53 replies to this topic

[sandik]

Thanks for the video -- did you see the big smiles on Imler and Bold?

[Helene]

A short interview with Maria Chapman on working with Alexei Ratmansky for "Don Quixote", from the PNB blog:

http://blog.pnb.org/...ew-with_24.html

[Helene]

Gary Tucker kindly forwarded the casting for both weeks of Don Quixote; as always, casting is subject to change.  (As I post this, the casting isn't up yet on the PNB website, but when it is, it will be available from this link:  http://www.pnb.org/S...Details-Casting)

This Excel spreadsheet can be downloaded:
 Don Quixote Casting Both Weeks 120124.xlsx   43.32K   22 downloads

I have two disappointments:  there were five casts featured in the video, but Lesley Rausch and Jerome Tisserand haven't been cast as Kitri/Basilio.  (They will dance Mercedes/Espada.)  The other is that not all four casts will perform first weekend, and I'll miss the Foster/Orza, a wonderful partnership in "Giselle".

Tom Skerritt and Allen Galli team as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza for all but the two Saturday matinees, when Otto Neubert's Don Quixote is paired with Jonathan Porretta's* Sancho Panza.   My favorite performer, Karel De Rooij, in the Dutch National Ballet DVD was Sancho Panza, and I'm looing forward to seeing both interpretations.

Edited by Helene, 24 January 2012 - 11:10 PM.
*Thanks to sandik for the correction

[sandik]

I think you meant that Neubert will be paired with Jonathan Porretta as Sancho Panza -- it should be an interesting performance!

[Paul Parish]

Helene, on 28 December 2011 - 09:49 PM, said:

Here is a video from a photo shoot with Carla Korbes and Karel Cruz; Angela Sterling is the photographer:

Gosh they're cute!

[Helene]

She's gorgeous, and he's matinee-idol material.

[aurora]

Helene, on 24 January 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:

She's gorgeous, and he's matinee-idol material.

agreed! Oddly the one that they seem to have chosen as the "poster image" (that is, the one with the text up next to it) strikes me as the least flattering image of him. He has much less chin than he appears to have in the video and in the other still photographs.

[sandik]

I'm old enough to still be amazed at digital technology, having been around when you would have snapped hundreds of exposures in a photo shoot like that, but not know if you had anything truly great until you got back to the darkroom.  The ability to 'click and look' makes such a difference!

[Helene]

Click, look, and adjust, in real time.

[Helene]

Casting is now up on the PNB website:
http://www.pnb.org/S...Details-Casting

[Helene]

Seattle Times intereview Tom Skerritt about playing Don Quixote:
http://seattletimes....prmid=head_main

Quote

In 1977, Skerritt was offered a role in the ballet drama "The Turning Point," playing a former dancer who now teaches. He knew nothing of that world — "I grew up on the streets of Detroit; there's not a whole lot of ballet or exposure to the arts there" — but agreed to take some ballet classes to prepare for the role. It was, he said, a revelation. "It's exhilarating!" he said. "I had no idea. It was so exciting to discover that. You're fatigued, but that exhilaration lifts you up to a whole other level."

Earlier in the article, he says he told Peter Boal, "I don't dance. I'm just a clumsy ox,' but I don't remember him looking out of place in "The Turning Point":  not every retired dancer keeps up a pronounced walk and posture, and I though he moved gracefully.

He was also interviewed on a local radio show -- there was a lead-in about his part in the ballet, but the two co-hosts didn't speak of it -- and he said he was 78.  (They kept telling him how wonderful he looked.)  I think it's pretty inspiring that a 78-year-old taking ballet class finds it exhiliarating.  From the context of his comment, I guess he didn't take class to prepare for "The Turning Point."

Also, speaking about why he chose Skerritt, "Boal, asked about the casting, said that he'd thought of Skerritt some time ago. He knew that Ratmansky preferred to have actors, rather than dancers, play the roles of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza."  On the Dutch National Ballet video, this is clear:  the Don Quixote mouths lines or directions throughout.  It looks like he took a text-based approach, while for Skerritt:  "Working without dialogue, however, has been 'kind of freeing,' Skerritt said, noting that it suits the physicality of the character. 'It's like a silent movie — a wonderful challenge.'"

[Helene]

Here's a new video of Kitri's and Basilio's Entrance, with Kaori Nakamura and Lucien Postlewaite:

[SandyMcKean]

I note a couple of things in this new video.  First (and I'm encouraged), I see Jerome Tisserand marking Basilio's part in the background.  I presume this means that he and Leslie Rausch might still be seen in this ballet.  Since they are not announced as cast members for these roles, I presume they are a backup couple in case someone gets injured   I certainly don't want that to happen, but somehow, someway maybe we will get to see this couple -- a pairing I just loved when they did Robbin's "Afternoon of a Faun" in the last rep.

Next, I see a couple of big (as in big) guys in the corp (green and yellow shirts).  I don't recognize them, so I presume they are professional division students.  What's interesting is that one of them (green shirt) is not using the guitar as a prop, but seems to be actually playing it.

[Helene]

I think the tall guy in the green shirt with the guitar is Charles McCall, who was a PD student and is now an apprentice.  The tall guy in the yellow shirt may be Joshua Grant, who returned to PNB this year.

In the couples video, Rausch and Tisserand were listed as the last of the Kitri/Basilio pairs, so, yes, they would be next in line.

[SandyMcKean]

Bingo, you got it.  Thanks for figuring out the names.  I'll be looking for McCall and Grant when I see this rep next week.