Macaulay on the direction of the Pas de Deux from the New York Times

[Anjuli_Bai]

I would like to recommend this article which was posted into the links thread today - June 2nd, 2013, which appears in the New York Times by  Alastair Macaulay  We often discuss the direction which technique seems to be heading.  This is about choreography - pas de deux in particular - and the new penchant for bare legs in pointe shoes.......and other matters.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/arts/dance/christopher-wheeldons-pas-de-deux.html?ref=dance&_r=1&

[Jan McNulty]

I read a really interesting series of comments recently (was it on this board?) about why the tights make choreography, I suppose, more ethereal because they don't show off how the muscles are working when making the moves.  I've got to admit that I'd never really given it much thought and it doesn't really bother me that much whether the dancers wear tights or not - although I've never seen any of the major tutu ballets performed in this way so I don't know what I would think about that.

 

What does anyone else think?

[Anjuli_Bai]

I read a really interesting series of comments recently (was it on this board?) about why the tights make choreography, I suppose, more ethereal because they don't show off how the muscles are working when making the moves.  I've got to admit that I'd never really given it much thought and it doesn't really bother me that much whether the dancers wear tights or not - although I've never seen any of the major tutu ballets performed in this way so I don't know what I would think about that.

 

What does anyone else think?

 

 

I think there were some comments regarding tights on this board - but who knows where?

 

I am very much against this tightless with pointe shoes tendency.  I've now even seen Giselle danced this way - yikes.

 

For me it turns the pointe shoe into a tool rather than an extension of the foot and therefore the line.

 

Ballet, I believe, is not about seeing the underlying structure - i.e. musculature.  I don't want to see the girders - I want to see the finished architecture.  I feel differently about modern/contemporary dance. 

 

I thought another interesting point that Macaulay made was the rather senseless manipulation of the female in PDD. Put her here and then put her there.   If beauty is not the goal, and there is no obvious meaning to the movement, and the music is not particularly engaging (however we each define that) then why are they on the stage and why are we watching them?

[GTL]

About six months ago I made a passing comment on the "Raymonda Act III" thread about Sylvie Guillem dancing this bare-legged (for reasons I could not fathom) in 2003 but I doubt that's what you are looking for.