Sadler's Wells (and then the Royal Ballet) is indeed, whatever else changed over the years, nonetheless some kind of guide to the 1890 production. The argument goes like this. Those who visited Perm and saw what this Russian company was doing with the ballet (isolated as they had been from all the changes in Leningrad and Moscow) noticed striking similarities to the Covent Garden production. Following the same kind of argument as has been used on (for example) the Dead Sea Scrolls this suggests that where the Perm and de Valois productions are similar, there is therefore a likelihood of some kind of authenticity.

 

It is interesting to follow Sergeyev when he left de Valois and went to International Ballet. Mona Ingelsby repeatedly made the claim that their subsequent work was truer, more authentic, than the Sadler's Wells production. Allowance must be made for hype (Ingelsby needed to sell her show) but it would be really good to know what Sergeyev did when he was given the freedom to do what he wanted (and which he said he had not been able to do under de Valois). This has however proved hard to research. We know IB's Sleeping Princess had a full garland dance (ie more people on stage than Madam's) and a more complete final act (with more variations, characters and music). But on the other hand their Aurora's Wedding included a "Flame Fairy", which suggests that, at least so far as names are concerned, Sergeyev wasn't too fussy about keeping things as they had been in 1890 (there is no "Flame Fairy" in the 1890 scenario). And this in turn suggests that maybe he did not know what the Petipa "back stories" for the individual fairies were.

 

As for Stepanov, the notations are not quite as much help as one might hope (although Ratmansky has made magnificent use of them). The notations are sadly silent on anything "above the waist" or indeed on "stage business", which possibly no one notated, not even a stage manager, as everyone at the time will have known what to do.

 

As always, more research is needed. 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Sebastian
spelling

[Angela]

This is from Tim Scholl's great book "Sleeping Beauty - A Legend In Progress", where you'll find a lot about the of history of this ballet: 

"Sergeyev's reputation, still a controversial matter, was not helped by Ninette de Valois's memories of Sergeyev in her memoir, Come Dance With Me. On the subject of Sergeyev's work with de Valois, Beth Genné has written: 'De Valois' recollections of the rehearsals make it clear that Sergeyev was very far from meticulous and because neither de Valois, Lopokova, or Lambert could read his notes, there was really no way to check his accuracy. It soon became abundantly clear that Sergeyev played fast and loose with the reconstructions: "He'd learned notations, so he must have had the knowledge," de Valois told me, "but he went haywire when he was producing things. There were never two days done the same way!"' (Scholl, p. 62)

Which does not mean that Sergeyev's notations cannot be trusted, but we may have to accept that we will never know what Petipa's own, original steps were.

[Irmgard]

With regard to Sergeyev staging the classics for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, I had a delightful conversation with Julia Farron a few years ago.  She was in the company at the time and she remembered these rehearsals.  She said that Sergeyev was rather unmusical when it came to teaching variations etc. so, unbeknownst to Sergeyev, when he had left the rehearsal room for the day, De Valois would keep the dancers back and ‘clean them up’ musically. 

[Sebastian]

On 01/09/2020 at 14:34, Angela said:

Which does not mean that Sergeyev's notations cannot be trusted, but we may have to accept that we will never know what Petipa's own, original steps were.

 

22 hours ago, Irmgard said:

She said that Sergeyev was rather unmusical when it came to teaching variations etc. so, unbeknownst to Sergeyev, when he had left the rehearsal room for the day, De Valois would keep the dancers back and ‘clean them up’ musically. 

 

Thank you Angela, thank you Irmgard. I bow to Tim Scholl (though one point on which we differ is elaborated on in the piece I wrote for Covent Garden last year and which is linked to on this site). However, just to be tidy:-

 

- It was as you know Sergeyev who brought the Stepanov notations to the west, so they are only "Sergeyev's notations" in the sense that he had possession of them at the time, rather than that he had done the notations himself. 

- Even the original Stepanov notations are not uncontroversial (not recorded until some years after 1890, incomplete and so on).

- As for the chain of ownership of authenticity from Petipa onwards, it is not entirely clear how much of the detail of the Sleeping Beauty ballet de Valois knew before she teamed up with Sergeyev. She had seen Diaghelev's Sleeping Princess production in 1921 (on which Sergeyev worked) and also worked later with some of the key Russians, eg Cecchetti and indeed Diaghelev himself, for whom she danced a fairy variation and also the not entirely authentic "Florestan and his sisters" in "Aurora's Wedding". 

 

Tim Scholl - who tracks the history of Russian productions of The Sleeping Beauty in his book - leaves it to others to follow the development of the ballet outside Russia. This is important research and one always looks forward to new discoveries. 

[DVDfan]

Thank you, everyone, that's very informative, and I feel I understand that production better now. May I ask a supplementary question? Ought I have been able to tell?

[zxDaveM]

5 hours ago, DVDfan said:

 May I ask a supplementary question? Ought I have been able to tell?

 

no, not really. Most choreographers have their own quirks and styles, which you MAY spot if they are 'reinventing' a sequence (for example, the famous Neopolitan duet by Ashton in Act 3 of Swan Lake - plenty of his big back bends and port de bras, and fast feet). Generally though they are choreographing 'in the style of' or 'after' say Petipa, so sort of emulate the originals style, where they can

[Jeannette]

4 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

...Most choreographers have their own quirks and styles, which you MAY spot if they are 'reinventing' a sequence (for example, the famous Neopolitan duet by Ashton in Act 3 of Swan Lake - plenty of his big back bends and port de bras, and fast feet)...

 

Which is precisely why I thought that the Fairy Violente/finger variation in most Royal Ballet productions of Sleeping Beauty was Ashton’s doing...extra frilly/extra fussy/extra hyper! (No offense intended...I love her.)

[Sebastian]

16 hours ago, Jeannette said:

Which is precisely why I thought that the Fairy Violente/finger variation in most Royal Ballet productions of Sleeping Beauty was Ashton’s doing...extra frilly/extra fussy/extra hyper! (No offense intended...I love her.)

 

Regarding Royal Ballet “style” we know Diaghilev was most impressed by de Valois when she danced this variation in the 1920s, and asked for her specifically in the role. 

 

By way of comparison here is the Kirov’s famous 1964 feature film of the ballet:

 

https://www.ivi.tv/watch/34369

 

The variation - across the globe from Ashton and behind the iron Curtain - starts around 15:18. 

[DVDfan]

Thank you, that's very interesting and informative. I was surprised to see that the Kirov version of the 'finger' variation didn't have the finger pointing, and that the Lilac Fairy didn't include the Italian fouettes. 

I have the DVD of Cojocaru and Bonelli from 2000, I think it is, and I thought that the more recent performances were danced faster, and that this made most of the corps de ballet pieces much more exciting. Am I right?

[Sebastian]

22 hours ago, DVDfan said:

I have the DVD of Cojocaru and Bonelli from 2000, I think it is, and I thought that the more recent performances were danced faster, and that this made most of the corps de ballet pieces much more exciting. Am I right?

 

That is a very interesting question DVDfan. Might I recommend that you search the old discussions on here, as some of the highly informed comments on this point in the past have been very illuminating.

 

You might also like to read this post:

 

https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/21941-sleeping-beauty-fairy-and-other-variations/?do=findComment&comment=308332

 

From my personal POV, my first Royal Ballet Sleeping Beauty was in 1963, so distance no doubt lends enchantment. However I did have the privilege in recent years to be able to compare a number of Sadlers Wells / Royal Ballet films of the Sleeping Beauty from the 1940s to the present day (including watching some recordings not widely available). This gorgeous experience left me in no doubt about changes over the decades: the company slowed down, in broad terms, from certainly the end of the 1970s onwards (perhaps even from a bit earlier, that’s for experts to comment on).

 

But, yes, I agree: I feel things got better in recent years, perhaps since the arrival of Koen Kessels as music director. 

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Sebastian

[CHazell2]

19 hours ago, Sebastian said:

However I did have the privilege in recent years to be able to compare a number of Sadlers Wells / Royal Ballet films of the Sleeping Beauty from the 1940s to the present day (including watching some recordings not widely available).

 

Hi Sebastian

 

May I ask you something, what recordings were they. Were they of different productions. Did you see the Ashton/Wright production of 1968?

[li tai po]

There is a fascinating essay by Henry Danton, no less, as the Talking Point column in the new October edition of The Dancing Times.

 

Henry Danton draws on his experience working under Nicolai Sergeyev in the 1940s in the Sadler's Wells Ballet, Mona Inglesby's International Ballet and the Australian Ballet.  He has been having an extended and friendly disagreement with Alexei Ratmansky over the authenticity of current versions of Ivanov and Petipa's choreography.  Ratmansky has of course tried hard to reconstruct the original ballets from documentary sources.

 

Henry Danton's memories of Nicolai Sergeyev were trumped, when Ratmansky produced drawings of the The Sleeping Beauty Act III pas de deux, made by Pavel Gerdt at the time of the premiere, which he had found in a Moscow Museum.

 

The whole article about memory and document is absolutely compelling.

[Dance*is*life]

Very interesting discussion.  I just wanted to add that in rep class at RBS in the mid 60s, we were taught the traditional choreography for both Beauty and Swan Lake Act 2.  When I danced with a ballet company in Germany after I left the school, I was thrown on stage my first week there as a swan in Act 2, because they used exactly the same choreography and I was able to fit in with little rehearsal time. 

 

We performed Beauty for the school matinee in 1964, so we all learnt that in rep classes.  Most versions I've seen of Beauty recently bear almost no resemblance to the dances we learnt for the Fairy variations and Garland Dance.  What does sometimes seem pretty much the same is the choreography for the Nymphs.  I wonder why some parts are changed and some remain the same?