Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell Rehearse 'Thais' with Frederick Ashton

I've put together two pieces of film: Sir Frederick Ashton rehearsing 'Thais' (1971) with Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell with footage of Sibley and Dowell performing the ballet.

For me what's really interesting about the rehearsal is hearing Ashton shaping the expression of the piece and tuning the choreography.

At times, Sibley and Dowell also heard talk about working with the choreographer.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Frederick Ashton
• Thais
• Antoinette Sibley
• Anthony Dowell

[felixdevilliers1]

Thank-you! After seeing a small snippet of this ballet, Thaìs, - which I never saw live - I have been waiting all my life for more. I hope that one day I'll be able to see all of it. There is such a noble grace in the ballet and those two dancers. Well, if I'm sadly destined never to se it, Margot Fonteyn's Salut d'Amour makes up fo all losses.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi felixdevilliers1

i think someone said the wholeof thais is somewhere on film - i saw it in the theatre in the early to mid 70s as a kid in london at covent garden and was bowled over by it - the music just begs for ashton's choreography

i saw Margot Fonteyn's Salut d'Amour and when ashton came on at then end and danced a few steps with fonteyn there was such a swell of motion in the audience ... and in me - it was incredibly moving - something to treasure

[nickwallacesmith]

hi felixdevilliers1 - yes apparently a few years back it was re-mounted for Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas La Riche. but as you so rightly say, Salut d'Amour could be done by no-one other than fonteyn - it was fred's final salute to her and had snippets of many of the works he made for her - it would be meaningless from another dancer. i saw her do 'corsaire' - in 1973 (i think) ballet celebration for the entry of the UK into the EEC - technically not absolutely secure but it worked well as theatre!

[felixdevilliers1]

@nickwallacesmith - Well I sincerely hope I'll get to see that film one day. How lucky for you to have seen Salut live. Like Sibley and Seymour I couldn't make much of Fonteyn to begin with, but fortunately I had begun to appreciate her genius when I saw her in the Berlioz R&J pas de deux, in R &J itself and in Poème de l'Extase. I wrote an essay on Fonteyn which is still a treasured piece for me and I tried to integrate the accusations of stiffness into the essence of her dancing.

[felixdevilliers1]

@nickwallacesmith

I heard that Sylvie Guillem, who apparently wielded some power at the Opera house, forced the company to let her do Marguerite and Armand - is this true? But Salut d'Amour is for Fonteyn and Fonteyn only. It's an intrinsic part of her being, it belongs to her.- In the Corsaire pas de deux she is not brilliant but alights as if from another realm where the skies are bluer, in Sylphides she gives the ballet a sense which I have never found again, except with Lynn Seymour.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Pearlaceous - i remember opera goers telling me they used to stash tape recorders in their mink stoles on Callas nights at covent garden - the best recordings are those live performances! at the old met in NY fonteyn and nureyev were filmed from the audience so things can't have been so restrictive back in those days - after 9/11 it's such a different world, cheers!

[Pearlaceous]

@nickwallacesmith Exactly! Daren't even take a photograph either - the ushers are too horribly vigilant for their own good! Last time I went I got "reprimanded" just for leaving my bag on the edge of the balcony - and only a teeny bag, too! :-)

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Pearlaceous - yep, a pity they don't as a matter of course record major works and performances - they used to here back in australia in the latter part of joan sutherland's career - once an opera house is set up costs should be able to be contained.

[Pearlaceous]

@nickwallacesmith I'll let you know what it's like! Too much to hope that the BBC might actually record it though! :-)

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Pearlaceous - lovely - so wish i was there to see Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin in Margerite and Armand - thanks for passing that on - appreciated!