Tango
After my gushing over the technical brilliance of the Russian National Ballet, I was amazed and disgusted to find out that apparently the performance I saw was not (as I thought) the fourth in 6 days, but the 12th (!!) -- due to high demand, they added extra shows. That means they were doing two performances every single night (5pm, and 8pm, which for a 2.5 hour ballet means almost continuous dancing).
Consider: a member of the corps is on stage pretty much the entire time. The same girls who dance the swans also dance the nobles and the guests (Spanish dance, etc). That they can still function after this is beyond words. No wonder they were practically swaying during the final curtain call! And I'm sure that they are doing the same thing in every city they go to -- something like 50+ cities in 80 days.
Okay, I understand that their sponsors want to milk them for all they are worth. But how the hell are human beings expected to do this? No Western company would ever put its dancers through such a thing. It's inhuman.
What's almost equally disgusting is that some newspaper reviews (for instance, here) I've seen so far have said things like, "Technically perfect, but not spectacular enough" -- which translates to, "Give me pretty liiiiiights!". I'm so angry I could spit. Why is it that people who live in a city where a technical ballet has not been performed this well in the last 5 years at _least_ do not appreciate it when it's brought to them on a platter? No, Natalia Kurguntseva is not Margot Fonteyn, but when was the last time they saw Fonteyn? And did Fonteyn ever dance this many shows back-to-back?
On the plus side, I suppose, at least the audiences have been wildly appreciative, judging by the ticket sales and the enthusiasm of the crowd last night, which is great.
Consider: a member of the corps is on stage pretty much the entire time. The same girls who dance the swans also dance the nobles and the guests (Spanish dance, etc). That they can still function after this is beyond words. No wonder they were practically swaying during the final curtain call! And I'm sure that they are doing the same thing in every city they go to -- something like 50+ cities in 80 days.
Okay, I understand that their sponsors want to milk them for all they are worth. But how the hell are human beings expected to do this? No Western company would ever put its dancers through such a thing. It's inhuman.
What's almost equally disgusting is that some newspaper reviews (for instance, here) I've seen so far have said things like, "Technically perfect, but not spectacular enough" -- which translates to, "Give me pretty liiiiiights!". I'm so angry I could spit. Why is it that people who live in a city where a technical ballet has not been performed this well in the last 5 years at _least_ do not appreciate it when it's brought to them on a platter? No, Natalia Kurguntseva is not Margot Fonteyn, but when was the last time they saw Fonteyn? And did Fonteyn ever dance this many shows back-to-back?
On the plus side, I suppose, at least the audiences have been wildly appreciative, judging by the ticket sales and the enthusiasm of the crowd last night, which is great.
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19.09.2005 в 23:40-
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20.09.2005 в 04:38-
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20.09.2005 в 13:47-
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21.09.2005 в 04:19