Walpurgis Nacht in competition
This “Bacchante” variation from Walpurgis Nacht was Maya Plisetkaya’s forte, and nobody else is Plisetskaya or even close. But many give the variation a try, especially in dance competitions where they face a particularly daunting task: to perform the variation without the accompanying satyrs who give the dance its context. For example, the little hand flicks that accompany the hops on point are meant to tease the satyrs, but when the dancer performs them all by herself then they’re just strange little hand flicks while hopping on point. But it’s a fun variation; I once learned a tiny bit of it.
Here’s a dancer who can do all the steps just fine, but doesn’t exhibit much of the playfulness and ease that’s required:
Whereas this girl at 14 years old (young for this dance) really puts a lot more playfulness and easy-seeming grace (although it’s not the least bit easy) into it than most adult professional soloists do:
And here’s the Plisetskaya standard to which all can aspire but no one can reach. Such abandon! Such freedom of the upper body! She’s not afraid to bend way forward and way back as she’s prancing. Really, there’s never been anyone like her (she’s also got the requisite satyrs here, since I’m pretty sure this is a live performance, although I believe the sound was added later). Unfortunately, video can’t be embedded, but just click here to watch it.
Bonus clip: the following video (filmed in 1956) can’t be embedded, either. It features the dancer Raisa Struchkova in the same role, and she’s wonderful too, although she gives it a different feel than Plisetkaya does. Struchkova is incredibly light and airy. So take a look; the variation begins at around minute 3:45.
Even I can see the difference, Plisetskaya is a delight to watch. She draws you into her performance.
O to frolic as the Divine M. Plisetskaya!
On the Plisetskaya DVD there’s a wonderful quote:
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Interviewer: Are you glad of the enthusiastic ovations you are given?
Plisetskaya: Certainly. The longer the ovation, the longer I can rest between dances during the performances.
I’m struck by her amazing upward-arcing back kicks. I’m not the only one:
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The way she virtually kicks the back of her head at the climax of some voracious jumps is something generations of dancers have been imitating ever since: it’s still widely known as “the Plisetskaya head-kick”….
Her daring! Her speed! Her backbends! (I would send theater artists to these clips just to study how she uses her fan – often funny and never monotonous.) If you want to see a dancer who performs as if her life depended on it, there’s no better example.
–Alastair Macaulay, “New York Times” (1988)
https://2011.bolshoi.ru/en/about/press/articles/announce/Maya-2020-11-20/
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There are many other fine quotes about Plisetskaya on that page.
I’m struck by her amazing upward-arcing back kicks
Me too, and she made them look so easy. The turns were pretty amazing as well. And all done in such a playful way. I also liked the way the dance flowed, one move into another.
Even I can see the difference, Plisetskaya is a delight to watch.
–Geoffrey Britain
Exactly.
Until I saw neo’s posts on ballet and Plisetskaya, ballet was like cricket. I could tell something was going on but I had no idea what or who was doing it well.
Here’s another quote backing neo on Plisetskaya:
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Look at any film of her performances in her prime and you will see the kind of dancing you never see anymore. Her body placement is ideal, never askew; yet energy and dynamism burst out of this vessel. Watch her famous leaps – foot to the back of the head – as Zarema, the harem favorite in The Fountain of Bakhchiserai. Or watch her come charging down in a diagonal of turns or toe-stabbing steps as an exceptionally fiery Kitri in Don Quixote. Anyone who saw her live as Odette in Swan Lake, with the noble Nikolai Fadeyechev as her Siegfried, lived through an eloquent poem. Even here, where technique was not at issue, she offered a performance that is beyond the ken of any younger dancer today in any country, including the Soviet Union. This is dancing that came from the depths of a well-rehearsed soul. To speak of Maya Plisetskaya’s dancing was to speak of power and passion.
–Anna Kisselgoff, “New York Times”
https://2011.bolshoi.ru/en/about/press/articles/announce/Maya-2020-11-20/
I love when you put up a vid of dance. So much that I always simply start the vid before reading. So… I watched the first one without scrolling up the page and I didn’t know it was side one of a coin. My first reaction was pretty much what you would think. I found it a little stilted. I did like the hand movements.
Then I watched the second and walah, so much more enjoyable. But damn, her legs look lethal.
Thanks again.
Now to watch the second again before I leave.
In light of what Neo has shown us about the progress of pointe work, and its prominence in this variation – I am curious when this was choreographed. The opera – and the inserted ballet – date to a time when pointe shoes would still have been in transition. So was this originally conceived differently?
OTOH despite the incredible strength needed and the possibility of seeing this as “stunt” choreography, the pointe work really does express some of the extreme abandon of the piece.
“pointe shoes . . . in transition”? Please elaborate. Thank you
Not related to Neo’s dance video;
Just came across this video of Roger Stone speaking about the assassination of JFK.
See here, Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
Start it at the 8:15 mark, but it is rather long.
https://stonezone.com/
Not sure what to make of it but he states things I had never heard of before, nor was I aware he had written a book about JFK’s assassination.
He claims that LBJ was the individual who planned it all (which sounds nutty) but he sure makes it sound plausible.
OK, speaking of dance; here is one of Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Is there any dance style that was beyond Baryshnikov’s ability?
I don’t think so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImzkWZkaIIM
He even appeared in Broadway’s “A Chorus Line,” for one show at least.
John Tyler:
Read the first few hundred pages of Bugliosi’s book on the subject. There is no doubt Oswald did it alone. Period.
Anne; Ben David:
Pointe shoes were originally very lightly blocked and gave little support. They gradually became more supportive.
This version of the ballet is apparently from 1949, by Lavrovsky. So the pointe shoes of the time would have been fairly strong.
One last bit on Maya Plisetskaya:
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The only weapon I had was my dancing. With that I fought like a general without an army. If I could have saved all the energy I wasted on my struggle it would have sufficed me to cover a dozen ballets.
–Maya Plisetskaya
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Plisetskaya lost her father to Stalin’s purges, years of her mother’s life to a labor camp, and Plisetskaya herself, in spite of her status as a crown jewel in the Bolshoi, always faced scrutiny for her family background and her Jewish heritage.
There’s a story there. I will have to read a biography of Plisetskaya someday.
The only weapon I had was my word. You give that up you have nothing
Maybe you might think it was the F-14. Or the Garand. Or the k bar. Or whatever
I don’t want to imply I flew jets. I couldn’t. I could work the radar
It’s a different skill set
All my skills are mow ancient. I can’t say obsolete because I look at my sword and can’t help but think how useful I am knowing how to use it
I went through SERE school h Marines who would cave your head in with a rock. I was like, “you and me both brother.” If all I have is a rock, well then. Rock on.
Every Marine is a rifleman. I was Marine Corps trained. Google “Pressure Point 1992” AOCS was a vacation from my sainted Father the
Coast Guard SeniorC Chief. I didn’t appreciate him when I was growing up.
Decide for yourself. Try me if you don’t believe me. I still don’t know how toughi am.