What do you think?

I am not talking about a twenty/thirty minute condensed version for children. I was thinking about an evening length, adult and children appropraite version. What does everyone think? I would base it more off of the original story (not tooo gross.) But, I would have a big emphasis on the evil queen.

Music ideas, etc. are much appreciated!!!

I already know about Bruce Wells' version for BBII and PNB; but I want to do either a three or two act ballet for it.

Maybe I am nuts ???

I think it would work. Would you have children play the dwarves?

as you may or may not recall, petipa's final and disastrous production was THE MAGIC MIRROR based on SNOW WHITE, which doesn't mean the idea is undoable, just that russian ballet's old man of the art didn't bring off his try.
true there seems to have been a good deal of intrigue working against marius p. at this time in his legendary career.
there are isoloated photos of the production around in books and of the settings, by korovin, which apparently petipa believed sabotaged his intentions.
gorsky subsequently did his own re-vision in moscow but it seems to have had only a short shelf life.
paul taylor's SNOW WHITE is a riff on the disney and is rather amusing, for a one-act modern-dance take.

Hey rg! Yes, I read an article about this ballet "Magic Mirror" in a magazine a couple of years ago or so; I may have to have a score commissioned... I have also heard of Paul Taylor's version - mine would really try to be a semi-classical production (in pointe shoes etc.)

Hey Hans!- I think I would probably use the shortest guys in my company and maybe even some girls for the dwarfes? hmmmmmm

(of course this is all just a fantasy for me; i do not actually have a company, but hope to someday!)

kirov productions of prokofiev's CINDERELLA have traditionally used children for the 12 dwarves that come out of the clock to strike the hour of midnight.
paul taylor calls his contingent of dwarves 'some dwarves' b/c he didn't have 7 likely candidates when he made his cynical version focussing on snow white's vanity, etc.

Snow White's vanity? What twisted version did Paul Taylor's parents tell him growing up?

Joseph I think that sounds like a good idea--you can do much more interesting things choreographically with short men than you can with children, and you could have Snow White played by a tall dancer, so that plus the added height of pointe shoes could give the illusion that the "dwarves" are even shorter than they really are.

I didn't get that vanity was a major point of the Taylor work. Snow White was, for a heroine, somewhat passive, as I recall. Now the Poison Apple, on the other hand, was pretty central.

There were five dwarves (including, in the original cast, the majestically built David Parsons), and they all spent the whole ballet dancing in squatting position. Ouch!

Of course, casting is easy if you have Cathy McCann on hand, who really did resemble Disney's conception of Snow White.

perhaps i'm confusing snow white's vanity w/ the prince's smugness?
someone keeps looking at him or herself in a hand mirror i seem to recall.
i do think however that whatever else she's like, snow white fails to look back with much gratitude on the dwarves after she's spirited away by her prince, leaving the poor fellows bereft. or maybe i'm misremembering things.
i need to consult the DANCE IN AMERICA tape i suppose.

I'd have to check it, but I think Lifar choreographed a version of "Snow white".

Yeah, Hans - I think that is a good point to have her be taller so that the dwarfs look shorter. Hmmm... Who would make a good Snow White?

Estelle- It would be great to see any information you know of, on Lifar's version (if there is one)

Several years ago, the Alabama Ballet did a full length version of this ballet. I was in attendance, although my memories of it are foggy. It think it had to have been sometime around 1993. This was staged when Sonia Arova and Thor Sutowski were still directing the company. I can't speak of the production's artistic success, as I was a child and was not watching with a critical eye. However I do happen to remember that the dwarves were played by short company dancers!

Thanks Brivagook for that info!

Veronika Part. She has that dark hair, a magnificent face, she's tall, and oh, what a dancer!

http://abt.org/gallery/detail1.asp?Image_ID=725

Here's what I have found (in Jacques Baril's "Dictionnaire de danse", published in 1964):
Lifar's "Blanche-neige" was a three act ballet premiered in Nov 14, 1951 in Paris. The music was by M. Yvain, the sets by D. Bouchène, and the main dancers of the première were Liane Daydé, Nina Vyroubova, Serge Lifar, Max Bozzoni and Jean-Paul Andréani.

Koegler's book also lists a Russian version choreographed by A. Andreiev and B. Fenster as "The princess and the seven knights", based on Pushkin's story, with music by Liadov, for the Maly Theatre, Leningrad, in 1949.

In the Baron at the Ballet series of books that were published in the '50's you can find fabulous pictures of the Paris Opera Ballet including a set of photos of Lifar's "Blanche-neige".

Joseph...There is a small company here in Orlando "Ballet Fedotov" (also known as Orlando City Ballet) that has recently done Snow White. It is a Full-length Ballet in Two Acts with music by a composer named Z. Pavlovsky. They also used some music from Offenbach and J Strauss.

The Evil Queen had a major role and there were several scenes with her and her cohors or Ladies in Waiting. The hunter also had an interesting role showing himself first as a very strong figure but succumbing to Snow White's beauty during a pas de deux in the forest and eventually being unable to kill her. Very touching. The dwarfs were played by children because of a shortage of men. This kept the ballet on the 'lighter' side!

I must say that the music which seemed to fit perfectly and Vadim Fedotov's choreography made this a very enjoyable ballet!

Hi Tango49! Thanks so much; I will look into this ballet company. Do they have a website? The only companies I know of in Orlando are Orlando Ballet Theater and Central Florida Ballet. I actually choreographed a pas de deux for Central Florida Ballet with dancers from Boston Ballet in August of 2002.

Orlando City Ballet

Joseph...Thanks Hans for posting the website! I just wanted to add that Orlando City Ballet is a pre-professional company whereas Ballet Fedotov is a professional one. I know it's abit confusing! Actually Vadim Fedotov recently was appointed AD of OCB after the untimely death of Beatrice Aldana the founder. Vadim had his own studio in Orlando (Russian Academy of Ballet) and his own professional company called Ballet Fedotov which is for the most part seperate from OCB. I think you would call Ballet Fedotov a civic company as they often use dancers who are members of other companies like Sarasota Ballet.

I'm very familiar with both CFB and OB as well. How interesting that you choreographed a piece there with the BB dancers. I do remember them guesting!

Ballet Met will be doing 'Alice in Wonderland' this winter-
ALICE IN WONDERLAND--World Premiere
February 9 - 19, 2006
Capitol Theatre
Choreography: Gerard Charles
Music: TBD

Balletmet.org

Since it's standing on it's own I would think it would be more than one act, but who knows!

Tango49 - Yes, it was in August of 2002. These dancers are now at Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdamn. Actually, they were originally from there, came to Boston for about two years and then went back in 2003. Did you get to see this performance?

oh wow, I' m really blind, the ballet was not about Alice in Wonderland, but Snow white! OOPS! ahah I just had my wisdom teeth out, so let us blame it on the drugs! *mods delete both post if you would like!*

Any music suggestions?

I'm glad Dansuer85 brought up "Alice in Wonderland," because I would choose David Del Tredici for the music. I loved his music for "Alice," and I think if he did "Snow White," it wouldn't be too sugery.

Alice in Wonderland has a balett sounds great
to bad i can´t see it but when it will be put up in Sweden or Denmark i would love to see it

There's a rather remarkable looking Snow White being presented by the Estonian Ballet if the clips on the unmentionable video website provide enough of a view to judge... choreographed by Gyula Harangozó.

I don't know how well the choreography would stand up without the fabulous set and staging, but it certainly looks like it would hold itself well for a "family ballet" evening.

Has anyone on this forum seen it live? Does the company tour much? There don't seem to be any photos of the work yet on the company's website: http://www.estballet.com but in the video it looks to have high production values. I am surprised not to have heard much of the production. Is this because of geographic isolation, is Estonia cultivating a secret treasure?

Ooops... I went back to check the video out again and see it's of the Hungarian National Ballet... apparently Estonia is also presenting it.

And I'm not saying it's transcendent choreography, but it looks pretty good for fitting the "family" bill... what else is usually on that menu? Cinderella, Nutcracker, Coppelia, La Fille Mal Gardee, Sleeping Beauty and what else?

Uh, hello, but I've danced in a several classical three act "Snow White" performances, both in Japan and America many years ago. I think Japan used Humperdink's music? In the States, we used Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, which of course has a similar story, but also transposed it slightly: e.g. forest animals variations were done to SB's Act 1 fairys' variations etc.. And the music for the dwarves also had the pinging of the triangle in the orchestra to remind me of the beginning of Disney's "High-Ho" in the mine etc.. It was a fun performance, and there are many times that I've listened or watched SB productions and remembered Snow White.

I somehow found this site...
It is like Disney World!; but I think it is cool!
Good for children anyway!

Not Sweden or Denmark, anyway English National Ballet has in its repertoire Derek Deane's Alice in Wonderland. The music is a mix of Tchaikovsky's works.

There is also the the Aragon-Cué "Blancanieves" (Snow White in Spanish), danced a few times by Tamara Rojo and available as DVD.
I don't know if they are plannig to propose again the full ballet, but Tamara is still dancing the pdd in some galas.

Music suggestions? ? ? ?

I know there are several composers (ie Delibes, Minkus, etc.) which have nice danceable scores from other ballets. But does anyone know of music they would like seen into a ballet, in particular a Snow White???
Can be more twentieth / twenty first century too! (ie. Philip Glass, etc.)

It would probably be helpful if the composer were not from the Terribly Serious Concert Composers, but rather from light music. This thing would have to sell tickets, and would be unlikely to succeed if it tried to educate the audience in music at the same time it tried to present good choreography.

"... unlikely to succeed if it tried to educate the audience in music at the same time it tried to present good choreography."

I lke that.
Happens all the time, doesn't it?

-d-

There's a reason why the old ballets with staying power are built on a model like "five minutes plot, twenty minutes divertissement, three minutes summary, curtain" for each act.

One of the surest ways to make a production fail is for it to proclaim itself High Art. The only thing worse is to be perceived by the audience as "good for you". "Good for you" is sort of the prune juice of show bizness. Trying to teach the audience too much about too many things at one go is a good way to be perceived as "good for you".

But they still might be able to do it without using Alan Mencken. Mightn't Del Tredici compose it within the salable model of plot, divertissment, etc. without making anyone think think they were getting too much High Art or Carob Drink? Couldn't it still be for the whole family without posturing as Important? I'm not sure Snow White is as likely as Alice to lead anyone to fear subtleties. Oh well, Janet Maslin said Mencken's Beauty and the Beast music was 'suave', and that didn't ruin it for anyone (since that wasn't quite accurate anyway.) Time for Alan to go into his 'classical period', so can leave legacy, as when Clint Eastwood left nightmare things like 'The Gauntlet' and the Dirty Harry movies behind and became 'Unforgiven' auteur. People have been talking about how ABT SB has Burger King in it, so the trend may already be to junk food.

There is a score by Bogdan Pawlowski, titled Królewna Śnieżka i siedmiu krasnoludków in Polish. At one time the ballet was very popular in Eastern Europe and often alternated with The Nutcracker in the weekend matinee slot. I once saw a 19-year-old Irina Dvorovenko in the lead at the opera house in Kiev.

I really think you'd need somebody to act like Petipa in teaching a composer of whatever eminence how to write for ballet. Having a choreographic script between libretto and score would help immensely. Tchaikovsky hated them, but they seemed to work all right for Beauty and Nutcracker.

But between Burger King and the Eggless, No-salt, Low-cholesterol Spinach Quiche enriched with multivitamins, there is a vast gulf. There are hundreds of fit musicians in there. And we've seen what happens to Burger King in ABT's production.

That sounds like it ought to happen in all cases, although probably is fairly rare. I wonder how often it does by now. Also wonder why I have a harder time wanting to see a Snow White ballet than the other fairy tales--could be the Disney aspect sticks more because of the songs. I don't think think of the Disney cartoons of Pinocchoi, Peter Pan and Cinderella in the same way, although if there are ballets about Donald Duck and Bambi--and I've no doubt there will be--I may balk still more.

Andre Previn if he was up to it, or maybe Glass could give a perpetual-motion Snow White that will recall the "Whistle While You Work" with renewed relevance for the lunch-at-one's-desk and 14-hour work-day life-styles.

I have to agree with you that the practice of writing a choreographic script is pretty rare. We have to be sympathetic to the composers, as choreographers often expect them to come preloaded with how to write for all types of theater. Most of them don't get much exposure to writing for original ballets, and for a full-evening work, there's even less. A film studio wouldn't think of tasking a composer for a score without some sort of script involved. Ballet producers should do no less.