35 replies to this topic

[87Sigfried87]

I'd like to get some opinions about pas de deux in general.I started loving them only when I started studying them at the ballet school.Before I thought they were boring and the man was just an unuseful "lifter" and stop.When I then began studying the pas de deux technique I suppose I discovered a whole new and amazing world.Now I love them and I think they are one of the topic moments in a ballet,on which to quote the ability,both technical and interpretative,of dancers.Now,in my opinion,the most moving and beautiful pas de deux is the "white swan pas de deux".It really gives me a vast range of emotions...and what about You?Do You like PDDs?which one is your favourite and which are the ones you really can't stand?
I'm waiting for your answers;-)


P.S. I didn't know where to post this so if You want to move it to a more appropriate forum It's no problem.

[carbro]

This is a perfect place for this topic, dancerboy.  

I, too, love pdds, and agree that White Swan is perhaps the most eloquent.

My all-purpose favorite, however, is probably Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.   Another favorite -- while not a complete entree-adagio-variation-variation-coda pdd (then, neither is White Swan), is from Sleeping Beauty's Vision Scene.

Hmmm, I hope my taste is more eclectic than this post suggests!  Okay, a favorite non-Tchaikovsky pas would be the slow movement from Symphony in Three Movements -- Stravinsky.  I find the choreography so witty and original, even with dancers who may not be either.

[Farrell Fan]

One of my favorite pdd's is the slow movement of Jerome Robbins's "In G Major," to the music of Ravel. It's almost like being in love.

[vipa]

I second the vote for Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux for a favorite all purpose ppd.

The one I particularly love, however, is the ppd from the 2nd act of Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream.  It never fails to move me.

[Helene]

vipa, on Aug 25 2007, 05:45 PM, said:

The one I particularly love, however, is the ppd from the 2nd act of Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream.  It never fails to move me.

That's my favorite, too.

[JMcN]

The duet for Titania and Oberon in Sir Frederick Ashton's The Dream is my favourite.

Another close runner is the grand pas from Act 3 of Sleeping Beauty


OK - Top 5:     The Dream
                      Act 3 grand pas from Sleeping Beauty
                      Tchaikovsky pdd
                      Don Quixote pdd (because it is so kitsch)
                      Two Pigeons (final duet) - absolutely heartbreaking

I appreciate that my first and last choices are not conventionally structured pdd but they do it for me!

[canbelto]

All of these are great, but I'd like to add:

Giselle Act 2 pdd (both of them) - in fact, the moment when Giselle touches Albrecht for the first time may be my favorite moment in the entire ballet. But the grand pas de deux when done well is always breathtaking. And this isn't really a pas de deux, but when dawn comes, the Wilis depart, and Giselle lifts the near-dead Albrecht up and then tells him that she must leave him forever never fails to get me.

La Bayadere - Shades pas de deux between Solor and Nikya

Symphony in C - movement 2

Bottom/Titania pas de deux

[bart]

For classical grand pas de deux, it would have to be the tandem combination of White Swan/ Black Swan.  Each stands alone beautifully (especially the first), but together they are enhanced by the contrasts and allusions between them.

Does this have to be about grands pas only?  If we may also talk about male/female duets of other kinds, I'd also mention a few that I have sometimes fantasized dancing (if only I could dance   ).  

A few of these are fairly cheesey, I'm afraid, so pass on if you are a strict classiscist.

-- Afternoon of a Faun (Robbins)
-- Spartacus, his pdd with Phrygia (Grivgorovich)
-- The two contrasting pdd in Stravinsky Violin Concerto (Balanchine)
-- balcony pdd in MacMillan's (but not Lavrovsky's) Romeo and Juliet

I love the opportunities for passionate movement and acting given to males in these.  I can't imagine fantasing myself as a Nutcracker or Diamonds Cavalier.

Two examples of male-female partnereing don't count as pdd's, since the man and women interact with other characters on the stage:
-- the parts of Giselle in which Albrecht is forced by the Wilis to dance to exhaustion, and Giselle tries to save him.  This is the height of dance-as-love in all ballet, as far as I am concerned  (Edited to add:  canbelto was posting something similar, much more eloquently, at the same time I was typing.)
-- James and the Sylphide in La Syphide Act II (Bournonville)

I'm also with carbro on Symphony in 3 Movements -- and with several of you on the Titania/Oberon pdd in Balanchine MSN'sDream, which I prefer to Ashton's, perhaps because I saw this from the beginning.

[vipa]

bart, on Aug 26 2007, 01:08 PM, said:

I'm also with carbro on Symphony in 3 Movements -- and with several of you on the Titania/Oberon pdd in Balanchine MSN'sDream, which I prefer to Ashton's, perhaps because I saw this from the beginning..

I was one of those that mentioned Bananchine's MSN's Dream, but I didn't mean the Tatania/Oberon ppd.  I meant the ppd in the 2nd act.  I think it is divine.  

Sorry, I just wanted to be clear.

[sandik]

They are not really pas de deux -- they're not long enough or developed enough, but I'm always gobsmacked by the three themes at the beginning of Balanchine's 4Ts.  And then there's Sanguinic...

[carbro]

vipa, on Aug 26 2007, 02:55 PM, said:

I was one of those that mentioned Bananchine's MSN's Dream, but I didn't mean the Tatania/Oberon ppd.  I meant the ppd in the 2nd act.  I think it is divine.

I agree, but I think one of the glories of that ballet is how often gestures and motifs from the first act pas -- Titania and her cavalier -- reappear, sometimes in more refined manner, in the second.  Like the White and Black Swan, each resonates within the other.

[bart]

Woops!  I'm sorry.  I meant the Titania/cavalier pdd.  Maybe I typed "oberon" because I now live in Eddie Villella country.     Thanks, vipa, for catching me on this.

[vipa]

bart, on Aug 26 2007, 03:45 PM, said:

Woops!  I'm sorry.  I meant the Titania/cavalier pdd.  Maybe I typed "oberon" because I now live in Eddie Villella country.     Thanks, vipa, for catching me on this.

Oh dear!  I am being so unclear.  I  mean the ppd in the 2nd act that does not involve Titania.  I don't know what to call it.  Can someone help?  It is a true gem.

[hksm]

It's usually called the "Act II Divertissement."

[vipa]

hksm, on Aug 26 2007, 10:00 PM, said:

It's usually called the "Act II Divertissement."

Thank you - that's what I meant.