7 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Reviews of New York City Ballet's gala in Saratoga.

Times Union

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Amar Ramasar, full of personality and charisma, was riveting with his top-flight dancing and comedic acting as Johnny in Susan Stroman's newest dance

"For the Love of Duke," set to music by the the great jazz composer.

The Saratogian

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Saturday night’s Gatsby-themed Gala at SPAC paid tribute to NYC Ballet’s Broadway links with two show-biz ballets, Peter Martins’ 2003 “Thou Swell” and Broadway choreographer Susan Stroman’s “For the Love of Duke.” If both vied for the Tony award, Martins would win hands down.

“Thou Swell” is a guilty pleasure, an unabashedly romantic ballet to 16 Richard Rodgers songs for four couples and a corps of eight. On the Art Deco nightclub set, a huge mirror tilts above them, offering multiple perspectives.

[dirac]

A look at the career of Roland Petit by Sanjoy Roy in The Guardian, illustrated with video clips.

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...... "It was because of [the Fonteyn affair]," recalled Jeanmaire later, "that afterwards I told him: 'We go to London, and I want a big creation for me. Otherwise, I will leave.'"

That creation turned out to be Petit's biggest success, Carmen (1949), which introduced a new kind of ballet heroine. In Carmen, Jeanmaire was fierce, sexual, wilful – hair cropped boyishly close, hips jutting, legs lengthened by the shortness of her tunic – and Petit's choreography was charged with eroticised combat. Its London premiere caused an even bigger sensation than Petit's first visit, audiences finding it thrillingly risqué. You can see in this later recording of Petit and Jeanmaire why British choreographer Frederick Ashton, fresh from staging The Sleeping Beauty for the Royal Ballet, worried he might be out of date.

The Associated Press obituary via the LA Times.

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Acclaimed choreographer Roland Petit, whose creations dazzled stages from Paris to Hollywood and inspired dancers, writers and designers, has died. He was 87.

The Paris National Opera said Petit's wife, Zizi Jeanmaire, informed them that the choreographer died Sunday in Geneva. No cause of death was given.

Voice of Russia (in brief)

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Russia’s Bolshoi Theater is  paying tribute to the great French choreographer Roland Petit, who died yesterday at the age of 87 in Paris.

[dirac]

Associated Press item on the guilty plea of former union lawyer Leonard Leibowitz, reported last week.

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The 72-year-old resident of Highland Beach, Fla., faces up to a year in prison when he's sentenced on Oct. 14.

As part of his plea deal, he must pay about $76,000 in restitution to the American Guild of Musical Artists. That union is the successor to the IAA.

[dirac]

A look at the pros and cons of ballet in 3D, by Madeleine Kruhly in The Atlantic Monthly.

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So it’s no surprise that some hard-core aficionados and professional dancers have been hesitant to welcome the arrival of Giselle in 3D. By bringing the art to movie theaters, the concept of ballet as movement to be viewed on stage, in person, a seat away from the pointed feet, disappears. The art form that started in Renaissance courts centuries ago fundamentally changes to something more common and commercial: It is defined no longer as ballet, but as cinema. Can a screen truly capture the emotional tension and the slight details that define each ballet?

[dirac]

A story on Japanese ballet students attending the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School this summer.

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For the past two years, Marshall has served as a judge for the Japan Grand Prix, a ballet competition that awards scholarships to extraordinary dancers. The event inspired him to offer some of the competitors direct entry into the ballet school's intensive summer program. Last year, eight students enrolled.

[dirac]

An item on the cocaine controversy at the Royal Danish Ballet, by Norman Lebrecht.

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And the Royal Ballet’s response? ”It is true that we have had an outside consultant employed by the Royal Ballet. He – no longer associated with the theater – has written an internal report with a series of allegations of drug abuse and cooperation problems.These are unsubstantiated and cannot be verified.”

So that’s all right then.

Local jokers are suggesting that Danish Royal Opera is planning a sympathy fund-raiser of Shostakovich’s opera, The Nose.

[dirac]

A review of American Ballet Theatre in 'The Sleeping Beauty'by Mary Cargill for danceviewtimes.

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The baby grew up to be Gillian Murphy.  Her natural authority and command worked against her first act Aurora, and the rose adagio, while well-danced, seemed a bit dry, and she didn't seem very interested in her prospective husbands.  Her vision scene, though, was radiant; it is such a shame she doesn't have the opportunity to dance the more familiar choreography with the magical reverse developpes.  She was completely at home in the final act, where she embodied the grandeur and majesty of the choreography (though the sequined toe shoes were an unfortunate touch, since her dancing glows without needing any artificial glitter).

[dirac]

A review of the Paris Opera Ballet by Roslyn Sulcas in The New York Times.

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There’s a kinetic fascination to all of this, but too often in “Anatomie,” Mr. McGregor seems hard-pressed to match Mr. Turnage’s score, “Blood on the Floor,” a nine-part 1994 composition inspired by Bacon’s artworks. (The title is a loose adaption of his painting “Blood on Pavement.”) Originally composed for the Ensemble Modern, and played in Paris by the Ensemble Intercontemporain , it’s an often frenzied, powerful piece in which the influences of Gershwin, Bernstein, Miles Davis and Stravinsky are clear. But its relentlessly percussive energy and jazz riffs have little discernible dance impetus, and Mr. McGregor frequently seems to throw as much physical complexity at us as he can in the hope of meeting the music halfway.