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Skittl1321

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    Dancer
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    Texas
  1. I've been PMed for a review, but unfortunately I was unable to attend. I am very disappointed, however, another poster on Ballet Talk for Dancers did attend, and I PMed her asking her to post one here. I have heard that the performance was wonderful.
  2. I have posted here before about the company affiliated with the studio I dance at and thought I would make another post for those in the Miami Valley area (I know there are a few.) Gem City Ballet has announced its Victoria Theatre Gala performance for Saturday, January 21, 2006 at 8pm. They will be performing George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” with guest artists Bonnie Pickard and Momchil Mladenov of Suzanne Farrell Ballet and Adam Hundt of Ballet Met. The performance will also feature “Pas de Quatre” and contemporary ballet and modern works choreographed by Adam Hundt, Erin Robbins, and Rodney Veal. Casts have not yet been announced. (Outside of lists posted in the studio, which I don’t think I can post since they aren’t “public”) Tickets are $15-$35 and are available at www.ticketcenterstage.com I will be sure to post a review after the performance, for those of you outside the area.
  3. In college I read the local paper each day online. I would have loved a print subscription, but our apartment complex did not have onsite recycling because the city would not pick up from apartments. I couldn't handle the masses of paper piling up waiting for me to take it to the recycling center. While I was in college I frequently wrote to the city council in support of apartment pick up (they had curbside pick up for houses) but to no avail. Whenever newspapers would call, I would cite this as my reason for not subscribing. I hope they would see the connection of lack of recycling services to lack of subscribers and also lobby the city. The guilt of throwing away a newspaper everyday - even when the subscription rate was less than a quarter a day- was just to large.
  4. The studio receptionist told me that Judith Fugate (my apologies if the spelling is incorrect- however this isn't in print, so I'm not sure if a moderator would prefer it not posted) is setting Who Cares. I was able to watch a bit of rehearsal tonight. I can't wait for January.
  5. I to am very glad that students outside of SAB perform Mr. Balanchine's ballets. Now that I have seen one, I understand what the fuss is about. I can't go to professional companies very often, and am eagerly looking forward to "Who Cares" in January. (The company also performed Concerto Barocco in 2003.)
  6. I attended Gem City Ballet's Fall Repertory this Saturday. It was a lovely evening with some fine dancing. Unfortunately, the nature of a pre-pro company performance at a high school auditorium is the family environment. I had a young girl and boy sitting behind me who pointed out the girls they knew everytime they are on stage. Drove me crazy, but I am glad they are being exposed to and enjoying the ballet. (The program was open to the general public, but the information is not listed on the internet, it is occasionaly reviewed in local papers, but because these are all students I am not going to list names... which will unfortunately make the review seem somewhat incomplete.) The program consisted of 4 ballet. The first shown was "Caprice" choreographed by Erin Robbins. The program states that Caprice was honored at the 2003 RDA festival. This was a short, more contemporary piece choreographed to music by Haydn and Mozart. It was the first piece of the evening and while the dancing was technically good, there appeared to be some nerves amongst the performers- a few of whom were in their first company performance. The soloists did not catch my eyes and I found myself watching instead a corps that was very well put together. The principal dancer had a lovely line and looked excellent in her pas de deux, while dancing with the entire group, however, the choreography made her seem lost and as though she was just chasing her partner around. The one male in the performance has improved as a partner and a dancer since last year, but still has a bit of a way to go, both in technique and stage presence. The second ballet presented was "Echoes of Vienna" choreographed by Estelle Bean. I very much enjoyed the choreography, however my husband said that it seemed to ignore the music completely. He felt that when the music changed tempo the dancing did not and that large beats were sometimes ignored. Once again, I think the corps work was stronger than the soloist work. The corps (of 9) often danced in a block where one line would pick up at a time to join the rest of the group and the timing was perfect. The soloists had 3 adagio sections of developes to the front, side, and back. The balance on most of the girls was somewhat shaky, however, I have seen these girls in practice and it is to be said that they went for beautiful line in a romantic tutu, rather than over the head develope. My main complaint about the piece was the costume, which paired a beautiful black and gold brocade bodice with a romantic tutu of black,yellow and brown, which was distractingly ugly. The third piece was Balanchine's Valse-Fantaisie (Repetituer Daniel Duell). The piece was danced by 4 females in the corps and a female and male lead. I was completely mesmorized by the way these 6 dancers shined. Every step was quickly and techincally well executed. They were performing as if they were on the stage of Lincoln Center, rather than Bellbrook High School. The choreography (this was my first Balanchine) left me speechless. My husband pointed out to me "That was really good. Every note had a step and it paid attention to the tempo and the accents." I then pointed out to him that this was choreographed by someone who is considered to be the best American choreographer. I don't know how else to describe this piece. The company will be performing "Who Cares" in January and I just cannot wait. After the intermission, the company performed Graduation Ball. As I said before, the GCB only has 1 male, so a "retired" principal from the company was pulled back in, a young student from the school was asked to perform, and then males were borrowed from various sources including a local performing arts high school, and 2 local universitys. I was looking forward to this piece, and I found it to be enjoyable but almost to hectic. The headmaster and headmistress (both played by adults, not high school students, although one is a current company member and the other just left last year) offered both superb acting and dancing. All of the girls danced well, but the acting was to over the top. Some degree of exaggeration is needed, but it almost seemed unnecessary. The divertessements (is that the right word) ranged from very well done, to unnecessary. I greatly enjoyed the head girl's solo and the drummer boy's solo was nice, although the costume a bit silly. The Poet's pas de deux, which was done by a guest artist, was beautiful. The foutte competition was great, with well executed fouttes that stayed in place. I think the numbers they did ranged from 6 to 8. When they mirror imaged each other, the girl who switched to her left foot did travel quite a bit. I found the "Circus Act" divertessement to be unenjoyable and not well prepared. They didn't seem to be dancing. Perhaps the best part of the entire ballet was the character dancing by the headmistress and the entrachet sixes by the guest artist. Amazing! The rest of the men were doing grande echappe (I think that is the word- looks like a frog jump) in the back- a wise choice for dancers who range from no ballet to advanced ballet training. Thanks for reading my review. It may be a bit futile to post a review without the names, but I would like the dayton area ballet talkers to know about this "gem" of a company, and also to practice being able to review ballets so I can be a more confident poster here at BT.
  7. Thank you for the quick reply. It is indeed a public performance, and for the few members in the dayton area, tickets are available from Pontecorvo Ballet Studios. (Check google or the phone book for contact information.)
  8. I just wanted to ask a quick question to see if reviews of pre-professional performances were allowed/encouraged here on Ballet Talk. Gem City Ballet (not affiliated with the company, but take class at the affiliated school) will be performing Sat. Oct 15 at 8:00 pm at Bellbrook HS. The performance will include "Valse Fantaisie" (Balanchine), "Caprice" (Erin Robbins), "Echoes of Vienna" (Estelle Bean), and "Graduation Ball" (I am not sure of the choreographer. I am anxiously awaiting this performance, it will be my first time to see a staging of Balanchine works and the resident choreographers always put on magnificent ballets.
  9. Three friends and I went to see Giselle today. This was the first professional ballet I have seen since the Nutcracker in 4th grade (1991). It was lovely. The corps was beautiful during the second act, and performed well during the first act. The forms and lines were superb during the second act, and the first act had a truly lively feeling. The arabesque's performed while hopping in lines of three (not sure what the name was) were beautiful, with emphasis on the same height, rather than showing off individual flexibility. My absolute favorite part was Myrthra's (which I am sure I spelled wrong) bourree entrance in act II. She was so quick and light it was truly as though she was floating. The woman who danced Giselle (Christine something??? It was a substitution) was wonderful and played a beautiful peasant, but really shined in the second act. She had such an airy feeling to her and a beautiful line. Having never seen hops on pointe, I was eagerly awaiting Giselle's solo, but found the frequent ballotte and the pas ballonne she performed to be much more pleasing to watch. Perhaps that is because as a dancer I can't seem to perfect these steps and seeing them with such grace was fantastic. The only part I disliked was Giselle's mother's mime about her dream. It was so short, all I got from it was "bad dream" and had I not known the story, it would have been hard to understand. (Of course, if I didn't think to research the story, I probably wouldn't know enough about ballet to understand the mime.) Giselle's disappearance at the end of act II was slightly hampered by my imagination, which rather than seeing her disappearing into the daylight imagined a stage hand yanking her off the stage. I went to the matinee, and there were a lot of children, but all very well behaved. There were a few whispers during the second act of "which one is he." But all very short, something to be expected of children. The women behind me (who did not have children) chatted the whole show... which really upset me. The theatre was beautiful and our seats were great. I had brought binoculars with me, but they focused to tightly and were not very helpful. I did peek through them to see the expressions in the mad scene. The "hair down" convention was lost on the chatty ladies behind me. They thought the dancer had just knocked her hair down carelessly. This does not have to do with the ballet, but instead, Ballet Met. I ordered tickets online 3 weeks before the show, and after 2 weeks had not recieved them. I called Monday morning, and the man I spoke to on the phone said he would reissue and send those. By this Friday I still hadn't recieved them so I called again, and the tickets were placed at will call. The box office manager also gave me his cell phone number in case I ran into any problems. They were very easy to pick up, and when we picked them up the tickets were for Loge, rather than lower mezzanine. I was disappointed that I did not recieve the tickets, but I am very happy with the customer service at the box office when I called to get the reissues.
  10. Well I will add a new question to my old thread. I have purchased tickets to Giselle, which is at the Ohio Theatre. The friends I am going with could not be convinced to spring for the more expensive tickets, so we will be sitting in the Lower Mezz. What is the set up for the theatre (aka. How far is the Mezzanine from the stage?) Will binoculars be necessary? Recommended? Is it wrong to bring plain old bird watching binoculars to the theatre? Also, the price for Orch III tickets is the same as Lower Mezz. In the future, is the sight line from those seats better? I am short, so I always assume that it's better to be in the front of the Mezz. than the back of the Orch, but I don't know the theatre. Thanks for answering my questions. I'm so excited because this will be my first "real" ballet performance since I was in 4th grade! Everything else has been student companies. I've seen the Ohio theatre seat map on balletmet's website, but would love to hear more about it from someone who has been there.
  11. What I don't understand is, if the original commission earned this Eistein $4,000, why did the city pay her an additional $6,000 to fix her own mistakes? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The article says that she originally earned $40,000. I am still not sure why they would have to pay her to correct it at all, but at least now it doesn't seem that the correction is making more than the original work.
  12. I think it is important that libraries work to make their works available digitally, but I don't think there will ever be bookless libraries. This makes interlibrary loan instant and allows those without the funds to have books access. But print will prevail. For novels, I take no comfort in reading a computer screen, but enjoy curling up to a book. And just for the sake of having books- libraries take pride in their "first edition" collections, I doubt those would just be tossed out, nor will branches be made to house the "we had the first download" collection. But cheers to Rice for working to make this digital library available.
  13. Old Fashioned- I absolutely agree wit your point about video games and trash television. I would rather have kids read anything then spend all their time staring at a TV (although some video game playing is okay). If a child I work with expresses the maturity to handle more adult subject matter, then by all means I will let them read it. (I went to sleep the night I read HP 6 and kept having to wake myself up so my dreams wouldn't get scary. That is part of the reason I would worry about a young child reading the books. Most kids can't control their nightmares yet. But if the kid can handle it, and a parent would know, then let them read!)
  14. I don't know so much about the snogging (except that young kids think it's icky) but the allusions to kids flicking each other off (which young kids are sharp enough to get) and the mead drinking would put me off it. I also think it is just to dark for the youngest of the harry potter fans. I have heard a few parents who decided their rule of thumb was if the kid could read the book on their own, then they could read the book. Those who are still read-a-longers will have to wait. It would be up to parents to decide if they could handle it, but I know multiple children who have nightmares from Pokeman! I don't have my own children so I couldn't make this decision. As a teacher I would not have this one or the previous one on my bookshelf because they are just a little to dark. I would be worried about parent complaints. (I ignore the ones about witchcraft in general for the first 4.)
  15. To me this was the first book that didn't seem as though it was a complete story. It was more book pre-seven than book six to me. I know she has to prepare a lot of information to finish for book seven but every other book has managed to be stand alone amazing. I would say this one was good. There were a few elements that reminded me to much of other stories. The "BIG SPOILER" was great. I knew it was going to happen but was amazed at how it did. This is a woman who has put a lot of thought and planning into her books. I really appreciate that. I also thought the potion drinking scene was very well written. My biggest qualm is that this is not a childrens book. I would not let elementary schoolers (maybe a mature fifth grader) read it. I feel very badly for the parents who are going to have to tell their children they can't read it yet because it is just to mature.
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