Jump to content

A 'ballet/dance miscellany' thread

Ondine
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 183
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

LinMM

LinMM

Posted
Posted (edited)

So as not to lead astray another thread….I’m posting here the continuation of the Baryshnikov conversation!! 
I contacted my Aussie friend ( we went to hundreds of performances together through the 70’s and early 80’s) and she thinks it’s Lesley Collier we saw him with in Fille…but not 100percent! 
We both tried to research it but could find no exact information about him in Fille …only other pieces. 
It would have been not that long after he defected which was in 1974 I think. 
Anyway he was absolutely fabulous as Colas ( as in most things) I’d never seen it danced with such energy and conviction before then. He made you aware of the choreography like no other seen before in this ballet and I’m sure it probably was Collier as she was terrific in the role of Lise as well ….but he was a revelation and loved him ever since. 
Im assuming he wouldn’t have danced the role in America. 
Thankyou Jane S for confirming it was Collier you thought you saw as well. As could find no info about this under either Baryshnikov or Collier began to think I’d imagined it but Aussie friend confirmed it too!! 
 

Edited by LinMM
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Emeralds

Emeralds

Posted
Posted
On 17/10/2023 at 15:07, Fiz said:

Poor lambs!

Fiz, I normally don't click on all the Instagram links as it takes me ages to get Instagram to load on my device, but I had to find out whether you meant lamb as a term of affection or the actual four legged animals! Oh the poor little girls right at the bottom of the heap! But they will get lots of sympathy and hugs after the show, I'm sure.  😀

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Emeralds

Emeralds

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

So as not to lead astray another thread….I’m posting here the continuation of the Baryshnikov conversation!! 
I contacted my Aussie friend ( we went to hundreds of performances together through the 70’s and early 80’s) and she thinks it’s Lesley Collier we saw him with in Fille…but not 100percent! 
We both tried to research it but could find no exact information about him in Fille …only other pieces. 
It would have been not that long after he defected which was in 1974 I think. 
Anyway he was absolutely fabulous as Colas ( as in most things) I’d never seen it danced with such energy and conviction before then. He made you aware of the choreography like no other seen before in this ballet and I’m sure it probably was Collier as she was terrific in the role of Lise as well ….but he was a revelation and loved him ever since. 
Im assuming he wouldn’t have danced the role in America. 

I think the National Ballet of Canada  were the only major North American company who had La Fille mal gardée in their repertoire at the time, ABT's version  at the time was the Russian one from ages ago (which Kevin McKenzie  recently jettisoned and replaced with Ashton's)

 

Atlanta Ballet in the South had Ashton's La Fille mal gardée but highly unlikely he would have gone all the way there to guest with them without us knowing about it (it would have been a very,  very costly engagement considering their theatre is not huge and I don't think the company had big financial reserves). Joffrey Ballet had Fille in their rep when they were still a New York company under Joffrey and/or Arpino's leadership but I  don't think they ever engaged him as a guest either- they were keen to showcase their own dancers and didn't believe in big name stars, although keen to nurture their company dancers to be stars in their own right (the company in those days was rare among ballet companies for not having corps/coryphee/soloist/principal ranks).

 

Glad you got to see Misha, @LinMM! What an experience! The only time I got to see him dance was when he'd already switched to contemporary dance. He was excellent in all the pieces, of course. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jane S

Jane S

Posted
Posted

Baryshnikov's  performances were in April 1977 - two with Jenner and one with Collier. John Percival, writing in Dance & Dancers, mentioned that Baryshnikov had danced Colas in  the ABT production ("a version of such banal choreography that the leading dancers have to impose their own personality and camp everything up if they are to make any effect at all") and thought that experience might have been responsible for MB making Colas "just a little too self centred"  for Ashton - but that was "the only tiny flaw in a performance that was otherwise a sheer joy to watch".  He also thought Jenner went slightly better with MB than Collier, who he thought went better with Nureyev. (That we should have had such a choice!)

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LinMM

LinMM

Posted
Posted

Having just seen the Limit with Francesca Hayward performing in a most charming way there is on the ROH streaming site?….not sure but dropped into my Facebook page of Francesca as Dorabella in Enigma Variations…a rather lovely example of her dancing ❤️

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ondine

Ondine

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I see my previous post (which wasn't a direct link apart from to a YouTube channel where you'd have to search, and the ROH doesn't seem to care about short clips or they would have them removed) has vanished.

 

Here is the ROH FB link To Francesca Hayward's Dorabella (Enigma Variations)

 

https://www.facebook.com/royaloperahouse/videos/enigma-variations-the-royal-ballet/1432930313920094/

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest oncnp

Guest oncnp

Posted
Posted

Article in the Times about an (apparent) 25% decrease in arts philanthropy Arts philanthropy is on the slide and Londoners are the worst offenders (thetimes.co.uk)

 

"...big London organizations that have suffered the largest cuts in subsidy. And, by and large, it’s those national companies that also took out massive loans from the government during the pandemic — loans that they must start paying back from next year....that’s about £20 million each from the Royal Opera House, National Theatre and RSC and a whopping £40 million from Historic Royal Palaces. True, the repayments will be spread over 20 years, but when you factor in interest charges that still works out at well over £1 million from each of their budgets each year."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LinMM

LinMM

Posted
Posted

I wonder if Arts philanthropy has dropped off because the people who have the money these days are much younger entrepreneur types than previously and sadly there seem to be few into classical music ( even less into ballet etc) 

When you listen to a programme like Desert Island Discs these days very few chosen to take part …and from all walks of Life …..have any classical music in their choices! Whereas 25 plus years ago or so I’ve often gone out and bought a record( or even CD!) from listening to the programme. 
I don’t think classical music is on most secondary schools agenda these days so young people are not exposed to it unless their parents happen to introduce it to them. 
I can remember when I was a young teacher working for ILEA in London children were offered free tuition in various instruments like violin etc. 
A PRIMARY school I worked at in Islington in North London had its own orchestra!!  We had a FULL time music teacher on the staff …..Just unheard of these days. 

So it’s not so surprising maybe that gradually the Arts are being less and less supported by Philanthropy especially where classical Music is concerned. 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jan McNulty

Jan McNulty

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I wonder if Arts philanthropy has dropped off because the people who have the money these days are much younger entrepreneur types than previously and sadly there seem to be few into classical music ( even less into ballet etc) 

When you listen to a programme like Desert Island Discs these days very few chosen to take part …and from all walks of Life …..have any classical music in their choices! Whereas 25 plus years ago or so I’ve often gone out and bought a record( or even CD!) from listening to the programme. 
I don’t think classical music is on most secondary schools agenda these days so young people are not exposed to it unless their parents happen to introduce it to them. 
I can remember when I was a young teacher working for ILEA in London children were offered free tuition in various instruments like violin etc. 
A PRIMARY school I worked at in Islington in North London had its own orchestra!!  We had a FULL time music teacher on the staff …..Just unheard of these days. 

So it’s not so surprising maybe that gradually the Arts are being less and less supported by Philanthropy especially where classical Music is concerned. 

 

 

Arts philanthropy has been dropping off for a good number of years now and, of course, the philanthropy from some organisations is no longer sought.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sophoife

Sophoife

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Desert Island Discs these days very few chosen to take part …and from all walks of Life …..have any classical music in their choices! Whereas 25 plus years ago or so I’ve often gone out and bought a record( or even CD!) from listening to the programme. 

 

The first time I saw Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain (it was the full version, not just the pdd), after wiping the tears from my face as it was Steven Heathcote's penultimate performance as a principal (July 2007), I rushed off up Swanston Street and bought the relevant Arvo Pärt CD.

 

In the days when there was a music shop open after 10pm in a bustling hub that's now a desert of takeaways and building sites.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ondine

Ondine

Posted
  • Author
Posted

This is simply wonderful; documentary, dates from 1948, made by the National Film Board. So much to love! Packed with information, ballet and other footage, history. A period gem!

 

Spotlight On Australian Ballet

 

...we present this film revealing the roots of ballet in Australia and the story of the overseas dancers who brought their art to Australia. This encouraged the rise of local dancers who proved themselves adept in the classic ballets of Russia, France and Great Britain. It traces the birth of Australian choreography, decor and mounting with Australian dancers shown performing an Australian musical composition with Australian themes. Influential figures such as Edouard Borovansky, Tchinarova and Margot Stevenson are featured as well as the Borovansky Ballet, the Ballet Guild and the Bodenwieser Modern Expressive Ballet. It is the history of ballet in Australia that ultimately lead to the formation of the prestigious and internationally recognised company The Australian Ballet.

 

(Official link to YouTube) 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Ondine

Ondine

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

I loved this, Sebastian: the musicality, the wit and, my goodness, those lifts and throws! Thank you so much for posting.

 

Me too! Also doing all that without losing the fan or the cane!

 

And the frock. Sigh.  

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ondine
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Peanut68

Peanut68

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

 

I loved this, Sebastian: the musicality, the wit and, my goodness, those lifts and throws! Thank you so much for posting.

I agree! And love you using word ‘wit’ - too often missing today & worse if replaced with base slapstick (like horrid ‘sisters’ interactions in RB recent Cinderella…IMHO anyhow) 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Amelia

Amelia

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Sebastian said:

Gulp:

 

 

   

The choreography by the great Leonid Jacobson.

Danced by Ninel' Kurgapkina & Boris Bregvadze.  

       

Edited by Amelia
The text didn't appear at the first posting.
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Emeralds

Emeralds

Posted
Posted

Music for this waltz by German composer Richard Strauss (no relation to the Viennese Johann Strauss II or their famous family of composers) is of course the well known waltz from his opera Der Rosenkavalier, which premiered at Semperoper Dresden in 1911, long before it was subsumed by the Soviet Union. Nice to see the late Ninel Kurgapkina, famed as the teacher of so many talented ballerinas, eg Evgenia Obraztsova, in her dancing days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Amelia

Amelia

Posted
Posted
Ninel’ Kurgapkina was technically one of the most brilliant ballerinas. She graduated from Vaganova’s class before the academy was named after Vaganova. She often danced with Rudolf Nureyev and it was her whom he asked to be his assistant in his last production of La Bayadere in Paris. 
Among Ninel’s pupils were Zhanna Ayupova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Irma Nioradze, Evgenia Obraztsova, Anna Polikarpova (Hamburg)...
I found a slightly different version of the Viennese Waltz danced by her with a different partner - Vladilen Semenov. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2IBUTfA8gk
  • Like 2
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...