Carla Fracci and Margot Fonteyn take their bows after a performance of Romeo and Juliet, 1981. Photographed by Linda Vartoogian.

Nutcracker Season!

Nutcracker season can elicit an array of feelings. Some love it, some hate it. I was falling into the indifferent category. I don't live in a major city, so the month long onslaught of ballet school-civic rep level productions has me a bit bummed out…and ready to tune it all out. AND THEN…I stumbled upon this very interesting panel discussion lead by ballet critic, Alastair McCauley, comparing the original Lev Ivanov Sugarplum PDD to the Balanchine version, getting into the nitty gritty of the score and the choreographic language that can be found in both versions, pointing out the various ways in which Balanchine quoted Ivanov. This is so interesting and only available online until Dec. 17, so hurry and watch it while you can. Who knew about the original version of the Sugar Plum sliding across the stage on point on a hidden stage tracking device?! If you do anything, watch this first video with the panel talk and demonstrations. The videos I included after that are just if you want to get obsessive like I did to dig deeper. Panelists: Suki Schorer, Wendy Whelan, Sara Mearns, Jonathan Stafford. (Watching Suki coach is worth watching!) NYCB Dancers: Chun Wai Chan, Ashley Hod (Balanchine version) & Anthony Huxley, Emma Von Enck (Ivanov Version)

MacCauley mentions the Fonteyn version a few times during this talk, so I found it for you. The tempo is certainly much faster, and it really makes you appreciate Fonteyn's speed! But I actually prefer the slower tempo, which allows the music to really soar. But I also wondered if it was the audio quality of this historic recording is simply too compressed and tinny to do it justice.

The Mariinsky dances the Vasily Vaionen version of the Nutcracker, and I wanted to see how it compared to the Ivanov version. I really love the Mariinsky version. It's a departure from Ivanov, but still very classical and regal. PPD below with Baby Shakirova.

BONUS: If you want to watch the full Mariinsky Nutcracker, here's a 1994 recording with Larissa Lezhnina and Victor Baranov. And for some real fun going down the rabbit hole, this is an amazing Soviet black and white recording of the PDD with the late Svetlana Efremova (SHE IS AMAZING!) and Sergei Vikulov. Notice that the extra four cavaliers are not in this one, so the choreography is adjusted. I have a thing for soviet era black-and-white ballet films. Not to be overlooked, the Grigorivich version at the Bolshoi is worth mentioning. There are a few things that stood out to me. Its religiosity, for one. The PDD essentially starts with Masha and her prince praying together as if at a mass. And then, towards the end, are the huge lifts that end with an upside down ballerina (not my favorite pose…)

Interestingly, ABT's version by Ratmansky also incorporates the same big lift, but transitions into a spin. You can see it here, and it's a much smoother transition. Ignore the weird speed manipulation in this video. It can give you motion sickness.

AND….I found this POB version. The Nureyev choreography is horrible and Tsikaridze knows it. He can barely hold back his own laughter as how bad this performance is. When I watched this, my first thought is that Nureyev must have been a misogynist because the Sugar Plum/Clara choreography is so god awful that it seems like he's trying to humiliate ballerinas. Poor Myriam Ould-Braham, she does her best to dignify the choreography with her impeccable technique, but there is no saving this. Another thing that bothers me is that the couple are hardly dancing together, it's like a bad ballet class where they dance side to side. I hope this version soon disappears forever. Watch at your own risk. It made my blood boil.

Okay, that's it for a while. I may go see the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker if I have time. But I will mostly be focused on taking time off with the family, puttering in the garden, and catching up on my ever-expanding to-do list. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

The Nutcracker, English National Ballet, 2010

Ayana Kanda in The Nutcracker, Northern Ballet, 2007

La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn) performed by the Paris Opera Ballet, 1959. Photographed by Jack Garofalo.

Starring Liane Dayde and Claude Bessy. Choreographed by Heinz Rosen. Conceived and designed by Jean Cocteau.

"Cocteau ... has created an enigmatic libretto in which a noble maiden has a lovely white unicorn which eats only from her hand. But after the Knight comes, and an amorous pas de deux ensues between the two aristocrats, the Unicorn will no longer eat and dies. The Knight, who has left, now returns, but the Lady is no longer interested in him. As the curtain falls, she is on stage alone, with neither Knight nor Unicorn, pointing to a banner on which is inscribed 'Mon seul desir' (My only desire)."

POC etoiles of the Paris Opera Ballet

1. Alice Renavand (Vietnamese) 2. Myriam Ould-Braham (Algerian) 3. Ludmilla Pagliero (Argentine) 4. Kader Belarbi (Algerian) 5. Dominique Khalfouni (Maroc) 6. Charles Jude (Vietnamese) 7. Eric Vu An (Vietnamese)

Marie-Agnès Gillot and Nicolas Le Riche in Hurlevent, Paris Opera Ballet, 2005

Darcey Bussell in A Month in the Country, Royal Ballet, 2005

Headdresses and crowns for ‘The Sleeping Beauty’, The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, 1968

costume design by Lila De Nobili

maria tallchief performing as anna pavlova ~performing michel fokine’s dying swan~ in a scene from million dollar mermaid (1952)

Carla Fracci, 1971 Photographer: Kenn Duncan (American; 1928–1986) Photographed July 29, 1971 Gelatin silver print

Published on the cover of Dance Magazine, December 1971

Rest at the ballet school by Pierre Dubreuil, c. 1895

“Forty-two years ago, Pierre Dubreuil, the distinguished Belgian photographer, who now, at seventy, still exhibits in Paris and London, made the charming picture opposite. Although it looks exceedingly modern–partly because of the compositional device of the ‘cello in the foreground and the ballet-girl in the background–it was photographed long before the moderns were influenced by close-ups in Russian movies: Dubreuil was merely influenced by Degas and his butterfly ballet-girls.” (Vogue, November 1, 1937)

Camera study after Degas featuring dancers of the Radio City Corps de Ballet, 1936

Les Sylphides, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 1937. Photos by Merlyn Severn.

Molly Brown, Laurel Martyn, Julia Farron and Guinevere Parry in the pas-de-quatre from Frederick Ashton’s Rendezvous, 1937

Irina Baronova drawing a self-portrait on the beach at Juan-les-Pins, 1934