Haglund didn’t attend ABT’s Woolf Works this week. He’s not much of a fan of either Virginia Woolf or Wayne McGregor; so there wasn’t much point in suffering through the work again. Virginia Woolf once publicly referred to James Joyce’s literary masterpiece Ulysses as pretentious, underbred, and inferior after which she went on to try to copy his stream of consciousness style in her own work Mrs. Dalloway three years later.
Over his lifetime Joyce was described as a musical writer whose language danced. His daughter, Lucia, was an accomplished modern dancer who was admired by many including WB Yeats who once considered hiring her to perform in Plays for Dancers by the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet which he co-founded with Ninette de Valois. That company was short-lived, but Yeats continued to write and de Valois, thankfully, found other meaningful things to do.
8 responses to “observations 6/20”
Haglund, I just learned about this collaboration between Yeats and de Valois to start a ballet school at the Abbey from this column today! I love the photo of Joyce’s daughter! A beautiful collaboration of artists. Thank you for this interesting post!
Enjoy the ballet this week. May you see some wonderfully memorable performances.
Haglund, I just learned about this collaboration between Yeats and de Valois to start a ballet school at the Abbey from this column today! I love the photo of Joyce’s daughter! A beautiful collaboration of artists. Thank you for this interesting post!
Enjoy the ballet this week. May you see some wonderfully memorable performances.
Thanks, Georgiann.
Thanks, Georgiann.
Haglund, I had planned not to write until I had seen all three of my scheduled “Giselle” performances but Shevchenko was so sublime this afternoon I had to throw my hat in the air for her. Royal partnered her tenderly and in princely style. I’ve had the good fortune to see many a fine Giselle in New York in recent years but I don’t believe there has been a completer one since Vishneva than Shevchenko’s. Her technical mastery served the character at all times. Hers is a profound reading, beautiful in form and feeling always. Her control when making shapes slowly suggests the spectral being over whom gravity holds no sway while her lightning fast piqué turns in act one suggested the suppressed hysteria Giselle must feel over her intuited approaching death. An unforgettable afternoon of many excellences including Fangqui Li’s stunning Myrta. I’m still dazed. I hope you were there.
Haglund, I had planned not to write until I had seen all three of my scheduled “Giselle” performances but Shevchenko was so sublime this afternoon I had to throw my hat in the air for her. Royal partnered her tenderly and in princely style. I’ve had the good fortune to see many a fine Giselle in New York in recent years but I don’t believe there has been a completer one since Vishneva than Shevchenko’s. Her technical mastery served the character at all times. Hers is a profound reading, beautiful in form and feeling always. Her control when making shapes slowly suggests the spectral being over whom gravity holds no sway while her lightning fast piqué turns in act one suggested the suppressed hysteria Giselle must feel over her intuited approaching death. An unforgettable afternoon of many excellences including Fangqui Li’s stunning Myrta. I’m still dazed. I hope you were there.
Good Lord, Jake Roxander in the Saturday evening peasant pas in Giselle. An overall wonderful performance. The corps in Act II was wonderfully in sync, and were so beautifully supple in their upper body. A congrats to the whole cast.
Good Lord, Jake Roxander in the Saturday evening peasant pas in Giselle. An overall wonderful performance. The corps in Act II was wonderfully in sync, and were so beautifully supple in their upper body. A congrats to the whole cast.