sandik

I wish I'd been around to see that one! I'd forgotten the anecdote about Tallchief and the SPF -- I can certainly understand the difficulty of waiting until almost the end of the ballet to dance 'the big one.' I'm always fascinated with how malleable Nutcracker seems to be -- almost more than any other ballet that we seem to know, Nut flexes with all kinds of changes, and still maintains its identity.

Nutcracker This production is 27 years old and wears its years very well, in large part due to the imaginative stylistic choices that Maurice Sendak and Kent Stowell made during their initial meetings about their collaboration. By placing the second act in an “Oriental” court, full of Asian, African and Middle Eastern references, they found a setting that has more substance than a Land of the Sweets, and a remarkably coherent set of dance cues. It also meshes extremely well with Sendak’s eccentrically baroque style, so that mouse heads peek out from the curliques in the set, and the high-waisted Empire-style dresses in the first act are related to the long tunics of the Moorish dancers in the second. And since they chose to follow the ‘coming of age Clara’ pathway, the double casting of Drosselmeier as the slightly lecherous Pasha makes dramatic sense as well. The stage tricks are mostly from the same era that the work is staged in (the toy theater elements, the wave effects during the voyage (with dolphins!), the panorama. And tangentially, most companies can’t afford to use the full panorama effect in their productions of Sleeping Beauty, including PNB, but we’ve got it here for Nutcracker! I saw the November 27 matinee, during the opening weekend of the run. In the first act Jerome Tisserand had a great hostly/fatherly vibe, especially when he was managing Drosselmeier – it was clear he was an old family friend. Uko Gorter’s Drosselmeier is a grown up jolly boy, egging the other boys on as they rush the girls to disrupt their game. Are the flapping owl wings on the clock a tribute to the Balanchine production, or are they from the original story? In this production all the toy soldiers pile out of a tiny guardhouse – is this an echo of the Mother Ginger house in the second act? The cannon are quite loud – I see lots of startled jumping in the audience. And once we’re finished with the battle, the ship leaves stage left, only to apparently turn around off stage and re-enter from stage left. Seth Orza makes a nice prince here, and Maria Chapman is a very lovely Clara. The Sugar Plum variation is the first solo in the second act, which makes it less of a climax overall. Chapman does a very nice job with this, but is a little awkward in spots during the duet later in the act, which could be just opening weekend adjustments. After the Prince tells his story, the courtiers “clap” by waving their hands in the air – the same gesture as American Sign Language. Stowell’s big group dances here (Snow and Flowers) start fast and stay there, which can make them feel a bit agitated if there’s any sign of trouble in the corps or leaders. As Flora (leads the flowers) Lindsi Dec does a great job – fleet and rhythmic. She rides on top of the flow, so that things get done, but they don’t feel rushed. Alastair Macaulay’s review, in his Nutcracker journal, talks about the convention of “theaters inside of theaters,” which seems very appropriate here with all the old-fashioned stage technology on display, but it also reminded me of The Wizard of Oz, especially at the end, where Clara literally misses the boat and has to return to her time and place empty-handed, rather like Dorothy waking up after her big adventures, only to realize that no one believed her stories of Oz.

Sorry to be so tardy with this, but life got lifelike there for a bit. Some additional thoughts about the program Opus 111 - It’s pretty easy to catch the folk dance quotations, introduced bit by bit until the finale which is almost as Americana as an Agnes deMille hoedown, but like the sly woman she is, Tharp has salted references to lots of other movement styles throughout the work. There are gymnastic somersaults and cartwheels, and old-time jazzy balances that make everyone look like they’re following along with Bill Robinson. And then there’s the classic playground trick where you dive into the arms of a friend, who catches you under your chest and hips, turning you around like Superman flying over Metropolis. We’re in the gym and the speakeasy and the playground, but it’s still a pastorale – just in an urban setting. Tharp has given many performers fun stuff to do, and they respond by having fun doing it. Kiyon Gaines and Rachel Foster had a great playfulness with each other and a kind of throwaway energy. She sometimes pushes a bit too hard, and comes off tense, but that calmed down here. Barry Kerolis has a great jaunty walk toward the end of the work – he would fit right into a production of Music Man. Arianna Lallone and Karel Cruz are each tall dancers by themselves, but when they perform together they seem even taller, so that they can fold their arms and legs into beautiful bent shapes, and still read as long-limbed. Carrie Imler, who will just knock everyone flat at the end of the program in Waterbaby Bagatelles, starts out with a powerful strength in all kinds of off-center tricks – like a Weeble, she might be supposed to wobble, but she won’t fall down. And Lucien Postelwaite is having a fabulous time. Last year, after a beautiful performance of Square Dance with Imler, Postelwaite joked during the post-show Q/A that Imler was such a strong performer than he was just there to “put the cherry on the top.” That may be the case, but he is approaching that kind of strength and reliability himself. Throughout this repertory, Postlewaite throws himself with abandon into all kinds of physical challenges, and triumphs with each challenge. As well as quotations from almost everywhere in the dance world, Tharp includes references to herself as well – the flat-footed reverance at the end of the work is from her own drunken solo in Eight Jelly Rolls. Afternoon Ball – This feels even more complicated than it did on its opening, with the relationships between the three street kids shifting back and forth continually. Last time around Charlie Hodges’ tour-de-force performance made the Wevers character a little more backgroundy – Hodges was on speed and Wevers was on downers. This time around it’s easier to see what Wevers is doing, a whole catalog of twitches as he continually follows something that only he can see. Eames is a tough cookie in ¾ time with very eccentric accents, but the real surprise in that part is Maria Chapman. I almost didn’t recognize her at first with the frazzled wig and ragged tights – I didn’t know she could look that trashed. Andrew Bartee did some excellent work in the Wevers role, on the wafty side. (in the post-shop Q&A he said his character isn’t sure that the other characters even exist) The repetitive nature of the score is exhausting, possibly like the repetition of homelessness. Jeffrey Stanton and Lallone were very settled and refined as Biedermeir couple – Laura Gilbreath and Jerome Tisserand looked a bit younger, in part because they seemed a bit mismatched. Poretta starts to shift his posture/gesture to emulate them, but are they actually there? Waterbaby Bagatelles - Bold is looking quite buff here, leading his entourage. I know he often dances Theseus in Midsummer, but seeing him here I’m wondering what he’d look like as Oberon. In the meantime, Postlewaite (in a kilt) has a little head bobble going while his feet are all fast and crisp, rather like patting your head while you’re rubbing your stomach. Tisserand drops everything to check on his nails – he’s developing a nice comic timing. Korbes and Cruz are just as lush as their velour costumes in the duet. Lots of over-the-shoulder flirting and sequential spines. Korbes very carefully rocks back and forth on her belly when Cruz tips her forward – Leslie Rausch (dancing with Wevers) very carefully does not. He hops backward each time to miss getting hit by her leg in a supported turn, the mechanics of partnering made transparent. The big “number” for the men to the Mickey Hart excerpt just builds and builds like a Broadway finale, and we could go home happy if it did end here. This is the section that keeps Peter Boal repeating “Twyla likes her men” and they get a huge catalog of fun things to do. Wevers does a great drunk bit, Gaines puts up his dukes as a boxer, Kerollis makes a sweet slide into home, and Josh Spell looks like he’s channeling Tommy Tune’s “gee, shucks” virtuosity. Bold is like Charles Atlas flexing his muscles, but fleet-footed and tricky. His solo might easily be related to the John Selya part in Surfer on the River Styx. This is like the Golden Section from Catherine Wheel, one of the only dances I know where a pair of gold lame briefs seem perfectly in place. But then Tharp shifts to a John Adams score, and everything is kicked up exponentially. Everyone charges through the space, but soon it’s Imler who takes the lead, summoning people from the wings and gathering them all to her. This is like the second act of Giselle in Valhalla, only Myrtha is a valiant force for good and surges from strength to strength.

A friend sent me this stop-motion version of the Hoedown from Copland's Rodeo -- it's not deMille but it is thoroughly charming. Hoedown

Ah, the romance of travel!

But surely the see-through luggage would mean they could skip the scanner.

Since I work as a critic I've kept myself out of this discussion, but I just wanted to say I got a big giggle out of the preceeding quote -- I don't understand a thing after the phrase "next generation of"

This is excellent news -- we've all heard so much about Ratmansky's Don Q, but not many of us have had a chance to see it!

I envy you the opportunity -- I'm not sure I'll get to see the company on this tour. The best advice I can give you is to go without expectations, and to be willing to look anywhere at anything. More than almost anyone else I know, Cunningham's work embodies a world of polar opposites. It is highly virtuosic, and yet the performers onstage may be doing something that you yourself did when you got out of bed this morning. It is not designed to tell a story or convey a specific emotion, and yet it is tremendously evocative and will often leave me wiped out. And the most important part of the world can be right over there, and several other places as well, at the same time. I know it can sound zenny, or odd, but I've had some of the most astonishing experiences in the theater with this work, not because of what I saw, but because of how it made me look at it. Please do come back here and tell us what you saw.

Oh, the photo page is such fun -- I loved the image of Linda Hamilton and Victoria Simon!

Breaking Away? Golly, that's my vintage.

At the end of the Entertainment Weekly piece on ballet in film is this news tidbit: And finally, news broke today that Chloë Moretz, Jackie Earle Haley, and Bailee Madison have joined Kristen Bell in Dance of the Mirlitons, a film about a curvy ballerina with a stage mom (Bell) who attempts to make it in the tough business. (Producer Daniel Dubiecki’s rep confirms The Hollywood Reporter‘s report with EW; Madison will play the ballerina, Moretz will play the class’ ace pupil, and Haley will play a sadistic Russian ballet teacher in the film, which will be helmed by Evan Greenberg.) pop watch Does anyone know anything about the actors involved?

Other comments aside, I appreciated his observations of the Pacific Northwest Ballet production, and his discussion of the "theater inside a theater" - "is this real or just a dream" elements of the work. It reminded me of the scene at the end of The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy insists that all her friend were in Oz with her "and you were there too," but none of them believe her.

Here are a few more gigs. Stacey Lowenberg and Jeffrey Stanton - Ballet Des Moines (12/10-12) Karel Cruz - Goh Ballet (Victoria) (11/26-28) Chalnessa Eames and Olivier Wevers - Lafayette Ballet Theatre (12/11-12) Jerome Tisserand - Allegheny Ballet Co. (12/17-19) Chalnessa Eames and Benjamin Griffiths - Eagle Performing Arts Center (Idaho) (12/16-18) Lucien Postlewaite - Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre (12/-17-19 -- with Melody Hererra from Houston Ballet and Whim W'him) Kiyon Gaines - San Diego Ballet (either 12/4-5 or 16-17)

I saw AM in the lobby at Pacific Northwest Ballet's performance on Saturday afternoon, so I imagine we'll be hearing about that production somewhere along the line. I must say I'm in awe of his travels -- he's been here several times since he started at the Times, as well as many other places all over the country (not to mention getting back home to England occasionally!) As a critic, I love to visit other dance communities, but as a freelancer it's all on my dime. Congratulations to AM and to the Times for supporting this kind of travel!

I've been watching some of the coverage of the Royal Danes, looking for Jodie Thomas, and here she is, as Aurora in their new production of Sleeping Beauty from Eva Kistrup's review on danceviewtimes here A big step for her -- I'm glad to hear about the casting.

I've been thinking a lot lately about classic structures -- the sonata allegro form, the Commedia characters, the genre painting, the sitcom, the limerick. These things are like old trucks that just keep running, and no matter how thrilling some new car might be, if you need a truck, a truck is what you need. There's something about a work that lays out the expectations at the top and then fulfills them that is incredibly satisfying.

I cannot remember off the top of my head, but weren't they both in the excerpts from Liebeslieder that the company performed for Stowell and Russell's retirement? I know that was a one-off, but it would be lovely to see it again! But I wouldn't complain a bit if it were Emeralds!

Ok, between Stanton and Lallone it will be a jam-packed Encore show at the end of the season. I'd like to propose that we predict the repertory for the program -- what will each of them dance as a fancy farewell? My guess, as of right now. The tall girl in Rubies for Lallone, and the Hoofer in Slaughter for Stanton.

The work I've seen so far has been excellent -- complex and kinetic and musical. I'm not sure if she's setting the work she's currently making on Whim W'him on PNB, or if she'll make something new.

Oh, excellent -- I was sad to think he wasn't dancing regularly. And he did a lovely job in Sonambula here, so he's got a part he can continue to develop.

Murray Louis was in the Navy before he started training seriously with Hanya Holm. I vaguely remember something about his GI benefits, but I could be conflating him with someone else.

I'm not sure, but I think that Arpino used GI money to study dance as well. Excellent thread!

I didn't notice when I read that, and now don't have the time to double check -- will any of those performances be conducted by the new music director?

The company is quite accomplished, and had an interesting Danish connection, from Poul Gnatt, who toured there as a principal with the RDB and then returned to found the company in 1953. They've since developed the British connections you'd expect from a company in a Commonwealth country, but they've also spent time networking with the local contemporary dance community. Yes, it does take a long, long time to get to NZ, but they have a very independent point of view and Stiefel could gain an incredible amount of experience directing there. From their website