Cruising “Corsaire”s
Jul
4
2013
Preparing for four “Le Corsaire” (1856-restaged) performances by American Ballet Theatre next weekend at the Music Center. I’ve not seen anything beyond the warhorse pas de deux of this pirate-themed full-evening ballet. The PDD’s a beloved ballet chestnut, an old and familiar friend, bearing the slight tinge of mothballs. My only-middling enthusiasm for a full-length ...
What David Hallberg seeks 1
Sep
30
2011
This video excerpt from Russian television broadcast of the Bolshoi Theatre shows what David Hallberg wants more of … detailed personal coaching on Russian ballet classicism. He’s had a taste of it, and he’s going back for more. Apparently ABT could not offer him this. Otherwise why would he go? But you gotta laugh at ...
The dignity of ballerina Natalia Makarova 6
I was struck by a passage in Natalia Makarova‘s biography, “A Dance Autobiography,” (Knopf, 1979) edited by Robert Gottlieb (“What did ballet ever do to deserve this?”) when he was editor-in-chief at the New York publishing house. The text recalls an indignity Makarova suffered at the Kirov Ballet soon before she defected to the West ...