Sulan

In brief, I thought the Rubies set was great, hated the Diamonds set, and had no strong feelings either way on the set for Emeralds. The reason I'm posting, however, is to say that most of the audience LOVED the new sets... There was massive applause each time the curtain went up (and some gasps), twittering in the audience about the sets during the performance, and the sets were all anyone seemed to talk about during the intermissions. Now, the fact that the audience was so fixated on the sets doesn't seem like a good thing to me, but hey, they're filling the house, which is more than can be said of most performances (both dance related and non) I've attended lately.

I'd love to see it... I've read both Part 1 and Part 2 dozens of times. HBO's producion of this work has made me actually consider getting cable! (between working 60+ hours and dancing 10+ hours a week, hasn't really seemed worth the money... ) Maybe I can find someone to tape it for me.

Hmm... I didn't know about that either. Given that she must have been about 83 in 1980, I always thought she'd just retired! Very interesting!

My favorite ballet video/documentary is the one about Suzanne Farrell... I think its called "Elusive Muse". I know it is available on both VHS and DVD.

Its so interesting to hear everyone's account of past and present portrayals of Hagar and the younger sister. I saw Pillar of Fire for the first time a few weeks ago... I'd been so looking forward to it, but was quite disappointed. I think part of what I was reacting to was what I perceived as a lack of subtlety in both Kent and Reyes' performances. Now that I hear everyone’s reactions, I think I’ll definitely keep this ballet on my “to see” list...

As a born-and-raised New Yorker I'll comment on the transportation issue... transfering to the subway from the bus in Chinatown is perfectly safe. There was a period of time about 10-15 years ago when there were safety concens in Chinatown due to the activities of Chinese gangs, but those days are are long past... I spend tons of time in Chinatown at all hours of the day and night. A word of warning though... the Chinatown buses have been "discovered" and have become quite popular (especially with college students on weekends). This means that tickets can sell out fast, and since some of the companies don't have reserved seating for the return trip, you may not be able to get the bus you want for your trip back. But on the plus side, you can end up sitting next to a Chinese grandmother who'll offer to share her homemade dumplings with you!

I definitely thought that seeing Acosta was the highlight of Sunday night's performance... and I definitely agree with zerbinetta: From the third row, his presence was almost overwhelming... its always incredible to see someone with do much presence in a venue as intimate as City Center (intimate for NYC, at any rate)But speaking of the third row... from my vantage point I found both Kent and Reyes' facial expressions in Pillar of Fire extrememly overacted, and actually quite distracting. Found myself wishing I could see it from the balcony.