Tamara Karsavina Talks of Performing in 'Les Sylphides' with Pavlova and Nijinsky
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- Tamara Karsavina, the great Ballets Russes Prima Ballerina, talks to camera about dancing at the Paris premier of 'Les Sylphides' on 2 June 1909 at Théâtre du Châtelet. She appeared with Anna Pavlova, Alexandra Baldina and Vaslav Nijinsky in this plotless ballet, a 'romantic reverie'.
'Les Sylphides' was choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to piano music of Chopin, orchestrated for the ballet by the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov.
First presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1907 as 'Rêverie Romantique: Ballet sur la musique de Chopin', the work became known as 'Chopiniana' and then as 'Les Sylphides', for the Ballets Russes Paris season of 1909 and at the suggestion of the set designer, Alexander Benois.
Mme Karsavina continues, discussing the choreography and the groupings, and the role of the corps de ballet as the basis of the ballet. And, in this context, she talks about and demonstrates the expression of the porte de bras - 'the arms should move softly' and 'suggest unearthly ethereal beings'.
Though we have no film of Tamara Karsavina performing in this ballet, at least here (with some imagination) we have snippets of how her upper body movement might have appeared to audiences at the legendary premier of this work at the Mariinsky Theatre and at the performances Ballets Russes.
Enjoy!
When she said, "especially the arms, which should move softly, like this...", as she demonstrated her most beautiful port de bras, I swooned...
She was so beautiful her whole life and from I see she was beautiful inside and out, gentle and intelligent.
As a teacher I try so hard to pass this incredible heritage on. It seems to get harder every year for young dancers to understand the people who gave us this precious art form.
yes, students could learn so much from these original interpreters of roles - I just got a radio chat between Karsavina and Rambert about their time with the Ballets Russes and roles and performance
Karsavina is one of the most beautiful elderly women I’ve ever seen, and she still moves here with such graceful expression! I try to think of all of the ballets she made classic and my head spins to wonder what it was like to be her as such a young artist! And I’m not a dancer!
yes, and for me part of the beauty is her sonorous voice - and to have been at the Ballets Russes when all those new roles were to be created!
Карсавина божественна даже в этом возрасте. I couldn’t believe that I can see her alive in this video. We just learned in ballet school about these great dancers and Fokin’s ballets. Thank you John.
Karsavina was not only a great ballerina of her time creating some of the most famous roles-but later the vast wealth of her knowledge of these roles which she delighted in passing down to the next generations has given us the opportunity to recreate mime sequences and mannerisms and style far better than relying solely on notation and scores- as have so many of her fellow great ballerinas also -This is the true heritage of these great ballet dancers and our present ballerinas Monica Mason etc
hi Siegfried. yes, absolutely - and how wonderful it must have been for so many people at the RB when Karsavina re-created 'Firebird' for Fonteyn - i remember reading she gave the British ballerina a vital clue about the bird - 'there is nothing human here. just the sort of thing to build the role on.
Oh to have been a fly on the wall then and to hear her relate her own experiences and interpretation as taught her by Fokine !!!
Siegfried she was alive when i lived in London - i had lots of connections with CG and the ballet and wonder if i might not have been able to inveigle a visit somehow. but then i didn't want to intrude and impose.
I bet you regret that now
Siegfried yes, i do - and foolishly try to comfort myself by hanging onto my interpersonal sensitivities!
I visited Mme. Karsavina's grave today, but unfortunately, it's in a terrible condition. Her headstone, which is below that of her husband's, is completely overgrown and covered in grass; you actually can't even see it! Or it's been removed and will be replaced; I don't know... I hope it's the latter because a great figure like Mme. Karsavina deserves the best.
How sad,,,
With Karsavina's words, the Paris premiere of "Les Sylphides" is another performance I would love to travel back in time to watch with my own eyes!
I am thrilled to feel I sit in the same room with Maestra Karasavina. Further, to see her introduce a very young Svetlana Beriosova. How valuable documentaries are in existence. Excellent film of her brilliance and presence so strong in footage, I wonder how her presence on stage must have been, too. Thank you, sir.
my pleasure - if you have not seen it, you might like to look at my upload 'Tamara Karsavina Reflects on the Ballets Russes Company of Serge de Diaghilev'
czcams.com/video/wm8cEsUN42Y/video.html
Thank you for posting this jewel.
pleasure - it's great hearing from the participants themselves - in a way it seems to imaginatively put you there for a moment. :)
Thank you so much for this treasure! The reverence that Karsavina gives to the ballet is revealing of her nature as true Ballerina! One can only imagine how wonderful it would have been to not only see her dance, but to learn from her as well!
hi Tnotare
yes, it's wonderful hearing her talk of such legendary performances, particularly ones including those where she was partnered by Vaslav Nijinsky.
Fonteyn must have treasured being coached by her in 'Firebird'!
Food for the soul, thanks!!!
That magnificent port de bras.......still there. Thanks again.
To John...it's a delight to see this.
I looked at the transcript because I could not catch all of the names
at the end. Many corrections needed. I'll be glad to make them
if it is allowed. And thanks for posting these treasures, which I am
discovering slowly.
it is a delight, isn't it. as much as the content, it is the beauty of her deep voice that makes this footage wonderful
Wow. The voices from that time always move me. Thank you.
This is a pearl! Thank you!
pleasure :)
I love her presentation
OMG how did I miss this? She is so captivating.
she has such self-assurance but without it being self-enhancing ego -
and the timbre of her voice is so soothing to listen to. did you see my
upload 'A Legend Reflects on a Legendary Company [1]' where she reflects
on the company she was most associated with and on some of the
principal members and artistic collaborators of that troupe?
John Hall I'll go look for it.
hope you react to it with the pleasure i did :)
Dear John, you need to label this more clearly as "le Prelude" to Les Sylphides. At last my dream of really meeting Karsavina has been fulfilled. What a performance. Artists of that time knew how to create atmosphere, to use emanation, to control and modulate mood, a forgotten art.
Dear zzindorf
thanks so much for the suggestion - i've changed the title acordingly
yes, the performance really has the correct 'atmosphere' - a genuine performance.
Oh wow! Just to see the few seconds of her port de bras is amazing! A lost art! So beautiful! I amazed at how well she speaks English! And she plays the piano too! Is this from a TV performance? Where is the rest of the film, showing the dancers she introduced dancing the ballet?
hi t koran. it is part of a filming of my video upload 'Alicia Markova, Svetlana Beriosova, Violetta Elvin and John Field in 'Les Sylphides' (1953) Pts 1, 2' - in there is a link to Vimeo where the footage is - it is banned from YT sadly :)
Why banned?? Is there any way I can see it other than on CZcams?
i had it on CZcams and it was removed due to copyright - i have it now on Vimeo - if you put in a search on my YT channel for ''Alicia Markova, Svetlana Beriosova, Violetta Elvin and John Field in 'Les Sylphides' (1953) Pts 1, 2'' you will get the Vimeo URL - CZcams doesn't like URLs in messages - usually they are put in the 'spam' box. :)
Yay! I was able to see it! Thanks! Incredibly small space they had to dance in! Probably due to studio stage or for the sake of camera work.
glad you got through - for the videos i can't upload onto CZcams i'm putting them on Vimeo and putting URLs here. yes, the stage is minute!
The magic of Karsavina...
hi villagekitty
glad you like this one - i find her fascinating to listen to - as i dream along thinking about the extraordinary people who were the ordinary people in her life!
:)
hi kikcta
isn't it - i never imagined i'd actually see and here Karsavina talking about these legendary performances!
I am in tears. There are no words to describe such beauty even in her old age so dignified. Thanks.
it moved me very much too - my pleasure
hi Christopher
yes, Karsavina's voice in particular is beautifully accented and deep .
glad you are moved by the voices of this time too!
cheers
Quelle grâce dans ce port de bras, et quel toucher de piano !
!!!!!!!!+++ Дуже дякую за відео !!!
hi Numberone filmfan
isn't it just
and listening to Karsavina talk takes me so easily back into the milieu of those now legendary times and performances.
Как прекрасно что такие кадры сохранились. Я как буд- то в прошлое попала
да, это проявление предусмотрительности, что зафиксировало эти моменты
по этим кадрам мы понимаем, какой был русский балет начала 20 века. очевидно, он претерпел огромные изменения за последние сто лет@@JohnRaymondHall
@@elvirasavinova8013 действительно, изменения велики - форма искусства постоянно меняется - хотя некоторые труппы стараются сохранить балеты такими, какие они есть.
Согласна, Например, датский балет чтит традиции Бурнонвиля, у них современный балет сохраняет прелесть старинной хореографии. @@JohnRaymondHall
@@elvirasavinova8013 истинный. Королевский балет пытается сохранить «английский стиль», но с присоединением к труппе танцоров из других стран (Нуреева в 1960-х годах и Осиповой совсем недавно) это будет непростой задачей.
Thank you so much, Nick!!
Thank you for the video.
pleasure :)
I always enjoy watching your videos, John. Very informative. Keep it up!
thanks! appreciated. i've had YT channels for over a decade so i'll be going on :) hope i can find new and interesting things to upload
an amazing woman of substance... where is that time machine of yours Alex? I want to go back there for a while :)
Magical - thank you for sharing it.
pleasure Louise - hearing her talk seems to almost put you there - or make these famed dancers seem like flesh and blood.
Thank you so much for these treasures that seem so much to me...
I'm desperately seeking a footage of Alice Nikitina Landau a Russian ballerina who used to dance in Diaghilev russian ballets, along with Markova, Serge Lifar...She danced "Les sylphides", "La chatte", "Le train bleu" and so on...
Alice Nikitina Landau took her classes with Ossepev.
I would be so delighted to see her on the screen....🙏🌟🌟🌟
hi! sadly i've search quite a lot over time and there does not seem to be any footage of Alice Nikitina dancing - Diaghilev did not allow his company to be filmed - so i guess any film of her would be after her Ballets Russes days. i'll ask an expert i know on the Ballets Russes and see if he knows of any film
@@JohnRaymondHall Thank you so much for answering me! I would love to see her after her dancing carrer! She then became a dance professor in Paris, and thereafter she bécane an opera singer. Oh what a woman !
@@deuxpoupeesrusses yes, an extraordinarily varied career - amazing. waiting for my friend about whether any film exists - will keep you posted!
@@JohnRaymondHall Thank you so much! Mille merci!!!
@@deuxpoupeesrusses my friend tells me (and in fact i knew but had forgotten - my memory!) she would have appeared in the famous outdoor rehearsal footage of 'Les Sylphides' taken at Montreux in June 1928, with Lifar (czcams.com/video/1byXMwDVQ-c/video.html). sadly it is not possible to say which dancer is Nikitina
hi villagekitty
yes, it was so evocative - so easy hearing her words to imagine her porte de bras in this way in the ballet back in 1909. and as you say when she demonstrates ... i'm in my tardis heading back in time!
hi drrabner47
isn't it! enough to be able to get a sense of the ballerina's port de bras in the ballet.
good to hear from you here at the new channel
cheers
What a great clip! Was it part of a documentary or TV programme?
hi TheBallet1
apparently time machines are very movable and relocatable - just dial and instantly (well, after a few gear-grinds!) you are where you need to be - so St Petersburg and Paris are just a few nanoseconds apart!
question is - which city to start in ... and what year - so many fantastic choices!
hi Helga
there's a curious relationship between the magic of such legends ... and what might have been their reality - not a cynical view - it's just difficult sometimes to find the actual person and the artist
i've just re-uploaded footage of Karsavina and Peter Vladimiroff performing a pas de deux from 'Sylvia' (1925).
for me, more Karsavina magic.
hi TheBallet1
apparently time machines are very movable and relocatable - just dial and instantly (well, after a few gear-grinds!) you are where you need to be - so St Petersburg and Paris are just a few nanoseconds apart!
💖💖💖💖💖
So sweet revérie!
amazing
Nijinsky's favorite ballerina. He was infatuated with her also. He wrote about her in his published diary.
Sonia A. yes absolutely - but he could occasionally disrespect her in rehearsal - i read in Richard Buckle's book 'Nijinsky' and that Diaghilev would demand he apologize. he must had great respect for Karsavina.
John Hall Didn't Fokine ask her to marry him, but she rejected him because her mother persuaded her to?
John Hall He was a socially awkward person. Maybe it explains it?
DarkDancer06 Nijinsky also wanted her but he says he only gave up because Karsavina was already married at the time.
Sonia A. Oh right, so Nijinsky was more bisexual than homosexual? If he had married Karsavina, I wonder if Diaghilev would've fired them both...
She says Pavlova Nijinsky and the others she just had to look at her program to see that she left out Baldina
good point
Nice.
hi marioriospinot
great hearing this great ballerina talk on dancing with Nijinsky in those now legendary performances of 'Les Sylphides'
What is the date of this film?
hi millriv
i am not sure - by Karsavina's appearance i would say late 1950 - Svetlana Beriosova, who was born in 1932 is described as a young dancer here and she joined Sadlers Wells in 1955.
I wonder whose rather camp idea it was to have the great lady sit at the piano and pretend to play. Her hands are nowhere near the right notes. But isn't it a wonderful record to see and hear her talking about the Ballets Russes?
yes, wonderful hearing her talk
hi TheBallet1
LOL - i think i will be able shortly to go into time machine production - i sense i really great market! in the meantime you are more than welcome to borrow my old trusty tardis!
yes a woman of substance of great substance - she was in Diaghilev's social circle for this very reason.
you'll need to move the time machine to St Petersburg or Paris first !! lol
who tf is coughing in the background?
i think it is her dog trying to get her attention