Robbins’ “Other Dances”: four different renditions
Compare and contrast. I’ve cued up a very short (less than 2-minute) excerpt from the beginning of each video of the ballet for the purpose of easy comparison, but you can go to YouTube to watch the longer videos if you’re interested.
I find the first three performances pretty but essentially vapid. There are different degrees of connection between the man and the woman, but nothing that especially moves me. I do love Chopin, though:
This one has the wrong “feel” to me, with a lot of self-satisfied posing on the part of Osipova. It also illustrates how difficult it can sometimes be for dancers to simply walk and look natural and unaffected:
This woman keeps it simpler, which is an improvement. But are she and the man even in the same world? I see no connection whatsoever, and this is a pas de deux, after all:
And this is the couple I’ve seen do it live way back when the ballet was new: the great Baryshnikov and Makarova. Despite the blurry quality, I believe the viewer can see that they bring to it an air of connection and deep mystery that is very different from the more recent three videos above. For Makarova, who is featured in this particular portion, every movement conveys some feeling, and every phrase is surprising and special and meaningful. As for Baryshnikov, he stays connected to her and has the same spellbound focus, without hamming it up. What a pair they were!:
neo:
Wow! That was a wonderful selection with intriguing commentary. I don’t know dance but I think I can see what you are saying.
In particular the second example. The dancers do seem to be posing in order to draw focus for attention’s sake. I’m reminded of actors who play minor characters but manage to saunter about and bobble their heads so they may pop out from the background.
Then there’s the Baryshnikov and Marakova. Balance and connection. But I wouldn’t have been able to see that without your coaching.
From what I could find out about “Other Dances,” Robbins created the dance for Baryshnikov and Makarova in the 1970s, and worked with them one-on-one in rehearsals. According to program notes by the New York City Ballet, “Jerome Robbins was a great admirer of the Russian stars Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who each famously defected and made new careers in America. ‘Other Dances,’ a pas de deux created in 1976 for a New York Public Library for the Performing Arts benefit, was specifically crafted to display their legendary technique and artistry. Robbins chose four mazurkas and one waltz by Chopin, the composer whose piano music had inspired him for ‘Dances at a Gathering.’ Although Chopin did not invent the mazurka, a stylized Polish dance in triple meter, his compositions brought them to the public attention and raised them to a new level of sophistication. ‘Other Dances,’ through its simplicity and virtuosity, pays homage to both Chopin’s Romanticism and the fluidity of classical ballet technique.”
https://www.nycballet.com/discover/ballet-repertory/other-dances
Given that Robbins knew and worked with both Baryshnikov and Makarova, it would make sense that the dancers performed the ballet in the 1970s as if they had been born to dance it with each other. Robbins died in 1998, so the newer generations of dancers would not have the same experience of working with him directly. Also, the younger dancers’ overall training is different from that which Makarova and Baryshnikov received at the Kirov back in the day.
In any case, I enjoyed watching the video of B. and M. performing “Other Dances” even though it is blurry– and they must have enjoyed dancing Robbins’ ballet!
PA Cat:
Yes, that’s when I first saw them do it.
Plus – Robbins is a genius choreographer, Baryshnikov, and Makarova are genius dancers, and the others aren’t.
Neo– serious question: do you see any younger dancers shaping up to be genius dancers?
Either you–a dance couple–have a connection, or you don’t. If you have a connection, it must be obvious due to the way you interact unless your connection is not obvious although real. Then you have to fake it.
If you don’t have a connection, you have to fake it.
How do you fake it, on top of all the movements the choreographer has provided?OTOH, it could be Aubrey watching who couldn’t tell the difference anyway.
Neo:
Baryshnikov and Makarova are hands-down the best of the four examples you cued up. Amazingly better! Having the dance created and choreographed for them gives them a huge advantage, of course, but the difference is still dramatic. Thanks for this welcome break from the news of the day.
Bobby Darin rules.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSGc0bx-kKM
Richard Aubrey:
Ballet dancers have to know how to act.
A performance “connection” doesn’t necessarily translate into real life, although it can. It can be accomplished through movement style, timing, and acting.
PA Cat:
No, I don’t. I certainly am not familiar with all the younger dancers, though.
The sort of artistry of the past is neither trained for, rewarded, nor selected for these days. What is valued is extreme gymnastic ability, and a kind of surface acting that has no depth.
Uhhhh…. the choreography is very different in the Baryshnikov/Makarova clip. Did Robbins rework the piece – or did they, working with Robbins, feel they could take liberties?
For example, in the first clip at around 1:02 Pagliero does a lovely swaying motion with her arms as she come out of a turn. She repeats this later on. I can’t find the same movement by Makarova (and I stopped watching Osipova when she didn’t make anything of that moment).
In general, Makarova pulls away/hangs back – both in the back bends, and when the couple points off to stage right – while the other pairs dance more closely. It’s certainly expressive, but it completely changes the shape formed by the dancers. And it doesn’t make it look like there is intimate rapport.
I actually liked the 1st and 3rd clips, and felt there was pretty good rapport in the 1st one. They look at each other, even Robbins has them separate as in a square dance, and use subtle head tilts as if they are asking permission of each other before going into a variation.
Ben David:
Nuances are almost always different as time passes as different dancers do a piece and it gets further from its origins. The piece was set on Makarova and Baryshnikov by the choreographer. He choreographed it for them and coached them in what he wanted – they are the originals doing the original version.
Their connection is very clear to me, and it is partly the result of a push-pull effect between the two. Some of it is accomplished by Baryshnikov vis a vis Makarova. It is as though there’s a strand connecting the two, so that when she holds back he propels her forward again. You can see it at :51-:57, 1:24-1:37, and 1:49-1:51.
Neo. I get that a real connection isn’t necessarily obvious and, even real, might have to be faked.
But faking a connection when there is none must be an enormously difficult proposition. Sure. acting. But acting on top of dancing….
I recall a dancer in a situation where she was not sure…things had changed…she was going in one direction, turned her head behind her and smiled, as if she were not sure she was making the right decision. Good move. But…what is the term for “large” , if it isn’t “gross”, movement, as opposed to small and subtle which still must have enough amplitude to be noticed, if only subliminally?
Richard Aubrey:
Ballet dancing is very very difficult in all respects, so the acting part is just part of that. Some people are better at one aspect than another aspect.
The terminology of ballet is French, so a large movement would be grand.
Re: Dancing, acting, connecting…
Accounts differ, but it seems there was some tension, difficulty between Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in “Dirty Dancing”, but I sure would never have known it. Here’s Grey’s version:
https://www.thethings.com/did-jennifer-grey-patrick-swayze-really-hate-each-other-on-dirty-dancing/
They left behind this smokin’ dance scene — surely a peak experience in 80s movies.
–“Dirty Dancing – Time of my Life (Final Dance)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo
Swayze was something else.
Sometimes it seems to me Patrick Swayze never got his due in Hollywood. For raw masculine charisma he could blow just about any other contemporary actor off the screen. He really was a strong dancer and martial artist, which was an important part of that presence.
But I can’t quite see him in a tux playing James Bond or a Cary Grant jewel thief. From his beginning as the greaser older brother in “The Outsiders,” he’s had more of a working class image, which I’m sure was part of his appeal for many. That really played to his strength in “Roadhouse.”
Swayze did all right, so I won’t worry. Maybe he was hard to cast. Maybe he was hard to please. Pity he died kinda young at 57.
Ghost was the closest to a white collar role he was up against hollywood royalty tony goldwyn who would play a president 20 some years later
To translate from ballet to acting like baryshnikov is not easy
Two things: I watched the video of the ice-skaters Vanessa James and Morgan Ciprès – one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen
https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=WOCuxsRnVTQ
Ice allows a greater freedom of movement. In that performance, the two move as one. Unlike Olympic contests, skaters aren’t required to include the standard set patterns and moves.
Opera: I saw a clip from “Carmen” with Elena Garancia –
https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=K2snTkaD64U
She is a Carmen that Bizet would have applauded.