Critic's Corner

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Reviews, essays, impressions, memoirs, quotes - everything that has to do with appreciation of classical ballet as an art form.

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Light of a Genius

(Essay)

Marius Petipa

It was the summer of love. My buddy and I perched atop of one of the highest mountains in Capri. The view before our eyes was breathtaking: renaissance sfumato wrapped distant hills, unique mixture of white-washed houses and private garden hideaways cascaded towards the sea and the sea, shining with unbelievably bright colors was calling. I didn’t want to say anything for fear of disturbing this magical moment but desire to share the experience was too strong and I quietly, very quietly, addressed my companion:

- "Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as this?"
- “Beautiful, just beautiful!" - he replied.

And after what seemed to me like minutes, he added:

- “There is one thing, however, that I think is even more beautiful than this…”
- “What, what?” - my curiosity was mounting.

He hesitated for what seemed like a very long time and said:

- “The Appearance of the Shades by the Kirov Ballet”.

To say that I was surprised is an understatement. I never knew that my friend had even seen a ballet performance in his life, let alone held it in such a high esteem. Shortly after our conversation, he died … tragic accident. Remembering one of our last conversations, I wanted to see with my own eyes what he was talking about and decide for myself. Kirov's Bayadere was not available, so I settled for the one by the Royal Opera House. Shortly after, I bought them all, I mean all recordings of La Bayadere that were available for sale.

There are few differences of course in various versions of this masterpiece that now graces all major ballet stages of the world, but the key dances and scenes that make La Bayadere what it is, are invariably the same: Act I – Solor and Nikya meet, rivalry scenes; Act II - Gamzatti-Solor engagement Grand Pas, Death of Nikiya; Act III – Adagio and Waltz, Three Shades and of course The Appearance of the Shades.

Here they are, descending one by one from the Himalayan Mountains, gracefully and in perfect unison leaning in arabesque allongé until they all make their way down and onto the plain where true MAGIC begins. Releve, ecarte devant, arabesque, tendu … These are rudimentary ballet steps, but when put together and inspired by Petipa's genius, they speak volumes.

How did this Frenchman, who possibly had never been to India, come up with the idea of the Shades descending from the Himalayas? May be one day he was strolling along the chilly rainy St. Petersburg when in the window of one of antique shops he saw a picture of an Indian dancer.

Or perhaps the vision came like some prophetic dream. He woke up not understanding the reason why and feverishly started to translate his night visions into the language of choreography. Every time I hear the opening chords from The Appearance of the Shades, my heart skips a beat. And shortly after, sadness the traitor, creeps in. Sadness because the scene is painfully short. But at the end all I feel is awe... Awe in the face of what I consider to be one of the greatest achievements of European culture.

The libretto, written by Marius Petipa as well is familiar: love, rivalry, betrayal and retribution. The universal appeal of such story, old as the world is understandable. But where does the source of magic for his White Act lay?

I thought a lot about it and came to the conclusion that the key here is the same laws of harmony and beauty that govern our Universe. The same principle of the Golden Section which lies in the heart of everything we come to recognize as beautiful – be it Greek temple, Bach's concerto or just an elegant algorithm – penetrates all aspects of Petipa’s choreography.

This is clear case when Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder.

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Metropolitan Opera House, NYC. Saturday, June 9, 2007, 8 p.m.

American Ballet Theatre presents

The Sleeping Beauty
Music: Peter Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Additional choreography and staging: Kevin MkKenzie, Gesley Kirkland and Michael Chernov

Princess Aurora: Paloma Herrera
Prince Desire: Angel Corella
The Lilac Fairy: Stella Abrera
The Fairy Carabosse: Gesley Kirkland
Princess Florine and The Blue Bird: Sarah Lane (super, super!) and Carlos Lopez

Prologue. The curtain rises over the scenery that takes us to the age of what appears to be the age of fair maidens, knights and troubadours. Victor Barbee – King Florestan and Susan Jaffe, this natural American beauty, who played the queen, both dressed in stunning period garments of royal blue and gold, stole the scene from the fairies, sensibly danced by Melissa Thomas (Charity), Hee Seo (Sincerity), Kristi Boone (Fervor) and Renata Pavam (Joy). No exaggerations, six o’clocks or showoffs of any kind. Very much in the spirit of Petipa. The evening marked the return to stage of ABT's legend Gesley Kirkland who played Carabosse. Gesley acted well, but I didn’t see in the role the depth which is present in other productions. I didn’t see awe-inspiring evil Fairy who casts spells and makes crowned personages tremble. What I saw was a rather quarrelsome old lady who was getting in everyone’s way. Perhaps this role is in initial stages of development and we will see more majesty as time goes by.

The Rose Adagio. Kirov prima ballerina Diana Vishneva had been scheduled to dance Aurora, but it didn’t happen. I would have been very disappointed if it was not Paloma Hererra who substituted Diana. She was wonderful. As soon as she descended the stairs and did a couple of light and absolutely silent jetes, I realized how much I missed Paloma all this time that I neglected to attend her performances. Perhaps in couple of instances she made it easier on herself by not finishing pirouettes with customary développé battements. Never mind, she moved with such grace, innate understanding of style and ballerina’s aplomb that old Petipa would have been proud.

No description of Paloma’s performance will be complete without mentioning her rock-solid attitude en pointe in the 5th executed with the four suitors. No hurricane or quake could possibly get her off center as she regally and with the sweetest of smile stretched her hand to each of the four supporting partners.

Time after Time. I was somewhat less impressed with Stella Abrerra’s Lilac Fairy. She appeared mechanical, her movements lacking cantilena, although the audience received her very warmly.

As Paloma gracefully collapsed into the arms of genuinely grieving Queen, I realized that my increasingly growing curiosity as to which epoch the fair Princess would wake up, reached the apogee. So I’ll skip the imaginatively done scenes of The Hunt, The Vision and The Journey and jumped across … yep, just about 5 centuries from the court of Louis the Fair and to the Court of Louis the 14th as his unmistakable insignia of the Sun King graced both the sets and the costumes. Yep, yep, in our version Aurora slept not 100, but 500 years :D

… And another curious touch! Unlike other productions, the King and the Queen did not follow their court into the slumber, but followed the Lilac Fairy offstage to live the remainder of their lives in times they were born into. What is it? Something about parents and children as in generation gap or just the opportunity to give the center stage in the Wedding act to the young? No doubt that different people will read their own thing into it, as often the case with works of art that leave room for interpretation.

I must admit that like the Swan Lake, this production of The Sleeping Beauty has certain disney-esque flavor. It perpetrates many aspects – from the toy like towered castle, mixed period garments and to the seriously abridged Wedding act. Although of what is there of Marius Petipa's choreography (which is most of what we admire in this ballet) is staged with respect and sensitivity that does the great choreographer justice.

Comparing different versions, I’d still give preference to the one at the Royal Ballet. But then, I prefer Kirov version even more. There is one ingredient, however that this production has a lot of and that is heart.

Of creatures great and small. What captured my imagination? Paloma, The Royal garments of Act I and Princess Florine. Most definitely Florine! The wrought iron cage was rolled out and inside is this lovely creature, who is turning, chirping, fluttering her “wings” as if she is trying to free herself. The animated face appeared to dance in tune and I’ll tell you, folks, this is one of the most animated faces I have seen, stage or movies. Wonderful cantilena, pure classical lines, precision and nobility … I can’t find enough superlative words to describe her performance. I glanced into the program and it said: “Xiomara Reyes“. It turned out to be Sarah Lane.

Some separate thoughts. The Fairy knights cheerfully executed their entrechats making me smile too. I was happy to see dancers enjoying themselves so much on stage! The culturally diverse foursome (Russian, Spanish, Indian and Celtic) at the Autora’s 16th Birthday are OK with me since the whole act was transferred from one epoch to another, anyways.

The last but not least is Angel Carella who is most certainly audience’s darling no matter what he dances. What is it about him? I didn’t observe any particular character development precious little does the role of Desire offers. He wins over with his intensity and his technique. And those shiny black eye of his, of course :)

To sum things up, I don’t expect this production to live forever and ever and ever. But it is fresh and right for our diverse audience. I was also pleased to notice that it is Marius Petipa’s name, the original creator of this as well as other famous ballets that continue to collect audiences all over the world year after year, generation after generation, epoch after epoch, that prominently features in the program as the Choreographer, as appose to somewhat plagiaristic so-n-so after Petipa. And for this I give Maestro Kevin McKenzie ***** out of *****!

Gene Schiavone picture

santafejoe · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 1:48 am Post subject:

Very :) nice story and information and that was a nice video and nice picture too Thanks for sharing with us:)

pr · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011 Location: Göteborg, Sweden

Thanks! :) I love her arms in the video clip. Very beautiful. :P :P

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Dear santafejoe and pr,
I thank you most kindly for the warm welcome! Tastes like homemade pie :P
_____________________

Is anyone planning to attend Le Gala des Étoiles in September? Will be great to exchange impressions.

Check out the cast! Leonid Sarafanov, Kirov Ballet
Alina Somova. Kirov Ballet
Ivan Vasiliev, Bolshoi Ballet
Natalia Osipova, Bolshoi Ballet
Tai Jimenez, Boston Ballet
Desmond Richardson, Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Guillaume Coté, National Ballet of Canada
Heather Ogden, National Ballet of Canada
Viktoria Terioshkina, Kirov Ballet
Andrian Fadeyev, Kirov Ballet
Esra Akyatan, Çagdas Ballet de Istanbul
Ilhan Karabacak, Istanbul, Turquie
Alicia Amatriain, Stuttgart Ballet
Jason Reilly, Stuttgart Ballet
Zdenek Konvalina, National Ballet of Canada
Patricia Barker, Pacific Northwest Ballet

santafejoe · Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:36 pm Post subject:

Why Thanks for the kind words Miranda. :)

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Spartacus of the 21st Century

On July 8 Carlos Acosta, premier of the Royal Opera House Ballet appeared on stage of the Bolshoi Theater as legendary hero of antiquity Spartacus. Spartacus, one of world’s most popular ballets was created by Yuri Grigovorich in 1967, assuring its author his rightful place in the Pantheon of great choreographers.

Carlos Acosta

The Cuban born dancer was greeted with standing ovation, making some seasoned Bolshoi watchers to proclaim him the best Spartacus of all times, surpassing even Vladimir Vasiliev, for whom this role was originally created.

Vladimir Vasiliev

Another outstanding Spartacus on the books is Irek Mukhamedov

Irek Mukhamedov and Natalia Bessmertnova

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Young Mariinsky dancer shines at the Sixth Easter Festival in Moscow
Quote:
Wunderkind Alina Somova astonished us with her raw talent. The phenomenal extension reaching 200 degrees plus was reminiscent of Nadya Pavlova, who set the trend. Extension aside, the dancer possesses charisma of true ballerina, sturdy turns and a spectacular jump. She was strong. As far as her dramatic talents go, there isn’t much material in the role of the Queen of the Dryads, even though lightness and stylishness of her dance was intriguing, leaving you crave for more of her dance.

Much more did come when we saw her again in Diamonds, which Balanchine dedicated to snow swept Russia, majestic St. Petersburg and magic of the classical dance. The ballet has no formal plot, yet there is plot of another kind and that of spiritual Illumination, which the young dancer brilliantly expressed with her intelligent body.

Alina Somova

Cultural Portal

SparklyDancer · Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 19

Miranda wrote:
Alina Somova
oh my god I want to be able to do that...

primaballerina175 · Joined: 10 Sep 2006 Posts: 600 Location: On stage.

Yeah that would be amazing to do. But it would take a lot of work.

santafejoe · Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:09 pm Post subject:

Well primaballerina and sparkydancer i am :) :) sure with enough pratice you two can and will be able to do that with no problem. As a matter of fact i hope you two will do it some day that would be great to see :) :)

Miranda · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 30 Location: USA

:) :)
For the stars of ballet of tomorrow some information about the dancer with the beautiful arabesque. Her name is Alina Somova.

Alina Somova was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. She graduated from the famed Vaganova Academy with honors in 2003 (class of Lyudmila Safronova)

She grand jete-ed into the hearts of theater goers in 2004 when she danced the lead role in The Nutcracker with the National Theater of Tokyo. Then, she was only 18 years old.

Now, at 21, she is one of the brightest young dancers of the Kirov ballet at the Mariinsky theater, who already has many ballerina’s parts under her thin belt:

Nikya, La Bayadere

Medora, Le Corsaire

Princess Aurora, The Sleeping Beauty

Odette-Odile, Swan Lake

Kitri, Don Quixote

Les Etudes

The dance of Alina is full of bright colors and youthful exuberance which she generously shares with audience world wide.

This month Alina graces the cover of Japanese edition of Dance Magazine

primaballerina175 · Joined: 10 Sep 2006 Posts: 600 Location: On stage.

Awww, thanks Joe. That means alot. :D

MiaMi · Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 46 Location: Miami

Thank you to all the people who posted on this thread. The information I found reading through your posts is excellent. I really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work, thanks! :lol: :lol: