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[Mme. Hermine]

Sarah Kaufman reviews Washington Ballet's Dracula:

http://www.washingto...6a24_story.html

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Surely no stalker, living or undead, has prowled the stage with the mesmerizing slinkiness of new company member Hyun-Woong Kim. He perfects the slow-poured, hip-forward strut of a flamenco dancer, every motion emanating from the small of his back, and he matches this with a no-nonsense look in his eyes that’s at once blistering and icy cold.

[Mme. Hermine]

A review of Ben Stevenson's Peer Gynt for Texas Ballet Theater:

http://www.theaterjo...ith-Carl-Coomer

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Sitting in the Music Hall at Fair Park, Edvard Grieg's overture awakens one of the senses, hoping to hint at the spectacle to come. The first visual for Ben Stevenson's Peer Gynt, however, is highly unexpected. A curtain-sized, crudely-drawn face, like one you'd find in the insane asylum, greets the audience suggesting not only events to come, but the general nature of the performance from Texas Ballet Theater. This is not a normal classical ballet.

[Mme. Hermine]

Clement Crisp reviews Birmingham Royal Ballet in The Dream:

http://www.ft.com/cm...l#axzz2Ag3rQNTF

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I have sometimes contemplated the theory of “ballet programming as suicide note”. Companies arrive in London, and for reasons of internal politics or directorial caprice rather than artistic merit, schedule lurching choreographic grotesques to introduce themselves to their public. There ensue sulks, self-justification, bitter words about about public incomprehension, about everything except the wrong choices. ]

[Mme. Hermine]

<sub>An obituary for Hans Werner Henze, composer of the music for Ashton's ballet Ondine:


http://www.telegraph...rner-Henze.html</sub>

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Henze moved to Naples in January 1956, where he wrote the enchanting Five Neapolitan Songs for Fischer-Dieskau. At Walton’s suggestion he composed the ballet Undine for Covent Garden, which was first performed in October 1958 with Margot Fonteyn dancing the water nymph to Frederick Ashton’s choreography. Henze was now totally alienated from the aesthetic of Stockhausen and Boulez, who had ostentatiously walked out of the first performance of his Nocturnes and Arias in 1957. Indeed, Boulez famously said in 1968 that a Rolling Stones’ song was far cleverer and shorter than a Henze opera.

[Mme. Hermine]

A piece by Michael Upchurch of the Seattle Times on PNB's "All Premiere" program:

http://seattletimes....7_morris28.html

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Pacific Northwest Ballet's "All Premiere," which debuts on Friday, will offer not one, not two, not three, but four brand-new works. The idea was artistic director Peter Boal's. And the dances are a newly commissioned work by Mark Morris — the renowned Seattle native's first for PNB in 30 years — plus pieces by three budding choreographers from the PNB ranks: Andrew Bartee, Kiyon Gaines and Margaret Mullin.