Spring-Summer 2019 Ballet Review From the Sp/Su 2019 issue of Ballet Review Alexei Ratmansky on ABT’s Harlequinade Cover photo by Paul Kolnik, NYCB: Joseph Gordon in Dances at a Gathering. © 2019 Dance Research Foundation, Inc. Ballet Review 47.1-2 Spring-Summer 2019 Editor and Designer: Marvin Hoshino Managing Editor: Roberta Hellman Senior Editor: Don Daniels Associate Editors: Joel Lobenthal Larry Kaplan Ballet Review is a nonprofit Alice Helpern journal pub lished by the Dance 168 Webmaster: Research Foundation, Inc. It David S. Weiss is supported in part by funds from the National Endowment Copy Editor: Naomi Mindlin for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Fan Photographers: Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Tom Brazil Foundation, and individuals. Costas Contributions to the Dance Associates: Research Foundation, Inc., Peter Anastos 100 Hudson St. – Apt. 6B, Robert Greskovic New York, NY 10013, are 76 George Jackson tax-deduc tible. Elizabeth Kendall Board ofDirectors: Paul Parish Hubert Goldschmidt, Roberta Nancy Reynolds Hellman, Marvin Hoshino, James Sutton Nancy Lassalle, Dawn Lille, Edward Willinger Michael Popkin, Theodore C. Sarah C. Woodcock Rogers, Barbara E. Schlain, David Weiss. * For the latest information on subscriptions, see our website: balletreview.com. Current 95 double issue: $35. Editorial correspondence, books for review, subscriptions, and changes of address to Ballet Review, 100 Hudson St. – Apt. 6B, New York, NY 10013. Manuscripts must be accom- panied by a self-addressed, stamped returnenvelope. E-mail: [email protected]. * 207 ©2019 Dance Research Foun- dation, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in China. issn: 0522- 0653. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. 4 Philadelphia – Eva Shan Chou 5 New York – Karen Greenspan 7 Los Angeles – Eva Shan Chou 9 New York – Susanna Sloat 11 Williamstown – Christine Temin 12 New York – Karen Greenspan Susanna Sloat 16 Tokyo – Vincent Le Baron 95 Rennie Harris and Ronald K. Brown 18 Jacob’s Pillow – Christine Temin Celebrate Alvin Ailey 20 Toronto – Gary Smith Robert Greskovic 22 Boston – Jeffrey Gantz 100 Chopiniana 25 London – Joseph Houseal 25 Vienna – Vincent Le Baron 109 Judson Dance Theater 27 New York – Susanna Sloat Michael Langlois 28 Miami – Michael Langlois 114 Awakenings 29 Toronto – Gary Smith 31 Venice – Joel Lobenthal Karen Greenspan 32 London – Gerald Dowler 119 In the Court of Yogyakarta 35 Havana – Gary Smith Marian Smith 37 Washington, D.C. – Lisa Traiger 125 The Metropolitan Balanchine 39 London – John Morrone 40 Chicago – Joseph Houseal Gerald Dowler 42 Milan – Vincent Le Baron 141 An Autumn in Europe Alexei Ratmansky Sophie Mintz 44 Staging Petipa’s Harlequinade 146 White Light at ABT Lynn Garafola George Washington Cable 151 Raymonda, 1946 56 The Dance in Place Congo Karen Greenspan Michael Langlois 161 Drive East 2018 63 A Conversation with Karen Greenspan Clement Crisp 168 A Conversation with Maya Joseph Houseal Kulkarni and Mesma Belsaré 76 A Quiet Evening, in Two Acts Francis Mason Ian Spencer Bell 171 Ben Belitt on Graham 82 Women Onstage Gary Smith Michael Langlois 175 A Conversation with Grettel Morejón 86 A Conversation with Hubert Goldschmidt Stella Abrera 177 Rodin and the Dance 207 London Reporter – Louise Levene 218 Dance in America – Jay Rogoff 220 Music on Disc – George Dorris Cover photo by Paul Kolnik, NYCB: Joseph Gordon in Dances at a Gathering. Harlequinade. (Photo: Rosalie O’Connor, ABT) 44 Ballet review Staging Petipa’s historically informed stagings of Petipa bal- lets) and I found some dances in boxes with Harlequinade at ABT other ballets. More generally, Harlequinade is not among the very well-recorded works. Nevertheless, about one hundred pages of no- Alexei Ratmansky tations give us information on almost every number (except for the “Temps passé, temps This article originated as a talk, via Skype, to present” dance for Marie Petipa and Sergei the Petipa International Scientific Conference Legat, which was cut after the premiere). in Moscow, “Marius Petipa. The Ballet Empire: Half of the numbers are recorded twice, in From Rise to Decline,” held in June 2018 at the varying degrees of detail. This is explained by Bakhrushin State Central Theater Museum. the fact that different tasks were put before Ratmansky’s Petipa reconstructions are the different notators: one person concen- Le Corsaire (Bolshoi Ballet, with Yuri Burlaka, trated on the corps de ballet, another on the 2006), Paquita (Bavarian State Opera Ballet, soloists, another on the children. Sometimes with Doug Fullington, 2014), The Sleeping Beau- it was necessary to notate different versions ty (American Ballet Theatre, 2015), Swan Lake of the same dance. (Zurich Ballet, 2016), Harlequinade (ABT, pre- There are a few prized examples of nota- miere June 5, 2018), and La Bayadère (Berlin tion – for instance, the solo for Columbine State Ballet, fall 2018). — Marina Harss (Preobrajenska) from act 2, initialed by A.K. According to Sergei Konayev, this was Alexan- Our Main Source: dra Konstantinova. I have tender feelings for The Stepanov Notation this Alexandra. Unlike her colleagues, she The choreographic text of this new/old Harle- recorded all the positions of the arms and quinade is a set of notations written out in the body in each movement of this variation. Stepanov system by Nikolai Sergeyev, the ré - In fact, the absence of notations for the arms gisseur of the Mariinsky Theater, and his as- should not concern us. At the time of Petipa, sistants. The notation mentions the perform- ports de bras was less codified, the arms moved ers in the main roles: Pavel Gerdt, Georgy Ky - freely and were often simply allowed to hang aksht, Olga Preobrajenska, Lyubov Egorova, down (this was called bras au repos or bras bas). Sergei Lukyanov, and others. This was the cast You can see this in surviving films of Zam- for the performance on October 17, 1904. belli, Baldina, Pavlova, Spessivtseva, the Danes It is likely that it was during the rehearsals in Bournonville dances, or the Italians in Ex- for this performance that most of the chore- celsior. Also, according to many dancers, Bal- ography and mise-en-scène was recorded. At anchine, who took a lot from Petipa, often did the time Petipa was still listed as the first cho- not specify the movements of the arms when reographer of the theater and periodically vis- he was in the studio choreographing, leaving ited rehearsals (he was eighty-six years old). this part to the dancers. There had been only ten performances since In Russia today you will not find two bal- the premiere of the ballet in February 1900 on lerinas dancing the same variation with the the stage of the Hermitage Theater in St. Pe- same arms. Usually, in the process of prepar- tersburg, so there is no reason to believe that ing for a performance, the port de bras varies, the choreography had changed significantly. and, together with her coach (who says, “Try The notations are currently stored in the these arms. Try another set.”), the ballerina Harvard Theatre Collection. Some are mis- finds a suitable option for herself. Every move- filed. My wife Tatiana (and assistant in my ment or pose has a certain number of allow- Translated and revised by Alexei Ratmansky, with able arm positions based on classical coordi- additional editing by Marina Harss. nation. ©2019 Alexei Ratmansky 45 Where the positions are unusual or a cer- In such cases, we carefully watched all the tain pattern is important, they are marked in existing productions (especially the versions the Harlequinade notations. For example, arms of Balanchine, Gusev, and Karsavina), and if behind the back in the jeté en tournant in Har- something in them coincided with the records lequin’s first act variation, or hands “on the in the notations, we took it to mean that we hips” in Pierrette’s first entrance. most likely were seeing fragments of the old So it is with the endings of the variations. staging, and used them. Some clues were also Often in the records we see just the fifth po- found in other sources, such as photographs sition of the legs, with the arms down. It is from the imperial theaters, old reviews, and difficult to imagine solo variations ending in eyewitness accounts; an animated film called this way. Most likely it was an indication that The Harlequin Joke that Alexander Shiryaev there were several options, depending on the (Petipa’s assistant) made in 1909; the director’s preferences of the performer. For example, it notes in the piano and violin score; the draw- is known that Preobrajenska preferred to end ings of Gerdt, Goncharov, and brothers Legat; variations in arabesque on pointe. Apparent- and even Fokine’s Carnival of 1910, in which ly, she easily got on her axis and loved to show there are quotations from the old Petipa pro- her balance. Quite often one finds a pose in duction. fourth position plié with a lifted heel for the By the way, it is a curious fact that Fokine, back leg – a position that has disappeared to- such a passionate ideological opponent of con- day. This pose appears in the notations for ventional mime and eclecticism, not only al- Beauty, Swan Lake, Paquita, and, also, in Harle- most literally quoted images from Petipa’s Har- quinade, for both the men and the women. lequinade in his ballet Carnaval, but also, at the For Harlequin here, we went with a differ- request of Kschessinska, in 1916 composed for ent ending. According to Preobrajen ska, as her and Vladimiroff an insertable number for described by Pedro Consuegra (conveyed by Harlequinadeto the music of Rondo Capriccioso Ka tya Anapolskaya), at the end of his first-act by Saint-Saens.