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ABT: Fall '03 Season at City Center


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There's isn't a formal trust a la the Balanchine Trust for Ashton ballets; he assigned ballets to certain people, yes. (I don't know if there's a difference between who gets royalties and who has responsibility for staging them.) Michael Somes did have responsibility for Symphonic, and other Ashton ballets and was reportedly an excellent stager -- and certainly seemed to be one from what one saw on stage. There's quite a bit of footage of Somes coaching ABT in Symphonic, as well as the ballet in performance, on the Frederick Wiseman TV documentary "Ballet." (I'm never sure of the spelling of his name.) I don't think this is commercially available, but some will have taped it off the air, I'm sure.

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There's isn't a formal trust a la the Balanchine Trust for Ashton ballets; he assigned ballets to certain people, yes.  (I don't know if there's a difference between who gets royalties and who has responsibility for staging them.)  Michael Somes did have responsibility for Symphonic, and other Ashton ballets and was reportedly an excellent stager -- and certainly seemed to be one from what one saw on stage.  There's quite a bit of footage of Somes coaching ABT in Symphonic, as well as the ballet in performance, on the Frederick Wiseman TV documentary "Ballet."  (I'm never sure of the spelling of his name.) I don't think this is commercially available, but some will have taped it off the air, I'm sure.

:)

i just read in the Balletco. site that in Ashton's bequest, the rights to S Variations and Cinderella were given to M Somes and as his widow, Wendy Somes has the rights to stage these ballets.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the honchos at ABT get the Ashton's Cinderella.Dowell and Barysnikov would be perfect as the ugly sisters(if they could convinced Misha to return )

Joe

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Hi, Sveiglar -- welcome to Ballet Alert! Glad you delurked and joined us :devil:

I can't answer your question. There are a lot of the old Ballet Russe ballets that ABT used to do that disappeared in the 1980s -- there's always hope for revival!

There are several dancers in ABT whom one could imagine being quite fine in Petrushka. Maybe someone will read this....

Hmmm. Maybe companies should have a suggestion box, where ticket buyers could write in and say, "When are you going to revive Petrushka?" Until that happens, I'll start a thread here.

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Uh, to differentiate it from the program with Sechs Tanze (is that what it sounds like?) and Petite Morte, perhaps.

I think it is specifically intended to hold the attention of children, FF. Light, varied, highly kinetic, nothing too obscure or inaccessible. It has to do with developing a young audience. And it is a good program.

Joe, should I post my wish list more often (Where's Monique)? Seeing those casts was oh, so gratifying!

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Sechs Tanze only means six dances, so nothing non-family friendly in the title. I'm actually really looking forward to the Kylian program, as I've never seen any of his works. Anyone have an idea as to what I'm going to see?

By the way, where are you all seeing this casting information? Is this on the internet?

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Sechs Tanze only means six dances, so nothing non-family friendly in the title.  I'm actually really looking forward to the Kylian program, as I've never seen any of his works.  Anyone have an idea as to what I'm going to see?

I saw "Sechs Tanze" by the Nederlands Dans Theater (Kylian's company) and the Lyon Opera Ballet, and it is one of my favorite ballets by Kylian, and one of the funniest ballets I know. It is a piece for several couples of dancers (if I remember correctly, three couples), with white costumes looking a little bit like 18th century costumes, and powdered wigs for the men. There is no plot, it is just a succession of humorous, joyful and slightly absurd scenes between the characters.

I also saw "Petite mort" and liked it, but my main memory is that I absolutely loved the music

(one of Mozart's piano concertos), and also the opening scene with male dancers holding swords (well, the French word for it would be "fleuret", the lightest kind of sword, but I don't know the English name for it).

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Thanks for posting the link. But unless I've missed something, it's not really casting. It's a list of the dancers who will be performing -- without saying what roles, or even in which ballets, they'll be dancing.

I wrote them yesterday asking for casting and was told a press release would be out soon -- I'm sure that will be more complete!

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I hope this isn't a trend, an assumption that people only care who is dancing and not what they're dancing taken to its logical, but unfortunate, conclusion!

Speaking for myself (well, who else would I be speaking for?), I do find casting for ABT more important in terms of ticket buying than repertory. Not so with NYCB.

Might this be worthy of a thread or even a poll?

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Speaking for myself (well, who else would I be speaking for?), I do find casting for ABT more important in terms of ticket buying than repertory. Not so with NYCB.

Might this be worthy of a thread or even a poll?

zerbinetta, it does make a difference to me who is dancing at NYCB...but I have to admit, that unless there is a particular dancer I can't stand :wink: , I do look more at what is being performed at NYCB than by whom...as opposed to ABT where I am generally more interested in who is dancing what. That said, I do care what is being danced at ABT...and will try to avoid certain ballets sometimes. How's that for a confusing statement? :)

I suppose this brings us back to the feeling that ABT is more "star" driven. :yawn: :)

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For me, casting counts in my choosing to go to ballet. When one is not able to see many performances during the season, one tries to choose what to see.

As lovely as D Kistler in the role of Titania, wouldn't one want to see K Nichols or M Weese or C Korbes etc. in this role?

Joe

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zerbinetta, it does make a difference to me who is dancing at NYCB...but I have to admit, that unless there is a particular dancer I can't stand  :wink: , I do look more at what is being performed at NYCB than by whom...as opposed to ABT where I am generally more interested in who is dancing what. That said, I do care what is being danced at ABT...and will try to avoid certain ballets sometimes. How's that for a confusing statement? :)

I suppose this brings us back to the feeling that ABT is more "star" driven. :yawn:  :)

BW, I did not mean to imply that casting was unimportant to me at NYCB nor that repertory was unimportant at ABT. What I said was "more important" in both cases.

I definitely agree that there are dancers I avoid at both companies & repertory I avoid at both companies but NYCB is more repertory driven &, as you mentioned, ABT more star driven, as it has always been & not such a bad thing.

I feel pretty lucky to have such an embarrasment of riches.

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As long as ABT has six weeks of full-lengths, I would say that casts are more important there. I once went to see a (NYCB, actually) Sleeping Beauty with an Aurora I would normally leave town to avoid, but since I was a big fan of her Prince, the Lilac, and several other prominent soloists, I thought I could manage to derive enough pleasure from the performance to justify attending.

WRONG! :)

Mixed bills make it easier to endure cast disasters. Ergo: Mixed bills (which predominate at NYCB) are less reliant on casting than evening-length ballets, where you're stuck with the leads all night, so you better like them at least a little.

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