Lynn Seymour RIP

[SheilaC]

2 hours ago, NiniGabriel said:

 

Since this is a thread about Lynn Seymour, I didn't want to name it. But yes, of course I'm speaking of her.

I do agree, NiniGabriel, what a stunning dancer Haydee was. Although in my post I referred to a wonderful performance I saw Lynn do in Onegin at the end of her career, an equally amazing performance was the first time I ever saw Onegin, with Haydee and Cragun in the final pas de deux. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, so fast, so passionate, seemingly improvised in the heat of the moment. And she was equally remarkable in some of the other ballets you mention. I know she still performs character roles such as the Nurse in R&J.

I believe that Seymour and Haydee, plus Sibley, were all in the same year at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. What a trio!

[Odyssey]

Was Merle Park also the same year?

[Sim]

48 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

Was Merle Park also the same year?

She was a couple of years older than Lynn Seymour, and I think she might have been a year or two ahead of that wonderful trio at school.

[LinMM]

Well Park must have been in the school for a short time while the others were there but she went quickly into the corps in 1954 whereas Sibley at any rate was later in 1956. 
Park had been at Elmhurst so was only a short time at the “Sadlers Wells Ballet school” in the end. They were certainly performing with the Company in the same era stretching through 60’s and 70’s etc. 

Im assuming Haydee never danced with the Company but went straight to Stuttgart….she was very highly thought of in UK though ….everybody wanted to see her perform when she came to U.K. I loved her too in the few performances I did see! 

[OnePigeon]

She went first to the Marquis de Cuevas ballet company and then joined Cranko in Stuttgart after that.  She worked a lot with Macmillan and I presume she came over to London to dance some of his work, though I could be wrong as he obviously worked in Germany too. 

[Angela]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Im assuming Haydee never danced with the Company but went straight to Stuttgart….

 

She was not accepted in the Royal Ballet in 1956. Arnold Haskell, director of Sadler's Wells Ballet School then, recommended her to try the Marquis de Cuevas company, but if I remember correctly, she had to wait for one year to get in. She was in the corps de ballet there, doing small solo roles, and moved to Stuttgart only in 1961, where Cranko had to blackmail the theatre director to make Haydée his leading ballerina, because they all thought she was not good enough. Her turn to stardom began in 1962 with her Juliet for Cranko.

 

Cranko invited Lynn Seymour to Stuttgart to dance in his version of "Romeo and Juliet" in 1964. Stuttgart and London had a very close relationship then, Peter Wright worked as a ballet master in Stuttgart, Kenneth MacMillan was invited there to do new works.

[Josette]

Though she is obviously not the focus here, no one would ever think to slight Haydee, truly a great and singular ballerina, whom I was fortunate to have seen many times.  Returning to Seymour, whom I saw a handful of times, I have loved seeing all the films and photographs of her in the past week week, reminding me of her uniquely beautiful curved line and movement, her musicality, and her natural dramatic gift, and how I wish such gifts were cultivated in dance students instead of the accumulation of more multiple pirouettes, stiff port de bras, and 180-degree extensions.  

[Lizbie1]

47 minutes ago, Angela said:

 

She was not accepted in the Royal Ballet in 1956. Arnold Haskell, director of Sadler's Wells Ballet School then, recommended her to try the Marquis de Cuevas company, but if I remember correctly, she had to wait for one year to get in. She was in the corps de ballet there, doing small solo roles, and moved to Stuttgart only in 1961, where Cranko had to blackmail the theatre director to make Haydée his leading ballerina, because they all thought she was not good enough. Her turn to stardom began in 1962 with her Juliet for Cranko.

 

Interesting! The Times obituary today says of Seymour that "at the end of her training she was placed in the Covent Garden opera ballet, the traditional resort of the least promising student."

 

It's funny how things turn out.

[Jane S]

Her and Anthony Dowell and Christopher Gable ...

[LinMM]

OMG ….Anthony Dowell!!!

I remember he hit the TV news if I remember rightly as this promising up and coming dancer and thought he looked amazing …such beautiful lines! 
Perhaps that was more common in those days to put graduates in the opera ballet? 

[NiniGabriel]

Again, I'm sorry for breaking a thread dedicated to the memory of a great ballerina, a unique and very important dancer with my objection. I didn't want to achieve that. And Lynn Seymour didn't deserve that at all!!!

 

I was a little touchy here because I misunderstood an expression. That triggered my sense of justice, but as it turned out, it wasn't meant that way.

 

And so I don't want to go into the many things that have been said by you about Marcia Haydee. There would be a lot to tell, because I was fortunate enough to be able to experience numerous performances with this extraordinary dancer in the 80s and early 90s, some of them still as a teenager on my parents' opera subscription...

 

But this is about Lynn Seymour. And as I wrote a few days ago, she made a great impression on me, even though I only saw her on TV and only in excerpts. How much more must she have had this charisma on stage!!! So I totally understand how much Lynn Seymour is valued and praised by all of you.

 

@Sheila C I can envision Lynn Seymour as Tatjana very well simply because I think she was able to fill the role with all the body language and emotionality at her disposal. She wasn't a dancer who cared about dancing "correctly" but executing the steps in the right way in relation to the role - and that's very important to do justice to Cranko's choreography (and equally, of course, MacMillan's). (Something that I, who grew up with the Stuttgart tradition, miss in quite a few dancers and companies when they dance Cranko...)

Edited March 13, 2023 by NiniGabriel

[NiniGabriel]

41 minutes ago, Josette said:

Returning to Seymour, whom I saw a handful of times, I have loved seeing all the films and photographs of her in the past week week, reminding me of her uniquely beautiful curved line and movement, her musicality, and her natural dramatic gift, and how I wish such gifts were cultivated in dance students instead of the accumulation of more multiple pirouettes, stiff port de bras, and 180-degree extensions.  

 

Well said.

[Jeannette]

One of great dramatic ballerinas of the same era, in 1960s, in the USSR, was Violetta Bovt of the Stanislavsky -&  a muse of Vladimir Bourmeister. One of her last staged roles was Tatiana in the final pdd of Cranko’s Onegin. I thought of her in light of Seymour’s death. Two great dramatic dancers in the  same wonderful era.

In the 1970s, Bovt returned to her native USA, to serve as Ballet Mistress and coach of Ballet Met in Columbus, OH.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Jeannette

[Jane S]

There's a BBC film of a shortened version of Onegin with Haydee as Tatiana and Seymour as Olga (and Desmond Doyle as Onegin and Egon Madsen as  Lensky) - I'd love to see that again.

[NiniGabriel]

1 hour ago, Jane S said:

There's a BBC film of a shortened version of Onegin with Haydee as Tatiana and Seymour as Olga (and Desmond Doyle as Onegin and Egon Madsen as  Lensky) - I'd love to see that again.

 

That would indeed be very interesting and exciting, also for another reason: As I have just researched, this recording dates from 1966. So it would probably still consist of excerpts from the first version of "Onegin" from 1965, which was then replaced in 1967 by the version that is still valid today. That way you might be able to spot differences and see how the piece has evolved.

 

Unfortunately, I fear that the Cranko heirs will probably not allow it to be broadcast again... 😞

[alison]

That reminds me: whatever happened to those showings of historic TV recordings at the BFI?  I know we saw that one.

[Angela]

1 hour ago, Jane S said:

There's a BBC film of a shortened version of Onegin with Haydee as Tatiana and Seymour as Olga (and Desmond Doyle as Onegin and Egon Madsen as  Lensky) - I'd love to see that again.

 

WHAT?!! I've never heard of that! I thought I had found all the recordings...

Peter Wright directed it, it's 35 min long, so you won't see the scenes that Cranko changed in 1967, I suppose (they were in the prologue and before the last scene). Thank you, Jane S, that's very interesting! (I need to scrutinise my Googling abilities 😳)

[stucha]

There is film of a complete Giselle with Seymour and Nureyev on Youtube at the moment.

Unfortunately I can't give you the link, but it is easy search for. It is filmed in a studio with the Vienna State Opera Ballet

[alison]

Isn't that the one that's available on DVD?

[stucha]

1 hour ago, alison said:

Isn't that the one that's available on DVD?

 

Maybe.  I didn't know there was one.

Edited March 14, 2023 by stucha
Clarity

[Sim]

56 minutes ago, stucha said:

 

Maybe.  I didn't know there was one.

Yes there’s been one for a long time.  My daughter (32 today!) used to watch it over and over again when she was a little girl. Monica Mason as Myrthe really used to scare her!!  

[LinMM]

I definitely would not have messed with Mason's Myrthe lol!! 

[Fonty]

14 hours ago, NiniGabriel said:

 

@Sheila C I can envision Lynn Seymour as Tatjana very well simply because I think she was able to fill the role with all the body language and emotionality at her disposal. She wasn't a dancer who cared about dancing "correctly" but executing the steps in the right way in relation to the role - and that's very important to do justice to Cranko's choreography (and equally, of course, MacMillan's). (Something that I, who grew up with the Stuttgart tradition, miss in quite a few dancers and companies when they dance Cranko...)

 

I wish that executing the steps in the right way for the role was the aim of every dancer for every choreographer.   Apart from Cranko and MacMillan, Ashton works also suffer in this way.  

[LinMM]

I’m afraid I made a mistake about Lynn Seymour dancing Onegin in Russia! 
Although she danced in this ballet with Sombart in UK she didn’t dance in Russia at least not in Onegin. 
It was with Makarova and Sombart that my original teacher was asked to go to Russia with!! 

[OnePigeon]

I also came across a video of her dancing the Gloriana pas de deux with Wayne Eagling on YouTube the other day.  Her legs were just stunning in it. 

[alison]

Apologies if this one has been posted already, but I don't remember seeing it:

Tribute to Lynn Seymour | Birmingham Royal Ballet (brb.org.uk)

[Sim]

And this lovely, heartfelt tribute from Ismene Brown:

 

'You want to cry from loving to do it so much' - Lynn Seymour 1939-2023 | The Arts Desk

[Scheherezade]

47 minutes ago, Sim said:

And this lovely, heartfelt tribute from Ismene Brown:

 

'You want to cry from loving to do it so much' - Lynn Seymour 1939-2023 | The Arts Desk

 

Lovely and heartfelt indeed. And as well as being so mesmeric on stage, what an extraordinarily perceptive individual Lynn Seymour was.

[li tai po]

Lynn will be remembered this afternoon (Friday) on Radio 4's obituary programme, Last Word.

[alison]

What time is that, please, li tai po?  I'll see if I can persuade my radio out of its usual setting.

[JohnS]

Last Words last 7 minutes or so at c21:15:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001k845?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

 

 

[LinMM]

You can find Last Word in the 4-4.30 slot on Fridays on BBC sounds. I have a feeling it’s also repeated every Sunday at 8.30pm. 

[Geoff]

55 minutes ago, LinMM said:

You can find Last Word in the 4-4.30 slot on Fridays on BBC sounds. I have a feeling it’s also repeated every Sunday at 8.30pm. 

And of course usually available (forever?) on whatever the BBC Radio online service is called now.