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Recommendations!?!


Guest distantdancer

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Guest distantdancer

I can count on one finger the times I've seen ballet live as I grew up in a rural area. Mostly just the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and once the Royal Ballet when I was in London (age nine). None of the performances were classical but I have quite a few picture books showing Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Giselle, etc. My favorite pictures are the ones that show the corps. I especially love scenes with the blue-ish/black lighting on white costumes. Their synchronized legs and arms in that lighting just makes my brain happpy! I think I've distinguished from my reading that Swan Lake (favorite) and the snow scenes from Nutcracker are like this..anyway, going off track here. Umm, my question is, who in North America has the best Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Giselle? I'm older now and can afford to travel to see the ballet and I think it's high time I started! Are there any other ballets that have great, otherworldly corps scenes that I should check out? Thanks in advance!

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Unfortunately, I don't know that there's a good Swan Lake left in North America, what with all the fiddling around with it that directors have become so fond of. The NYCB Nutcracker is about the best allaround production for me. And ABT's Giselle is quite good. For a real kick from the corps, try the ABT staging of La Bayadere. They're not the Royal or the Kirov, but then, they're not intended to be!

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Guest distantdancer

Thanks for the recs! I guess I'm going to have to make a pilgrimmage out East then! It's too bad there aren't any Swan Lake's on this side of the ocean but I've never seen it so I think any production would stun and amaze me. A friend of mine saw the RWB do Swan Lake recently and was moved to tears...but we don't have much to compare it with out there in the sticks.;) I think I'll go down to Seattle when the PNB does their grand opening thing and see Swan Lake there.

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You should definitely see Les Sylphides (aka Chopiniana). You'd probably enjoy La Sylphide as well. It's difficult to choose companies that do good versions of the classics in North America; few have the resources to really pull them off and those that do don't always try very hard. It's probably best to see the Royal Ballet, Maryinsky, Bolshoi, or Paris Opéra when they tour if you really want to see the best. Otherwise, the truncated versions on this side of the Atlantic still give a pretty good idea of the important choreographic points. ABT gives vague sketches of the classics, but don't bother with McKenzie's Nutcracker. You should also perhaps try and see Symphony in C by Balanchine and might like the Diamonds section from his ballet "Jewels." It will be much easier to find a good version of those, though the corps will probably not be very synchronized ;).

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Take a vacation to Florida, enjoy our "Good Nature" (there is so much more to see and do outdoors than just theme parks) and take in Miami City Ballet's Giselle in 2003-2004. It will be their third program, probably about March. You will be able to come down out of the snow and cold, and have a wonderful time. MCB put on Giselle last season. The program thanked ABT for use of the costumes and sets. They were divine. The dancing was suburb. It could be a wonderful early spring for you.

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