(Untitled)

[paleaswater]

Went to see ABT's Don Quixote at the Met, with Paulina Semionova, on loan from Hamburg Ballet. It's not exactly a new production, as far as I'm aware of, but in fact it has changed quite a bit from the last one I have seen. The costumes are exceptionally pretty, and not at all what I remembered; several solos have been moved around, and the music

Comments

[paleaswater]

Well, actually, the ballet stories usually have obvious plots but more complex emotional narratives, so you don't really need much pantomime. It's just kind of obvious when the Black Swan appears that she's trying to seduce the prince, and the demon lord is controlling her. It's how the dancer expresses it through her dancing and her acting that makes is interesting. It's not like anyone ever tried to turn an Agatha Christie mystery into a ballet.

[flemmings]

No one creates grand story-telling classic Russian ballets any more, but equally no one creates grand hummable story-telling Italian operas either. Atonal opera may be sophisticated but it doesn't satisfy me on some basic level; I want melody.

So I can take abstract ballet better than Berg or Britten. At least I can supply a story line from the twisting bodies. But nothing is as satisfying as a really good classic ballet with costumes and sets and melody and dance, the whole five course meal.

[paleaswater]

Well, that's true, and I can pretty much watch any kind of dancing for hours, whether it's modern or classical or ethnic. But what I find with the modern dance is that choreographers don't know what to do with more than 3 dancer anymore. They took what they can do with a single body to an entirely new level, but the amazingly expressiveness of the group dances from classical ballet, completely lost. It's not even deliberate attempt at controlled chaos now when it's comes to group dance,it's just complete blankness of imagination - directors either have the dancers all do the same thing, or just have them dash around randomly hoping that audience will mistake their lack of imagination for abstract experimentation.