slcmom

Ballet West is also known for its tall dancers. Most of the Women are quite tall and the Men are mostly all well over 6 feet.

Wow, congratulations to all the promotions! I'll miss Kate Crews, Victoria Lock and the other departing dancers so much. they are fantastic! I wish them the very best for the future! Ballet West will never be the same without them. How exciting to see all the new talent coming in though! I'm glad Sara Webb is coming back too!

The dancers were dancing beautifully and it looked fresh and alive in the regular show. As for "Nutty Nutcracker" I understand that the ideas for all the "bits" are generated from the dancers and they were so clever this year. We are first introduced to a disco-age Drosselmeyer complete with big afro-hair head band and bell-bottoms. He is matched by his identically dressed young nephew. We are also introduced to a disco aged ski couple who seem to be the life of the party. The highlight of the party was the grandfathers dance where a mirror ball and disco lights appear and the whole cast begins a "Soul-Train" dance line. during the transformation, Drosselmeyer appears on roller-blades and does the whole thing gliding around the stage -actually quite wonderful. At the end of the battle, the mouse king is not killed but instead shakes his fist at us and we hear a voice over of Arnold Swartzenegger saying "I'll be back" As the snow starts the dancing bear from the party comes out in a night-shirt and cap with a big alarm clock and teddy bear and goes to sleep on the edge of the stage. The snowflakes all had reindeer antlers and for their last entrance they put on Rudolf noses. The snow king and queen did a top-hat and cane routine off. Throughout both acts we keep catching sight of Waldo who is appearing in strange and unexpected places. In Act two, while the prince is telling his tale the mouse king reappears and hits the prince on the head with a giant mallet and gets to sit with Clara, the attendants brought out cheese for him and popcorn for Clara. All the dances had at least one funny bit. My favorite was the very overweight lead Russian man who was constantly out of breath. In the waltz of the Flowers there was a bumble bee dancing around the flowers. At one point Waldo appeared in a bee-keeper mask and net to try and catch her. The Grand Sugar-Plum pas de Deux was danced by 3 couples who high-fived each other as they traded places and took over the next section (I liked this because it not only was funny but showed off how many good dancers BW has) At the very end the mouse king and the prince made up with a white peace flag which was very sweet. After the curtain calls the orchestra struck up Auld Lange Syne and the dancers lead the audience in song while balloons fell from the ceiling. I liked it all - it was very funny, charming and always in good taste.

The Nutcracker was really great this year - does anyone else want to comment? I also thought the "Nutty Nutcracker was terrific - the dancers took it to another level and it was hilarious.

Ballet West is presenting Les Biches from last year's Treasures of The Ballets Russes program as part of the 2009 New York Fall for Dance festival. Anyone from the east coast let us know how it goes. The company is also appearing in Laguna, California as part of the festival there. Any southern Californians out there tell us how our company did. Best of Luck Ballet West! We Love U

This program was so exciting - 3 works by company dancers, a work by a choreographer named Nicolo Fonte created for Ballet West and a work called Red Angels accompanied live by Electric Violin played by Mary Rowell who played it originally for New York City Ballet. The program was held at The Rose Wagner Theater so it was very intimate. They do it again this coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I would highly recommend it. The SLC critics really liked it too!

Did anyone see Ballet West's Madame Butterfly with Gong program? If so what did they think?

I just got my copy in the mail. Its beautiful and the article is nice. Congratulations Ballet West!

the longer Article is from the Salt Lake Tribune posted on Tuesday. Some patrons complained because they did not get enough notice - which is fair. Other complaints I guess are just because they didn't like it BTW - my favorite bit was a 3 couple tag-team sugar plum pas de deux executed seamlessly by the companies leading dancers

I have been reading Ballet Alert for quite a while but this is my first posting. I'm writing because on the "links" page for yesterday there is a post for what is called Ballet West's "Badly received" Nutty Nutcracker. I was at that show and it was terrific. It was just about sold out. The audience was laughing and engaged and at the end there was a standing ovation. I realize that a few patrons may not have been happy as they did not know it was going to be a "nutty" show but most everyone around me thought it was wonderful. As someone who has seen and is proud of our Nutcracker - Willam Christensen's is the first full version in America, I found Ballet West's Nutty performance was also completely respectful of the choreography and the magic of this beautiful production. Do people think that presenting one "Nutty" show out of almost 30 is a bad idea?