I just happened across the following photo of former Miami City Ballet principal, Isanusi Garcia-Rodriguez, demonstrating a degree of back flexibility that astonished me.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WYqQixTbQfQ/SYyy...00/Isanusi3.jpg

Flexibility of back is something often commented on when discussing certain male dancers. Bart Cook, former NYCB principal, comes to mind.

Which man dancers have had the most impressive back flexibility?

Which male roles require -- or benefit from -- flexibility of back?

And a question for those who actually dance or teach: is significant back flexibility compatible with the kind of back strength which seems to be required for other aspects of ballet?

Bart Cook. Exhibit A: exit as Melancholic in Dance in America "Four Temperaments" broadcast.

Bart Cook, seconded. He is the only one I could thing of, and then I read Helene's post.

Farouk Ruzimatov and quite unsuitable in academic classical ballet and somehow for me at least it has a tiny smack of the cabaret where I think it belongs. We are not talking here of the expressive stance
of Flamenco or folk or character dancing where it is not only necessary it is compulsory.

The late Victor Castelli had a very flexible and strong back. Janek Schergen, Pennsylvania Ballet 1970s-1980s, very flexible-funny he did Melancholic as well. Matthew Adamczyk, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, has quite an acrobatic and flexible back.

Taras Domitro, SFB. His Melancholic's cambre was lovely...(I saw it on video... )

The late Edward Myers, of the Pennsylvania Ballet.

Absolutely Major Johnson. Edward Myers was very strong, also quite flexible and a wonderful dancer.

...I just noticed the common denominator: "Melancholic"

Anthony Dowell. Gorgeous in Solor's first exit Bayadere Act II. He seemed to be invisibly pulled offstage upper stage right by Nikiya. A vivid memory of twenty years.

Ah, yes, Bart Cook. I hope Robert Fairchild gets to do Melancholic. He may have one of those backs, judging from First Movement Suite Three.

Jean-Pierre Frohlich. Robbins exploited his flexibility when he choreographed the "Bacchus" role in The Four Seasons. The choreography was modified, the backbends removed, after Frohlich stopped performing the role.

The role of the poet in La Sonambula requires a flexible back for the movement where he tries and fails to capture the Sleepwalker as she passes over his stretched, arched backbend.

Let's not forget Mel Tomlinson, of DTH and NYCB fame. I believe he danced Melancholic too (others will have to confirm this), but his back could be seen in action in Arthur Mitchell's Manifestations (1975), in which he played the Serpent in the Garden of Eden (sound campy? It was! But a wonderful performance from Tomlinson). For those curious about what ever became of Mr. Tomlinson, you can read a 2007 story on him here.

Peter Boal as well.

Thanks to all. This is really quite useful and -- speaking for myself -- very interesting. (Confession: I am a member of the "ramrod spine " school when doing "cambre back" in class.)

So far, almost all the examples have been from neoclassical and contemporary ballet. Leonid has posted that the extreme cambre back for men is:

Could we have, here, an example of Balanchine's -- or someone else's -- consciously revising and/or expanding the conventions of classicalism? In other words -- is the flexible male back used in choreography a marker along the road to developing a distinct "neoclassical" vocabulary? If so, is it possible to locate the earliest ballets in which Balanchine and other neoclassicists added this to the male arsenal of movement?

Does anyone know whether the flexed back was characteristic of William Dollar, the original Melancholic? If not, was the original version different, and the newer version required it? Or was it the characteristic of a particular dancer that made it a plus or pre-requisite?

"Requires"? I don't know. I've seen the backbend executed more with the thighs the back. Baryshnikov, e.g.

Vladimir Malakov, Yuri Possokov- saw (on video) do Albrecht's Act II variation- double cabriole en avant to an extreme layout!

I was also thinking of Malakhov.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...t%3D40%26um%3D1

Does he bring this quality to his dancing in any of the classics?

Interesting question, Helene. When I saw Dollar in the role he was approaching the age of 40 and he was not known for his pristine technique. I must say that seeing this "Petrouchka-like" performance was a bit of a shock and at the time we attributed it to his technique! (or lack, thereof) It was Bart Cook who became the defining Melancholic.

I saw a photograph of Malakhov in full flight in Bayadere, and the bottoms of his feet were almost touching his head.

I've never seen a more flexible back than that of Nikolai Tsiskaridze.