giselle – Page 3

DVD Review: The Bolshoi Ballet’s Giselle

October 29, 2012 by Ashley David

by Emily Kate Long

Filmed in 2011, this Giselle is Yuri Grigorovich’s version after choreography by Coralli, Perrot, and Petipa. Simon Virsaladze’s set and costume designs are gloriously light and airy, and the staging in both acts is full but polished.

Svetlana Lunkina’s Giselle is playful and modest in Act 1. Her sweetness is well complemented by Dimitry Gudanov’s casual confidence as Albrecht. Lunkina is closeup-ready; every expression is genuine and effective down to the ends of her eyelashes. It’s easy to fall in love with her, and easy to mourn her madness and heartbreak. This Giselle’s believably tragic and deeply personal mad scene is, unfortunately, somewhat cheapened by the villagers’ over-the-top reactions of distress at the close of the act.

The Giselle that appears in Act 2 is, appropriately, the emotionally spent young woman whose world collapsed around her in Act 1. Her innocence has been darkened, her joy dampened. Lunkina is completely at the mercy of a cruel and somber Myrtha (Maria Allash) until her true love and forgiveness of Albrecht break Myrtha’s spell and to save him at sunrise. The dancing of the wilis is pure magic—the suspension of one woman from a rocking mechanism to drop lilies on Albrecht is pure distraction.

The huge scale of a Bolshoi production is something that simply doesn’t exist in the West. For most of us, video is the only way we’ll ever see something so enormous. Watching that magnificence, as well as seeing Lunkina close up, is absolutely a treat, but here video simultaneously detracts where it enhances. The humanity of her Giselle, so wonderfully highlighted in close-ups, seems out of context amid the exaggerated grandness traditional on the Bolshoi stage.

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Giselle. 109 minutes. Pathe Live, Bel Aire Media, and the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, 2012.

Assistant Editor Emily Kate Long began her dance education in South Bend, Indiana, with Kimmary Williams and Jacob Rice, and graduated in 2007 from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Schenley Program. She has spent summers studying at Ballet Chicago, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Miami City Ballet, and Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive/Vail Valley Dance Intensive, where she served as Program Assistant. Ms Long attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s Summer Intensive on scholarship before being invited to join Milwaukee Ballet II in 2007.

Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed principal roles in Courtney Lyon’s Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Cinderella. She is also on the faculty of Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance, where she teaches ballet, pointe, and repertoire classes.

Review: A Strider’s Ballet

July 18, 2012 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

The story-poem “A Strider’s Ballet” by Joseph Curtin (Mustard Perceptions) begins as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ends as the Book of Revelation. Curtin tells a short tale of the wonders of nature, of spoiled purity, and of that transient and insubstantial place between sleep and wake in verse that is sometimes bouncy, sometimes fluid, sometimes stumbling, sometimes frantic, and always vivid and emotional.

In a nine-verse prologue, Curtin engages our senses with the sights and sounds of a secluded wood in what feels like late afternoon. The scene is romantic and rich with anticipation, and we are introduced to the ballerina, a water-strider, and her audience, a young man. “…In his ear, a charm she speaks!”

The tale that follows is related in a prelude, three acts, and a finale over twenty-five pages. Curtin employs biblical imagery and motifs of light versus dark and good versus evil with powerful effect. Many of his themes are those used traditionally in story ballets: the Strider as a ballerina in white like the Sylphide, Giselle, Odette, or Nikiya; dark, mysterious, and threatening strangers like Von Rothbart, Kotschei, Madge, or Abderman; and a young man admirer—James, the Poet, Ivan, Solor, Albrecht, Jean de Brienne, or Siegrfried. And of course, what story ballet doesn’t have a dream or woodland scene? In the protagonist’s subconscious are other places too—crowded and smoggy city streets, an unsavory carnival—where confusion and corruption threaten to destroy him.

Curtin’s verse is wonderfully illustrative both of the story’s setting and of the protagonist’s emotions and struggles. This story-poem is not just about a man in the woods or about the fear of loss but about how the purity, beauty, and goodness of art and love elevate us all to something greater. The protagonist says of the Strider: “A messenger of light, harbinger/ of peace…Dancing rejoicing!/ Tranquility of hope and love.” A Strider’s Ballet is an engaging and thoughtful read, and would make a tempting libretto for choreographers, composers, and designers alike.

Contributor Emily Kate Long began her dance education in South Bend, Indiana, with Kimmary Williams and Jacob Rice and graduated in 2007 from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Schenley Program. Ms Long attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s Summer Intensive on scholarship before being invited to join Milwaukee Ballet II in 2007. She also has spent summers studying at Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive, Miami City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, and Ballet Chicago.

Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed the title role in Courtney Lyon’s Cinderella and the role of Clara in The Nutcracker. Prior to joining Ballet Quad Cities Ms Long performed with Milwaukee Ballet and MBII in Michael Pink’s The Nutcracker and Candide Overture, Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadére, Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Bournonville’s Flower Festival in Genzano and Napoli, and original contemporary and neoclassical works by Tom Teague, Denis Malinkine, Rolando Yanes, and Petr Zaharadnicek.

One Dancer’s Journey: Performing Outside the US

June 28, 2012 by Ashley David

ToddFox_OksanaStorazuk_Giselle_SerbianNationalTheatreBallet — Todd Fox & Oksana Storazuk in Giselle (Serbian National Theatre Ballet)

It’s time for the next question in our series, “One Dancer’s Journey”. Todd Fox has danced all over the world, and here he shares some of his experiences (and photos) from his travels…

by Todd Fox

6. You have danced for companies all over the world. Can you talk a bit about what that is like?

Truly unbelievable! When I was a young professional dancer just starting out I never imagined performing with a ballet company outside of the USA, not because I didn’t want to, it just didn’t seem realistic. The Internet didn’t exist back then and things were much different in regards to communication and retrieving simple information like addresses and contact info on companies you wanted to audition for abroad. You couldn’t just do a search for the company and email your resume/images/video, if you wanted to seek employment with a ballet company abroad you had to either wait for that company to host an audition here in the states, or, personally know dancers in those foreign companies who could tell you when they were auditioning in their cities, where to send resume/CV info via regular post and then somehow communicate via regular telephone.

ToddFox_RomeoandJulietPromo_PerthScotland — Todd Fox, Romeo & Juliet Promo (Perth, Scotland)

That was just crazy complicated and back then my world was New York City, all I was ever concerned with when living in New York City was the perpetual task of finding a job, any job that would allow me to dance every day. Back then within my circle of friends and peers when you said you were going to dance abroad it generally meant crossing the Hudson River.

ToddFox_ Mercutio_Death_Manx Ballet_Isle OfMan_UK — Todd Fox, Mercutio (Manx Ballet, Isle of Man, UK)

Ironically, during the first half of my career I ended up doing quite a bit of international touring with the companies and productions I danced for, I loved every minute of it and developed a great passion for traveling abroad. I began paying much more attention to what performance opportunities were available overseas and jumped at the chance to do any of them, even if the monetary value of the contract was so low that I would only break even. Then in 2001, the ballet company I worked for at the time, Cleveland San Jose Ballet, went bankrupt during its 25th year anniversary and I once again found myself suddenly unemployed. Up to that point in my professional career (12 years) I had worked for a total of 5 different ballet companies here in the states which either declared bankruptcy, ceased operations and relocated, or gone through major financial hardship forcing dancers into immediate unemployment and I was just so sick of it all. I decided to continue dancing but no longer within the structure and confines of a “home” ballet company and have since focused much of my efforts on performing seasonally and as a guest artist with companies overseas.

It has been a dream come true to use dance as a way to fuel my travels around the world in seek of new and emerging creative influences. Since I made that decision in 2001 I have been privileged to perform with ballet companies in 8 different countries spanning 4 continents. Not all have been high profile red carpet events but for me each different performance experience represents an absolute miracle in my career. Working in these foreign countries allowed me the opportunity to study and compare first hand many different cultural and ideological approaches to dance. I learned so much from each experience and as a result my own knowledge and creative perspectives on dance have broadened in ways I never could have imagined.

ToddFox_AmyLawson_StudioRehearsal_Dublin Ireland — Todd Fox & Amy Lawson (Studio Rehearsal, Dublin, Ireland)

As amazing as these opportunities were, working thousands of miles away from home for extended periods of time as an independent dance artist presents unique challenges and it’s definitely not for everyone. Trust me when I say, there is a HUGE difference between touring and performing abroad with a company of dance artists you know and trying to integrate into a company of dance artists that you don’t know for just one season or a single production. There are cultural and artistic differences to take into consideration, language barriers, and workplace politics like power struggles, labor disputes, casting disputes, partners that are difficult to work with, or choreographers who may not like you just because of what country you come from. Granted, all this can be said of dancing for just about any ballet company on the planet but when you’re a foreigner overseas the difference is that you are not at home and at the end of the day when you go back to the hotel or whatever housing you are living out of a suitcase in you eventually start to crave “home”. For me it took about 7 years of performing and traveling abroad before I started spending more and more time at home and less time flying all over the world to perform. Everything runs its course and for the rest of my life I will always cherish the amazing opportunities and life altering artistic experiences I was exposed to while performing independently abroad.

[Read more…]

Review: Treasures Of The Russian Ballet (DVD)

June 18, 2012 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

If you love the Russians in ballet, this is something to see.

I was thrilled to have the chance to review Treasures of the Russian Ballet, which features Bolshoi and Kirov performances from the 50’s and 60’s. The complete works are not here, but some unbelievable pieces have been saved for us to see all these years later…

The ballets include: The Stone Flower, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Giselle, Gayaneh and Don Quixote–but that’s not all. You’ll get to experience ballerinas such as Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya on “film” and see why they commanded attention back then–and why they are known to this day.

I was fascinated to watch the choreography–it was so different. It seems like watching older choreography almost has the same appeal as seeing brand new movement–it has been so long since these patterns have been used that it is fresh and exciting. And of course, the emotion exhibited by these dancers is legendary.

The DVD runs 81.58 minutes and I enjoyed every single moment of it. A great piece to add to your library of dance videos.

Here’s a sample for you:

10 Questions With…Nadia Mara

February 20, 2012 by 4dancers

Our “10 Questions With…” today is with Nadia Mara from Atlanta Ballet…

1. How did you become involved with dance?

When I was 3 years old my mother took me to my first ballet class and since then I’ve been in love with the art of dancing.

2. What are you currently doing in the field?

Rehearsing Twyla Tharp’s world premiere The P,rincess and the Goblin.

3. Would you share a special moment from your career with readers?

Performing Giselle was very special to me. It was my first full length ballet and It was very challenging! I did a lot of research on the role during the previous months, watched many different versions, spent hours in the studios trying to make it as perfect as I could. After the show my parents were very proud and gave me a big hug and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I still keep one between a book’s pages.

4. What is the best advice you have ever received from a teacher or mentor regarding dance? [Read more…]

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