The 10 greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th Century
I thought this ballet video purporting to show the ten greatest male dancers of the 20th century would be bad, but it’s kind of okay in many ways. However, one way it is annoying is that it can’t be embedded, so you’ll need to follow the link. Drat.
For starters, I thought it would leave out Fernando Bujones and I was prepared to criticize that. But there he is at #10. On the other hand, the clip used isn’t of Bujones at his best.
Peter Martins, #9, was a good dancer but I wouldn’t put him in the top 10. Whatever; he’s #9 here. Note something I’ve long noticed, which is that his head is large in proportion to his body. And yet the total effect is pleasing.
Massine, #8? I certainly don’t think so. Plus the AI voice (I think it’s AI; not certain) mispronounces “Russe” in “Ballet Russe.” Massine was better known for his choreography at the time, but even that isn’t performed all that much in more recent years. However, the film The Red Shoes is his most lasting work; he dances in the film, too, and you can see his eccentric style.
#7, Serge Lifar? No way.
#6 is another choreographer, Anthony Tudor. Why is he on a list of great dancers?
#5 Vladimir Vasiliev. Good choice; I wrote about him here, with videos that show his gifts better than the “10 greatest” clip does.
#4 Erik Bruhn, good choice but again the video clip isn’t the best.
#3 Vaslav Nijinsky. There are no films of him; the few seconds of movement in this video is AI. And the mispronunciations continue.
#2 Nureyev. Of course. Not one of my personal favorites, but he absolutely belongs high on the list.
#1 It was inevitable that Baryshnikov would be #1, and rightly so. Plus, he is one of my personal favorites.
If the video is considering choreographers too – which it certainly is – the absence of Balanchine is a glaring error.
Also, I would substitute Anthony Dowell of the Royal Ballet for Lifar. And why not Edward Villella for Peter Martins?
And the short compilation of clips at the very end shows off some of the dancers better than the main segments do.
In the late 60s I recall reading an exciting article on Richard Villella in Life Magazine. He sounded like the Bobby Fischer of ballet. I wondered how his career turned out.
I too regard mispronunciation of unusual, often foreign, words as a tip-off that it’s an AI voice.
Baryshnikov did a cameo for Barbra Streisand’s quite funny “Emotion” music video, shown here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-slIu4pqQ8&list=RDC-slIu4pqQ8&start_radio=1
(Yes, that’s the Who’s Roger Daltry as Barbra’s sleepy husband)
@ huxley > “I too regard mispronunciation of unusual, often foreign, words as a tip-off that it’s an AI voice.”
Just putting this out as my own footnote: I had thought that to be an unfailing guide, but I have been binge watching a series of videos on “how to write” by an accomplished editor John Fox aka Bookfox, who is excellent in his advice and examples, and clearly narrating his own material, almost off-the-cuff AFAIK, although he might have prepared a script beforehand, to facilitate the video clips and text overlays.
However, to my ear, he massacred the pronunciation of Cyrano de Bergerac when discussing Rostand’s epic play, although usually pretty good at foreign names.
But surprise!
We can both be correct.
Google AI summary:
“Cyrano de Bergerac is pronounced as “see-rah-noh deh ber-zhah-rahk” in French. In English, it is often pronounced as “sir-uh-noh deh bur-zhuh-rak.”
(They may intend “sir” to sound like “sear” but that’s not the English phoneme.)
I’ve always used something between the two examples: sear-uh-noh deh ber-zhah-rahk.
However this “weird trick,” which is what Bookfox used, is also given as acceptable, but sounds terrible and isn’t French or English:
Emphasize the second syllable: “rah”
Supporting me:
https://www.howtopronounce.com/cyrano
Supporting Bookfox:
How to say “cyrano”! (High Quality Voices)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnQLfSVkw_8
Thank you for your attention to this matter!