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The Saratoga commitment


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Good question. "The Bolshoi" is indeed a world-class, prestige brand name, and people respond to it. To be fair, the company obviously works hard to maintain the brand image, and selective touring is part of that.

I think "New York City Ballet" in a brand-obsessed part of the world like East Asia would be as successful as as the Bolshoi in New York or Rolex and Versacci in Japan.

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If NYCB were to do domestic tours, what cities could support a week-long stay? Places like Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, etc have resident ballet companies. Would NYCB coming to town detract from the local company's efforts?

Before I moved to Seattle, NYCB did a two week stint -- they were added to the PNB subscription series, which guaranteed at least a partially full house from the start. At the start of the 1994 season, I saw La Fille Mal Gardee performed by the Australian Ballet as part of my PNB subscription. I was expecting to see other companies every few years, but it hasn't happened since. It would be amazing if the Bolshoi could come to Seattle for two weeks, bringing the rep they are bringing to NYC.

The University of Washington sponsors a World Dance series, and the Seattle Theater Group has a make your own subscription series from various dance, music, and comedy offerings. In theory, both UW and STG are producing alternatives. The pickings are so slim this year from both, in my opinion, that I've cancelled subscriptions to both, and I've purchased single tickets to all three Mark Morris performances.

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Now we read on the Bolshoi forum how that Company's 2-week run at the Met is sold out. Our two "local" companies (ABT & NYCB) bust their butts and perform to houses that are seldom anywhere near packed.

I can't figure it out, either. And I know people -- folks who used to attend ABT regularly in the days when Lucia Chase was aggressively pushing her stars -- who rarely venture out for NYCB or ABT but can be found every night for visiting companies, even though they sometimes don't perform as well as our home companies. The lure of the exotic. The "grass is greener" syndrome. Whatever. :wink:
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I don't quite know the words for the difference I see -- especially when compared with personal memories of the 50s and 60s supplemented by the few commercial videos of the 70s. But the attack is sharper than Miami.  There's a quality of risk-taking, almost despately so in some of Balanchine's 70s videos.  That is not there at Miami, though the great attention to detail is.  This is not a huge difference, but something I've felt since I first saw Miami -- a company which, incidentally, is wonderful, wonderful.

I see that difference between the dancing on those 70's videos and just about any performance of Balanchine I've ever seen. I just don't see NYCB today dancing with more daring and attack than MCB -- the other way around often. But your experience of MCB and perhaps of both companies is much larger than mine.

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Why did NYCB begin going to Saratoga 40 years ago?  Is that reason still valid today?

Although people still came to Saratoga Springs in August for the horse races, the town was pretty much dead for the rest of the year. The great hotels of the gilded age were gone. Various civic and political leaders thought that a performing arts center on the grounds of the state park would help revive the town. George Balanchine agreed and joined the development board for the center. The stage in the amphiteater was built to his and Lincoln Kirstein's specifications.

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The NYCB playbill for NYC seasons states the following:

"The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is the summer home of the New York City Ballet".

SPAC opened in 1966, a scant two years after the New York State Theater. NYCB has been at home in both theaters ever since. NYCB is the only ballet company in the United States with a permanent summer home.

I acknowledge that I am very defensive about this. Perhaps you have to live here or have spent much time here, such as Farrell Fan, to truly understand. Sorry if I have caused any hard feelings.

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The NYCB playbill for NYC seasons states the following:

"The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is the summer home of the New York City Ballet".

SPAC opened in 1966, a scant two years after the New York State Theater. NYCB has been at home in both theaters ever since. NYCB is the only ballet company in the United States with a permanent summer home.

I acknowledge that I am very defensive about this. Perhaps you have to live here or have spent much time here, such as Farrell Fan, to truly understand. Sorry if I have caused any hard feelings.

Ballet without feeling is D-E-A-D-L-Y, rekoretzky. We all need it. Thanks for your concern and information, which really addressed the issue, answered our questions, and reminded me (for one) why I was delighted about the Saratoga move all those decades ago.

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If NYCB were to do domestic tours, what cities could support a week-long stay? Places like Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, etc have resident ballet companies. Would NYCB coming to town detract from the local company's efforts? How big an audience is there these days for classical ballet in general?

In Chicago, both ABT and the Bolshoi played to full houses without apparently hurting the Joffrey. NYCB would probably also be popular. I'd buy tickets.

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I was at SPAC Friday night for the first time. I would certainly go again. The place was not packed, but far from empty. Considering there are 5200 seats PLUS the lawn, I did not feel that it was a sparse crowd. Prossibly 3000 people. More than would attend a performance at State Theater.

The evening was dreadfully hot and humid. I wondered how the dancers got through Union Jack with all that big headgear and wraps. Maybe the kilts helped. :D

Saratoga has a lot going for it as the summer home for NYCB. I believe that many of the principal and soloists have homes in the area. The corps dancers are housed at Skidmore College. So my guess is that the cost of performing there is far less than it would be to tour. Not only would there be the cost of transportation, but huge hotel expenses as well. And I believe that NYCB does not travel without its orchestra. So we are talking about probably 300 people that need to be moved, fed and housed. At Saratoga a lot of the housing is already accounted for and the transportation is trivial. I would even guess that most folks make it up there on their own.

Also, the racing season is a huge draw of people for the 6 weeks it operates. The rest of the time (especially when NYCB is there), the town is a lot quiter and facitilities are available. I would hope that NYCB could possibly add another week there someday.

The even had an intimate pre-performance talk by Wendy Whelan that we went to. She was very articulate, gracious, charming, and told stories about the ballet we were about to see her in (Agon) as well her reaction to Jock Soto's retirement. She was thrilled for him. A bit of other news - she is getting married shortly, Jock is the caterer. (this is not gossip - came straight from Wendy).

Also, she just looked great close up. Even better that when she is on stage. She really is quite beautiful and doesn't appear as gaunt as she sometimes does on stage.

It always amazes me that the pre-performance talks are always so relatively sparsely attended, even in NYC. While the rooms are usually full, they are generally very small and intimate. They provide some insight into the dancers. I highly recommend them. The people the usually choose tend to be quite articulate.

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The even had an intimate pre-performance talk by Wendy Whelan that we went to.  She was very articulate, gracious, charming, and told stories about the ballet we were about to see her in (Agon) as well her reaction to Jock Soto's retirement.  She was thrilled for him.  A bit of other news - she is getting married shortly, Jock is the caterer. (this is not gossip - came straight from Wendy).

Everything in pre-performance and post-performance talks is fair game. Many thanks for posting this. And best wishes to Whelan and her future husband.

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Regarding orchestras, I think NYCB's orchestra is contractually required to play whenever the company dances within a 250-mile radius of NYC. So they wouldn't have to take the orchestra everywhere they went, but it did cause some problems with the Kennedy Center a while ago, which were fortunately worked out.

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Thanks, hbl, for the really thoughtful and informative report. I visited the Saratoga "season" long ago, and it's good to hear details about how well it has developed. The size of the audience puts the original local report in perspective. And it's good to see how well the local facilities (including housing) support the enterprise.

Re the curtain-warmer. Isn't it great to have dancers who can do this well. As for smallish attendance -- it's one of those pleasures of attending dance that I'm GLAD most ticket-buyers either don't know about or care about.

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Regarding orchestras, I think NYCB's orchestra is contractually required to play whenever the company dances within a 250-mile radius of NYC.  So they wouldn't have to take the orchestra everywhere they went, but it did cause some problems with the Kennedy Center a while ago, which were fortunately worked out.

It caused problems for about 20 years, didn't it? :D It was something like that. I live about 140 miles away, and I'm awfully glad things have changed.

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The even had an intimate pre-performance talk by Wendy Whelan that we went to.  She was very articulate, gracious, charming, and told stories about the ballet we were about to see her in (Agon) as well her reaction to Jock Soto's retirement.  She was thrilled for him.  A bit of other news - she is getting married shortly, Jock is the caterer. (this is not gossip - came straight from Wendy).

Jock is the caterer and who is the groom? David Michalek?

I love the name Wendy Whelan...Wendy Michalek isn't as musical but I hope they go well together!

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I'm so happy for Wendy! Actually, Peter Boal announced her engagement last summer at Jacob's Pillow but I was afraid to write about it here for fear of being "snipped". It was quite a romantic story.

And a very NYCB idea to have Jock do the catering!

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I will say that I had much the same question as you did last year, Bart, when the SPAC scandal erupted. However, I have been lucky enough to spend two weeks up here this summer (my mom is a long time summer resident) and the whole town is buzzing with excitement about the ballet's return, and I can honestly say that I can't imagine the place without it. It might be true that NYCB might make a bit more off of a summer tour, but they are part of the summer tradition here, and SPAC is a part of the company's tradition now. So it's more complicated and involved than the finacial aspects suggest.

I want to mention that NYCB forms part of the cultural fabric in Saratoga, and that its loss could also mean the loss of some of the other wonderful events that take place during the summer, many of which are free. I saw a terrific outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing this week, that was well-attended at Skidmore. I heard many members of the audience talking about the ballet as well - what they'd seen or were going to see. Saratoga also hosts two large ballet summer programs - Briansky Ballet and the New York State Summer School of the Arts, and the benefits they must reap from NYCB's presence here are immeasurable. So, it's sort of like a tapestry - pull one thread and the whole thing might fall apart - of course, that's a bit overdramatic, but I do believe it would have a truly detrimental effect on the arts community here.

And, rkoretsky, I'll be at the ballet Sat. eve with my mom on the lawn! Maybe I'll see you!

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I'm so happy for Wendy! Actually, Peter Boal announced her engagement last summer at Jacob's Pillow but I was afraid to write about it here for fear of being "snipped". It was quite a romantic story.

And a very NYCB idea to have Jock do the catering!

Okay, I'll take the bait and :beg: :

What did Boal annouce publicly? :)

(To everyone: if someone does make a public announcement or statement, the preamble: [announcer] announced at [where, what event] that) lets the Mods know that it was public.)

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Everyone who has expressed support for us at SPAC would have been thrilled to see last night's attendance. I don't quite know why, but there were 5,000+ seats filled. That is inside seating-----and a nice crowd on the lawn too. Equal to two sell-outs at NYS Theater.

We just need to do this again....and again....and again.....

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rkoretzky, that is great news about the big turnout for NYCB's SPAC performance last night (big turnout...good pun for a ballet company??)...hope the remaining performances attract good crowds.

Last Summer when Peter Boal & Co. were up at Jacob's Pillow, Peter gave a "Pillow Talk", an intimate mid-afternoon interview and Q & A. He said that his Company had just returned from a gig in Venice and that something exciting happened while they were there: David Michalek proposed to Wendy. Can't think of a more romantic place to pop the question than Venezia!

David's a photographer; his portraits of Wendy and of Miranda Weese are used in the NYCB Playbill. I assume Wendy will continue to use Whelan as her stage name. Do many established ballerinas change their name after marriage? We could have Darci Martins, Jenifer Fayette, the recently retired Margaret Kaiser, and at ABT Irina Beloserkovsky, Amanda Gardner and Julie Barbee.

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