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tomorrow

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Everything posted by tomorrow

  1. Underwhelming indeed. I'm not a big fan of a lot of mixed bills in general, they don't seem like a great way to introduce new people to ballet. And Forsythe... seriously, I don't think I feel bad about his departure from the POB. He's *everywhere* and will probably have several of his works performed by other companies touring in Paris anyway (he usually does). As for ABT, why? I'm surprised La Scala weren't smart enough to restrict ABT to touring it in the US.
  2. Josua Hoffalt doesn't hold Millepied in high regard - or Lefevre, unless I read that wrong. Not sure which tone to read the last line about Aurelie Dupont in either! http://bit.ly/1oa2c8y Karl Paquette and Stéphane Bullion have also spoken out. http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2016/02/04/benjamin-millepied-va-t-il-quitter-l-opera-de-paris_4858949_3246.html I also read a (French) article somebody tweeted I can't seem to find right now about Millepied being massively miscast and the Ministry of Culture having concerns about his ability to balance his career creating with directing. I'll try to find it or has anyone else got a link? I guess we will see how Aurelie Dupont fares. It's an interesting move for her given her eventual decision to decline signing up as a ballet master but is hiring somebody close to Benjamin Millepied really such a good idea in this kind of situation? Laurent Hilaire whilst brilliant wouldn't return for obvious reasons (although he is still interested in running a co) and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to choose between Manuel Legris and Nicolas Le Riche either. It's a shame the Paris Opera doesn't advertise vacant positions. After all, it's a subsidised organisation. Edit: William Forsythe has left his associate choreographer position. No surprises here - Millepied and Forsythe both go out of their way to promote eachother. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/arts/dance/benjamin-millepied-paris-opera.html?ref=arts
  3. There's an interview with Benjamin Millepied up on Vulture about it. http://www.vulture.com/2015/09/millepied-on-one-year-at-the-paris-opera-ballet.html It doesn't sound like it'll be all that focused on dance. :-/
  4. Really captures what ballet dancers do without relying on cliches. Can we have a hardcover book of Daniil Simkin's backstage photographs instead please? :-)
  5. Isn't Urin to blame for some of these things? He took a pretty strong stance on productions he felt were difficult to stage and seemed to feel the Bolshoi's coaches weren't capable of newer works (which, IMO, is rubbish. It is standard practise to bring in outside coaches, particularly towards the end of rehearsals, to work with a company's existing coaches). http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2015/1/31_Urin_admits_hes_become_conservative_at_Bolshoi.html
  6. English article: http://news.yahoo.com/russias-bolshoi-theatre-ditch-acid-attack-ballet-chief-104620415.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=tw Anybody else concerned about the level of control Vladimir Urin wants - and already has - over the ballet? Sergei Filin's successor won't have the same responsibilities, for starters.
  7. I don't think there's any official casting yet, just what's passed on to Dansomanie.
  8. Just wondering what people think about Wendy Perron's review (a dissenting view amongst critics?)? Food for thought. http://wendyperron.com/a-new-sleeping-beauty-but-why/
  9. Laurent Hilaire, Alessandra Ferri, Deborah Bull (her cross-cultural expertise)... just about anyone interested in creating new narrative ballets and finding a balance between homegrown talent and guests ;-). I don't think it will be an easy company to turn around though. The board don't appear to have any problems with how McKenzie runs the company - probably because ADs of major cultural institutions are always puppets.
  10. In an interview Ismene Brown recently translated, Claude Bessy accuses a trade union of making false allegations. http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2015/5/18_Paris_ballet_schools_iron_lady_speaks_frankly.html Whilst I don't think ALL of the accusations thrown at Bessy's era are false (David Hallberg and Dorothee Gilbert don't speak highly of their time there), they clearly believe Bessy is fit to be around minors or they wouldn't continue inviting her to teach classes. I doubt problems at the ecole under her direction will ever be addressed anyway. Aside from the fact the Opera director at the time ruthlessly defended Claude Bessy, it's not only a state school but under the watchful eye of relevant Ministries. Assuming France has regular school inspections like the UK then they should have picked up on these problems, and relevant Government representatives involved in the school also had a duty to raise the alarm. Except for complaints about the pressure to focus on getting into the POB, rather than having a career in ballet in general, I haven't heard anything negative in recent years anyway. A lot of the dancers speak highly of Elisabeth Platel and the teaching team there, especially Wilfrid Romoli's students. I'm not 100% sure but I was under the impression the school's director was appointed by the state anyway, so given the controversial nature of Bessy's tenure I would imagine they chose carefully. With regards to the lack of classical ballet under Lefevre, it worsened under Mortier and Joel, with a restricted budget and culture ministers not all that fond of ballet (election 2017 should be interesting...), as well as their own personal tastes getting in the way. It's likely Lissner is just as controlling. However I can't recall the POB being a powerhouse of classical dance anyway? Carolyn Carlson was a choreographer there in the early 70s and the POB has rarely made much use of its heritage, which is a great shame IMO. As for Hilaire, Legris and Le Riche, well, we won't know what the former two would do with a company, but given their track record for complaining about the ONP I don't think they wouldn't have pushed for change. The whole job wasn't about the POB anyway (has it ever been?). It was about fitting Stephane Lissner's vision for the company, who has admitted he knows nothing about dance (he knows very little about opera too, but that's for another discussion). He claims Millepied worked for the ABT and at Dupont's farewell, he addressed Benjamin Pech as Bernard Pech. Millepied isn't much better, mind, recently claiming Pech was on the same level as Le Riche, and his PR stuff for Aurelie Dupont has been a bit OTT. I don't think from interviews with Agnes Letestu and even Dupont the POB are fond of choreographers imposing their style, but I guess we'll see. The POB these days are better than what they were in the early 00s (Nureyev etoiles being the exception there) but they're still pretty weak compared to the generations before them IMO, so I think they need some fairly 'academic' staples in their rep they can get to grips with. I don't think we'll see that under Millepied though, or whoever succeeds him.
  11. Which of the dancers could be considered part of the 'Millepied generation' though? There is Leonora Boulac, who isn't receiving great reviews from balletomones lately, her Paquita in particular. Dancers like Park, Alu, O'Neill, Bourdon and Marchand were already on their way to more regular casting, which should be credited to Laurent Hilaire, who pushed for a shake up of distributions when he succeeded Patrice Bart - Myriam Ould-Braham being his biggest success here. I haven't heard much of Juliette Hilaire, Aubane Philbert and Charline Giezendanner? Maybe not suited for principal roles but they've shone in soloist roles in the past. Eve Grinsztajn's widely regarded as the company's finest dancer-actor today and had some success under Brigitte Lefevre, but doesn't seem to be getting much luck under Millepied. I'm not surprised there is some discussion amongst balletomones or critics about the lack of dancers in the upper ranks being cast though. The revival of Forsythe's In The Middle was met with the same heavy criticism for casting a young generation. Perhaps the same pricing cast to cast doesn't help, or the most popular nights with balletomones going to so-called 'unknowns', but would there not be more value in pairing the younger dancers with etoiles and premiers anyway? You'd learn a lot more, surely? With regards to Neumeier, do we know if he did the casting beforehand with Lefevre? She had a habit of casting too many etoiles in new works.
  12. Regarding Homans, Mark Franko's (Professor of Dance, University of California, if you're unfamiliar - edit: not sure he is still there actually...) review of Apollo's Angels and his criticism of her views on ballet (issues of morality, for example) is well worth the read. http://nybaroquedance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Apollos-Angels-review.pdf
  13. I'll try saving up for Mur-Mur - would have liked to have seen 'La Reine mort' but I didn't get chance to.
  14. Sure, but I'm not sure why, when there is increasing pressure on all subsidised mixed rep majort arts orgs to support as wide a circle of artists as possible, both amongst critics, the public and the Governments, ballet gets a get of jail free card because of its history. Funding is drying up and there are ethics now which weren't there then.
  15. I have said it before, in an era of cuts arts leaders must constantly prove there are creatives who couldn't otherwise make art without the support of a subsidised arts organisation. Of course Alexei Ratmansky couldn't create a new ballet without the help of a ballet company, but he is everywhere so he doesn't *need* the POB. Call it leftwing, whatever, but arts funding shouldn't be accessible only to a select few priviliged individuals who aren't strapped of opportunities, and that is exactly what companies like the POB and the Royal Ballet are doing - excluding. I could also accuse Millepied of wasting public cash on his mates (Forsythe, Peck, Wheeldon...). I'm sure insiders could too - Toulouse is doing much more with fewer dancers and a tiny budget, so they don't need to look far to see the possibilities. Sharing resources is partly why I imagine Brigitte Lefevre, along with her extreme diplomacy towards opera directors who didn't like classical or neoclassical ballet, managed 19 years. With the current Minister of Culture in France promoting innovation and using public subsidies - what major arts orgs receive included - to support a wider circle of creatives, I wonder how she feels about the Paris Opera's current direction. It will be interesting to see what happens after the election as well because as we know, ballet in France all depends on whether the Government thinks it's too dated and middle class or not. I'm less concerned about technique because the POB usually do their own thing with choreography, but along with poor spending of public arts funding, I am concerned with reportory, identity and the dancers. The POB's rep is incredibly rich and to see it shaved down to Nureyev, Bejart, Petit and when he was lucky, Lacotte, was sad enough under Lefevre's final few seasons, and we're in a situation now where it's just Nureyev's productions. Do not mistake what I say as a ban on transferring productions, I think it is great to give those who can't travel the opportunity to see newer or rarer things, but there should be a limit and it should be done in a manner which doesn't sacrifice branding. I also don't see why abstract ballets wouldn't be a cost effective way to try profiting from touring more often anyway? (Edit: to clarify, is transferring the best option or is touring?) With regards to the dancers, it's the POB. They've had some really amazing opportunities (or at least some of them) to take on things outside of their comfort zone and traditions. Are they really OK with working with the same faces everybody else is working with until Millepied leaves? Dancers are artists and people too and it is completely obnoxious and disrespectful to believe if they had a choice, they wouldn't take the opportunity to do things their peers aren't. Whew! Super long post and I didn't even get onto the concours. No to a dual promotions system, Millepied already has his favourites and ain't any better than Lefevre in that regard :-).
  16. With regards to the Royal Ballet (commissions, not the rest) and the Paris Opera Ballet, I think the fact they are subsidised organisations makes the lack of variety even worse. Arts Council England said the RB had to nurture more talent to try and secure additional funding (they were cut), which it sounds like Kevin O'Hare is responding to through mentoring, but personally I hope ACE were really referring to work on the main stage. It will sound harsh, but I really believe in 2015 major performing arts organisations have a duty to constantly prove there are individuals out there who couldn't otherwise create without the backing of a subsidised company. Otherwise what is the point? Does a production by Christopher Wheeldon really need public funding, if he is everywhere? This is especially relevant now more and more states are adopting a system where your funding is calculated based on your proposals for the year ahead. I'mm not sure theatre critics or the more openly critical actors, playwrights and directors would take too kindly to the National Theatre and its peers going down the same road, so I'm still baffled by how little criticism there is towards standardised ballet programming. I don't know if somebody like Ratmansky pulls in a significantly larger audience, or how you would measure it. Would it be to do with the choreographer, the production itself (e.g. Alice), the company, the dancers billed, or a combination of these factors? I don't believe sandwiching somebody new in the middle of, say, a Wheeldon and a Balanchine would significantly affect ticket sales, especially if the programme is marketed with a title, like PNB and Dutch National Ballet do. But it isn't happening. We are aware there is talent there though, no? Terence Kohler, Jean-Guillaume Bart and Kader Belarbi are three. The marketing aside, we don't really know if dancers are happy with the way programming's going. The rep certainly changes but the people do not. Not everyone is the same, but if I was a dancer, I'm not sure I'd feel fulfilled by that, and you could argue part of the reason choreographers are working with so many different companies is to work with different people. I get the impression from recent interviews with Sylvie Guillem she is a little baffled by what she perceives as a 'reluctance' amongst dancers to explore possibilities, but not everyone has the finances to do that. Although I should add I find Guillem and Tamara Rojo's programming pretty standardised too...
  17. The Paul/Rigal/Lock/Millepied mixed prog was cheaper (80ish top end if I remember correctly), the Nuemier ballet was the same price as Manon.
  18. Is it normal for the Royal Ballet to duplicate productions (The Two Pigeons, Within The Golden Hour) or am I just reading it wrong? Looking forward to Liam Scarlett's full evening ballet and The Two Pigeons, but not a very exciting season for me. Effects of the funding cuts? I thought with Hofesh Shecter's appearance this season we'd see a bit more variety next season but nothing. Still no choreographer on the main stage who isn't, you know, male, or the opposite of struggling to find work.
  19. It's the Paris 'money, money, money' Opera - if they can sell short programmes for the same price as the longer ones, then they will :-(. Pretty bad really.
  20. Where is the emerging talent now though? Major ballet companies appear to be trapped in this cycle of giving the majority of its commissions and revivals to a very narrow group of choreographers. Is that really good for the business long-term? Obviously theatre is a much, much bigger art form, but if the world's major mixed rep theatres and/or permanent ensembles all started sharing too many of the same directors, writers and productions, critics would most likely lynch the general directors (especially at companies where public subsidies are involved), yet in ballet not much is said about it. I'm not sure sandwiching Pam Tanowitz between, say, Forsythe and Ratmansky would dent ticket sales at a major company like City Ballet. Do the women Peter Martins might consider commissioning need to be from NYCB though, or even the states? I'm not from the US so I'm not sure what's on offer at the colleges, but in the UK choreography degrees tend to be much more mixed gender than the initiatives we see at the ballet companies. If this is about fear of taking risks and not just trying to jam pack a season with as many big shots as possible, why not link up with some of these courses to provide students with access to an art form they wouldn't otherwise come in contact with? It adds to the pool of choreographers and several showcases of work should give an idea of who's most promising.
  21. Are any of the companies committed to new work committed to women though? It seems these days the major companies are more interested in using star choreographers to sell tickets than they are their stars and more importantly, their brand. Sort of like a venue, no? It's a shame - I'm not sure sharing too many of the same names and productions as other companies is 'healthy' long-term, just as it isn't any business trying to compete within niche industries/markets. We could hardly claim NYCB has the monopoly on Balanchine and Robbins anymore, similarly with Macmillan at the RB. Wheeldon and Peck aren't central to the company's commercial identity, just leaving Martins... and enough said there! Perhaps counterproductive given what I just wrote but I'm still waiting for a company to adopt a 'near 50:50, men:women' policy amongst revivals too. It's certainly possible for the European companies.
  22. There is a Russian interview in Kommereant with Claude Bessy where she says Aurelie Dupont was lazy and resentful throughout her years at school. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://kommersant.ru/doc/2271530&usg=ALkJrhjkChdjASadq6YwvXMwkqWdiU-b6A I can't find the article but around the same time the review of Claude Bessy's era at the POB School, the writer said even one of the etoiles (anonymous) was unhappy with the way his daughter and her fellow students were being treated.
  23. Fantastic article on Sarasota's mixed bill in honour of Rudolf Nureyev with some comments from the great Laurent Hilaire (good enough for the Nureyev Foundation, not good enough for Paris...) and Margaret Barbeiri. Do wish Sarasota updated their Twitter account more often as I only saw it by chance. http://tinyurl.com/qac24w
  24. According to the Twitter feed of British critic Graham Watts there were even campaigns to prevent Cherkaoui from being appointed, so how long will he last. Is he going to ditch the dancers who disagree with him? I guess it depends which road he's going to take the company down. Neoclassical, or ballet does contemporary dance? I like what Crystal Pite, Mark Morris and currently, Hofesh Shecter are doing, finding a 'hybrid' (or neoclassical) style when working with ballet companies, but that isn't something Cherkaoui's shown any interest in doing. The thing which frustrates me most about all this talk about creating ballets 'of the now' is how cringeworthy it all is. How many theatre heads are saying in interviews, right, next season we need to commission a play on LGBT people (well, white gay men, you rarely see the rest of the spectrum well-represented), or modern slavery or we're going to lose our audience because they'll see us as irrelevant and dated? It comes across as really fake and condescending to me. European opera's as guilty of this with regards to new productions and new operas. With the exception of English National Opera, you do not see any large opera companies forced to take on musicals (or for fans of ballet's warhorses, a repoirtoire mostly made up of new works). You don't see Alexei Ratmansky, Jean-Guillaume Bart or Justin Peck at NDT, Rambert or, for a private sector example, Cedar Lake, and as far as I know, you don't see them at the Venice Biennale or any comparable festival. Ballet companies and neoclassical choreographers, however, have to move over...
  25. Sergei Polunin has a little Millepied in him apparently. Oh, France, you're just the gift that keeps on giving... but please, stop already. http://www.marieclaire.fr/,qui-es-tu-sergei-polounine-danseur-hypnotique-du-clip-de-lachapelle,733351.asp
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