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Answers to Quiz Number 10
A Hallowe'en Quiz
October 28, 1998

1. One of the main characters in the Romantic ballet, La Sylphide, is a witch.  What is her name?

            Madge.

2. In what great 19th century Romantic ballet does the heroine dance the second act as a ghost?

       Giselle

3.  In what Balanchine ballet does Death arrive, bearing a bouquet, a black dress, and gloves for his intended?

    La Valse

4.  In what near contemporary ballet (a French production by a Russian choreographer) does a giant pumpkin inflate, turning into a Hollywood limousine?

    Rudolf Nureyev's production of Cinderella for the Paris Opera Ballet.

5.  In what Bournonville ballet do trolls figure prominently?  (The second act takes place in their underground home, the ballerina was switched at birth with a troll girl).

        A Folk Tale.

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Answers to Quiz Number 11
Another Paris Opera Ballet Quiz
by Estelle Souche
November 2, 1998

1.  This former POB principal and former POB director  won a gold medal at the Varna competition in 1976 (junior category).

    Patrick Dupond

2.  These two brothers were POB dancers, choreographers and ballet masters at the end of the 18th century and early 19th century. The ballets choreographed by the younger one include Telemaque, Psyche, The Judgement of Paris, La dansomanie.

   Maximilien and Pierre Gardel

3.  This ballet, on a music by Delibes, was premiered by the POB in May 1870.

      Coppelia

4.  This very famous Italian romantic ballerina and Paris Opera Ballet star of the Romantic era, who choreographed Le Papillon, created the examination system of the POB in the 1860s.

    Marie Taglioni

5.  The two successive directors of the POB between 1977 and 1983 were former ballerinas. The first one was French, and had been a NYCB principal; she had important roles in Balanchine's Jewels and Sonatine and Robbins' In the Night. The second one, born in Oklahoma, was a principal dancer of the Original Ballet Russe in the 40s and of the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas until 1961. She now owns a ballet school in France near Cannes.

    Respectively, Violette Verdy and Rosella Hightower

Answers to Ballet Alert! Quiz Number 12
An ABT Q uiz
by Steve Keeley

1.  Alicia Alonso was famous for her "Giselle" with ABT.   Who was her regular Albrecht? 
Igor Youskevitch.

2.  The core of ABT was originally built from the the Mordkin Ballet, founded by Mikhail Mordkin.  Only one work Mordkin choreographed for his own company made the transition to ABT.  Which ballet was it?

Voices of Spring

3.  Both ABT and NYCB have a Swan Lake and a Coppelia, but they are different versions, different choreography.  But both companies have shared the same works by the same choreographers.  Name three ballets that are (or were) in the repertory of both, and the choreographer of these works.

    Estelle Souche:   Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a faun, Fancy Free, George Balanchine's Apollo, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, The Prodigal Son

    Dale Brauner:   Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free and Other Dances, and Balanchine's Theme and Variations, Apollo, and Ballet Imperial.

    Mel Johnson:  Dim Lustre - Antony Tudor; Interplay - Jerome Robbins; Apollo - George Balanchine

    Giannina Moone: Theme and Variations, Balanchine; Fancy Free; Jerome Robbins; Dim Luster, Anthony Tudor

    Next Stage: Apollo (Balanchine), Prodigal Son (Balanchine), Fancy Free (Robbins)...there are many more, too

    Victoria Leigh: Apollo (Balanchine), Prodigal Son (Balanchine), Fancy Free (Robbins)

4.  ABT has also shared dancers with NYCB.  Name three dancers who have danced as members of both.

Estelle:  Hugh Laing, Gelsey Kirkland, Nora Kaye, Jerome Robbins, Erik Bruhn, Violette Verdy, Mikhail Baryschnikov, Ethan Stiefel...

Dale:  Ethan Stiefel, Diana Adams, Baryshnikov, Nora Kaye

Mel:  Ethan Stiefel, Erik Bruhn, Violette Verdy

Giannina:  Baryshnikov, Hugh Laing, Nora Kaye

Next Stage: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Nora Kaye, Diana Adams (many more... currently: Ethan Steifel, Charles Askegard)

Victoria:  Diana Adams, Hugh Laing, Melissa Hayden, also Violette Verdy, Gelsey Kirkland, Ethan Stiefel, Mikhail Baryishnikov, etc.


5.  ABT had a company school from 1951 - 1982.  Who was its founding director?
    ?????????  (Bronislava Nijinska, per IED; or perhaps there wasn't a founding director)

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Ballet Alert! Quiz Number 13
First Nights Quiz
November 16, 1998

Who danced the first performances of the following roles:

1.  BOTH the Young Man AND Death in Roland Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort

        Jean Babilee was the Young Man and Nathalie Philipart was Death.

2.  The Accused and her Mother in Agnes DeMille's Fall River Legend

    Alicia Alonso was the Accused and Diana Adams was her Mother.

3.  Oberon, Titania, and Puck in Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

        Respectively:  Edward Villella, Melissa Hayden, and Arthur Mitchell.

4.  The lead (male) and two supporting ballerina roles in Twyla Tharp's Push Comes to Shove.

    Mikhail Baryshnikov, Martine Van Hamel, Marianna Tcherkassky.

5.  Lise and Colas in Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee.

    Nadia Nerina and David Blair.

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Answers to Ballet Alert Quiz Number 14
Great Ballet Turkeys
November 23, 1998

Nobody's perfect, and even the greatest have created ballets only a mother could love.  Each question in the quiz will name a choreographer and describe a ballet that was considered embarrassingly bad when it was created.  Your task is to Name the Ballet.

1.  In 1971, George Balanchine became fascinated by a commercial jingle and used it to create a work complete with hippies, clouds and luggage.

   PAMTGG (Pan Am Makes the Going Great), pronounced "Pam-Tee-Ga-Ga" during its brief life.

2.  Despite being chock full of sex, agony, and high lifts, this full-length ballet by Sir Kenneth MacMillan about a famous American dancer has died a quiet death.

    Isadora.

3.  In 1951, Sir Frederick Ashton choreographed a ballet about a Greek mythological figure who assumed both male and female forms. It had a score by Constant Lambert, Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes, and two snakes; it was a harshly-attacked flop.  What was the ballet?

    Tiresias.

4.  Not all Jerome Robbins-Leonard Bernstein ballets were megahits.  In 1974,  Robbins choreographed a ballet with its roots in Jewish folklore and a Yiddish play to a Bernstein score that, despite several reworkings, faded from the repertory.  What was the ballet?

    The Dybbuk, later Dybbuk Variations.

5.  In what Antony Tudor ballet did Gelsey Kirkland's character get pregnant?

   Tiller in the Fields.