volcanohunter

Yes, it injects a necessary tone of droll humor. ("Because I shoot hard, and I hate hard.") And yet what people remember primarily is Cyd Charisse's spangled red dress.

I value Michael Kidd's "Girl Hunt" ballet if only because the choreography for the chorus of hoods anticipated the hyper-physical style of Édouard Lock, Ginette Laurin, Jean-Pierre Perrault and other choreographers from the 1980s Quebec school by about 30 years.

The business of long pieces of fabric being dragged across Kelly's face and/or torso was one of his favorite and more tiresome tropes. I groan every time I see it. Yes. I have never cared for any of Kelly's big production numbers. The only thing I can say in defense of the American in Paris ballet is that the art department in the "Chocolat" sequence did a good job of capturing Toulouse-Lautrec's palette. (And fortunately Kelly elected not to go blackface.) Beyond that I don't like it, and in any case I find the film's romantic plots revolting. Apart from the "I Got Rhythm" number I don't think it's worth watching.

Following in the footsteps of Judith Jamison is never easy, but Rebecca Horner was sensational in The Legend of Joseph: ferocious, elementally powerful and with awe-inspiring stamina. Violent passion personified. The audience greeted her performance accordingly.

In this version is the Lilac Fairy a dancing or a mime role?

Oh yes. My least favorite ballet of all time is set to a piece of classical music, albeit a short piece. Not short enough.

I ought to have specified that I was thinking of one choreographer in particular, whose pop-song extravaganzas are pretty darn terrible. However, the first piece of his that I saw was set to Thomas Tallis' famously complex "Spem in alium," and that music had inspired a rather beautiful ballet. (Alas, it's been downhill ever since.) My other major objection is that his pop-song ballets are evening-length affairs; they give the fans of a particular pop star no exposure to a different kind of choreography and little incentive to come back to see something else. The newbies are being fed choreographic junk food, and there's no mechanism to move them onto something more substantial. The company may give additional performances of the pop-song ballets owing to "popular demand," but it doesn't seem to build the audience overall. The last time they presented a choreographically substantial program (Divertimento no. 15, The Four Temperaments, In the Upper Room), the performances I saw were far from sold out. Another way to avoid some of the typical pitfalls that come with pop-song ballets is to follow William Forsythe's example in Love Songs and to work deliberately against the music. I am inclined to think that the unrelenting sameness of the drum track is often a big obstacle. This is a problem in James Kudelka's The Man in Black, which has some interesting ideas that aren't developed as fully as they could be, and which strikes me as a little thin overall. But at least it shares the program with other works, and 20 minutes are not 90+ minutes.

Because, unfortunately, ballets set to pop songs are usually very inferior choreographically. The rhythmic simplicity of the music, its repetitiveness, almost invariably rubs off on the choreographer. You end up with an excess of unison dancing and very little movement invention. I know because my local company specializes in the genre, and it's all dreck, dreck, dreck. On the other hand, the structural complexity of classical music tends to stimulate choreographic invention and produce works of far more interesting rhythmic and spatial architecture, so to speak.

This performance will finally reach American movie screens on Tuesday, February 17 at 7:00 pm local time. The Carmike Cinemas site includes a few locations that are not included on the Fathom Events master list, so as always, check local listings. http://www.fathomevents.com/event/roh1415-the-winters-tale http://www.carmike.com/Events/Event/392

Yes, I believe the company first performed it in 2000. The company has 65 members and ten apprentices, so it's got enough dancers to go around. (Though I wouldn't expect the five principal character artists to participate.) In the past the National Ballet of Canada did some joint performances of Symphony in C with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, for example at the arts festival of the 1988 Winter Olympics, and also with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Yes, even by today's standards that's very little. I was also a bit surprised to see the commission of a full-length The Little Prince in light of the fact that Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal is about to unveil its own version. But then intra-Canadian touring has practically disappeared, so every company could justify having its own production. http://www.grandsballets.com/en/performance/the-little-prince/ I am a little sorry that the company has opted to present "Rubies" and The Four Temperaments on a triple bill rather than a complete Jewels. LGBC, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Alberta Ballet have all performed "Rubies" and the 4Ts. Again, none of those companies is likely to tour those ballets, so it isn't as though Torontonians have an alternate place to see them, but at present the National Ballet is the only company in Canada with enough bodies to do "Diamonds" feasibly, so it seems a shame not to show off this capacity.

According to the National Ballet of Canada's 2015-16 season announcement, World Ballet Day will return on October 1, 2015. There are few details beyond that, but we can assume that the National Ballet will again participate. http://national.ballet.ca/Media-Room/News/Karen-Kain-Announces-2015-16-Season

A DVD of I Am a Dancer is available on the European market, but I don't know whether it can be viewed without a region-free player.

The last stream from the Vienna State Ballet this season is a double-bill of ballets by John Neumeier to music by Richard Strauss on Saturday, February 14. Verklungene Feste Maria Yakovleva, Vladimir Shishov, Liudmila Konovalova, Davide Dato, Kiyoka Hashimoto, Masayu Kimoto, Irina Tsymbal, Mihail Sosnovschi, Eszter Ledán, Robert Gabdullin The Legend of Joseph Joseph - Denys Cherevychko Angel - Kirill Kourlaev Potiphar's Wife - Rebecca Horner Potiphar - Roman Lazik The stream can be watched live starting at 7:00 p.m. CET (1 pm Eastern), or at one of 29 time-delayed starts within 72 hours of the initial broadcast. (The glitch of the web site is that changing the start time has to be done in German.) http://www.staatsoperlive.com/en/live/139/verklungene-feste-josephs-legende-2015-02-14/#tab_1 http://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/Content.Node/home/spielplan/Spielplandetail.en.php?eventid=961398510&month=02&year=2015

I thought Ed Sullivan was the one who threatened to do the outing, though Lawrence concedes there is no documented proof of this.

Little films about each of the etoiles, except the pregnant Eleonora Abbagnato, can be found here: http://saison15-16.operadeparis.fr/artistes-les-etoiles

This would have been Ratmansky's decision to make. I don't think it can be counted among McKenzie's sins, and I guess he isn't alone in doubting ABT's own roster.

All the more reason not to load the POB's 2015-16 program with Balanchine, Robbins and Peck (and Wheeldon and Millepied). Unless New York City Ballet plans to show Parisians lots of Peter Martins. Don't get me wrong. I've seen the POB dance Balanchine for myself, and it was not terrible by any means. But it wouldn't be my first choice for the company either.

I don't see how the program can be said to have been influenced by the company's history. They'll be performing Giselle, La Bayadère and Romeo and Juliet. Okay. They've danced Theme and Variations, Bausch's Rite, Other Dances and Approximate Sonata before. Everything else is either a world premiere or a new acquisition. It's a repertoire overhaul. I can't help wondering how much all those new ballets are going to cost.

That's a return to the pre-war practice, isn't it? My understanding was that the first défilé in 1926 was to the march from Tannhäuser. http://memopera.fr/FicheOeuv.cfm?OeuCode=DEF

Oh my. What strikes me is how little variety there is. Two programs dedicated to Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, two new ballets by Justin Peck, Balanchine appears on three programs, so does Robbins. Really? Giselle is the sole representative of company's own choreographic heritage. http://saison15-16.operadeparis.fr/programme-ballet#grille

Yes, right now everything depends on the individual initiative of the traveler. How could this outreach be achieved practically? It would be fairly easy to keep track of major conferences, conventions and trade shows coming to town, though I imagine that organizers would charge to include a "what to do while in X-ville" listing with registration materials. Naturally arts organizations should be providing large hotels with listings about what they're doing each and every week, but again, apart from money, I don't know what incentive the hotels would have to share the information with their guests.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has been named artistic director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Inevitably this will raise questions about whether the company will continue to be a classical one. http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/news/item/1719-cherkaoui_to_direct_royal_ballet_flanders

I remember that Alina Cojocaru's first performance with ABT coincided with a family matinee. A lot of balletomanes who'd come to see her were unhappy with the elevated noise levels in the theater, as little ones turned to their parents asking for explanations about what was taking place on stage. But given that ABT had actively encouraged people to bring their children that day, this was to be expected. Obviously, it would be better to keep highly anticipated guest appearances and family afternoons separate, and the current ABT Kids format is a much better idea.

Timing is also important. It was noted that during the livestream of Paquita from Munich a child in the audience began to cry just as the ballerina was performing her crowning variation. That performance had been preceded by a special introduction especially for children. But if you add 45-60 minutes to a child's theater-going experience, will he last through the whole ballet?