46 Entrechat six

[FionaM]

Last night at the Bolshoi, young principal  Dmitry Smilevski performed 46 entrechat six in Albrecht’s second act solo.  
 

This is a ‘quantum leap’ from the 32 introduced by Nureyev many decades ago.  
 

It’s also not possible to do more (without being unmusical or changing the choreo) as Giselle enters on the next notes.  

His Giselle was Elizaveta Kokoreva.  
 

Both are around age 22 only, and were promoted to principals earlier this year having graduated in 2019.  I think (but please correct me) that this was only their second performance of the main roles in Giselle.   

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyaY4UZotnS/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

[Silver Capricorn]

I hope that the beauty and magic of ballet Giselle is about something other than how many entrechat six jump dancer. This is just an acrobatic element almost like in the circus.  After all, Vladimir Shklyarov used to jump a similar number some time ago. I've seen a number of Giselle choreographies that completely omitted this element and it didn't hurt anything.

[Suffolkgal]

Oh well good for him but sort of agree SC! Also now remembering Wayne Sleep breaking the record for the number of crossed feet in an entrechat on a TV show must have been record breakers! I think this all feeds into the endless clapping within variations and so on which is part of how things go in Russia but I could do without although I did burst into spontaneous applause for kaneko and Bracewell yesterday as they spun and spun! I suppose the saddest thing is it may be years before we in London are able to see these dancers ....

[Scheherezade]

2 hours ago, Suffolkgal said:

I suppose the saddest thing is it may be years before we in London are able to see these dancers ....

 

It is indeed!

[stucha]

21 hours ago, FionaM said:

Last night at the Bolshoi, young principal  Dmitry Smilevski performed 46 entrechat six in Albrecht’s second act solo.  
 

This is a ‘quantum leap’ from the 32 introduced by Nureyev many decades ago.  
 

It’s also not possible to do more (without being unmusical or changing the choreo) as Giselle enters on the next notes.  

His Giselle was Elizaveta Kokoreva.  
 

Both are around age 22 only, and were promoted to principals earlier this year having graduated in 2019.  I think (but please correct me) that this was only their second performance of the main roles in Giselle.   

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyaY4UZotnS/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

 

It really is quite remarkable.

And also the way he performs them entirely in character is excellent.  After all Albrecht has been commanded by Myrthe to dance until he can dance no more. There is no element of circus in his performance.

There are several different versions of the solo at this point in the ballet and it is often up to the performer as to which version he performs. It is quite a dramatic moment too and the entrechat six repeated like that builds the tension as the music rises to its climax.

I think that virtuosity should be recognised and applauded when deserved, as it is here. He is obviously very talented and is also a very modest young man.

Edited October 16, 2023 by stucha

[MAB]

I detest the entrechat six in Giselle with a passiion, it is a nothing but an invention of Rudolf Nureyev's to show off his technique and seems to have become standard.  It is many years since I last saw the Bolshoi dance Giselle, but they used to adhere to the oeiginal choreography,  It is nothing but an ugly interpolation and if a repetiteur had any basic taste at all they would veto it altogether.

[FionaM]

3 hours ago, stucha said:

 

It really is quite remarkable.

And also the way he performs them entirely in character is excellent.  After all Albrecht has been commanded by Myrthe to dance until he can dance no more. There is no element of circus in his performance.

There are several different versions of the solo at this point in the ballet and it is often up to the performer as to which version he performs. It is quite a dramatic moment too and the entrechat six repeated like that builds the tension as the music rises to its climax.

I think that virtuosity should be recognised and applauded when deserved, as it is here. He is obviously very talented and is also a very modest young man.

I agree.  
 

Much of classical ballet is about technical feats and extreme movement or control.  
 

Many people can master a very good level of the technique.  Not many can do something like this and make it look effortless AND overlay the necessary characterisation.  
 

i think he’s doing an amazing job for only his second or third Albrecht ever at such a young age.  
 

Amusingly, his father Georgi Smilevski (long time principal at STANMUS) has challenged his son to next time perform “emotional diagonal brisés like Baryshnikov’s” !!!

[FionaM]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

I detest the entrechat six in Giselle with a passiion, it is a nothing but an invention of Rudolf Nureyev's to show off his technique and seems to have become standard.  It is many years since I last saw the Bolshoi dance Giselle, but they used to adhere to the oeiginal choreography,  It is nothing but an ugly interpolation and if a repetiteur had any basic taste at all they would veto it altogether.

I can think of many technical feats (going en pointe is one) that we could choose to veto.  

 

Ballet dancers “are both athlete and artist” to quote Margot Fonteyn.  Without mastery of both anyone could be on stage.  

[MAB]

20 minutes ago, FionaM said:

I can think of many technical feats (going en pointe is one) that we could choose to veto.

 

Now that is absurd.

[FionaM]

@MAB no more absurd than your suggestion of vetoing the entrechat six which have been around for 50 years.  
 

Therefore all the current generation of dancers will have been influenced by this version as the pinnacle of achievement.  
 

I remember similar discussions around 180 degree leg extensions when Guillem, Zakharova, Bussell took ballet to those new extremes.  Now it’s normal to expect every dancer (male and female) to be able to do those.    

[FionaM]

23 hours ago, Silver Capricorn said:

After all, Vladimir Shklyarov used to jump a similar number some time ago. I've seen a number of Giselle choreographies that completely omitted this element and it didn't hurt anything.

I agree it doesn’t hurt anything.  

However many of the elite male dancers do perform the entrechat six … Sarafanov (video of him doing 40) , Bolle, Hallberg … and at RB more recently Corales, Clarke, Bonelli.  Also Marchand and others in Paris.  
 

Albrecht is dancing to his death … it doesn’t really matter what. As long as he shows us he is stronger than Myrtha.

 

[MAB]

1 hour ago, FionaM said:

Therefore all the current generation of dancers will have been influenced by this version as the pinnacle of achievement.  
 

I remember similar discussions around 180 degree leg extensions when Guillem, Zakharova, Bussell took ballet to those new extremes.  Now it’s normal to expect every dancer (male and female) to be able to do those.    

 

And we have a thread about audience numbers falling at ROH.  Could a reason so far unmentioned be the vulgarity rhat is creeping into the art of dance?

[Suffolkgal]

I do get that about Albrecht and Myrtle but for me the story is that Giselle keeps him going as her love has transcended the grave?

[Sim]

20 minutes ago, Suffolkgal said:

I do get that about Albrecht and Myrtle but for me the story is that Giselle keeps him going as her love has transcended the grave?

Myrthe....!

[FionaM]

An interview with Dmitry has been broadcast today.  I’m only 13 minutes into watching and am charmed by him.  

 

Click on the settings wheel to get autogenerated subtitles in English.  (Good enough for gist of what he is saying). 
 

 

[FionaM]

27 minutes ago, Suffolkgal said:

I do get that about Albrecht and Myrtle but for me the story is that Giselle keeps him going as her love has transcended the grave?

yes … and I read this scene where he’s doing his entrechat six, brisés or whatever alone on stage … that Giselle runs on to dance herself instead, thereby saving him from exhausting himself.  (Though he actually then has to lift her across the stage multiple times!) 

 

So I think it’s a really clever idea to have him performing entrechat six perpetually until she interrupts him.  It makes more sense.  

[FionaM]

@MAB re vulgarity.  
 

I am shocked by the scene in Ashton’s Cinderella (created in 1948) where the ballroom tutu wearers bow to Cinderella and the Prince.  They have their backs to the audience and as they bow (not curtsey) the ballerinas’ entire bottoms and underneath of their tutus are on deliberate display to the audience. So unnecessary and vulgar.  
 

Maybe we need a separate thread on ‘vulgarity in dance’ … both technical (your point) and overly sexual (mine). 

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, FionaM said:

@MAB re vulgarity.  
 

I am shocked by the scene in Ashton’s Cinderella (created in 1948) where the ballroom tutu wearers bow to Cinderella and the Prince.  They have their backs to the audience and as they bow (not curtsey) the ballerinas’ entire bottoms and underneath of their tutus are on deliberate display to the audience. So unnecessary and vulgar.  
 

Maybe we need a separate thread on ‘vulgarity in dance’ … both technical (your point) and overly sexual (mine). 

 

I don't find that scene in Cinderella remotely shocking or vulgar. It's sharp, spiky, unexpected, angular, mysterious, and altogether wonderful.

[OnePigeon]

The entrechat six isn’t necessary and is a vehicle for the dancer that performs them to show off.  I don’t love them and don’t have a burning desire to see them, but praise where it’s due - they take an enormous amount of strength and stamina and it’s impressive to be able to perform so many.  It doesn’t move the art form to new heights of artistry, but it is impressive in terms of strength, stamina and technique.  There is a place in ballet for impressive showy tricks, as long as that’s not what it’s only about.

[Dawnstar]

I saw Giselle for the first time when the RB did it 2 seasons ago so I have no knowledge of what the choreography historically should be but out of the 4 Albrechts I saw only one, Bonelli, did the extended entrechats & I thought it was fabulous. For me the entrechats going on & on worked perfectly dramatically, given Myrthe is forcing Albrecht to keep dancing.

[Sabine0308]

2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I saw Giselle for the first time when the RB did it 2 seasons ago so I have no knowledge of what the choreography historically should be but out of the 4 Albrechts I saw only one, Bonelli, did the extended entrechats & I thought it was fabulous. For me the entrechats going on & on worked perfectly dramatically, given Myrthe is forcing Albrecht to keep dancing.

I would agree that it works perfectly dramatically, IF I would notice a sign of exhaustion, last breath, close to breaking point but not giving in etc...but in the video above it's so perfect that it does look like sport. I think I've seen only Baryshnikov (in a video I can't find anymore) expressing this kind of exhaustion. It makes the situation Albrecht is in much more "realistic".

Edited October 16, 2023 by Sabine0308