A tarantella for Edward Villella
Edward Villella used to be the most famous male dancer in the US. He slightly predated Nureyev’s defection and Baryshnikov’s later arrival, and they eclipsed him to a certain extent. But he was quite a star, and I saw him dance in person many many times.
I absolutely loved Villella, and it was partly because of the way he looked, as well as the fact that he exuded a sex appeal that was different from the Apollonian quality of Baryshnikov and the exotic aura of Nureyev. I also happened to once take a class from Villella when he was in his 40s, and I can safely say that his magnetism was even more marked close up and personal.
Is he forgotten these days? Perhaps, at least somewhat, and certainly with young people. There aren’t even that many videos of him in his prime. The other day I was looking for some and found, among other things, a video of him doing “Tarantella,” a short and frenetic dance choreographed for him by Balanchine although not one of my favorites. In the video, it first shows Villella doing the two short solo variations, then Baryshnikov doing them, and then a series of other later dancers doing the same thing.
Fascinating, including the comments, only a few of which liked Villella and many of which criticized his loosy-goosy manner and casualness, especially his relaxed upper body. But what they didn’t get is that the piece was originally made for him and the carefree happy-go-lucky style was intentional in this piece and it’s something that has been lost with modern dancers. It’s very playful. Even Baryshnikov, who may have been the greatest ballet dancer of all time, doesn’t quite pull it off for this particular ballet. Let’s just say that Baryshnikov gives us the intense Russian version, very perfect but not the original artistic vision.
Here’s the clip. Unfortunately, the quality of the video for Villella and Baryshnikov is poor. Villella is shown until 1:54, and then Barishnikov, and then the rest of them. But I think despite the poor quality of the first two, it still shows what I’m talking about. Note also that as the years go by, the tempi get slower and slower, although never slow:
Here’s a short Villella documentary. The still thumbnail at the beginning gives you some idea of why so many women (me included) were drawn to him. It also has a few very short excerpts from Tarantella that are in color and of much better quality than the previous ones. He narrates some of this documentary; I think he was in his early 80s at the time, but he’s 89 now:
Even in my ignorance, Villela communicates to me a sense of fun. Whereas, Baryshnikov’s very perfection takes too much of the fun out of the dance.
Geoffrey Britain:
A person doesn’t have to know a thing about dance or about ballet to get the spirit of what’s being conveyed.
As a teen I remember reading the Life Magazine article on Villella in 1969:
______________________________
The Best Athlete in the Land?: Edward Villella is a Dancer, but You have to Rank Him with the Yastrzemskis, the Namaths and the Muhammad Alis.
-“LIFE Magazine June 6, 1969”
https://www.originallifemagazines.com/product/life-magazine-june-6-1969/
______________________________
I had no exposure to ballet beyond Bugs Bunny in a tutu, but I was intrigued by the photos and the text. He was cool!
See first Life photo here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=bU8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA48#v=twopage&q&f=false
Thank you, Neo. I loved that! And I can totally see why you were attracted.
jd:
You’re welcome!
And I forget to mention that my ex-husband resembled him greatly, both facially and physically. But not in the dance sphere 🙂 .
huxley:
Thanks!
Here’s an article on Villella as a boxer:
Great photo at the link of him boxing, too.
Both videos are great, thanks for sharing! In the second video he has a great, sincere smile. He seemed to truly love dance.
Isn’t the tradition of the tarantella that one is moving maniacally to sweat out spider venom? If so, Villella’s mannerisms seem more appropriate than Baryshnikov’s.
There is an interesting story about.the start of the tarantella!
Sorry, but I find it boring.
Twirls, so what.
He is still alive, age 89
Like Beverly Sills, Villella often hosted televised fine arts performances – homegrown American artists that appealed to everyman and represented Amerca’s artistic maturity and confidence, instead of the Eurocentric old guard of the East coast.
Baryshnikov embraced that populist spirit, partnering with tap and jazz dancers.
I first saw this piece on one of those broadcasts and it was an eye opener after the many hours of men just picking up women and walking around with them…
This video takes me right back to the discussions of Plisetskaya and expressive freedom from plumbob verticality.
Villella, Baryshnikov, and some of the other men maintain expressive energetic flow from movement to movement – buildng the reeling exuberance of the piece. And the swirling arms are part of that. Others are going from trick to trick.
Baryshnikov is very musical and uses business with his hands and the tambourine to mark the rhythm even between passes of footwork. I wonder if this is a recording of Villella in rehearsal as he misses some of those opportunities.
Baryshnikov is up in the air more than Villella, who stretches horizontally as he circles the stage. Of course you never see Baryshnikov prepare – he’s just up there. I think the quesr for height and extension may be slowing some of these guys down, or breaking the flow from motion to motion.
Nice to see guys dancing a guy role. No Prince Charmings.
I enjoy watching dancers who are enjoying their own dancing. At the Naval Academy, every midshipman has to have a sport they train for. I started with fencing, sabre, allowing blade attacks, but the right of way rules were annoying, I wanted attack attack too often. Then epee, without such rules, but point only, and I was only 6’, so a bit short. So I switched to boxing, at 139 lbs.
Intense two minute rounds, both years I lost in the semi-finals, tho the second year I thought I’d won & it was a split decision (2-1). Speed & accuracy of hands, plus legwork for movement. There was also a ballroom dance class option I took.
Then at Stanford I tried more dance: folk dance, modern dance, tap dance, jitterbug. Fun couple dancing. In some other life I might have been a good background male dancer, but very hetero. Despite the athleticism of the great male dancers, most ballet & modern dance moves continue to seem more feminine—the boot stomping &slapping of folk dancing is more masculine feeling.
For speed & accuracy of body movement, as well as athleticism, Bruce Lee remains unbeaten in my mind. He was so fast 24 fps photography couldn’t see his movements well enough. The shot his fast scenes at 32 frames per second so the eye could follow.
Sugar Ray was a great boxer, with speed & accuracy. Yet he was able to knockout most of his opponents—boxing moved towards wanting a knockout, over landing punches. Mike Tyson was also extremely fast & accurate with his powerful punches.
huxley’s second link, to google books, has a Life article on Villella that is worth a read (thanks for the link, huxley, I enjoyed it). Unless you’ve got the vision of an eagle you’ll have to mess with the zoom button, but it’s got some great information about Villella, some great quotes and is an interesting time capsule of the mid-70s*.
There is a page of interesting bullet points from Villella. Unfortunately I can’t copy and paste the text because it is a scanned image.
* Our culture has lost something. Used to be some significant percentage of Americans were all reading the same issues of; “Life,” “National Geographic,” “Sports Illustrated,” “The Reader’s Digest…” every month.
I like Edward Villella. I remember how it was said (sotto voce, of course) that he was very much a manly man. He liked sports. He liked playing baseball. He had a rugged look — you could easily imagine him playing a gunfighter in a Clint Eastwood Western, or a stubble-bearded Marine sergeant in a war movie. He made ballet cool for heterosexual jocks like me.
Russ Tamblyn was similarly manly, albeit in a boyish way. A guy’s guy. Just happened to catch him last night in West Side Story — a phenomenal performance. Also phenomenal in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Back in the day my buds and I, when we cruising around as a group on a Saturday night, we would run down the middle of the street pretending we were Jets, leaping in the air like the Jets — and laughing our asses off.
Tom Grey: Mega RESPECT for both boxing and studying dance! I had the very briefest, and most minor, flirtation with boxing, and quickly gave up on it because I didn’t want my pretty face (/sarc) marred.
To my mind Pistol Peter Maravich was the equal of Lee in terms of speed and body movement in an athletic endeavor. Greatest “handles” of all time!
At times, during the dance, Villella seems to actually float. Impressive.
Neo, I loved that! He has a special place in my heart because he founded the Miami City Ballet on Miami Beach, my home town where I was born and grew up. It was a really BIG deal. In the early years, you could walk down Lincoln Road (the first outdoor mall in the country) and literally watch the dancers rehearse in a corner storefront. I remember it so clearly. It was definitely odd to be able to watch right through the display windows, but very cool. It also was a brilliant publicity decision because people who would not necessarily be interested in dance saw this and thought about it. His own dancing was spectacular, but what he did to create a world famous ballet troupe was amazing. In just a few years. And just for the record, I, personally, cannot imagine anyone not thinking he was gorgeous! lol He was rugged and so masculine. I never danced but anyone can see the musculature shows the athleticism involved. As he said, you have to be in total control of your entire body. The work involved…! It didn’t surprise me that he played baseball but I was surprised to learn he boxed! One other dance note: when I was in my mid-teens, Baryshnikov appeared on Miami Beach and my parents bought me tickets. For some reason, one didn’t know which performances he would appear in. He was not supposed to dance at that performance but we got to the theatre and learned he would dance at that performance. We were absolutely thrilled and he did not disappoint. Neo – thanks again.
@IrishOtter49:
I’ve always been a huge fan of musical comedy and West Side Story is among my favorites. I never saw the live show but the movie…spectacular. I remember Russ Tamblyn as leader of the Jets. He was much more boyish-looking compared to Villella but great. “Boys, boys, crazy boys…” The cast of movie was brilliant: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris (who had that dark, rugged handsomeness of Villella). “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” is another oldie but goodie. Completely different from “West Side Story” with a much lighter storyline. But lots of fun! Thanks for bringing back those memories.
What a hottie! Seems like a nice and grounded guy, too.
RigelDog:
Extremely hot – and grounded except when he was jumping.
@ Rufus > “Our culture has lost something. Used to be some significant percentage of Americans were all reading the same issues of; “Life,” “National Geographic,” “Sports Illustrated,” “The Reader’s Digest…” every month.”
What we lost was that both conservatives and liberals, and all the fringe factions, were reading the same material, instead of being almost completely siloed as we are now.
Doesn’t mean the media wasn’t biased left, but they kept it under wraps for the general public.
We had to keep dropping subscriptions as the spin and focus became more obvious (third-worldism was taking hold, I suppose, but we didn’t have a name for it at the time), which made the material lest credible as well as less interesting; and the insulting tone they had, which implied “of course, you enlightened readers all agree with us,” was my final deal-breaker: National Geographic, Smithsonian, American Heritage (!!), even Popular Mechanics on occasion.