How to dance Balanchine's Apollo?

[alison]

Picking up on Alastair Macaulay's comments about the Royal Ballet's recent performances of Apollo the other day, in which he states that "Like every Royal Ballet “Apollo” I’ve seen since 1976, it’s musically slow and dynamically sluggish." and calls the performance a "reverential ritual" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/arts/dance/wheeldon-ratmansky-and-balanchine-at-the-royal-ballet.html?_r=1&), I was wondering how other companies dance it, particularly, of course, NYCB?  Is anyone able to compare?  Unfortunately, I don't think there's a DVD of the ballet available.

[Anjuli_Bai]

I have several DVD's of this ballet but with dancers from companies other than NYCB - and only excerpts. These are from the 1980's and 1990's.

 

I do, however have one Apollo done with NYCB dancers - D'Amboise, Jillana, Russel, Adams - (the complete ballet) but its from 1960. I'm not sure it is fair to compare from so long ago.

 

What do you think?

Edited March 1, 2013 by Anjuli_Bai

[Paul Arrowsmith]

With confidence, perhaps?

 

Since I first saw Apollo at the RB 30 years ago the muses have usually had a blank terror and no sense of character about their performances. This revival (I saw the "second" cast) there is more individuality and wit to them. The ballet gains greater character as a result.

 

And the ballet is much more coherent and impressive when we get to see the prologue and birth of Apollo. The shorter abstraction is more arid. 

[Beryl H]

Well the only recent production I've seen was ENB's which was not as impressive as this RB revival, I think this longer version is preferable, there's an ancient Greek feel to the opening prologue scene which gives a timeless quality to the ballet. Carlos Acosta was such an earthy Apollo too, it came across as more fun than the sometimes more duller, dutiful interpretation.

 

 

[RosiesDream]

There's a snippet of a Nureyev rehearsal of Apollo on YouTube