Russian ballet needs protecting from the West?

[Melody]

I'm trying to quote from post 31 and something is causing problems with it, so I'm just going to take bits of Amelia's post and add the quote stuff manually and hope that works. (it didn't work, so I'm using italics - sigh...)

 

Assumption 1: “... it wasn't clear that the classics were going to survive the revolution...”

Fact 1: the classics survived after the revolution (you accepted it) and were danced by new great ballerinas reared in surviving ballet schools. 

 

Assumption 2: “... if Sergeyev hadn't brought the Stepanov notations and all other ... it's quite possible they'd have been destroyed, and then a lot of knowledge would have been lost. “

Fact 2:  The remaining ballet notations were not burnt or shredded at the Mariinsky Theatre and the Mariinsky’s archive has survived.

 

Assumption 3: “ ... if there'd really been a crackdown on classical ballet in the Soviet Union, and if Sergeyev hadn't rescued all the documentation and mounted the ballets on western companies, it would have been a lot harder to reconstruct them.”

Fact 3: Thank God, there was no crackdown on classical ballet in the U.S.S.R. and the classics were preserved there by those who stayed and continued working in Petrograd: Fyodor Lopukhov, Agrippina Vaganova, Vladimir Ponomarev, Elizaveta Gerdt,  Alexander Shirayev. The latter was working with Petipa as the 2nd ballet-master and repetiteur and had the best memory of all ballets. Although he worked abroad in 1909-1917, had a school in London and supplied pupils to Pavlova’s company, he returned to Mariinsky in 1918 (ironically, when others left it), rolled up sleeves and worked in both the theatre and the school.

The classical ballet proved to be very resilient on Russian soil, which remained a "safe haven" for it - but Sergeyev and the notations taken by him did not play ANY role in the survival of classical ballets in Russia.

 

However, we know a lot of  that with hindsight. Sergeyev left Russia at a time when the Bolsheviks seemed intent on reducing everything about the previous regime to scorched earth, and that might well have included all the documentation he took with him. Obviously the classics could have been reconstructed at some level without the notation, from the separate memories of the various Russian expatriate dancers scattered around western Europe and the Americas, but it would have been a lot harder and less accurate to do it that way. As it happened, the Soviet regime decided that classical ballet had a role to play in the new Russia, but nobody could have foretold that in 1917. And without the Russians who left the country and moved to the west, including Sergeyev with the documentation he took with him, and without the western companies that mounted the productions based on those notes, we could be in the position now where the only versions of the 19th century classics that survived anywhere were the Soviet-era ones, which had been subjected to changes to make them more acceptable to the sensibilities of the government at the time. I don't remember where I read this, but I do remember reading somewhere that some of the western productions of the 19th century classics are probably closer to the original 19th century works than the current Russian productions are.

 

Nikolai Tsiskaridze is talking as though ballet in the west has only survived because of helping itself to Russian choreography, and is repaying the favour by (according to Ismene Brown's blog) daring to teach Russia what's needed, whatever the heck he means by that. I wasn't aware that anyone was trying to teach Russia anything, but no doubt he has something in mind by that comment. People and knowledge have travelled back and forth between Russia and the west for a couple of centuries and hopefully will continue to do so. In the meantime, if he really thinks the western versions of those ballets are just a matter of some ignoramus changing a couple of steps and claiming authorship of the whole ballet, he's fantasising. Maybe there have been productions that failed to credit Petipa and the other Russian choreographers if they used their choreography, but I don't recall any.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2015 by Melody

[MAB]

 . Maybe there have been productions that failed to credit Petipa and the other Russian choreographers if they used their choreography, but I don't recall any.

 

 

 

 

I believe just about every production mentions it is 'after Petipa', though in many cases so far after as to have waved goodbye.

[FLOSS]

Who is Mr T. referring to to when he talks about the "half trained West"?Is it western choreographers who have mounted productions of Swan Lake; western choreographers generally or simply those who do not adhere strictly to the Vaganova system when setting steps? If I recall Mr T. was to have been involved in a ballet created by Christopher Wheeldon but it was eventually performed by others. Perhaps in reality it has nothing to do with the current state of Russian ballet or his experience of working with a western choreographer and everything to do with making the sort of noises that make it clear that he is supportive of the Russian government and its policies.

[Melody]

Floss, given the things he's been credited with saying since he started his present job, I'm inclined to agree with you that his comments have more to do with a desire to be in tune with the government's attitude toward the rest of the world than with genuine outrage at the way the western ballet companies are behaving. He has to know that the old Russian classics are in the public domain by now, and since he isn't stupid he must know how much of Petipa's choreography is still being used in the western productions and how much is original choreography. I know things tend to get lost in translation, but all that bloviating sounded a lot more like something being said for effect than like a reasoned criticism of anything.

[Ian Macmillan]

From today's Links, Sarah Kaufman's book review for the Washington Post may be apposite here:

 

LIKE A BOMB GOING OFF - Leonid Yakobson and Ballet as Resistance in Soviet Russia - By Janice Ross

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/like-a-bomb-going-off-by-janice-ross/2015/02/26/0e443088-bc5c-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html

 

[jamie14]

 

Altynai produced just recently, at the end of January, a ballet programme for Astana Ballet in the capital of Kazakhstan. (In fact, she was born in Kazakhstan and her father was a Kazakh dancer.)

The programme includes The Animated Garden from “Le Corsaire”, also Fokine’s small ballet pieces and some dances from Pavlova’s repertoire.

http://vechastana.kz/kultura/1001278-altynay-asylmuratova-postavit-miniatyury-dlya-truppy-astana-balet-v-stolitse/

 

Thank you so much Amelia for this information, as I dearly remember a performance of hers at ROH with Farouk (can't remember surname) Scherehazade (sp?). Will this mean we won't every see either of them again?

[Scheherezade]

Thank you so much Amelia for this information, as I dearly remember a performance of hers at ROH with Farouk (can't remember surname) Scherehazade (sp?). Will this mean we won't every see either of them again?

I am fairly certain that she and Faroukh Ruzimatov did Corsaire with the Kirov at the ROH in the late 1980s. Could this have been the one that you saw, Jamie 14?

[Tony Newcombe]

I remember them along with her husband Zaklinsky, Neff and the wonderful Yelena Pankova

[Jan McNulty]

I am fairly certain that she and Faroukh Ruzimatov did Corsaire with the Kirov at the ROH in the late 1980s. Could this have been the one that you saw, Jamie 14?

 

I remember them along with her husband Zaklinsky, Neff and the wonderful Yelena Pankova

 

That was the one Tony.  I saw them at a Saturday matinee and have never forgotten how wonderful the cast was!!!

[jamie14]

Yes, I am sure that was when the Kirov came over. It was heavenly, with all their own curtains and scenery etc. Altynai and Farouk were in competition with who could wear the most sparkly body paint!  The programme and performance was (for me) the most exciting thing. Can't remember who was Firebird, but she was absolutely wonderful. Can anyone tell me if they have both retired from the scene (I know Amelie has given the excellent piece of info about Altynai and also her daughter for which I thank you). What's happened to the curtains, scenery and original costumes etc I wonder. Firebird and her music one of my absolute favourites. I remember gasps of astonishment when Farouk did Corsaire!