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Osipova & Others in Orange County


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The following info was released recently:

http://www.ardani.com/news-reflection_051910.php

"Reflections Bolshoi Ballet Partnership| World premiere

January 20 23, 2011 in Segerstrom Hall

Center audiences have seen the Bolshoi dancers ignite the stage before, but they have never seen them like this. Reflections will showcase the unrivaled Bolshoi artistry like never before. The Center partners with the famed Bolshoi Ballet to continue its tradition of presenting world premiere dance events that showcase todays most acclaimed dancers and choreographers. The Center is proud to present Bolshoi-trained dancers Maria Kochetkova of the San Francisco Ballet, Yekaterina Krysanova, Natalia Osipova and Yekaterina Shipulina of the Bolshoi Ballet, Olga Malinovskaya of the Ballet Estonia and Polina Semionova of the Berlin Staatsoper Ballet plus special guest appearances by Bolshoi stars Alexander Volchkov, Viacheslav Lopatin, Denis Savin and Ivan Vasiliev. World premiere pieces will be created for this dance event by famed choreographers Mauro Bigonzetti, Wayne McGregor, Karole Armitage, Lucinda Childs and Yury Possokhov. The program also features works by Nacho Duato, Susan Marshall and George Balanchine.

Part I Remansos by Nacho Duato

Part II works by Karole Armitage*, George Balanchine, Aszure Barton, Lucinda Childes*, Wayne McGregor*, Susan Marshall, Wayne McGregor*, Yury Possokhov*

Part III FIVE by Mauro Bigonzetti*

* = world premiere"

Osipova is one of the featured women :flowers: , and it sounds like, at least on one of the evenings, I Vasiliev will be performing (at least on a limited basis).

Sorry -- Please feel free to delete this topic. I just noticed the same info under the "Performing Arts Center" subboard.

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Part I – Remansos by Nacho Duato

Part II – works by Karole Armitage*, George Balanchine, Aszure Barton, Lucinda Childes*, Wayne McGregor*, Susan Marshall, Wayne McGregor*, Yury Possokhov*

Part III – FIVE by Mauro Bigonzetti*

* = world premiere"

Yes, this is on the OCPAC site. http://www.ocpac.org/home/Content/ContentDisplay.aspx?NavID=796

But it's very confusing. Should we assume Part I will be performed on the first night, Part II on the second, etc.? At first, it looked like all three would constitute an evening's program, but Part II has too much listed for that. Presumably this will be clarified (along with casting!) before single tickets go on sale. But subscribers might be wondering now.

At least in the past, if you bought even a single ticket the year before, they give you an early opportunity (a week early or so) to buy singles before they go on sale to the general public. Judging from the size and enthusiasm of the Russian emigre community when Bolshoi was here in February, tickets will go very fast, especially for the Osipova performances.

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My guess is that Part II will be a changing mix-and-match of two or three pieces selected from among those not-quite-listed.

I took a close look at the subscriber options. They are not told anything about different programming for the four Bolshoi performances. I'm guessing all three Parts will be shown at each program, with some variation in Part II, as you suggest. It also seems unlikely that they are staging two new full-evening programs for Parts I and III.

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I just renewed my dance subscription at OCPAC in person at the ticket office.. I had some these same questions before purchasing some of the extra offerings. This special performance is only one night and is already half sold. I was late in renewing and could only get orchestra row S ! If anyone is planning on going, it would be wise to get a jump on it. :sweatingbullets:

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I just renewed my dance subscription at OCPAC in person at the ticket office.. I had some these same questions before purchasing some of the extra offerings. This special performance is only one night and is already half sold. I was late in renewing and could only get orchestra row S ! If anyone is planning on going, it would be wise to get a jump on it. :sweatingbullets:

Are you talking about the Tour de Force II on April 28, 2011?

http://www.ocpac.org/home/Content/ContentDisplay.aspx?NavID=796

Earlier in this thread we were trying to sort out "The Bolshoi Ballet Project," January 20 - 23, 2011, and when they would show Parts I, II, and III. Did they give you any guidance on that?

I attended Tour de Force I on May 21, 2009. It was very strange -- billed as a non-fund-raising gala that would showcase the Center's commitment to presentation of dance. Indeed, they went out of their way to say they were not trying to raise money with this, which they easily could have. It consisted of 16 pas de deux and small ensemble showpieces. Osipova did 3 pieces: Giselle pas de deux (with Vasiliev), Don Quixote pas de deux (with Leonid Sarafanov), and Flames of Paris pas de deux (with Vasiliev).

For Tour de Force II, I haven't seen any commitments about who will perform,although Osipova is listed for the January Bolshoi programs.

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For Tour de Force II, I haven't seen any commitments about who will perform,although Osipova is listed for the January Bolshoi programs.

The website for Ardani, which organizes/presents Tour de Force II, says the following (although of course, things can change):

"Artists scheduled to perform include Bernice Coppieters, Natalia Osipova, Tiler Peck, Polina Semionova,

Diana Vishneva, Guillaume Cote, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg :flowers: , Joaquin De Luz, Giuseppe Picone, Gil Roman, Ivan Vasiliev and special guest Savion Glover. Plus members of the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg and Cirque de Krakatuk."

http://www.ardani.com/news-reflection_051910.php

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Sorry for the confusion. Actually my entire subscription was confusing, thus a trip to the ticket office this summer. My usual scheduled time is Thursdays and there were only two groups performing on a Thursday. Therefore I was given two performances in my season package! I had to add all the other performances by date.........Reflections is performing Jan. 20-23. Tour de Force II is a 'bonus option' for all subscribers on Thurs. April 28 '11.(one night only) Eifman Ballet will be performing prior on April 26-May 1. Yes, they sandwiched this Tour de Force in the middle of Eifman Ballet's visit.

I have grown very frustrated with the Dance Series at OCPAC. There is a definite coalition with Adani and OCPAC that continues to bring the same groups from season to season. It is discouraging that they are not more supportive of our own regional companies in America. I would also love to see Paul Taylor and a few other contemporary companies as well.........growing weary in SoCal.......I guess I should be thankful for what we do get to see...... :dunno:

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I have grown very frustrated with the Dance Series at OCPAC. There is a definite coalition with Adani and OCPAC that continues to bring the same groups from season to season. It is discouraging that they are not more supportive of our own regional companies in America.

I wish they would bring back San Francisco Ballet, last at OCPAC in November 2008. They brought a rich repertory that was perhaps a little too contemporary for the OCPAC audience (Fusion/Possokhov, Within the Golden Hour/Wheeldon, Four Ts, Fifth Season/Tomasson, Joyride/Morris, Doule Eil/Elo). I went to the Four Ts program and it seemed sold out and enthusiastic. But if the problem was the rep, SFB has plenty of old warhorses they could haul down.

I somehow doubt that LA Ballet or San Diego Ballet could fill that big opera house. ABT has made several visits, but not since fall 2008, as I remember. Perhaps one problem is finding underwriters to make up the difference from ticket sales, which apparently is very substantial (40-60%?).

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My guess is that Part II will be a changing mix-and-match of two or three pieces selected from among those not-quite-listed. One hopes that as the dates near, specific programming will be announced.

I would assume it's being conducted exactly as Kings of Dance, in this way. Vasiliev is like the icing on the cake as when Alina Cojocaru performed on a few occasions in The Lesson with the Kings.

The dance season at OCPAC is horrible now, but not just because they don't support American troupes. They seemingly refuse to schedule more than one classical ballet performance each season and can't bear to not have Don Quixote show up somewhere. Thank god for the Royal Danish this year.

I have grown very frustrated with the Dance Series at OCPAC. There is a definite coalition with Adani and OCPAC that continues to bring the same groups from season to season. It is discouraging that they are not more supportive of our own regional companies in America.

I wish they would bring back San Francisco Ballet, last at OCPAC in November 2008. They brought a rich repertory that was perhaps a little too contemporary for the OCPAC audience (Fusion/Possokhov, Within the Golden Hour/Wheeldon, Four Ts, Fifth Season/Tomasson, Joyride/Morris, Doule Eil/Elo). I went to the Four Ts program and it seemed sold out and enthusiastic. But if the problem was the rep, SFB has plenty of old warhorses they could haul down.

I somehow doubt that LA Ballet or San Diego Ballet could fill that big opera house. ABT has made several visits, but not since fall 2008, as I remember. Perhaps one problem is finding underwriters to make up the difference from ticket sales, which apparently is very substantial (40-60%?).

ABT, until this season, has performed annually at OCPAC - this has occurred for at least the last decade. They were here last year with Giselle, and the year before with a mixed bill that OCPAC helped fund (that godawful Tharp ballet Rabbit & Rogue) - they even filmed The Dream here for DVD release. I agree that the association of Ardani and OCPAC is truly ruining what used to be one of the better places without a resident company to see a variety of national/world class foreign companies in America (aside from the Kennedy Center). It's even worse that a place that used to book The Royal and POB is shilling Tour de Force as the major highlight of their season.

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Welllll ... I went tonight. If they think they are following the lead of "The Kings of the Dance" they haven't. I could wax poetic for pages on that topic alone.

If you like modern-ish ballet with lots of flicking wrists and elbows, and contorting bodies, and angst, you'll love this. I don't and didn't. The women are beautiful and danced beautifully; this is not the vehicle in which I prefer to see them. It's a matter of taste.

The program says the choreography was created to suit the various dancers. Osipova danced, and one of her strong points is leaps. She rarely left the floor.

All 3 acts were performed. "Chanconne" was replaced by "Serenata".

I'm anxious to hear what others are going to say.

Giannina

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[ I was there......and will chime in later.......a very long night......the treat was in seeing these Bolshoi talents on one stage together......amazing. And I enjoyed the contemporary choreography, although not always successful.

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Oh god, I thought it was such a waste of the dancers. I didn't have high expectations based on the choreographers selected but it was beyond banal.

Remansos: why start off a show celebrating the Bolshoi's women, with a piece that focuses almost entirely on the men? This was basically the highlight the evening though (aside from the Pas de Trois) and very well danced.

Ladies' solos: Semionova's was the most interesting, and it was at least charming. I actually didn't think it was that great, but after seeing the rest my opinion of it was raised. Fractus, with Krysanova, was HORRID. Every bad modern-high-extension-Wayne-McGregor-loud-rock cliche combined into one mess (maybe McGregor pulled his piece after seeing this?? Why did his piece get pulled? So many questions!). The drums gave me a headache. The McGregor replacement for Osipova and Vasiliev was a Bigonzetti, boring-total waste of both of their energies (again, like Giannina said--how was this tailored this their talents?). The Balanchine pas de trois with Shastekevish and Olga M(?) was a delight.

CinqueInteresting concept...WAY too long. When I saw that this was supposed to be a 20 min piece that got bloated into a 45 min one I had a suspicion it would be less than ideal. At one point Kotchekova actually bit Shipulina's hand and dragged her off the stage hand in mouth?? Bizarre. Again, none of the solos played to any of the women's strengths with the exception of Kotchekova's solo, I would say.

The dancers, of course, were all really working with everything they were given. Each of them is a delight and can do whatever thrown at them. The problem is there was so little actual dance. Okay, bad choreography can be overcome by many factors (music? personality? charm?), but if you are going to put Shipulina in a long grey dress with a slit and just have her basically stand in one spot for 5 minutes with a piano playing, you didn't try hard enough.

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Lewis Segal's review for the Los Angeles Times was just posted:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/01/dance-review-bolshoi-reflections-at-the-segerstrom-center-for-the-arts.html

In a nutshell, he says: "The renewal of the classical repertory ought to be a priority for every company, but an ill-assorted, overlong patchwork of novelties serves neither the art nor the artists."

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Paul Hodgins' review in the Orange County Register was just posted:

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/work-285105-reflections-center.html

One key point: "At their worst, these brief choreographies looked like studies – too thematically underdeveloped to be significant." He's much gentler than Segal.

I was hoping Macaulay might fly out (especially because he might want an excuse to escape the NY temperature this weekend -- daytime highs are hitting 70 here!), but I haven't seen anything.

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I just saw the Sunday show. Wow, that was awful, and to echo an earlier sentiment, it was an almost total waste of the dancing talent.

The show starts with Nacho Duato's Remansos, except with a little prologue added so that there would be women in the piece. The steps were typical Duato, and didn't really add anything to the piece. At least we got to hear more of the lovely Granados music. The main section is the same as before, and the big surprise was seeing Vyacheslav Lopatin dance the Parrish Maynard role with such poetic elegance. I wish we could have seen more of him. The other two men, Vasiliev (in Malakhov's role) and Savin (Keith Roberts's role), were OK, if a bit clunky. The ending where they lift Vasiliev upside down so he can hang on the wall by his legs was so rough, they almost knocked the wall over.

Act 2 was pretty terrible with only 1 highlight: Elo's piece for Maria Kochetkova. Unlike the others, and this would repeat itself again in the 3rd act, she looks comfortable executing modern movements, and seems to have an understanding of it: hers were the only gestures that weren't small scale. And the Elo piece, a deconstruction of ballet, with half a tutu (the right half) was actually funny and entertaining. The rest of the act was just awful, but especially bad was Karole Armitage's pas de deux. It looked like a cheap, bad copy of the famous pas from Forsythe's In the middle, somewhat elevated: the lighting went on and off, the music made Thom Willems sound like Debussy, and the upstage curtain raised up just in time to reveal the bare wall before the curtain fell. It was like the piece was furiously checking off some invisible checklist. Zanella's piece for Semionova made her look like a dancing bottle of Cristal --- is it an ironic reference to the Czars or some kind of pandering to the nouveau riche oligarchs? Who knows, and with that banal choreography, who cares? It looked like Zanella looked at Semionova's famous music video on Youtube, and then just rearranged it. It was classroom exercises done in gold silky PJs. The other pieces were inscrutably pointless, but mercifully short.

The Balanchine was welcome reprieve, if not for its genius, then at least for providing relief at watching someone competent fill the stage without fussy tricks or affectations. Just plain straightforward dancing that knew how to hold the stage and the audience's attention.

Act 3 sustained the low level of choreographic achievement with Bigonzetti's entirely wrong-headed, misapprehended Eurotrash-tastic Cinque. You had the enigmatic opening with the 5 ballerinas sitting around on Starck Ghost chairs, looking like the Desperate Housewives of Italy. You had the Vivaldi warhorses played on mandolin, strung together with little musical sensitivity. You had dim lighting with projected light rectangles. You had the dancers undressing and putting on their vestigial classical tutus and bodices on stage (with dressers coming out to help them). Even the freakin' tutus were hanging on lines which lowered them. Add to that mostly inscrutable, small-scale gestures that no one except Kochetkova made work, and you have Eurotrash choreography.

What an amazing waste of time, talent, and money.

--Andre

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I could not believe what I was watching. Absolutely hilarious- I'm surprised that the dancers (all beautiful artists) could keep a straight face while performing these pieces. Even Osipova- in the last piece, towards the very end, seems to lose track of the silly arm movements. Thanks for showing these as it lightened my mood- we've been snowed in for about three weeks!

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