““Dancing and painting walked hand in hand in this period of my life. I cannot place them in exact chronological order because they overlap. At one time, dance takes preference, and at another, art. Nevertheless, I was developing constantly and consistently both of these arts simultaneously. Actually, at this period in my life, they complemented each other. Art being primarily concerned with the intellectual activity concerning thought, observation of the world around me — people, objects, in brief, creation — the world as my eyes saw it (not to mention my personal reaction to it) and the fact that art is primarily a sedentary activity, chiefly concerned with the hand executing what the eye sees and what the brain and mind understands. Dancing is physical—actually, a dancer basically is an artistic athlete. You don’t “think” dance—you execute it—your body is involved to express yourself in movement. The mind is very much involved, for it controls the body. Yet it is not basically an intellectual art, but I believe it is the most primal of all the arts — we have no instrument but ourselves to express ourselves. The human body itself is the sole instrument in the dance.””
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—Chapter Two: “About Art” from Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins (2011) by Janet Collins and Yaël Tamar Lewin
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)
Join the conversation with panelists Sara Mearns, Jonathan Stafford, and Wendy Whelan as they discuss New York City Ballet's 75th anniversar
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…)
16 seconds · Clipped by tikitania · Original video "Nutcracker Grand pas de deux Bolshoi Ballet Erek Muhamedov" by Grant Walter
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.
27 seconds · Clipped by tikitania · Original video "NUTCRACKER - Pas de Deux (Isabella Boylston & James Whiteside - American Ballet Theatre)
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!
