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2014/15 season announcement


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MCB has posted a Facebook status linking us to their website where the new season is revealed. You can see it here: http://www.miamicityballet.org/renew

PROGRAM I:

Romeo & Juliet (Cranko)

PROGRAM II:

Nine Sinatra Songs (Tharp)/Mercuric Tidings (Taylor)/Symphony in 3 Movements (Balanchine)

PROGRAM III:

Carmen (Alston)/Sweet Fields (Tharp)/Allegro Brillante

PROGRAM IV:

Raymonda Variations (Balanchine)/The Concert (Robbins)/Justin Peck World Premiere

I must say I'm surprised how closely she's staying to the Villella mold of programming. It's a lot of Tharp/Taylor. 'Allegro' closing is a head-scratcher. But, always nice to see 'The Concert', new to the rep and the new work by Peck will be exciting.

What does everyone else think?

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One difference from the Villella pattern that I noticed immediately was putting a single long ballet on Program I. With Villella, wasn't it usually Program IV, for some reason? Personally, I don't care that much. I do care how much Balanchine there is on view, though, and in Villella's last years there was some tendency toward less, with Taylor and Tharp and some Robbins added. Only three next season, and on different programs. This Chicago tourist and Balanchine addict would be happy to have them all on one! Two consecutive weekends! In earlier years, I think there was lots of Balanchine, and Villella's company danced it almost as well as Balanchine's own company did, better than Peter Martins's company, for my money.

Why is Allegro Brillante a cause for head-scratching, by the way? Too short for a closer? Ballet Imperial it's not. And the Shchedrin take, or take-off, on Carmen is not something I enjoy, I'm afraid.

In a promotional clip somewhere on the MCB site, Lopez says something about putting completely different dances on the same program to show something about the variety of ballet. She's talking about this season's Program III, but this kind of conceptualizing really does nothing for me, I'm afraid; it's as bad as Peter Martins's black-and-white programs. (Or "20th-Century Violin Concertos", the label for his program on February 18.) Different things, okay, but different things which go together, please. Like when you make a bouquet. Or better, like in a restaurant. (At the ballet, we don't get to choose a la carte, it's only a set menu, or table d'hôte.) As Mr. B. put it, in a restaurant, people don't want to eat beef three times. (Or hear those three concertos?) I say, it's not about demonstrating a point, it's about giving us a good evening!

One long ballet is a ready-made composition, though; it's a package deal. Of course, a contemporary stager will muck about with it, sometimes. Both Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty have suffered from this. I wonder if SB might be a little beyond this moderate-sized company, although it has had a large, excellent corps. (Remember their Giselle?) As for SL, I much prefer Balanchine's half-hour distillation, which MCB did with great distinction. It's really very good as a corps ballet, although I still remember Violette Verdy bringing great power to Odette in it, decades ago.

(I mean, with the traditional SL, we don't know if there's a real ballerina in the cast until Act II, so, part of the audience wouldn't even show up until then, in the Met years ago, and then they'd leave after Act III. Okay, Florida isn't New York.)

But Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet score does little more for me than Minkus's Don Quixote, which often turned up as Program IV in Villella's time, and I frankly don't feel it's suitable for choreography. To me, it's too heavy, like so much cast iron, although I have seen parts of the Ulanova film of the Lavrovsky setting, and I'm prepared to change my mind. (Just the way she comes down the stairs from the balcony...!) I watch the Czinner film of the MacMillan setting for Them (Fonteyn and Nureyev). So I'm not up for Program I next season.

Program II. That's my pick. Much as I like Raymonda Variations - maybe that program, too. (I think The Concert mocks its music, or worse, but maybe Mr. Peck will pull another rabbit out of the hat.) Anyway, when you live in Chicago, you already have a good reason to visit Florida in the wintertime.

Edited by Jack Reed
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Does anyone have the actual dates for the 2014-15 performances? They're not posted on the website.

It is strange that it isn't on the website. I could not find the info there either. Here are the dates in their subscriber renewal brochure.

Arsht Center (Miami)

Program 1: Oct. 17-19

Program 2: Jan. 9-11

Program 3: Feb. 13-15

Program 4: April 10-12

Broward Center (Ft. Lauderdale)

Program 1: Oct. 24-26

Program 2: Feb. 6-8

Program 3: March 20-22

Program 4: April 17-19

Kravis Center (West Palm Beach)

Program 1: Nov, 21-23

Program 2: Jan. 23-25

Program 3: Feb. 27-March 1

Program 4: March 27-29

Note: Fridays 8pm, Saturdays 8pm (and 2pm in West Palm and Ft. Lauderdale), Sundays 2pm (1pm in West Palm)

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Thanks so much!

Just this morning I noticed the website is updated finally. Maybe someone at MCB reads Ballet Alert and saw that you could not find the info! I did find it odd not to have the next season info up asap. Until today there were links to a couple of articles with the info on which ballets, but no dates. But now the website is finally showing the dates and all info for next season.

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Cortege Hongrois as a further homage to its ancestry? Or for the music? Ever seen Balanchine's treatment? We didn't think the ballet was that much, back in the day, although Balanchine's weaker ballets can show up others' better efforts often enough.

In particular, since we're just speculating, I'd say, except for their being scattered about the season, the three B's Lopez has chosen are stronger than C.H., especially R.V. and Symphony in 3 Movements. But pulling the three Raymonda treatments together would make something, except that Lopez looks more like wanting to forge ahead (into the dark, would you say?) instead of to draw upon the glories of the past. But I'd show up for your plan, Cristian, because I like Glazunov better than Minkus...

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There's a chapter in Joseph Mazo's "Dance Is a Contact Sport" about the making of "Cortege Hongrois" that quoted Balanchine: "I Made It for Millie." It was created for Hayden and Jacques d'Amboise for her retirement. He also made great character dancing roles in it for his confidant Karin von Aroldingen and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. It was never considered on par with his "Raymonda Variations," or "Pas de Dix," though, although I'm not sure whether it was for the choreography per se or because people expected something newer and more original for Hayden's farewell.

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