Entry tags:
friday.
RAYMONDA - solo, Marie Agnés Gillot
Current obsession is Raymonda, the ballet I watched five years ago and absolutely hated. However, it does have a very interesting main character, I mean, for a Petipa ballet, and probably one of the most iconic female ballet solos there is. The one linked to here in a fantastic version danced by a Paris Opera Ballet superstar. I might link to the full version of the Royal Danish Ballet's production later which is on YouTube and which was the one that made me hate it. I don't anymore, is the point. I don't know what I had expected of the story, it's Russian Romantic era breathing its last, after all, but I hadn't expected that. Hübbe's version downplays the original racist overtones (the villain is a Muslim Mauretian-Spanish prince who tries to force his advances on Raymonda and abduct her, only to be slain by the "good" white prince's sword) and makes it less a question of the fight between two different religions and more a question of different values between two individual men. Do I understand the sentiment? Yes. I am all for trying to work with the racism inherent in ballet as an art form and in many specific ballets. Do I think he 100% succeeds? No. It seems a bit forced at times and there's still that last shred of Orientalism in the Mauretian prince's costume. But, do I love J'aime Crandall's Raymonda? Yes. Do I love the glimpse I get of Caroline Baldwin's Raymonda in the third act that was part of the Ballet de Luxe three years back and available for streaming on the RDB website? Yes. I love Raymonda as a character and think she has so much potential, as always with ballet so unfulfilled and unexplored.
Guess I'm here to change that.
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I think I warned you last time I posted. One idea might become another very quickly, very swiftly with me at the moment and that only proved all the more true when I during yesterday managed to change courses for my NaNo project not once but twice, the last idea here the most durable, I think. I decided that since Raymonda and Giselle are the two ballets with one) their heroines names in them and two) two of my least favourite ballets, I would dive into them and try to explore them from my own perspective to maybe gain a new outlook on them. I've already done that with Giselle and it has definitely worked. Let's see if Raymonda, which I truly hated back then, can be a similar experience. I've watched parts of the ballet yesterday and liked parts of it well (though, the costumes for the opening act will never be my favourite, ugh, the colors), but I am getting a feel for Raymonda as a character and look forward to shipping the shit out of her and Giselle in this project. Basically, what I'm doing is re-imagining the Giselle storyline as set in the 18th century with Raymonda taking Albrecht's place, but otherwise similar. You can all read more over at
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raymonda.Also, look at those beautiful Amy Watson as Raymonda-icons I've made! My life has been saved by discovering Photopea, what is basically Photoshop step-by-step but in your browser and free?? I didn't realise how much I'd missed being able to make my own icons, but dear Lord, am I obsessed now. Just a warm recommendation from here!