Ballet outside major centers

[Alexandra]

Our short-lived poll of how many times people attended ballet during a year drew several comments from those who would attend more if there were more to see.

I'd be very interested to hear from those on this board who DO NOT have the opportunity to see a lot of ballet. What do you see? Is there a local company with a handful of performances a year? Any touring? Is "Nutcracker" just about it? How far are you from a city that does have a ballet company? Does the largest company in your area tour? How do you keep connected to ballet??

(You don't have to answer all those questions, but some, please

[Colleen]

Ironically, although I live in the nation's capital, dance let alone ballet isn't on a national scale here. This season there are only 16 total dance performances at the National Arts Centre, and only 2-3 are ballet (really only 2, including Nut, but I'm being generous by counting the Queen of Spades as ballet and not contemporary). Very rarely do big name ballet companies, other than Canadian ones, come to Ottawa so the opportunities are sorely limited. Modern and contemporary abound however, much to my eternal chagrin. There is perhaps a better situation in Toronto, but that is 4-5hrs away so not terribly convenient. So this season all I'm seeing is Queen of Spades (saw it last weekend, it was okay) and Giselle at the end of April. Along with 2 operas (Salome, and La Boheme) and hopefully and evening with Pinchas Zukerman, that will be the extent of my arts content for the season. It's a sorry state of afairs as you can see.

[balletstar18]

I live in Baltimore, and while thats really close to the kennedy center in washington dc, it's hard to find good ballet to see. The kennedy center is so expensive, a little to much for the poor ballet student to go to more than 2 or 3 times a year. Ballet Theater of Md is close, but I perform with them sometimes, and besides they only perform a couple times a year. It seems to me that there is always something to see, but it's so expensive. Food and ballet class seem to be my first priority right now Maybe a discount for ballet students

[Tancos]

Wichita, amazingly, has not one but two Nutcrackers each December. Two of the universities here have dance departments (one specifically a "ballet" department), and each department usually schedules both a fall and a spring dance concert. In addition, a local company puts on a spring concert every year. This year it's act II of Swan Lake and a trio of shorter pieces, but in years past they've presented Coppelia, La Sylphide and Sleeping Beauty, the last with costumes from the Royal Ballet (I made my stage debut in the first Wichita production of Sleeping Beauty, three months after my first ballet class. It wasn't actually a dancing role -- I ran out on stage, gesticulated frantically for ten seconds, and spent the rest of the prologue staying out of the way -- but it was intoxicating nevertheless). Various dance companies make stops in Wichita, and occasionally one does, or has affinities with, ballet. Over the years I've seen the Elliot Feld, Paul Taylor and Garth Fagan companies, Hubbard Street and the Kirov All-Stars. These are rare, though -- there's one worth seeing maybe every two years -- and to see Major Dance Companies I generally need to travel.

Staying connected with ballet: I take class twice a week (I wish I could do more, but time, money and the condition of my legs are all problematic), and I photograph one of the university companies in rehearsal when circumstances permit (some of these pictures can be viewed on my website).

[Ed Waffle]

Alexndra asks of those who live outside of ballet centers:

(in the USA, that would be anyplace other than New York City or San Francisco, I would think)

What do you see? As much as possible. But scheduling can be a challenge. See below.

Is there a local company with a handful of performances a year? No. There have been attempts, the most recent a horrible failure with unpaid dancers and unfulfulled contracts.

Is "Nutcracker" just about it? No.

How far are you from a city that does have a ballet company? Chicago--Joffrey Ballet

Does the largest company in your area tour? The Joffrey was here for two performances.

How do you keep connected to ballet?? BalletAlert, Ballet Talk, this message board, alt.arts.ballet. Dance Magazine tries to cover much--I haven't read it in a while.

One difficulty is the ephemerality of both opera and ballet in the hinterlands. This past weekend, for example, the Michigan Opera Theatre opened its Spring season with Othello. We have tickets for both Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon so we can catch both casts and also decide it we want to go back a third (or fourth or fifth) time. The same weekend the ballet company from Lyon was giving their "Cinderella" at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Another is that touring companies are here for a few days, often just a weekend. Both my wife and I have jobs that require us to work weekends, often on very short notice, so even the best laid plans can go awry.

Tancos' observation about University programs is important. Not only dance programs themselves but university based presenters can bring dance to the sticks. It is generally modern dance around here (Oakland University brings several small companies each year) but it is dance nevertheless.

[balletstar18]

Supporting your local colleges and schools is a great idea because you never know when one of them will start a company in the area that will bring dance to your community

[diane]

In Germany there are a lot of theatres with dance companies. So it would seem that living here, even if one is NOT near a big ballet metropole, would be almost ideal.

In the past decades many of the smaller German theaters have changed their dance companies to be more "dance-theatre" companies, so ballet is not featured as widely anymore.

Even some of the bigger cities do not do ballet nowadays.

So what do we see?

The local company; but as they are mainly "dance-theatre", it isn't really what we want to see most of the time.

Is "Nutcracker" just about it?

I sure _wish_ we could see at least that!!

How far are we from a city that does have a ballet company?

About one and a half hours, if the traffic is ideal.

Alas, many performances are mid-week; which is impossible for a family where everyone has to be up-and-at-em _early_ the next morning.

Does the largest company in the area tour?

No.

How do we keep connected to ballet?

Through various websites, television sometimes, videos if we can get them, and perhaps once a year when we manage to get to a theatre which has ballet on the weekend.

-diane-

[Alexandra]

Thanks, balletstar, for reviving this thread -- the no ballet in Baltimore problem is a puzzle. Perhaps its closeness to the Kennedy Center makes it difficult to start and sustain a local company? Baltimore was a big ballet town in the 1930s (big theater town, too; it was on the touring circuit) and still a stop on the tour during the '50s and '60s, when companies toured, but has never been able to support a local company, even a small one.

And thanks Ed, Tancos and Diane for your responses. I hope more will join in.

[leibling]

I do think that the Kennedy Center may have some sort of contractual rule about performances within a certain radius of the theater- maybe this is why Baltimore does not have many touring stops anymore.

[syr]

We are two hours from Boston, so people go there, naturally, but last night the ABT studio company performed, for the second year in a row, at the local middle school, so that was real treat! Word got around after last year, so the audience was bigger and drew from a larger area. The "kids" took a ferry today to go perform on an island community, so I am sure that's a treat for performers as well as audience.

Fairly recent to the scene here are two new teachers, not completely retired (which has as a down side for their students, no doubt, with comings and goings), BUT a big plus, is that they import in some of their friends who dance with various companies for a couple of weeks in the summer for a working vacation, and put on two performances. Again, very well received by the community with the audience building with each performance. It appears that this year some advanced students will be able to participate. ..... some of the perks of small town resort-area life ...

[balletstar18]

I think that the kennedy center is a problem for ballet in baltimore, because it just wouldn't make sense for a company to perform at both, since many people from baltimore travel to the kennedy center on a regular basis. We do get a lot of musical theater, and all of the local colleges perform on a regular basis.

[vagansmom]

Here in northwest CT, I'm exactly 2 and a half hours from both NYC and Boston. I make it into NY 3 or 4x a year to see ABT and NYCB and usually go up to Saratoga once or twice in the summer when NYCB is in residence.

Before Hartford Ballet went out of business and then emerged as the very scaled down Dance CT, we saw them a lot. I still mourn their departure.

Other than the ubiquitous "Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet", nobody heads up our way on tour. I DID see the Trocks though at the Shubert Theater in New Haven recently.

We do get to see a lot of MOMIX and Pilobolus (yeah, I know, they're not ballet but I still love them) since their home base is nearby.

And of course we see loads of student ballet productions. Nutmeg Ballet performs frequently and their spring bill often includes guest artists (Ethan Stiefel once), from various ballet companies.

To otherwise keep connected to ballet, we subscribe to Dance View and BalletAlert! and Dance Magazine. And frequently check out "Breakfast with the Arts" on A&E in the hopes it'll include ballet.