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Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2015 season Millennium Stage preview


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Last evening, 15th October, the event went ahead in the usual venue in the foyer, and the online video appeared in the Millennium Stage archive in a few hours.

There were excerpts from seven ballets, all by Balanchine: Walpurgisnacht Ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Meditation (short, and complete), Don Quixote, Episodes, Emeralds, and Stars and Stripes, not all from the upcoming shows' repertory, but intended, I imagine, to show the little troupe's big range, not to mention to stimulate and develop the dancers!

In addition, there were three dancers presented via some of the pre-recorded "Snapshots" that have been on the company's website, Violeta Angelova, Michael Cook, and Natalia Magnicaballi; and Angelova reminds us of dancers' constant urge to better themselves. These shows are not only for us, but for them, too.

[Edited to update the link to the video on the Kennedy Center web site.]

Edited by Jack Reed
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You're welcome, both of you!

This link might help you, maps.

As you'll see, the upper part of the page guides you to current and recent Millennium Stage webcasts, with upcoming ones farther down; and if you want to go farther back, try the various search boxes and links on the right. For example, try putting "Suzanne Farrell" in the "search by artist or keyword" box and scrolling down to select "Ballet" in the "Genre" box and see what you get. (Okay, I'm a little biased on the subject, I admit it.)

But aren't there two open rehearsals? On Thursday the 29th at 1:30 and on Friday the 30th at 11:00? Or is one maybe sold out by now? I was just looking to check up on this, but the Kennedy Center website can be a challenge.

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But aren't there two open rehearsals? On Thursday the 29th at 1:30 and on Friday the 30th at 11:00?

They only sold tickets to one, on the 29th. For those of us a couple hours away by car, t's too bad it wasn't for the 30th, when there's also a performance. But as you know, it's been a few years since they've had one at all, and I'll take what I can get!

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Thanks Jack, I could not figure out what was going on last night!

You mean you couldn't watch the show on line? That's a real shame! But I rarely see the first few seconds. or sometimes more, myself! Practicing helps, though.

But I hope there's more help in my second post just below.

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A Guide to the Millennium Stage preview webcast video


from October 15, 2015




[00:09] Kristen Gallager, ballet mistress*



[01:30] Snapshot: Violeta Angelova



[03:33] Walpurgisnacht Ballet (Gounod/Balanchine 1980)



corps



[05:13] Violeta Angelova



[07:16] A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn/Balanchine 1962) Act II pas de deux



Valerie Tellmann-Henning and Kirk Henning



[13:10] Snapshot: Michael Cook



[15:47] Meditation (Tchaikovsky/Balanchine 1963)



Natalia Magnicaballi and Michael Cook



[25:41] Kristen Gallager, ballet mistress


Don Quixote (Nicholas Nabakov/Balanchine 1959) from Act II Divertissements:



[27:55] Ritournel



Bonnie Pickard Schofield with Penelope Schofield, and Amanda Halstead, piano



[31:54] Pas de Mauresque



Melanie Riffee and Ian Grosh



[37:43} Episodes (Webern/Balanchine 1959) excerpt: Op. 10



Jordyn Richter and Ted Seymour



[42:23] Snapshot: Natalia Magnicaballi



[45:22] Emeralds (Faure'/Balanchine 1967) pas de deux



Natalia Magnicaballi and Thomas Garrett



[49:16] Stars and Stripes pas de deux (Sousa arr. Hershey Kay/Balanchine 1958)



Allynne Noelle and Michael Cook



[53:51] Kristen Gallager, ballet mistress




You may be able to drag the progress button in the bar below the video window left or right while watching the running-time indicator at the left end of the bar and navigate back and forth in the program, according to the running times I've posted here.



I've indicated some casting I'm unsure about, but anyone who thinks they've got certain knowledge is welcome to post here or PM me and I'll update this post to make it as useful as possible. I think these dancers deserve to be known!**



*TSFB's Company Manager is actually Art Priromprintr, not Kristen Gallagher, as I had it originally.



**I've since updated the casting according to the program given to the audience for the Millennium Stage performance.



And more recently I've updated the link to the video in accordance with the Kennedy Center web site's new addresses.


Edited by Jack Reed
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Thanks a lot for the link! :flowers:

I was very interested to watch the programs, specially after catching the live-stream of Lopatkina's recital at Yale two days ago. I cannot help but compare them in dancing styles.

Did Balanchine say that he didn't like dancers to perform (some of) his ballets in Mariinsky style?

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Thanks a lot for the link! :flowers:

I was very interested to watch the programs, specially after catching the live-stream of Lopatkina's recital at Yale two days ago. I cannot help but compare them in dancing styles.

Did Balanchine say that he didn't like dancers to perform (some of) his ballets in Mariinsky style?

I don't recall Balanchine making such a specific statement (regarding Mariinsky/Vaganova), but he obviously had his own approach that was being taught at the School of American Ballet. Balanchine was particularly concerned that dancers demonstrate musicality at all times. The movement between 'positions' is also particularly important: “He disguised all his preparations,” says NYCB principal Teresa Reichlen. “He tried to make the in-between stuff look just as fantastic as the bigger steps.” Suzanne Farrell does a good job of promoting the Balanchine aesthetic with her own company.

I should add that speed of movement, and the ability to "gobble up space" were also important to the NYCB aesthetic under Balanchine - he felt that speed was a particularly American attribute that could be exploited in his choreography.

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I think pherank has it right. There was and is a definite difference, sometimes explained by those who worked with him, or those who work with those who did - second-generation now - without ever mentioning the Mariinsky by name.

Taking the bit about preparations further, the goal that approach served was to give more flow-through in the phrases, while not blurring any of the poses and so on reached along the way. To my eye, the traditional Soviet/Russian result looked like "here we do this and then we go over here and then we do that"; with Mr. B, we got the "this" and the "that" clearly linked and embedded in the flow. It was speedier, but not just speedier; there was a continuity which gave a phrase a cumulative effect.

Years and years ago I went to see a detachment of Kirov dancers - as they were called then - give Scotch Symphony in this rather start-stop, "show-offy" way - making us see them more than their dance - which contrasted with what I had come to love about Balanchine's own company. But this strange way was not the only surprise of the evening - studying my program, I learned the performance had been coached by Suzanne Farrell, no less. (I suppose it was "early days" for her doing that, or maybe these dancers were very refractory, as I've heard their traditons to be; or both.)

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Good summarizing quote from Teresa Reichlen, pherank.

It should be noted Balanchine left the Soviet Union ten years.before Vaganova's "Basic Principles of Classical Ballet" were solidified - so his ideas - and memories - of Maryinsky style might differ from hers. Danivola says something similar about making the preparation a natural par of the flow.

Also the new stage at Lincoln Center was a big factor wirh Balanchine rethinking his ballets. In the recent Dance Tabs interview Suzanne Farrell says -

"When New York City Ballet moved from the City Center to the State Theater at the Lincoln Center, the new stage was twice the size of the old one. Mr. Balanchine couldnt add more music and more steps to his ballets, so we had to learn how to cover more territory and move bigger. His classes started reflecting that and everything changed. That was, I think, the beginning of his teaching revolution..."

Maybe that's why Apollo which was choreographed for a much smaller space sometimes looks so austere and "air conditioned" at New York State Theater. Petrouska might also look more natural on stage similar to the one on which it was choreographed. (Paul Taylor's scaled down version seemed quite nice.)

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Jack, there is now up on YouTube the Kirov doing Scotch Symphony from 1989, with Elena Pankova and Alexander Kurkov. I especially like Pankova evoking La Sylphide in the pas de deux. Is this the performers you saw?

Thanks for the tip, DanielBenton, I'll look at that when I have a chance, but I think the show I remember was considerably earlier - I'll look at my program collection when I have a chance to look at that, too! (Ah, "life"! How it interferes with fun sometimes! But we must try to live it in the present...)

...

It should be noted Balanchine left the Soviet Union ten years.before Vaganova's "Basic Principles of Classical Ballet" were solidified - so his ideas - and memories - of Maryinsky style might differ from hers. Danivola says something similar about making the preparation a natural par of the flow.

Also the new stage at Lincoln Center was a big factor wirh Balanchine rethinking his ballets. In the recent Dance Tabs interview Suzanne Farrell says -

"When New York City Ballet moved from the City Center to the State Theater at the Lincoln Center, the new stage was twice the size of the old one. Mr. Balanchine couldnt add more music and more steps to his ballets, so we had to learn how to cover more territory and move bigger. His classes started reflecting that and everything changed. That was, I think, the beginning of his teaching revolution..."

Maybe that's why Apollo which was choreographed for a much smaller space sometimes looks so austere and "air conditioned" at New York State Theater. Petrouska might also look more natural on stage similar to the one on which it was choreographed. (Paul Taylor's scaled down version seemed quite nice.)

I'd hesitate before I inferred that Mr. B. never saw the Mariinsky after he left the USSR. I think he saw a lot, and not just ballet - remember the "horses" simile? - and used it - or reacted from it - in his own way. In ballet, though, I think he saw what different traditions offered and developed his preferences for movement partly from that, selecting what he wanted to try and ignoring what didn't appeal. (Or even ridiculing it.) When asked why he didn't mount this or that big classic, he was reported to have replied mildly that "We don't do everything," and "We leave that to them." He did his own thing, whatever it turned out to be.

I don't doubt what Farrell says, but I'm not sure of my understanding of it. Surely, there was a big change for the new theater. (I remember some peoples' ideas that Bournonville's choreography was so vertical - so often bounding up into the air - because his stage was so small.)

I wonder, "revolution" from what to what? I'd guess that his "style" had already become pretty original by 1948, and continued to develop. (There were things the BRdMC dancers didn't like about his way already when he worked there a little earlier - though part of that was his ideas about characterization, which I gather meant less to him than to them.) Much earlier, as a student, wasn't he threatened with expulsion for arranging dances with his friends? I think he enjoyed the challenge of cooking something up with whatever he had, too. Challenging everybody, including himself.

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Thanks for the tip, DanielBenton, I'll look at that when I have a chance, but I think the show I remember was considerably earlier - I'll look at my program collection when I have a chance to look at that, too! (Ah, "life"! How it interferes with fun sometimes! But we must try to live it in the present...)

Wow, I'm impressed, Jack - Farrell's work with the, then, Kirov to present Scotch Symphony for the first time in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) - with Francia Russell of the PNB coaching Theme and Variations - is a memorable part of Farrell's autobiography. I think it was indeed her first go as repetiteur for the Balanchine Trust.

"In the Russian tradition, there were two formal dress rehearsals for an audience before the actual premiere. Because tickets are so difficult for the ordinary citizen to obtain--many are reserved for dignitaries, politburo members, and tourists who pay in dollars with American Express cards--these extra performances were crowded with children, who are not permitted at evening performances..."

Did you see a performance in Russia? Or was it a foreign tour of the Kirov?

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I just ran into this quote that I saved from the Elizabeth Kattner-Ulrich dissertation (quite an interesting read, btw)

[beginning on Page 35]

'In the West today, "Russian ballet" normally refers to the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Maryinsky in St. Petersburg, known in Soviet times as the Kirov. For dancers and balletomanes, the "Russian school" is used to refer to the Vaganova method of training and style of ballet developed by Agrippa Vaganova at the former Theater School of the Maryinsky, now known as the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Although Danilova mentioned having been trained and coached by Vaganova in her last years at Theater School and as a member of the corps de ballet, the Vaganova method was far from developed in the early 1920‘s and none of the dancers of the Young Ballet, the Soviet Dancers or the dancers of the Ballets Russes spoke of her as being a great influence on their training. (Danilova 1988, 50-51) Since both Danilova and Geva claimed that the education given to dancers at the School of American Ballet in New York was exactly like the one they received at the original Imperial Theater School, and Vaganova later developed a system of education so specific that the school bears her name today, it is arguable that the tradition carried on in the West is as much directly descended from Petipa as the current Russian ballet.'

Of course, as others have stated very well, Balanchine was very much interested in extending the tradition further - exploring all manner of possibilites.

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Wow, I'm impressed, Jack -

...

Did you see a performance in Russia? Or was it a foreign tour of the Kirov?

Whoops! Don't be too impressed! I only went downtown here, to the Chicago theater, as I remember; it's a converted cinema, with a shallow stage to match, which didn't help the performance either. Thanks to the history posted here, I think now they merely showed what Farrell had set on them - as they remembered it - and credited her with it in the program. Nothing like the whole company was on view; that's what I meant by "detachment."

(Sorry to have left out some important geographical details as well has the dates I can't remember, giving entirely the wrong impression, apparently; one of the benefits for me of writing here is that I get prodded to write more clearly and express myself more completely sometimes!)

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Whoops! Don't be too impressed! I only went downtown here, to the Chicago theater, as I remember; it's a converted cinema, with a shallow stage to match, which didn't help the performance either. Thanks to the history posted here, I think now they merely showed what Farrell had set on them - as they remembered it - and credited her with it in the program. Nothing like the whole company was on view; that's what I meant by "detachment."

You still got to see the Kirov live, and that's what counts. ;)

I do believe the Balanchine Trust continues to oversee performances of Mr. B's works - outside of the initial performances - so there must have been a repetiteur available for tour rehearsals, perhaps it was Farrell. Her autobiography goes into some detail about how difficult it was to pull things off at the premiere. The ballet culture at the Kirov, at that time, was quite different from the world of NYCB. I remember Farrell writing that the principals got to choose the tempo of their music (Balanchine tended to feel that it was the dancer's job to follow the music and conductor's choices). A dancer should be responding to the music and not the other way around.

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