If Renata Tebaldi could study a score, these young dancer squirts can. And should. And did?
BOTTOM LINE: I liked Sterling Hyltin’s performance in New York City Ballet’s La Valse, transmitted live during their Paris season earlier this month.
FULL ENCHILADA, Part 1:
Of course in dance, the only actual score that exists would be a notation score you’d have to be trained to read–and in some dance syllabuses overseas you are.
But there are videotapes, there are dancers from the past, there are all kinds of resources a performer can and should seek out.
Let’s face it, in a vintage ballet of mood and evocation like La Valse, today’s dancers need as much help as they can get it. No, you don’t just find it in yourself–don’t make me laugh. Dancers of 1951 had a wealth of theatrical resource at their disposal that today’s dancers do not. Today’s dancers have other things–exceptional technique and physical articulation.
Alastair Macaulay rightfully criticized NYCB last year for performing La Valse minus telling details that are in the tape at the Performing Arts library–1/8 of a mile from the Koch theater stage door–of the original cast.