Daniel Duell (formerly NYCB) blog about teaching at Royal Danish Balle

[bagg]

Daniel Duell, 1972-1987 NYCB and currently artistic director of Ballet Chicago, posted his latest blog about his visit to Royal Danish Ballet:

http://balletchicago.org/duellblog.asp

And here you can see the photo of Dan with Patricia McBride in Coppelia:

http://www.balletchicago.org/images/AprilDD2.jpg

Here's a snippet of the blog:

"It is a real honor now to be teaching Nikolaj's company dancers for a second consecutive year here at Royal Danish Ballet. My admiration for these amazing artists, who are among the world's best, grows daily. A few nights ago I witnessed them brilliantly perform John Neumeier's Kameliadamen (Lady of the Camelias), a passionate, deeply emotional work set to piano and orchestral music of Chopin and costumed in full-length, 19th- century dresses and suits. Interpretive and technical challenges abound , and all are beautifully met. From there this remarkable troupe will step into a program of three towering Balanchine/Stravinsky masterpieces, clad only in Balanchine's signature leotards and tights and mastering a full evening of Stravinsky's complex counts and changing time signatures. The challenges are great, but these dancers are definitely equal to the task, and I am very excited to see the program's premiere performance on April 27."

[carbro]

Thank you, bagg, and welcome to BalletAlert!

Daniel Duell was a very popular dancer at NYCB, and many of his fans, self included, will be interested in following his current activities. He seems to have built a promising enterprise in Chicago.

[Jack Reed]

Agreed. Those who missed the earlier phase of Dan's career may still catch up with a little of it: In the "Choreography by Balanchine" videos on Nonesuch, he partners Merrill Ashley in the "Sanguinic" Variation in The Four Temperaments (also shown in a screen shot on the cover and, more accurately, on the inserted leaflet) and the Borne sisters, Elyse and Bonita, in the pas de trois in Emeralds, although, that said, the VHS tape version might be a better source as on at least some of the DVD material the sound is out of sync with the picture.

And some of the latest results of the later phase of it - not to omit credit to his wife, Patricia Blair, whose own career includes dancing in Edward Villella's Eglevsky Ballet - will be on view this weekend here in Chicago.