Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

SCFTA 2015-2016 Dance Season


Recommended Posts

The roll out for this season is bizarre, as there is no mention on SCFTA's FB page or on the front page of their new website of it.

Line-up:

Mariinsky Ballet: Raymonda

One of the most elegant and celebrated ballets of all time – and rarely seen in its entirety - the full-length Raymonda will be performed for the first time in Southern California. These will be performances of extraordinary virtuosity in the grand ballet style as only a company such as the Mariinsky can achieve.

9/24-9-27 (6 shows)

American Ballet Theater: The Nutcracker

A new Southern California tradition begins with American Ballet Theatre's newest Nutcracker, created by Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky and featuring sets and costumes from Richard Hudson (Broadway's Lion King). A cast of more than 100 performers - including students from our own ABT William J. Gillespie School - accompany young Clara on a dreamlike journey amid colorful, larger-than-life scenery, magical toy soldiers, mischievous mice, sparkling snowflakes, and a glittering Christmas tree!

12/10-12/20 (14 shows)

Les Ballet de Monte Carlo: Choré

Choré is a full-length ballet of epic scope that casts a fresh, provocative light on Hollywood musicals by setting their evolution against a turbulent historical backdrop. Tears and laughter, hope and fear, war and peace are evoked in a ballet that stirs the mind as well as the heart.

2/11-2/13 (4 shows)

Alvin Ailey

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the return of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with a program of works drawn from the company’s large and captivating repertory. Center audiences join all dance lovers around the world in reveling in the Alvin Ailey spirit, imagination, commitment and energy. It is one of the most celebrated and beloved dance companies in the world.

4/7-4/10 (5 shows)

Royal Swedish Ballet: ?????? (I think it's Swan Lake though based on the fact they have Tchaikovsky listed as the composer; edit: Nope after googling it's likely Romeo & Juliet. Very clear promo material!)

A romantic story in a brutal environment. A clash of people and power. A struggle between generations. Love, hate and jealousy. Who can win? The Royal Swedish Ballet returns to the Center for the second time since 1999 to perform Mats Ek’s compelling and daring version of the world’s most celebrated love story, envisioned by Ek as revelatory and, as critics agree, haunting. (<- This is literally the description with no reference to what the actual ballet is)

6/10-6/12 (4 shows)

Thank god for Raymonda and The Nutcracker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably about 6-8 weeks ahead of the run. They usually do promo codes for priority access, though, through email or Facebook. I'd be really surprised if you had problems getting tickets (and good ones) even after single tickets go on-sale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, ksk04. It's great to know that getting good seats shouldn't present a problem. And I do normally receive an email from SCFTA about priority access. Raymonda is such a treat, so I am planning on spending a weekend in SoCal and seeing multiple casts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, ksk04. It's great to know that getting good seats shouldn't present a problem. And I do normally receive an email from SCFTA about priority access. Raymonda is such a treat, so I am planning on spending a weekend in SoCal and seeing multiple casts.

Lucky duck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This season is all the more interesting to me, as--if memory serves--most of the companies, and indeed one of the specific shows (Raymonda), are among those on the not-very-long list of those I recommended to the Segerstrom management a year and a half ago when I wrote a letter bitterly complaining about their then-recent seasons and scheduling. (In protest, I for the first time in decades didn't renew my long-held subscription for the 2013-2014 season [i've been a subscriber since I believe their 3rd season; their 30th season is the upcoming one]; I'm back in my usual seat for the current season, and already sent in my renewal for this coming one.)

Raymonda came into the letter as an example of Petipa ballets which exist but are never seen here out West, and so were desirable for presentation.

So, golly! Did my letter put some ideas in their head, or is it just chance? Either way, I'll take it! Now let's see if I can get SCFTA subscribers a look at The Pharaoh's Daughter one of these seasons . . . [starts plotting] . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a sort of PS to my note above: It often seems as if, considering multiple adjacent seasons at a particular venue, ballet seasons comprise just a sort of better or worse miscellaneous choreographic hash slung at subscribers. We're used to that, so nobody squawks too much, however they might feel about it; but wouldn't it be an improvement if there were some sort of integral coordination or multi-season "build," not necessarily taking in all presentations of the seasons, but including some portion of the shows? To clarify with an obvious example: I know that, if SCFTA would, over successive seasons, at length have presented all of the ballets of Petipa for which his choreography was still extant, or for which there was a good approximation of same, I would certainly be moved to very joyfully renew my subscription each year, no matter how many years it would take, with the fulfilling feeling that, when the due number of years had passed, I would have experienced all told something very special. And, perhaps more to the point, it would carry along into successive season subscriptions subscribers who might otherwise scowl, "Eh, just [insert uninspiring company] yet again, and another [insert common and uninspiring show]. Bah!" as they decline to re-up. If successive seasons would at least partially reflect on and enrich each other in a well thought out way, well, my opinion is that everyone would be better off. If memory serves, The Joffrey Ballet did something like this once upon a time for a few seasons with many of the Diaghilev-related ballets; and I at least found it exciting and, well, wonderful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If memory serves, The Joffrey Ballet did something like this once upon a time for a few seasons with many of the Diaghilev-related ballets; and I at least found it exciting and, well, wonderful.

I understand your desire for a more thoughtful programming strategy, but I'm afraid you're going to hope in vain. Joffrey, who was a historian among his other skills, was the director of the company -- he could make those kind of choices because he was in charge. It would be a much more difficult proposition for a single presenter to paste together a long-term theme using whatever a variety of companies were currently touring with -- you would have to be able to exert some artistic pressure on a group of unrelated ensembles. A much trickier proposition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, thanks, my brain--such as it is--knows that you're completely right; but a little of me always sings, "If you don't have a dream/How you going to have a dream come true?" . . .

I imagine that you could do something of the sort with a very powerful promoter, like a Hurok, but that style of management isn't really prominent right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stepping up to the plate would have to be someone with vision, dedication, resources, an ambition to make a name for him- or herself . . .

Begging pardon for a bit of thread-drift; but it pertains to our discussion: In a nutshell, what, generally speaking, is the succession of events and time frame for a venue in planning a dance season for its subscribers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And you already know the answer is "it depends!"

Most presenters pick and choose among a roster of companies that are offering works already in their repertory. You can think of it like someone who is shopping at a department store -- they're choosing from an existing collection of goods. These presenters often head to booking conferences (a trade show for performing arts groups) to see what's on offer and make contacts with managers and artist reps. There are several different levels of conferences, from regional to national, as well as a few international events that are designed to bring artists together in a setting where they can network with presenters.

In the US, the big event every year is the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conference, in New York City in January. The organization offers workshops and classes as well as showcases and exhibit halls full of artists reps. Alongside these official showcases are a city-full of ancillary events that are hoping to draw attention from presenters. Depending on the size of the organization, and the kind of groups they're looking to present, a venue may be booking two or three years out, or at least be sketching out their seasons that far in advance. People do make deals at APAP for the following season, but those are often programs that are filling in blank spaces in a season.

There are regional and local booking conferences as well, alongside artist rosters that are part of local arts agency grants (in my community, the city, county, and state arts agencies all have rosters of pre-vetted groups that are eligible for touring support -- if your local performance series hires one of them, they get assistance with the artists fees).

This is all from the perspective of a presenter, though -- someone who is shopping for existing work. There are a number of groups that are both presenters and producers, who are commissioning or otherwise supporting the creation of new work, and have more of a say in what is getting made. As costs rise, it's getting risky for a company to commit to doing a big production without some kind of help from the beginning (and some kind of guarantee that it will have a performance life on tour) -- this is where those producing relationships become complex. I'd have to go back and check to be sure, but I think the Segerstrom had a producing role in ABT's new Sleeping Beauty -- I wouldn't want to say that the company wouldn't have done the project without that connection, but it would have been a much harder job. New work like this often needs a longer lead time -- this agreement could easily have taken 2-3 years without a sense of how the work would come together for the presenter. It's a bigger risk, not just because you're putting money in earlier, but because you're buying an unknown.

Using your All-Petipa theme as an example, unless they had a lock on a company whose repertory they could dictate, a presenter would probably have to locate several different companies with viable productions in their touring repertories and finesse a schedule that would mesh with those separate groups. And since most ballet companies big enough to present a legit production of a Petipa ballet don't tour doing one-offs (take a production to one place and go back home again) this would be a really complex negotiation.

Having said that, there have been examples of this kind of specialty programming, particularly in a festival format. Those events are usually several years in the making, presented in an intense format rather than spaced out over the length of a season, and require a bucketload of cash.

("Bucketload" is, of course, a technical term.)

There's lots more to think about when it comes to dance presenting (I used to work for a block booking consortium, and talked about this stuff constantly), but I think I've gone on long enough here...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks (please excuse the delay; cataract surgery--perfectly successful--has thrown a monkey-wrench into the smooth flow of life, for the moment) for your very enlightening and detailed post! Very good to know and reflect on.

Yes, I'm almost certain that the Segerstrom Center had a hand in producing the ABT Sleeping Beauty, recalling the press when the season was announced.

Right, my idea was along the lines of the venue's availing itself of different companies scattered across the globe to present the various Petipa works (of course, I'm just using P. as an obvious example; I'd be just as delighted to see a survey of Buornonville etc. etc. etc.. or--focusing on era rather than choreographer--a somewhat less focused theme of the likes of "little-seen early ballets"), and not taking over whole seasons but just one or (getting greedy) two of a season's yearly presentations. Among the other many benefits, it would give the audience member a feeling of anticipation and commitment each season. It's impractical in many ways; but it's very canny in other ways.

To end: I've wanted to air this thought for quite some time, just to put it in the air for those who could conceivably act on it. There in the audience with my long-familiar audience subscriber-neighbors, I hear (and participate in) the groans or cries of pleasure when the content of a new season is announced. I see who renews, who disappears, and generally know why. This is my way of addressing the question, "How do we develop subscriber loyalty?"

Thanks again for your kind responses!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dreamer - Raymonda single tickets went on sale today, if you are still planning on buying. Website does not yet show casting.

Thank you for the reminder. I got my tickets as soon as the website opened the sale to email subscribers. Since the cast is always a big uncertainty with Mariinsky I bought tickets to three shows (Thu, Fri and Sat eve) and might add one more. I am not planning to see CInderella so might as well go on a splurge for Raymonda. Praying for Lopatkina to join the SoCal tour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have my Friday subscription seats, but am waiting for casting to purchase other tickets to avoid accidentally doubling up on someone. I will likely see one Cinderella too, but again...casting!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...