4 replies to this topic

[Mme. Hermine]

The financially pinched Sacramento Ballet plans to forgo live music for its Nutcracker.

http://www.sacbee.co...t-use-live.html

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The board also had decided to forgo live music for last year's performance, Smith said. However, a last-minute push by Sacramento Philharmonic interim Executive Director Jane Hill and head fundraiser Sandy Smoley brought in $106,000 to cover orchestra costs. Also, the philharmonic waived its conductor and administrative fees, and the ballet kicked in a last-minute $10,000 to make the live music possible.This year there is no special effort under way to raise funds by either the ballet or the philharmonic.

[Mme. Hermine]

Jenny Gilbert weighs in on San Francisco Ballet for The Independent:

http://www.independe...on-8165759.html

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Before San Francisco was the city of flower power, before it was the city of Hitchcock's Vertigo, it was America's No 1 city for ballet. San Francisco Ballet staged the first US production of many a 19th-century classic. Today, then, approaching its 80th birthday, it might have been expected to revisit past triumphs on its first UK visit in eight years. Not a bit of it.

[Mme. Hermine]

A review of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet by Ray Rinaldi in The Denver Post.

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The evening ends with the ASF-commissioned "Over Glow," which makes warm and welcome turns toward traditional positions before veering off into something much more modern. In choreographer Jorma Elo's 2011 narrative-driven piece, wrists flick and bodies shake. Still, it is a graceful statement, set to Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

This is a terrific season for dance along the Front Range. Local companies are staging ambitious productions, and touring troupes are exposing audiences here to a larger world of ideas. But ASF's weekend is likely to be the highlight of it all. They're thrilling, really, rewarding to just about every taste in dance. This particular program is one to see.

[Mme. Hermine]

Alastair Macaulay reviews the New York City Ballet:

http://www.nytimes.c...enter.html?_r=0

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On Saturday afternoon, to heartening effect, four Balanchine ballets joined New York City Ballet’s repertory, only one of which — “Firebird” — had been seen earlier this year; all four were to Stravinsky. “Scherzo à la Russe” (1972) is a frolic danced by 18 girls from the School of American Ballet to brass-dominated music recalling the merrymaking in Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka.” But there’s enough structural and rhythmic complexity — look here! look there! — to make its all-female, all-youthful fun constantly beguiling.  

[Mme. Hermine]

Clement Crisp reviews the San Francisco Ballet for the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/in...l#axzz27MxZSSfX

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This third programme by the San Francisco Ballet was, unhappily, something of a dégringolade, albeit first impressions of the evening made for the broadest of grins.