How to encourage choreography?

[Alexandra]

Originally posted by Estelle

. Also, the lack of ballet-oriented choreographers in France might be linked to the fact that during the Lifar period, he staged a lot his own choreographies but didn't encourage anybody else in the company to choreograph too...

Estelle, I think you've raised a very interesting question. What's a company director to do? (Putting aside the fact that, from what one reads about Lifar's ego, it would be out of character for him to encourage any rival)?

In the early 1970s, Balanchine was very severely criticized for giving free reign to several young choreographers, including Lorca Massine, who produced what was considered negligible work. Irresponsible! He's getting tired and old! Send him back to Europe (hmm. That does have a familiar ring...) But he was also criticized in other periods for either not encouraging choreographers, or when Robbins and Tudor, not to mention Lorca M, were pointed out, the answer was, "Yes, well, Robbins, but Tudor left, and Balanchine has gone out of his way to only pick bad choreographers so they won't challenge him." (I do not agree with this statement; I'm reporting it.)

So they're really damned if they do, damned if they don't. Then there's Ashton, who, under pressure, let MacMillan stage his version of Romeo and Juliet rather than bring his own (Ashton's) into the repertory. Good news for MacMillan fans, bad news for those who think Ashton's version is far, far better (and more classical, less expressionistic, and thus more suited to the company Ashton was then directing).

Harald Lander in Denmark was similar to Lifar. You could say he was a balletmaster in the 19th century use of the term -- of course he did everything. That was his job. That's what Bournonville, St. Leon, Petipa, you name it, did. But if you were a choreographer who wanted to show your ballets on the only ballet stage in the country, he was a Hog. After he was pushed out of the company -- on morals charges, although dancers insist, with much to back them up, I think, that he was driven out by a small group of people who merely wanted to get rid of him and used anything they could to do it. After he left, dozens of "we're choreographers too!" Danes began putting on their masterpieces, each one a bit worse than the one that preceded it, and none lasted more than a season or two.

[Leigh Witchel]

I don't know if a company that's even primarily a single-choreographer-driven company (I know NYCB is slightly more complex than that, but for discussion's sake. . .) will ever be an incubator for other choreographers. If they do show talent, generally they have to leave the nest, or wait for the retirement of the resident choreographer. It's almost like a bird that lays only one egg at a time, it seems.

Also, I really do think there's a difficulty to attempting choreography where the choreographer casts a very long shadow. One option is outright, genuine rebellion, as Fokine did with Petipa, and that really needs to be borne of dissatisfaction. What if the young choreographer likes what his/her example is doing? It's a tougher road, and I think the only possibility is to make questions of originality beside the point. Find something you have to say and say it, and don't worry if it's been said before.

[Calliope]

I like the idea of NYCB's Choreographic Institiute, ABT's Kaatsbaan and I think Pennsylvania had something.

Everyone else just seems to form their own company, which is hard to try and see everything.

It may be far fetched, but I'd like to see (much like the competitions) one for choreographers. That could be fun.

[Leigh Witchel]

Yecch ;) . It might be fun for the audience! Do you think that a competition would produce good choreography? I think a festival might, but once it has been decided who is participating, I think the competitive part should be over, for everyone's good. There's a difference between something that wins a contest and something that adds to repertory.

Maybe the Pennsylvania thing was the Carlisle Project? It was actually independent of the Pennsylvania Ballet, but worked with them on occasion, as well as at CPYB (and possibly other places).

Obviously, I'd be biased towards forming one's own company too! It does make it tougher for the audience to access new works, but it also acts as a filtration device. I think a good choreographer needs stamina and has to really, really need to choreograph. There are things to be said for making that road require effort.

[Calliope]

Carlisle Project, that was it, thanks Leigh.

I agree a Festival would be better. But consistently use choreographers. All to often I see something by someone and then never again (for whatever reason).

[Estelle]

Alexandra, I think you're right about Lifar's not exactly small ego. It's not by chance that the two main French choreographers of that period, Petit and Béjart, had careers outside the Paris Opera.

Originally posted by Leigh Witchel

Yecch ;)  It might be fun for the audience!  Do you think that a competition would produce good choreography?  I think a festival might, but once it has been decided who is participating, I think the competitive part should be over, for everyone's good.  There's a difference between something that wins a contest and something that adds to repertory.

A few years ago there was a choreography competition in Paris (associated to the ballet competition organized every second year) but the reviews were not very good. Also, in 2001 the Hamburg Ballet organized a ballet competition,

and the winner work was performed later by the company (it was open to any choreographer

living and working in Europe, and the Hamburg Ballet put its stage and staff at the disposal of the candidates, the application was done on videotape).

http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/prix_dp.htm

Obviously, I'd be biased towards forming one's own company too!  It does make it tougher for the audience to access new works, but it also acts as a filtration device.  I think a good choreographer needs stamina and has to really, really need to choreograph.  There are things to be said for making that road require effort.

I wonder if it might be difficult for a choreographer who is used to working with a small company to create works for a large corps de ballet. It seemed to be a problem for some of the modern works premiered by the POB recently, for example in Li's "Scheherazade": it seemed that some of them didn't really know what to do with all those dancers, and so chose unisson movements most of the time, or badly structured movements (also the fact that their style was non-balletic probably didn't help).

[BW]

There is a ballet school in Chicago that is encouraging choreography this summer. One of our young Alertniks has been giving us an excellent description of the course she is taking - you all might enjoy reading her posts. It's in the Ballet Moms and Dads section and it's called "My Summer Choreography Workshop"

http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...47243#post47243

I have to think that one of the best ways to encourage choreography is to introduce people to it at a young age - before fear and trembling sets in! ;) But seriously, exposure and involvement make all the difference, don't you think?