Perfect ballets?

[MAB]

For me the problem with Vaganova technique is that it stresses legato over allegro dancing, but even so what passes for Vaganova today would probably horrify the lady.  Those six o'clock extensions should have no place on a classical stage at all. 

 

Yes Ashton is hard, it looks effortless, but like ballet's favourite bird, the swan, it's like gliding effortlessly across a lake whist paddling furiously under the water.  La Fille Mal Gardee is danced superbly in Paris possibly because the French dancers relish the technical challenge, dare I say it looks better there than in London?

 

There was a time when Cecchetti technique was very highly regarded but that no longer seems to be the case.  Three years ago I attended a weekend of master classes and lectures about Cecchetti and Bournonville technique presented by Richard Glasstone (who taught generations of RB male dancers) and Flemming Ryberg of the Royal Danish Ballet, somehow I got the impression that as far as classical ballet goes, what they were teaching was the real McCoy.  That weekend was arranged by the indefatigable Paris based critic Katherine Kanter who is a fierce champion of the Cecchetti method and is engaged in producing DVD's furthering his technique, maybe of some interest here as the dancer is ex RB Muriel Valtat.  Personally I'm very enthusiastic about the project to the extent of making a donation details here should others share my interest http://www.helloasso.com/utilisateurs/augustevestris-597295/collectes/make-the-work-work-the-physical-principles-behind-enrico-cecchetti-s-six-days-of-the-week

 

Referring to the great Flemming Ryberg made me recall the last time I saw Ashton's R&J in London With Ivan Vasiliev as Romeo and that current Danish star Alban Lendorf as Mercutio; when they came to the pas de trois, it was clear that the steps were giving Vasiliev trouble whereas Lendorf just sailed through proving my personal theory that training based on Bournonville gives dancers the ability to dance anything.  Incidentally according to David Vaughan's book on Ashton, Sir Fred was inspired by Bournonville in certain passages of La Fille Mal Gardee,  Bournonville had harsh words to say on dancers that are all technique and nothing else and he was right, but somehow I feel the present trend away from narrative ballets, probably does make dancers more technique conscious when they no longer need to tell a story or express emotions.

 

edited for reasons of grammar only

Edited April 29, 2015 by MAB

[LinMM]

Yes I think I agree that Vaganova style may ORIGINALLY have been much closer to Cechetti but that it has moved slightly towards this obsession with extensions which only look really good on dancers who truly have the right hips for it!!

 

 

There are some teachers who still do very quick footwork .....and although I can't do it at the speed required sometimes I love these quick petit allegros with quick changes of direction and epaulement etc. This somehow makes you have to dance more with the upper body and face etc.

I love to see dancers who have understood this well.........and such dancers would definitely be better in Ashton's work I think.

Edited April 29, 2015 by LinMM

[aileen]

MAB, that's a very interesting point that your make about the influence of Bournonville in certain passages Fille.

[Fonty]

 

As well as the indifference toward Ashton's repertoire by at least some of the people to whom it was entrusted, I'm wondering if there's also a problem caused by the basic abandonment of the Cecchetti style of teaching in British vocational schools (and in many other countries) in favour of the Vaganova style which seems to equip students for employment in more companies around the world but doesn't seem to sit so well with the demands of Ashton's choreography. In Luke Jennings's article a while ago about teaching at the Royal Ballet School, one of the teachers pretty much said they weren't teaching the subtleties of epaulement and so on, because they were concentrating on pure technique and extension. That isn't going to help dancers do justice to Ashton.

 

 

 

I am a bit confused by this.   Isn't epaulement part of pure technique?

 

Also, the daughter of a friend of mine was at White Lodge some years ago, and she had one class a week  that was officially labelled the Cecchetti method.  This was before the school switched to the Vaganova style, so I am just wondering what style was being taught for the rest of the classes?

[MAB]

RAD?

[Melody]

I am a bit confused by this.   Isn't epaulement part of pure technique?

 

Also, the daughter of a friend of mine was at White Lodge some years ago, and she had one class a week  that was officially labelled the Cecchetti method.  This was before the school switched to the Vaganova style, so I am just wondering what style was being taught for the rest of the classes?

 

This is what I was referring to:

 

"In one of the Upper School's spacious, purpose-built studios, a second-year girls' class is under way. The teacher is Anita Young, a former Royal Ballet soloist, and she is trying to get the girls, who are mostly 17 or 18, to think about expressiveness. "Listen to the music!" she keeps telling them. The girls are formidably technically assured, but they look tense, watching Young with large, nervous eyes. When they take balances they tend to gravitate backwards, as if fearful of commitment to the position. "Weight forward," Young implores. "You can always have a nose-job. You can't mend a broken back!"

"They're so lovely," Young sighs after the class. "And their legs go far higher than ours ever did. All this, though…" And here she strikes an attitude, the position pliant and alive, her arms framing her face with subtle épaulement. "All this is gone." But if her pupils go for eye-catching hyperextensions and "six-o'clock arabesques" rather than nuance and refinement, it's perhaps because they know that in an audition they have to grab a director's attention fast. In a mercilessly unforgiving milieu, their instincts are fine-tuned for survival."

 

from here:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/mar/25/will-they-make-royal-ballet

[Two Pigeons]

There is an article about dancing Ashton in the April edition of Dancing Times.

 

Reading that I felt it vindicated our points that dancing Ashton's choreography is hard. Dancing Ashton as he intended is REALLY hard.

[Melody]

 

I never knew that Ashton had been described as a second best choreographer! He is just so different to Macmillan but definitely not second best! They have both had brilliant moments in their careers but to me they are on an equal footing and I like seeing both of their works regularly.

 

Here's the Find A Grave entry:

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=6378152&page=gr

 

Mind you, I think someone is a tad biased because look at Kenneth MacMillan's entry:

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11143183

 

The greatest choreographer of all time? Talking about graves, I can imagine Balanchine spinning in his...

[MAB]

I note the author of this and many other ballet bios is a mere twenty three years old and I do wonder how she has had the opportunity to view enough of Ashton's oeuvre to decide he was second rate.  In other bios she spells names wrongly too,  perhaps someone could consider doing a spot of re-writing as I notice there is an edit facility.  I'd heard about recent problems with Wiki but never imagined find-a-grave was at risk of misinformation as well.  

[Melody]

I did sign up there in the hopes of being able to do something about it, but the Edit facility doesn't let people edit other people's text like it does at Wiki.

[Coated]

I find this oddly hilarious. Can we have a monthly 'Top of the Pops' competition to rank all known choreographers? We'll judge them on hair, spiffing dancey things and whether they are/were dating hot chicks/guys.

[Fonty]

Bit difficult to judge some of them on hair, as there appears to be a complete lack of it in many cases

[FLOSS]

The author of the biographical sketches would have been about twelve in the year of the Ashton centenary and would have been extremely lucky to have seen everything that was revived then. But there was so much missing Monotones,Pigeons, A Walk to the Paradise Garden, Capriole Suite and much much more.

 

Of course the author has only seen a very limited number of MacMillan's works.I keep wondering why MacMillan's Four Seasons is not revived. The only rational explanation that I can think of is that it does not fit the carefully cultivated image of MacMillan as a tortured,unappreciated genius.It's far too light and entertaining and it would never do to reveal that MacMillan ever made a single ballet that was highly regarded by audience and critics alike from its first performance.

[Booklover89]

Of course the author has only seen a very limited number of MacMillan's works.I keep wondering why MacMillan's Four Seasons is not revived. The only rational explanation that I can think of is that it does not fit the carefully cultivated image of MacMillan as a tortured,unappreciated genius.It's far too light and entertaining and it would never do to reveal that MacMillan ever made a single ballet that was highly regarded by audience and critics alike from its first performance.

 

 

Wasn't Romeo and Juliet pretty much instantly well-received?  According to the ROH it "received one of the most rapturous receptions of any work in ballet history"...http://www.roh.org.uk/news/ballet-essentials-romeo-and-juliet 

 

I remember Monica Mason saying something similar, but can't remember where...

[MAB]

Not sure R&J is light hearted.  Four Seasons contained some of MacMillan's most inventive choreography. I can't understand why it isn't a company staple..

[LinMM]

What a fascinating site Melody I had never heard of it until you mentioned it!!

 

Next time I'm around Yaxley(we're in Suffolk at least twice a year) will go and pay homage to Ashton.

 

Looks like Macmillan got the grander burial but I prefer more country churches myself.

 

Do you know where Nureyev is buried ....I think he died in Paris but not sure if buried there.

[Two Pigeons]

A few years ago Lady Macmillan gave a talk to the friends of BRB and I asked her specifically about The Four Seasons which I remember with great affection. She told me she had been considering the piece but I do wonder if too many other people were doing works on much the same theme around that time, albeit to different composers.

 

I would love to see it again, danced by either RB or BRB.

[MAB]

Nureyev is buried in the Russian Orthodox cemetery at St Germaine de Bois, to the south of Paris.  It's very difficult to find and not well signposted, we had to do a U-turn across the central reservation and drive back before we found a turn off.  In case you're wondering, yes, that kind of driving is illegal in France, but the friend driving me was a diplomat and the car had CD plates.

[LinMM]

Thankyou MAB

 

I'll no doubt be on public transport when I eventually make it there ......a definite visit next time in Paris ...

[FLOSS]

 

I was not saying that none of MacMillan's works were well received,Romeo and Juliet clearly was;it was thought to compare favourably with the Lavrovsky version.But its reception does not necessarily challenge the image of MacMillan as an unappreciated genius, it is after all a relatively uncontroversial subject for a ballet.

 

It is the ballets which MacMillan could only create in Germany because the Board objected to the use of the music, works such as Song of the Earth and Gloria;works subject to adverse criticism because of weak structure and padding such as Manon and Anastasia and works which were criticised because of their content such as Judas Tree which contributed to the image of their creator as an unappreciated genius who pushed at the boundaries of classical ballet.The point is that critics like John Percival who had been more than happy to point out all the deficiencies they saw in works like Manon admired The Four Seasons. John Percival described it as a company ballet, by which he meant that it was the sort of work that showed off the company to advantage and,as such,filled a gap in the company's repertory.

 

I suspect that the real reason for not reviving it has little to do with the number of works on the theme of the four seasons and a great deal more to do with the fact that while the ballet challenges the dancers it does not challenge the audience.It is a well constructed work with attractive choreography but its style and content do not fit into the idea of MacMillan as a choreographer whose works challenged an audience who had grown up on Ashton. It is works like Valley of Shadows,Different Drummer and Judas Tree which do that.

 

I find it strange that Lady MacMillan should have agreed to revive an inferior work like Isadora but made little or no effort to revive a much finer work whose greatest weakness may be that it shows MacMillan's command of the classical idiom.

[alison]

Did the RBS do part, at least, of The Four Seasons a few years ago for their matinee, or am I thinking of something else? Whatever it was, I seem to remember enjoying it a lot.

[Booklover89]

I hope they do revive The Four Seasons in that case, FLOSS. I confess I hadn't heard of it before (I've only been watching ballet for a few years) but would very much like to see it.

[FLOSS]

RBS matinee a few years back did include a short section for the corps from The Four Seasons. The girls bouree and the nod at a girl who joins them. The problem,as I recall it, is that the short section which was shown at the matinee is quite amusing when you first see it in the ballet but that it was repeated more than was good for it or the audience.It was the choreography for the principal dancers that was special about the ballet and why it was described as a company work.I know that the section that I remember most was Summer in which David Wall and Monica Mason spent a section of their pas lying down at the front of the stage presumably overcome by the heat.

 

The original designs were very specific as to time and place.Nineteenth century Italian ballet land with what I now think might have been conscious references to La Caterina which was created as a vehicle for Lucille Grahn. But then perhaps the designer just thought early Verdi ballet music, looked at a few contemporary ballet prints and then came up with the designs and surprised himself.The ballet was acquired by Nureyev's POB but was not, I think, so well received by the dancers or the audience as it was here.I think that in Paris it was shown in revised form bits of the choreography were cut,presumably the sections for the corps.Lady MacMillan provided new designs for its Paris staging which were more abstract or at least less specific than those for Covent Garden.

 

It has been suggested that the dancers in Paris were going through a rather negative phase at the time that Nureyev introduced it into the repertory and that they were not very keen on it because it was by MacMillan.This was a long time ago, long before they acquired Manon. I don't think that the adverse response was anything to do with the revisions. It is certainly a piece that should be revived.The fact that other choreographers have used Verdi's ballet music and that there are ballets with titles that include the word Seasons does not seem a good reason for ignoring a very good piece of choreography while at the same time seeking the revival of weaker works.

[MAB]

The mention of Paris called to mind another perfect ballet:  Le Loup by Roland Petit.

[Fonty]

Has anyone mentioned Les Patineurs? 

 

Which I think is a gorgeous ballet, and not performed often enough.

[toursenlair]

Apparently the Royal performed it around 1976....so even further back than I remember.....the first cast for this back then was Makarova Wall, Mason, Eagling, Penney and Silver(Mark)

 

Would there be something preventing a revival of this for the Royal or does it now belong exclusively to the Dutch National?

 

Vienna State Ballet are performing Adagio Hammerklavier this month and next (and repeating it next season as well, so clearly not exclusive to DNB.