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Corsaire PDD


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Hello to our friends down in the Dallas/Fortworth area. Did anyone go to see the

Gala performances at the Texas Ballet Theater? Carlos Acosta and a ballerina from the Chinese ballet were slated to perform the Cosaire PDD. They were performed this past weekend. 2-17;2-18;& 2-19. Please let us know! Any details would be greatly appreciated :beg::D And what else went on???????

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I was in the audience Saturday evening and Sunday night, and I wish I had a richer background in ballet to "do it justice" in the recounting.

The Le Corsaire pas de deux danced by Carlos Acosta and Zhang Jian was incredible. My mom was with me, and she does have the background - pretty much saw all there was in ballet in the New York area from the late 30's to the late 60's and said she thought Acosta was the greatest she had seen in this role - including Nureyev. To me he was panther-like .... huge strength, agility, grace, beauty, althletism and brilliance that took over the stage. Zhang Jian - it was like watching air dance. Together and separately they were quite beautiful -- and I hope someone else in the audience will come on to describe it to you with greater detail.

Peter Zweifel's piece (new choreography by a young dancer in the company) to music by Vivaldi and Chopin, was very well received by both the audience and local critics. If a moderator wants to edit this by linking to the reviews in dfw.com (the star telegram) or dallasnews.com (the dallas morning news), at least one of them describes it in some detail.

Ben Stevenson's, Image, ("Adagio" from Mahler Symphony #10)was danced by Julie Gumbiner and introduced in the program with a quotation from Marilyn Monroe, "If you are nobody, to be somebody, you have to be somebody else." I thought is was stunning, chilling, terribly sad, well done by Miss Gumbiner, with an ending that allowed the audience a bittersweet release from the overall despair of the piece. For audience and reviewers, this was a love it or hate it piece. Very dark. I had fairly recently seen a biography of Judy Garland on public t.v. and although the dance had direct representation of Marilyn Monroe, I kept thinking of Judy Garland, and the more general theme of fragile, creative, brilliant women, who were destroyed by studio/network people/systems that should have cherished them.

The performance ended with Love Thing, choreographed by Assistant to the Artistic Director, Tim O'Keefe, to seven songs from Tina Turner recordings, ending with Proud Mary. This was exuberantly and sharply danced, interesting and dynamic throughout, spiced with sass and humor, and darned fun to watch. As one of the crowd, you won't find me complaining about a crowd pleaser. Lots of outstanding bits by various dancers with some special sizzle by Andre Silva at the end.

Couple of other notes .... I chatted during intermission just for a couple of minutes with a gentleman who is making a documentary on National Ballet of Cuba that is coming out in fall '06, so watch for that.

Carlos Acosta and Zhang Jian will be back guesting with TBT in April for one night at the Majestic Theater in Dallas - so if you are in the area and missed this performance, there's another chance to seem them.

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