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piccolo

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    dancer, teacher
  • City**
    S. CA
  1. piccolo

    Leslie Browne

    Thanks for the replies, everyone. Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing her picture as part of some SI ad in a dance magazine. I'm glad to hear she's still around and involved with dance.
  2. piccolo

    Leslie Browne

    I was watching "Baryshikov dances Balanchine" and Leslie Browne dances with him in both Apollo and Who Cares. I just loved her as a dancer. Never got to see her live, unfortunately. What happened to her? Did she retire with NYCB? Did she go to another company to dance? Is she coaching somewhere today?
  3. piccolo

    Muriel Maffre

    I saw her about 9 years ago -- a graduation present from my parents -- and I loved her. I didn't realize she was still dancing. Fantastic! Deidre
  4. I just saw the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Santa Fe this weekend. From my vantage point, both nights looked sold out. The first night was: Divertimento No. 15, Waltz of the Flowers, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Serenade. The second night was: Div. again, Variations for Orchestra, Tzigane, and Apollo. The first night the audience absolutely loved Waltz of the Flowers. I thought the chiffon skirts were gorgeous and especially effective at the end of the number when most of the corps are bouree-ing around and around in place. Wonderful effect. I did not like the way the dancers used their arms in Div. the first night (arms flying without any connection to the back) but strangely, I didn't have that criticism the second night. One thing about touring performances in Santa Fe -- most companies think that they'll be "ok" with the 7000 ft. altitude and don't come early enough to acclimate. I was glad to see that, with very few exceptions, the dancers looked full of energy. (I believe it was Fournier who danced the Pas de Deux on the first night and didn't quite make it off stage before slumping...) Serenade was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the stage in Santa Fe is a bit small for the large sections of Serenade. The girls stayed in formation but on occasion had to dance in the wings. I was mostly excited about seeing Apollo. I hadn't seen the version with the birth of Apollo in the beginning, and the climbing of the stairs at the end. I have to say, I do prefer the shortened version. I just adore the pose of Apollo and the three Muses legs at different levels at the end and I didn't get it with this version. But, it is always good to expand your horizons, right? The three Muses were absolutely fantastic, easily the best dancers in the company, again with the blond, redhead and brunette. Peter Boal as Apollo was great and I have videos of Peter Martins and Baryshikov doing the role. A very exciting company to watch.
  5. Did anyone see either of their performances in San Diego this week? (Does this post belong on the non-European companies board?)
  6. I find out about dance performances and put them on my calendar long before I buy tickets. I usually buy my tickets 2 weeks out. I plan to go for much longer than that, but I just don't buy the tickets until later. Basically, I am the bane of Marketing Directors everywhere. I guess I am part of the trend to buy single tickets instead of a subscription. I watch for performances at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (just saw the Kirov do Jewels), I'm getting treated to Suzanne Farrell in Santa Fe next week, but am skipping Ballet Nacional de Cuba who is doing Don Q & a mixed program here in San Diego this week. I plan on attending several performances by City Ballet of San Diego, especially their Balanchine tribute in May.
  7. I know ABT has a second company for younger dancers -- is it ABT II or Studio Company? How does it work? Do these dancers then get taken in by ABT? Do they dance on their own or with ABT or both? Thanks.
  8. I'm going to go to Santa Fe the weekend before Thanksgiving to see the Company perform and for the Symposium. Of course, wanting to know more, I asked the box office about the symposium and it sounds like they show a rough documentary made up of various clips and then the documentary person (who is famous but her name is escaping me right now) talks about it. So it doesn't sound like your typical symposium format...
  9. I'm just now realizing I don't have the cast list with me as I write this. Sorry about that. They presented Jewels. Overall, I'd give them 3 out of 4 stars. The dancers were lovely, young (is this the full company or the young dancers sprinkled with a few soloists?), well-trained but not particularly exciting. I've seen the Stuttgart Ballet and San Francisco Ballet recently and they are definitely exciting companies to watch. I am not particularly familiar with the production itself of Jewels so maybe you guys can help me out. The costumes were the gorgeous Karinska creations we're all so familiar with: the green, the red, and the white. But while they had a gorgeous green backdrop for Emeralds and an interesting black & red backdrop for Rubies, they used the rubies backdrop again for Diamonds. What's up with that? The video clip I have of Farrell & Martins doing Diamonds has a completely white background for Diamonds. A minor issue, but one I was bugged by. The dancing for Emeralds was beautiful, Rubies was pyro-technical and done very well (I did not agree with some critic who said that the American style dancing didn't suit the Russians), and the principal pair in Emeralds was fantastic. It is just that when I walked out the front door, I didn't feel like I could turn right around and sit through another performance of Jewels right then and there.
  10. You may already know this but Lynn Swann appeared on Mister Rogers neighborhood. He took Mr. Rogers to his ballet class...
  11. Catlady, I agree! Where is the TV special commemorating his life?
  12. Oooo, dirac, thanks. I will look that up. Yeah, you could go either way. I don't usually bone up on ballet before I go, but I certainly do when I go to the opera. With art, I usually go with the initial response, then read up on it, then look at it again -- of course, this is easy because it only takes a few moments to look at a painting. Giannina -- Yes, the version I saw was with Merrill Ashley. She is wonderful. I got her Dancing With Balanchine book from Amazon's used book service -- it took them 7 months to get it for me but I'm so glad I have it now!
  13. My local library doesn't have a huge selection of ballet videos but I did just borrow a tape with NYCB dancing The Four Temperaments. I believe it was taped in 1977. Edward Villella introducing each dance. I can't believe that after all this time I'd never seen the ballet in its totality. I was only familiar with a few clips here and there. Well. What an amazing ballet. I absolutely love it. It is so interesting and clever and wow. Villella explained how the ballet works before they showed it -- how many of you were familiar with the structure of the ballet before seeing it? Did it make any difference in your enjoyment of it once you learned the structure? (I often ask a similar question with art. You can enjoy a painting not knowing anything about its artist, origins, meaning but it can enhance your viewing of it once you know.)
  14. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/30/arts/tel...sion/30SEX.html Didn't Baryshnikov do an interview with Larry King years ago when he said acting wasn't his thing? Hmm. Ah well. I'm looking forward to it all the same.
  15. http://www.dancehorizons.com/ This is a great site -- they are always updating their dance books & video lists.
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