Poems and Tales from Romania

by Simona Sumanaru; Michael Hart

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If you want to see where I live in Romania, just find a decent map— look to the upper left very near Bucharest, and there is the lake.

Follow the Dimbovita [the t is really a ts] River toward town, it is going to go right through the middle of town.

As it approaches town it turns very slightly to the right, and, then again very slightly to the left.

Then more strongly to the right.

That's it. . .don't turn to the right there. . .go just another bit, the same direction the river was flowing, and you should find a mark for a church. Our windows look out right over that church.

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In closing, back to the ballet for a moment. . . .

Many of you may be familiar with this ballet under a different name: Giselle, or Giselle of the Willys, as it is more properly called. A few changes have been made, but with anything approaching traditions of choreographing Giselle over the years, it is still obvious that a great many of the traditional postures, motions or symbolic gestures in Giselles throughout the years are actually the postures, motions, and other gestures more commonly associated with ice skating. Quick reflection, even for those of you who haven't seen it for years will remind you that the opening sequences of the Willys are in fact some ice skaters out in a pond in the woods, and that they are obviously, and basically in a practice session for themselves. . .practicing in a series of long glides you only see in ice skating. . .and switched footings that only take place in ice skating. . .which. . .once this becomes obvious to you, explains the extremely awkward nature of the opening moves in Giselle, moves that are totally natural in skating, but were difficult in translation to ballet.

Of course, there is the addition of a romantic theme, one which I am sad to say I had to leave out of the version I related above, but on some future occasion I may do another version that includes it. The basics are that a few of the skaters are enamoured with Dimbovitsa— and at least one of the townspeople—most notably one of those whose role is to bring materials for torches to the hidden practice sites, and who, after watching for years, eventually makes some suggestions to Dimbovitsa, which lead to some of the new moves that come from an assortment of these practice sessions over the years. It later came to her attention that these suggestions were rooted in paintings the boy would make of her from memory, and once she saw the paintings, a new respect for what the boy had in mind was born, and a new respect for his talent, and a dim, but growing awareness of the attention he paid to her, to be able to paint her in such beautiful details, from memory. The paintings rarely actually showed the skates themselves, as he often portrayed her as a faery floating above the ice, in much the same ways as others imagined her, but this in more concrete form . . .a form that may well have been the root of the Giselle ballet.