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NYCB Spring 2013


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If you haven't seen Ivesiana, i'd recommend that. the company isn't doing it next season and I think haven't for several years; its different from most of the Balanchine rep.

Is it true that Ivesiana is now down to three movements (Central Park, Unanswered Q and In the Inn)? That's compared to four movements (above-cited 3 + In the Night) since the mid-70s....and six movements (Halloween and Pavements, in addition to CP, UQ, Inn and Dark) when it was created.

Better catch it now before it dwindles to two movements. smile.png

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Honestly, if you're only interested in "must see" programs rather than a second (or third, or fourth, or whatever) look at core Balanchine rep or your favorite dancers, you should probably save your money for the 2013-2014 season, when more interesting stuff will be on offer. ("Namouna"! Yay!) If you're a Balanchine completist, by all means try to catch "Ivesiana" as it doesn't get programmed often. I'm especially partial to "Central Park in the Dark," which must be one of Balanchine's bleakest explorations of a woman's psyche, but your life will still be worth living if you don't get to see it.

I'm not a Martins fan, and he's programmed a number of his own works this spring. If you catch one of the Calcium Light Night / Barber Violin Concerto / Fearful Symmetries programs, you'll have seen most of his better works in one go and will have done your duty by him.

The new Wheeldon will come around again next year, but it looks as if Peck's newish "In Creases" won't. It's been programmed with "Concerto DSCH," "Sonatas and Interludes," and "Stars and Stripes," which wouldn't be a bad way to spend an evening, IMO, but isn't something you'd move heaven and earth to see. (I remember liking Tanner's "Sonatas and Interludes," which is set to one of my favorite John Cage compositions.)

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I would catch Maria Kowroski this week in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." I saw her do it several years ago and still can't get the image of her out of my mind (but then, why would I want to?) For me, that's a "must see." I'm going again, then I, too, will be turning my attention across the plaza.

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Not arguing against Maria Kowroski in Slaughter. She's a beautiful dancer with a great sense of humor. But a couple of years ago, when I told a critic friend who hadn't seen it that I thought Sara Mearns' Slaughter was the performance of the season, he was extremely skeptical. After all, it's a slight ballet, originally created for the Broadway stage, doesn't seem to take itself seriously (nor should it). How could a dancer elevate it to "performance of the season" when so many superior works were on display? I understood, and a few days earlier would have been equally disbelieving that anyone could make Slaughter so important.

My friend went to see Mearns' final performance of that role for that season and reported back that he agreed with me. It is among the more memorable performances I've seen in some 38-39 years of regular ballet attendance.

I'm an unapologetic Balanchine partisan. The single best program of the season, in my opinion? June 9 (closing -- it appears to be the only time these are presented as a program this season):

  • Serenade
  • Stravinsky Violin Concerto
  • Western Symphony.

Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy.

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re: IVESIANA

no, it's not true that the current version is further cut.

this staging ends, as it did in Balanchine's last revival, with "In the Night" - this remains a 4-part work, revised etc. by Balanchine, down from the original 6-part work, which the choreographer tinkered with to include alternatives to the sections finally dropped altogether.

thus the now "standard" order:

CENTRAL PARK IN THE DARK

THE UNANSWERED QUESTION

IN THE INN

IN THE NIGHT

(the eliminated sections include HALLOWE'EN, ARGUMENTS, and BARN DANCE)

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Thanks, RG. So it appears that the printed Spring 2013 season brochure is wrong (thankfully) when it states:

"Ivesiana...choreographed to a series of orchestral pieces by Ives, this intensely theatrical ballet presents three scenes, each contrasting starkly from one another in mood..." (my underline)

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it would seem so, as you say, N.

or else the copywriter thought "In the Night" an epilogue, or some such, as opposed to an actual "scene" - i'm only joking here, really, that copy was clearly "off" with regard to the ballet it was meant to describe. you're not the only one who wondered before the season if IVESIANA had been further truncated.

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