13 replies to this topic

[Helene]

Rosie Gaynor writes about Margaret Mullin in the August 2011 issue of "Dance Magazine"; PNB posted a link to the online version on its Facebook Page:

On the Rise: Margaret Mullin

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Mullin works hard in class (even her tendus are a dramatic performance, strong feet slicing fast and clear). And she has performed challenging roles this spring, including Butterfly in Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle. If Ballet Arts gave her what Mullin describes as “the raw material,” she says her years at PNB have been about “putting it into motion in the right way” with the help of Boal and the company’s ballet masters. Her control, refinement, and sophistication have increased so much so that Boal nominated her for a Princess Grace Award.

  She is wonderful, and I'm glad she's being recognized.

[Helene]

PNB also linked to this article in the August/September 2011 issue of "Pointe Magazine" on corps member Abby Relic:

On the Side: Abby Relic

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That emphasis on putting a personal stamp on choreography has changed the way Relic thinks about even the most classical pieces. “When you’re in the corps of a story ballet, you have to dance cleanly so you fit in—but now I consciously put more of me into the movement,” she says. Plus, she’s found that when the company is learning a contemporary ballet, her diverse hip-hop experience helps her nail the quirkier steps. “I’m used to picking up new styles quickly, even if they feel foreign at first.”

Relic is a wonderfully versatile dance for the company, and a great commedian, which she showed as one of the Eville Stepsisters in "Cinderella" this past year.   I wish we had seen more of her in "Giselle".

[sandik]

Helene, on 08 August 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

Relic is a wonderfully versatile dance for the company, and a great commedian, which she showed as one of the Eville Stepsisters in "Cinderella" this past year.  

I know you are probably wincing, but I love this spelling of evil -- it makes me think of Cruella deVille!

[SandyMcKean]

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This bodes well for Mullin’s dream of someday dancing Juliette in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette.

....and I'd be there for her debut in this role if I had to crawl to get there.  Mullin is one of the most exciting young dancers I know.

[Helene]

I think the role of Juliette is one of those "Announce it, and there are lines out the door of the AD's."

In the past, when the R&J Balcony Pas de Deux has been performed as a excerpt, it's been a gala one-off, with one cast. There's a unique opportunity this season:  it's part of the "Love Stories" program which will be performed seven times.  Current dancers who've performed Juliette are Korbes and Nakamura.  After "Giselle" I think it has Rachel Foster's name all over it.  But there may be an opportunity for a one-off for someone else, and perhaps a younger dancer, since it's an excerpt and the dancer doesn't have to learn and carry the whole ballet.

[sandik]

Helene, on 10 August 2011 - 08:13 PM, said:

I think the role of Juliette is one of those "Announce it, and there are lines out the door of the AD's."

...

After "Giselle" I think it has Rachel Foster's name all over it.  But there may be an opportunity for a one-off for someone else, and perhaps a younger dancer, since it's an excerpt and the dancer doesn't have to learn and carry the whole ballet.

I agree, it's a role that generates incredible lobbying by dancers.  And the Maillot version can accommodate a wide variety of performers, so that just increases the number of possibilities.  In this specific case, though, I think that it would be smartest to cast dancers that are likely to perform it when it comes back in its full-length form -- along the lines of an audition.  And with that kind of strategy, I do think that Foster would be a likely choice.  She would do a good job with Maillot's extended version of classical ballet, and the dramatic content is something she is working toward.  

That would make three casts, which for a duet in a mixed rep program is probably all we'll see on stage, but it's early enough in the season that they will likely teach it to at least one other cast, for the experience and the insurance.  In that case I'd vote for Chapman -- she's a knockout Rosaline, but I think she might bring some interesting qualities to Juliette.  But your opinion may vary.

And we haven't touched on Romeos here -- perhaps we should make a new thread for "Gaming the Casting" and open the season on speculation.

[bart]

Sorry to be Off-Topic ... but:

sandik, on 09 August 2011 - 08:33 AM, said:

Helene, on 08 August 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

Relic is a wonderfully versatile dance for the company, and a great commedian, which she showed as one of the Eville Stepsisters in "Cinderella" this past year.  

I know you are probably wincing, but I love this spelling of evil -- it makes me think of Cruella deVille!

You are not the only one, sandik.  According to an interview in Pointe Magazine,  NYCB dancer Georgina Pazcoguin's interpretation of Carabosse was "inspired by Cruella de Vil."

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It seems funny now, but I called my dad and asked himn to send me tapes of every Disney movie that had an evil witch!  I took a lot from 101 Dalmations' Cruella de Vil in particular

  
Petipa may be spinning in his grave, but it makes a weird kind of sense in 21st-century America.

[sandik]

bart, on 11 August 2011 - 10:57 AM, said:

Sorry to be Off-Topic ... but:

sandik, on 09 August 2011 - 08:33 AM, said:

Helene, on 08 August 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

Relic is a wonderfully versatile dance for the company, and a great commedian, which she showed as one of the Eville Stepsisters in "Cinderella" this past year.  

I know you are probably wincing, but I love this spelling of evil -- it makes me think of Cruella deVille!

You are not the only one, sandik.  According to an interview in Pointe Magazine,  NYCB dancer Georgina Pazcoguin's interpretation of Carabosse was "inspired by Cruella de Vil."

Quote

It seems funny now, but I called my dad and asked himn to send me tapes of every Disney movie that had an evil witch!  I took a lot from 101 Dalmations' Cruella de Vil in particular

  
Petipa may be spinning in his grave, but it makes a weird kind of sense in 21st-century America.

I don't even think it's weird -- Petipa was using the fairy stories of his time as a common template, in order to carry on an in-depth exploration of classical ballet.  On one level, I don't think he really cared about story (he certainly didn't have much concern about dramatic realism -- one of the things that Fokine criticized him for) -- Petipa cared about the dancing, and specifically about what you could do with classical ballet.  Everything else was an 'also ran.'

I'm not advocating for ballet versions of Disney princess films -- there's already quite a lot of that around -- but I can see how those stories, or those treatments of earlier stories, have become a common language for 21st century audiences.  If you were looking for a shorthand glossary of 'evil woman,' the Queen in Snow White and Cruella de Ville in 101 D's would be good places to start.

[sandik]

The October/November issue of Pointe has Lindsi Dec on the cover, with a very nice profile by Rosie Gaynor inside.

[Helene]

Thanks, sandik -- here's a link:

http://www.pointemag...zing-her-moment

Lindsi Dec is always engaging in the post-performance Q&A's, and I found this part funny:

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Dec started out learning everything from pompom to ballet at the Linda Natoli Studio of Dance in Clinton, Maryland. No one in her family danced—not her mother, her father, her older brother or her many aunts. But her mother signed her up for classes when Dec was 3. Why? “My mom told me, ‘Well, you were very introverted.’ ” Dec laughs. “What?! You can’t even stop me from talking!”

I've never noticed a lack of turnout; I think it's because of the very smooth way she moves and how she transitions from one movement to the next.

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PNB’s then co-artistic director Francia Russell recommended Dec spend time in front of a mirror looking for lines that would compensate for her lack of turnout. Dec still follows that  advice to this day—it’s one of the secrets of her success.

[Helene]

PNB just posted a link to this short video of the "Pointe" photo shoot with Dec:

http://www.dancemedia.com/v/5786

[Helene]

Price Suddarth was named one of Dance Magazine's "2012 25 to Watch":

http://dancemagazine...012-25-To-Watch

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Price Suddarth doesn’t have to reach across the footlights; his clarity and affable confidence pull the audience right to him. “People find him in a line of eight—in the back row,” says Peter Boal, artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet. At 21, the new corps member is already the complete package: technique, clean lines, musicality, stage presence, partnering…He knows how to create drama by differentiating between movement and stillness. He knows that nailing four or five pirouettes onstage is fine, but that teasing out the ending or finishing fast with a grin is better. A soft-footed, elastic jumper, he delivers unrushed beats and buoyant leaps. Whether dancing a grand Oberon for a school matinee or premiering a Marco Goecke piece packed with fast isolations, Suddarth is the prince of smooth control. He dances as if to say, “Of course.” This intelligent, versatile young man, Boal says, is ready for anything—including Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote, which PNB performs in February at McCaw Hall. Bring it on! —Rosie Gaynor

[Helene]

"I'm in the corps and we do a lot of full-lengths.  I need the shoe to last all the way through a ballet like Swan Lake.  They need to be light, but they need to last."

Chelsea Adomaitis, quoted in the April 2012 Dance Magazine feature on toe shoes.

[Helene]

From a review of Olivier Wevers/Eric Banks' "Approaching Ecstasy" was this link to an article on dancing/performing couples, among them Wevers and Lucien Postlewaite, in this February's "Dance Magazine":

http://dancemagazine...ng-a-ring-on-it
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