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Kerrie
Registered User
(8/22/01 2:40:14 pm)
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Stories of the ballets
Since many of the best known ballets are based on familiar faiy tales and folklore, I thought I'd post to see what some of the less known, but favorites among friends, might be. Nutcracker has always been my favorite, but I've begun to realize there are more stories than just a holiday favorite out there. Are there themes in any of the more well-known ballets that many may not know about? Other thoughts?
Dandelion wishes,
Kerrie
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Terri
Registered User
(8/25/01 12:30:16 am)
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Re: Stories of the ballets
Apologies for ignoring your post, Kerrie. I'm afraid I just don't know very much about ballet. I recall reading that fairy tales and fairy subjects were enormously popular in Victorian ballet, as part of the whole explosion of fairy material (art, folklore, drama) that swept across Britain during the 19th century. Tchaikovsky's work couldn't have hit Britain at a better time.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(8/25/01 6:48:59 am)
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Swan Lake etc.
Swan Lake comes out of the Russian tradition of the Morsko Tsar--the Water king and his daughters, the rusulkas, who are swan maidens. And Firebird comes from the firebird and Kostchoi the Deathless folk tales. Coppelia is from a story by one of the German romantics (mind is failing at the moment) possibly Hoffman, who wrote fairy tales.
And of course there is Cendrillon which is Cinderella. There are wonderful books on the ballets. The one I had for year as a child was the Victor Book of Ballets. Balenchine wrote one, too.
Jane
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Kerrie
Registered User
(8/25/01 7:48:31 am)
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No appologies necessary...
Terri: No appologies are necessary! I just thought since it seems we have some new people since I last blubbered on about ballet that I would post again. I'm working on my next chapbook of poems, which will be inspired by ballets. (I already have several on The Nutcracker and want to find a little more variety.) I've discovered in recent years that aside from the more traditional stories there are many more I've never heard of!
Jane: I've seen the book by Balanchine, and I have sometimes wondered if he wrote them with his own twist or if they are the standard stories that everyone follows. For example, I know that he has his own version of The Nutcracker which is very different from the Barishnikov version I adore, which is somewhat different from the Pacific Northwest version that I also enjoy which is closer to Dumas version of the story, but not as dark as the original Hoffman tale (I think that's the right order for the 2 authors). Do you happen to know which (Balanchine or Victor) would have the traditional tales? I didn't know that Swan Lake was based on Russian tradition- I always thought of it as an Andersen tale (thought I'm not sure if he wrote a tale along that theme). Would you say Russian folklore has a stronger influence than any other culture in the ballet world?
Dandelion wishes,
Kerrie
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(8/25/01 8:39:35 am)
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more on ballet
Kerrie> I'm by no means an expert on ballet, but my sister dances so I've absorbed quite a bit of info that hopefully you'll find useful...
Russia has a very strong tradition in ballet, so perhaps this is why their folklore is so prominent in the popular repetoire? I believe there are 2 methods; the Ballenchine (sp) way and the Russian way.
A popular Russian folktale ballet is called Petrushka but I've never seen it - all I know is that it's about a clown...
Ballenchine often collaborated w/Stravinsky (one of my fave composers): off the top of my head, there's Firebird, The Ice Queen (more traditional), and Apollo (which features the 3 muses)... the NYC ballet has dibs on Mr. B's choreography so if you're ever in town, you might want to check them out. Add in the fact that they collaborated w/Chagall and Dali for the set designs and you know you're in for a visual treat!
As for other stories, you might want to look into the Romantic period which had those big fluffy tutus (think Degas). Every woman was a nymph, or a fairy, or some other fantastic creature :P
A popular story from this period is La Syphide (sp!) (not to be confused w/Les Syphides) is a story about a man who falls in love w/a sylph (sp T_T) and brings her to his home where she dies.
A very popular ballet w/a fairy tale-ish story is Giselle, although I'm not sure about its origins. Giselle is a peasant girl who falls in love w/the prince w/o realizing he is a noble and betrothed to another. When he leaves her, she goes mad and dies, joining the 'spirits of ladies who have been rejected by their lovers' (they have a special name, but I've forgotten it!). The Queen of this group then finds the prince w/ the intention of forcing him to dance to his death, but ghost Giselle saves him instead.
As for themes, I find the perfection and ideal of female and the female body is paramount (only in classical ballets though - maybe why I prefer modern ballet/dance :P). This notion is in a lot of Ballenchine's work who often choreographed on a specific dancer. The man is often there just to make the ladies look good!
Tragic love is also a staple, as you've probably noticed!
Hope this helps!
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(8/25/01 8:58:38 am)
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Balenchine
Balenchine of course came out of the Russian tradition and still after many years in the USA spoke with a very pronounced Russian accent.
But he took the Russian storybook ballet and made it into Balenchine ballet--and then went a big step further, grafting modern and jazz and everything else into a balletic tradition. He was sui generis.
However, he was a Russian brought up on the folk tales and those stories were still strong for him. (I have a FIREBIRD picture book coming out in the spring from HarperCollins.)
Mr. B was a terror to his dancers and everyone danced to please him. I took ballet for seven years at his school and wanted desperately in my early teens to be a choreographer. Actually I wanted to be a prima ballerina, just like every other little girl at his school, but was the only one in my group to go through puberty! So then I realized where the power center lay, and it wasn't with the dancers! We moved to Connecticut when I was 13 1/2 and I had to make do with another Russian ballet master, an acquaintance of Mr. B's, who had a small school in Westport where we lived. It was never the same. Nor-after puberty--was I!
Oops--a great deal off topic here.
Jane
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DonnaQ
Registered User
(8/25/01 11:49:20 am)
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Storybook...
The women looking for revenge in Giselle are called the "Wilies" (sp?). There's a book called "The Magic Slippers: Stories from the Ballet" written by Gilda Berger. It covers La Sylphide, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Copellia, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Firebird and Petrouchka.
I'm not sure if this will help, but it's a nice collection!
Ah: Jane - I can appreciate the intricacies of behind the scenes ballet - but to have danced with Mr. B!!! Speaking of greats, didn't Fonteyn do several books regarding the stories used in ballets?
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Jess
Unregistered User
(8/25/01 2:19:24 pm)
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Don't overlook Ravel
Just a quick comment. Ravel wrote several works for ballet including the Mother Goose Suite (although not originally orchestrated for ballet), La Valse (which is really a story about the devil), and Daphinis & Cloe, based on the Greek drama.
How about looking at a biography of Diaghilev as well. He was choreographer for the Ballet Russe and responsible for many beloved works with Stravinsky and Ravel music.
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(8/25/01 2:58:20 pm)
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More
Bela Bartok - The Miraculous Manderin, and the Wooden Prince. Gluck - Feast of Stone. Prokofiev - too many to list. Same with Stravinsky - don't forget to include Histoire du Soldat, Orpheus, the Fairy's Kiss and Persephone.
Give me time and I will think of more - I don't remember which ones are program music and which are ballet though, so you may have to double check. You might check composers Weil and Brittan. There have been several ballets based on the story of Tristan. If you want to include ballets within operas, you will get even more.
Hope this helps.
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Heidi
Unregistered User
(8/29/01 3:55:19 pm)
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Magic of Ballet Series
Kerrie and all,
Have you seen the new Magic of the Ballet series by Adele Geras, also known for the Egerton Hall fairy tale trilogy and recent award winner for "Troy"? I haven't seen the books, but they supposedly contain notes about each ballet's origins, author, performance history, etc. The age range is 4-8 so there can't be too much information. So far the titles are Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, and Swan Lake. The reviews are not strong, but they recommmend the books for introducing the young to the ballet stories.
The Egerton Hall series is also going to be reprinted with much savvier covers to appeal to a YA audience. I am not a big fan of them, but they apparently do well enough to merit a reprint.
I haven't read Troy yet, but have it on order at the library.
Heidi
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Kerrie
Registered User
(9/2/01 3:48:36 pm)
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Thanks!
Thanks for all of the titles everyone! I'm familiar with some of the classics only marginally, so I just ordered the Balanchine book as a reference. Does anyone know if there's a pick-up where Balanchine's ended? (1975) I'm sure many new ballets have been choreographed and staged, I wonder if there's a comprehensive book of those?
I just bought cds of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Tchaikovski's "Swan Lake," "Sleeping Beauty," and "The Nutcracker" (Ah yes, more Nutcracker, it shall snow soon!) to get/keep me in the mood, plus Disney's Fantasia 2000 has been upacked to listen to "Firebird Suite."
Jane: I'd love to hear more about your book and your days as a dancer! I've been reading Gelsey Kirkland's "Dancing on My Grave" and remembering back to my days as a tiny dancer and what my teachers did to my body to get it to comply!
Dadelion wishes,
Kerrie
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Kate
Unregistered User
(9/2/01 5:08:59 pm)
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Mark Morris
Kerrie,
Not to lead you back to Nutcracker, which you've expressed fatigue with, but have you seen Mark Morris's "The Hard Nut," a great, wicked re-staging of the ballet? I am infatuated with all things Morris . . .
As a former bun-head myself! Funny there are lots of us here, seems like.
Kate
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Kerrie
Registered User
(9/2/01 5:52:36 pm)
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Re: Mark Morris
Oh, I could NEVER get tired of the Nutcracker! I just don't want to overload my readers with only one theme! My friends all throughout high school, college, and even today, blame the snow storms on me because I can't stop listening to Nutcracker! Snow before Thanksgiving? My fault! Blizzard just before or during vacation? My fault! Is this Morris version on video? I only have the Misha version, the Pacific NW version and Nutcracker on Ice so far (can't bring myself to buy the one with Macauly Culkin). Oh, and have you heard about the Barbie one coming out?! I thought the Disney version (with lyrics to the score) was a bad idea, I don't know what to think now!
Actually, does anyone know if the original versions (by Alexander Dumas, fils, and ETA Hoffman) are available anywhere? I can only find the sugar-coated versions in text form.
Dandelion dreams,
Kerrie
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(9/2/01 10:37:40 pm)
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My dancing
I was simply a child (6-13) at the Balenchine school. We got to sit in on rehearsals of the Company, but Mr. B's rule was this: you can come in and sit quietly and watch. But once you leave (to pee or to get something to eat) you were not allowed back in.
Nutcracker began several years after I left (family moved to Connecticut) so I never got to dance in that. These days I am too old and too fat and with a bad back and bad knee, even my folk dancing days are over.
Jane
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Kate
Unregistered User
(9/2/01 11:33:38 pm)
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Morris's Hard Nut
Kerrie,
Yes, you can purchase it! I've seen it online at about $26, so it's not as prohibitively expensive as many dance videos. I've seen it for sale on Amazon, and, I believe, through the Mark Morris company website. A library may also be able to get it for you through interlibrary loan; mine did. Have you seen his work? I'm a huge fan, especially of his earlier work and that he did in Brussels.
Jane, so interesting to hear about firsthand experience at the Balanchine school, where I was yearning to go (switched to modern post-puberty, though). My ballet instructor had worked with Mr. B, but she didn't even let us leave to go to the bathroom. Sometimes she would rap us on the abdomen (having a strange sixth sense about those of us who needed to go), as a sort of torture.
Kate
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La
Reine Noire
Registered User
(9/6/01 6:57:55 pm)
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Ballet Stories
I had a book of ballet stories when I was very little, though it's literally falling apart by now. I think it had "Coppelia," "Sleeping Beauty," "Swan Lake," "Petrouchka," "The Firebird," "The Nutcracker," and "Cinderella." The illustrations were by two different people, I believe, but they were absolutely ravishing - especially the ones in "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty."
Ballet has always been something I've loved - I literally grew up
listening to Tchaikovsky and my first crush (at the age of two or
three) was Mikhail Baryshnikov. Alright, so I saw "The Turning
Point" a few days ago and decided I didn't have bad taste for
a toddler.
Regardless, back to the topic. I have to agree with whoever commented on the excess of tragic love affairs in ballet. Though we can't say much else for opera either, can we?
And, in response to the comment about NYC ballet companies, I have to say "yes yes YES!!" I saw the American Ballet Theatre perform "Swan Lake" earlier this summer and even though our seats were nosebleed, the production was fabulous. They have some truly incredible dancers there and the Metropolitan Opera House is a perfect setting.
Though, on the subject of "Swan Lake," has anyone other than me seen the anime version of the story from the late 1980's, I believe? I've actually been looking for it on video, as it was surprisingly faithful, though it added a few characters here and there (such as two Disneyesque squirrels who were oddly cute). Plus, it used Tchaikovsky's music, which is always an advantage.
~Kavita
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Kerrie
Registered User
(9/7/01 5:13:12 am)
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Animated Swan Lake
I believe the version you're speaking of has the voices of Christy MacNichol (sp?) and Christopher Atkins, both of THE PIRATE MOVIE fame (I love that movie!). I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember enjoying it.
I still have a big thing for Misha- Nutcracker on PBS did me in, and I still have the tape of it- telethon interruptions and all.
Now I want to go out and get illustrated versions of the ballets! I just got 101 Stories of the Great Ballets the other night and have plans to attack it this weekend at my parents. (New baby cousin christening, so I'm sure I'll be obsessing over Sleeping Beauty.)
Dandelion wishes,
Kerrie
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La
Reine Noire
Registered User
(9/8/01 12:24:55 pm)
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Misha and Swan Lake
You have the PBS recording too? I think I still own that - including the "please send in your pledge" interruptions between acts! Ahh, such memories. That one and a version of "Sleeping Beauty" performed on ice, which unfortunately I think our VCR ate.
This discussion reminds me that I want to pick up my ballet stories book along with my old faery-tale book and the illustrated "Arabian Nights" from my mom's!
~Kavita
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