Booing at the ballet?

[Farrell Fan]

Some posters detected booing at the curtain calls after Ashley Bouder's debut as Aurora in NYCB's Sleeping Beauty. I prefer to think, perhaps wishfully, that the sounds heard were similar to the admiring noises Yankee fans make when Mike Mussina is pitching, lovingly drawing out the first syllable of his last name. In this case they were singling out Ashley when she bowed with Damian Woetzel -- BOOOOUUUder. (I have no explanation for the boos one poster heard after the admittedly less-than-satisfactory Bluebird pas de deux, other than rudeness.)

I have heard real, unmistakable boos at NYCB in the past, because I've been going a long time. Edward Villella was sometimes booed at the end of Robbins's "Watermill," presumably by people who'd come expecting to see him jump and turn. And Balanchine's "Don Quixote" was on more than one occasion met with booing at the final curtain. I can understand, though not condone, those boos.

But it is inconceivable to me that members of an audience would boo a supremely talented, fearless young dancer who made a triumphant comeback after a long time on the sick list, and was making a glorious debut in a benchmark role.

Is booing dancers ever justified?

[carbro]

I never boo at the ballet, because I have too much respect for them and the work they do, even if they are wildly miscast (not their fault), overextended (artistically, technically; also not their fault), or uncoached (again, not their fault).

It is not always the dancers who are the object of booing, though, and I think that when a production really stinks (and not for lack of resources), the audience may want to express its sense of having been "taken." Unfortunately, it's the dancers who are on stage, not the AD.

Once, I left mid-performance. During a pause in a new ballet by a visiting company, my three (or four) friends and I exchanged glances and without a word, rose in unison and left. It was not the very worst ballet I've ever seen, but it was sooooooo tedious, and the hour was late. :yawn: :sleeping: :yawn:

And we were at the end of the row.

[Alexandra]

Booing a dancer? I can't think of a situation in which it would be justified. Maybe others are more imaginative.....

[Clara 76]

Hello Farrell Fan,

I do not think that booing is ever justified. The artists who take the stage have every intention of giving a wonderful performance. As anyone who has ever performed on stage can attest, sometimes, stuff happens. And if the audience members could see the tears backstage when something does go horribly wrong, they'd re-think the boos.

If one attends a performance that one is dissatisfied with, one does have some recourse, but first, a decision must be made about what specifically was the problem.

For example: A newly promoted dancer is cast in a role where she is a bit overwhelmed by the choreography-proper response=applause. Not a standing ovation, but applause, recognizing that the dancer was chosen for the role, not the other way around. Then, at one's leisure, one could write a letter to the company discreetly expressing one's displeasure about the performance.

If the problem is one of choreography, i.e. the Edward Villella situation, again proper response=applause for the dancer, not the choreography. Again, write a letter.

Now, if the dancer is "phoning in" their performance :rolleyes:, one may clap politely and address in a letter that the dancer was either off their game, obviously injured, or needs to retire. :yes:

And lastly, the "frog-in-a-blender" scenario: Leave the performance immediately, if it offends you. There is always a representative from the company in the audience somewhere, and that person will report back. Then write a letter asking for your money back!! That'll certainly get some attention!!

Companies will take the letters into consideration, especially if quite a few come in with similar complaints.

But that's just my humble opinion!!

Any others out there???

Clara

[cargill]

I agree--I can't think of any situation where I would audibly boo a dancer. Not applaud and mumble to myself or hiss inaudibly, maybe, but never boo out loud! But then I have trouble yelling BRAVO, too. However, when it comes to stage designers, etc., who presumably have had some time to plan, I don't see any problem with letting them know if the audience is dissatisfied. The best demonstration, and most polite, that I can remember, was the gala audience (the Queen was there) at the opening of Macmillan's 1973 Sleeping Beauty, which was truly awful, unbelievably garish. The designer and Macmillan came to take a bow with the dancers, and the silence was defeaning, just a few minor claps. Then one of the dancers was given a bouquet of flowers, stepped forwarded to acknowledge them, and everybody applauded like mad. When she stepped back in line, the applause stopped. The look on her face was priceless.

But booing does at least mean the audience cares.

[Manhattnik]

I remember Lou Piniella would say that he liked it when fans yelled out his name, because even if they were booing, it still sounded like they were yelling his name. Of course, nobody boos (much) at City Ballet, or I'd imagine Paul Boos might've felt the same way.

[Clara 76]

Excellent point Manhattnik!!!!

Clara

[dirac]

I can't imagine booing, but I'd suggest that if performers occasionally receive ecstatic vocal receptions, they should also be prepared to endure the opposite every once in awhile. That's showbiz.

[stinger784]

A little of the subject but a good parallel...

During one of Pavarotti's last performances at the Met when he made his fateful "crack," he was booed off the stage. When you pay big money to see big stars, pardon the pun, you expect big results. So in some instances I guess when your expectations aren't met, a boo may be what you end up with.

Now being a performer, I would hate to be booed, but that is how you learn and grow and do that much better the next time and shove it in their faces!

[dido]

I can't imagine a situation when boos would be acceptable (outside of the bad guy in a melodrama) simply because I think a boo doesn't express one's displeasure with a performance but sheer meanness.

[Clara 76]

During one of Pavarotti's last performances at the Met when he made his fateful "crack," he was booed off the stage. When you pay big money to see big stars, pardon the pun, you expect big results. So in some instances I guess when your expectations aren't met, a boo may be what you end up with.

I see your point stinger784, however, Pavarotti is no spring chicken, and I seriously doubt that he meant for his voice to crack!! Not any more than Ashley Bouder meant to fall off pointe. I guess, my philosophy is unless I can get up there on stage and do it better, I keep my mouth shut, because if I could do it better, I'd be up there on stage already!! :yes:

Clara

[Amy Reusch]

On the other hand, riots are generally good publicity, right? What about those clacques that stoked the rivalry between Essler & Taglioni, did they only applaud or did they voice disapproval as well? Did people really throw rotten fruit once upon a time in theaters? Perhaps the audience caring enough to voice displeasure isn't the worst thing. What is better, a passionate audience or a polite audience?

Booing seems childish, somehow.

[oberon]

Maria Callas was once pelted with vegetables after a performance at La Scala. She picked up a bunch of radishes and clasped them to her breast as though they were roses. That's the story, anyhow...

The theory has always been that you paid good money to see/hear the performance and you are entitled to voice your reactions.

Huge ovations and loud protests are very rare these days. People are in too big of a rush to get to the subway or check their cell-phone messages to stay and cheer or boo.

We have all read the stories of the violent audience behavior at the premiere of SACRE DU PRINTEMPS. About a dozen years ago, the entire audience at the Met violently booed tenor Franco Bonisolli after a performance of TROVATORE.

Ashley Bouder's first Aurora seems to have caused some controversy. I and a few others thought we heard some boos from the upper gallery during the curtain calls.

Others insist no such thing happened. But the people who wrote so glowingly of her performance here do not seem to have been cheering, throwing flowers and demanding extra calls. The atmosphere was subdued, especially for what many people felt was a revelatory performance. I guess people just don't get worked up any more, or they feel it's bad manners to vocalize their reaction.

[vagansmom]

Ditto Dido.

Gosh, that was fun to say! :grinning:

[mbjerk]

I never booed dancers, as I feel they always try their best. But, I have booed choreographers and conductors. After one tedious, unimaginative and awful premiere in an intimate theater, (I was not on the aisle, so stuck) I booed loudly. The people next to me were shocked.

I did boo the conductor after a hideously played Concerto Barocco here in DC only to find the orchestra exceeding itself during the next ballet........

My peeve is not booing, but the instant standing ovation.

If the City Ballet audience has taken to the BOOOOOOULDER, can the wave be next? Perhaps with only one arm as the first pose of Serenade??

[Mel Johnson]

I have been known to fold my arms and give voice (once) to "Aw, fooey!" when a performance, for whatever reason just isn't good enough even for polite applause.

[perky]

There's only one instance I can think of where I would have booed at a ballet performance. You hear those stories of how Nureyev acted spiteful or downright mean toward some of his female partners on stage. Not only would I have booed him, I would have picked up a bunch of those radishes Oberon mentioned earlier and flung them at his head.

However in the end I quess I just too bashful to boo. :shrug:

[dirac]

Well, temperament sometimes goes too far and turns into plain bad behavior, but that does seem to come with the territory, although I don't make excuses for it. (I tend to forgive Nureyev almost everything because it's all so much duller without him. With him around, ballet made headlines -- one way or another!)

In her autobiography, Karen Kain recounts a story in her otherwise admiring and deeply grateful account of working with Nureyev of a disastrous Sleeping Beauty where the audience apparently did just that, perky. Briefly, Nureyev hurt his foot backstage kicking something in a fit of pique and didn't want to continue with the performance. However, his alternates had headed out to a movie so it was Rudi or no prince. Nureyev finished the performance but in a manner so nakedly resentful and perfunctory that the audience expressed its unhappiness in no uncertain terms. Kain says he didn't arrive on cue for the Awakening scene wouldn't even give her the kiss – just bent over slightly and made a loud smack.

She also mentions that he wouldn't kiss any Aurora who made the error of wearing lip gloss.

[stinger784]

Mel, I much do the same with the "arm crossing" when there is something I don't like. I believe the last time I did it at a ballet was for Mark Morris' Gong. The dancing was great, but the choreography was almost as if he was trying so hard to be so different. But this is just my POV. If there are others out there that love Gong, so be it, but I won't be clapping for it.

[Amy Reusch]

The idea of bringing rotten fruit/vegatables with one to the theater seems bizarre to me... pre-meditated... I mean, I wouldn't go to something that I thought ahead of time that I might feel inspired to pelt the performers with vegatables, would you?

After I posted that earlier note, I was wondering if the vegetable thing was something that had mostly happened in the middle ages to mummers, etc. who were perhaps were performing at fairs where vegetable would have been for sale and handy... and it became one of those theater legends... like all the different explanations for how "the green room" got it's name...

Does La Scala have some sort of tradition of this vegetable thing?? Is this some sort of "interactive audience" thing?

[Clara 76]

Can you imagine what would happen if we brought rotten fruit to throw at the opposing football team???? Talk about your interactive sports!!!! I might actually go to a game... just to see that!!!

Clara

[Mel Johnson]

There is actually a long and horrible tradition of this sort of thing, viz:

http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/Early/cherry.html

[Mel Johnson]

Of course, there is an Old World tradition being upheld:

http://www.ams.ubc.ca/clubs/italian/UBCICOpera.html

[Mel Johnson]

And then there was this guy:

http://www.scotlandmag.com/issue/5/scottish_poets/169

Run him through your browser. He will bring you moments of, if not joy, at least hilarity.

[Michael]

Forget booing in the theater – What about booing on line? By which I mean conveying the impression that a certain dancer was booed more audibly within the house than may have been true?

Oberon: In your original first post on the Bouder as Aurora thread, you wrote, not what you say here, that you and a few others “Thought we heard some boos in the upper gallery.” (Note “Some Boos” [sounds like a few] expressly localized and limited to the top of the house). Instead you wrote, after generally trashing her performance:

“When Bouder and Woetzel came onstage for their bow,

I thought I heard some booing. And when they came before

The curtain I heard it again … I asked my partner and he

Agreed he heard it too. Then we ran into a friend downstairs

Who also said he heard people booing.”

The change in emphasis is important to me because the original post gives, or at least allows, the impression of more widespread and widely perceived Booing of this particular dancer. It gives the impression that your generally low opinion of the performance was verified and shared by the audience in general and confirmed by audible Booing.

What I politely take issue with in this is the following. A dancer whom you expressly do not like (I doubt you would object to this statement as you have said yourself, from the first time you mentioned her, that you have no taste for Ms. Bouder as a dancer generally -- I could find half a dozen instances when with praiseworthy frankness you’ve said the same thing); and a dancer whose promotion to soloist you expressly objected to as premature in another thread, dances her most important debut.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, you do not like the performance. In your post, you then leave the impression, not that there were just “some boos in the upper gallery” (what you say now) but a widespread sound of booing in the house, and take pains to back this up by citing two other persons. This Ballet Alert Board is widely read. Over a thousand people, who have no way of telling what the house really was like that night, can then read this on the internet.

I am glad you have now clarified that it was “some boos in the upper gallery.”

Since I am presumably one of the persons whom you refer to as those who have “wrote so glowingly of her performance,” I also want to say that I indeed was cheering for her that evening, though not throwing flowers. If I had had some I would have thrown them. For the record, to me at least the initial applause for Ms. Bouder did not sound subdued in the orchestra.