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"I'd cross an ocean to see it!"


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Another topic for fun!

What ballets would you travel any distance to see?

I've traveled to Paris to see Liebeslieder Walzer and Les Noces, and just recently to the Netherlands to see The Dream.

I can get 4Ts at home, but I'd travel to see it too!

I realize that travel also depends on the city (you might go to Paris to see something, but not Frankfurt, and so on. . .)

So what ballets would you trek to see, and where?

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I'm bumping this up -- this is a good question, and I want to read more answers :)

I actually did cross an ocean to see something once -- the Royal Danish Ballet's reconstruction/revival of Bournonville's "The Lay of Thrym". It turned out to be awful, but I saw much else there that was definitely worth the transatlantic crossing.

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The Kirov's Sleeping Beauty reconstruction traveled across the ocean a while back and I missed it, so apparently if I want to see it, I'll have to go to St. Petersburg...been waiting for that chance for a while now.

I'll second perky's nomination of A Month in the Country (in London, anyway), and I'd also go almost anywhere to see Lavrovsky's Romeo & Juliet.

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Poor Alexandra, going that far to see I think it is called "trymskviden" in Danish.

Cant have been much fun, when there are so many other lovely Bournonville ballets to be seen. Or did you go there in the real decline? What about "La Ventana"

"Far from Denmark" - did you see them? Or "The Conservatory"?

My most glorious moment was the pupil's performance of the "Fairy Doll" at the Maryinski. Good Lord, I did enjoy myself and I would actually be willing to swim the icy waters of the Baltic Sea to see something like that again. :) :party: :hyper:

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Pamela, I'd seen all the Bournonville repertory here, from company tours) except "Far From Denmark" long before I went to Copenhagen (and FFD during its rehearsals and at the 1992 Festival) Actually, I learned a lot from Lay of Thrym -- it's the wing of Bournonville that got axed in the 1930s, and shows clearly that B and Petipa came from the same roots.

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The only time I crossed an ocean specifically to see ballet was in 1992 for the RDB's second Bournonville Festival, and it was well worth it. But when I travel to Europe I usually time it so that I can catch ballet, that is if I'm going to places where they have ballet. A few years ago my vague thoughts about going to Paris solidified into reality when I heard that POB would be doing Jewels. Once I timed a multi-city trip to coincide with performances by POB and the Royal, and lucked out in between, managing to catch one performance each by Bejart in Brussels (he had moved to Lausanne by then but was visiting) and the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. The last was a real piece of luck -- it was the premiere of a new production of Swan Lake and was completely sold out, but I waited in the return line and managed to get in.

I'm toying with the idea of going to London in November to see the first three programs of the Royal's season, which include Les Noces (a ballet I'm dying to see, along with Les Biches) and a lot of Ashton. But the feeble dollar and a lack of confidence in the company's ability to manage the style is holding me back.

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Having recently seen a video clip of The Enigma Variations, I would love to transverse the shining sea by boat, plane or train to see the Royal Ballet production in 2005. I could also visit my new grandson at that time. Unless, of course, someone opens a window on the train....

In that case...a very watery Watermill

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Well, so far the longest trips that I've made only to see some ballets were to Bordeaux

(Ballet de Bordeaux in a mixed bill, mostly because it included "The Four Temperaments") and Edinburgh (three NYCB programs). But if time and money weren't a problem, there are quite a lot of places I'd like to go to see some ballet, including New York to see the Balanchine works that can't been seen in France, London to see some Ashton, Copenhagen to see some Bournonville...

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A friend of mine had a job, about 20 years ago, that took him to Egypt once a year. Back then, you could buy a ticket from New York to Cairo with two stop offs each way, and he'd leave a few days early and take a few days leave on the return trip to stop off in, say, London and Paris on the way and Vienna and Copenhagen on the way back. Programming was so different then -- none of this "we only do Sleeping Beauty for three weeks" stuff, or even set mixed bills; the repertory was more elastic. He could see 2 or 3 programs in each city.

There really were good old days!!!

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It isn't a ballet, but because it shares a title with this thread, I will mention crossing the Atlantic to see Merce Cunninghan's "Ocean" in Brussels, one of many trips I have taken to see Cunningham repertory. One of the happy accidents of such travel is that one sees, and connects, elements of the visited cities with elements of the work. In Brussels, it was Cunningham and Brughel ,and from Brughel to William Carlos Williams (the American who wrote the poems called "Pictures from Brughel). There are also the surprises of travel--as when you go to see one ballet, but another is the central experience of the trip. I once went to Paris to see Cunningham's "Windows," and thus was there to join the French in an extended ovation for "Sounddance." "Windows" was indeed, as it was said, "superbe," but "Sounddance" was galvanic.

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Ari, if you are simply dying to see Les Noces you are very welcome here. I can offer lodging (youngest daughter's room) and food - I am a good cook and you will damn well need it!

Tonight was the first night of Les Noces here at the Gothenburg Opera - OK, a rehash. I did not attend but I will read the reviews in the papers tomorrow.

Anyway, a choreographer by the name of Örjan Andersson has taken upon him to make new choreography. I quote from today´s Gothenburg Post:-

"When the director of the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, Kenneth Irving, rang and suggested that he should make new choreography for Noces he agreed at once".

That may be so, but why not do the original Noces? :)

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I crossed the Rio de la Plata (from Montevideo to Buenos Aires) to see the Kirov in 1996: Swan Lake at the Teatro Colon (Lopatkina and Zelensky - woh!!!), and another performance at the Luna Park (which is a sort of arena, adapted to ballet performances). At the Luna Park I saw a mixed bill program: Chopiniana, Paquita (Makhalina and Ruzimatov), a solo danced by Ruzimatov (choreog.Bejart), Death of the Swan (Makhalina), Tchaikowsky pdd (Vishneva).

I have crossed the Rio de la Plata to see Ferri and Maximiliano Guerra in Macmillan's "Romeo & Juliet". I shall not forget that experience either.

In 1998 I crossed the Americas to see both ABT and NYCB. ABT sin Sleeping Beauty (Paloma Herrera - I didn like her much, though), Giselle (Bocca and Ferri - impressed by Ferri), and a mixed repertory program, which I dont recall now. In NYCB I saw Jewels (I was impressed by Meunier in Rubies and Wheelan in Diamonds), Serenade, Les Noces (Ansanelli), Concerti Armonici, Raymonda Variations (Nichols- I was impressed by her authority and finesse).

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Ari, if you are simply dying to see Les Noces you are very welcome here. I can offer lodging (youngest daughter's room) and food - I am a good cook and you will damn well need it!

Okay, Pamela, I'm on my way! :D

One of the happy accidents of such travel is that one sees, and connects, elements of the visited cities with elements of the work.

I think this is the biggest benefit of ballet travel. When you see a company at home, in its natural element, you begin to understand things about it that don't come across when they're on tour. When I went to London for the first time and experienced the city -- large in area but low in height, at least from a New Yorker's perspective -- I began to understand the Royal Ballet's preference for small dancers and contained movement. Similarly, Bournonville's ballets don't come across well in a cavernous modern arena like the Met, with its overheated world championship atmosphere, but communicate beautifully in Copenhagen's cozy, human-scaled Royal Theater.

The ultimate in situ ballet experience for me would be seeing the Kirov's "historical" Sleeping Beauty at the Maryinsky. I hope some day I'll get a chance.

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Ari, yours is inversion of what I was thinking of-- when I travel to see the Cunningham company, we are both (the company and I) away from our same home city. A kind of shared road trip. But your point is so interesting--about seeing the home cities of companies--I have always wanted to see the Kirov-- during the White Nights! I adore Silvy's travelogue, too. So dashing---Montevideo to Buenos Aires. (Such wonderful names.) Makes the train trip from NYC to Washington DC seem exceedingly dull....

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I'd go just about anywhere that was dancing the Ashton ROMEO & JULIET. I'd also see a Tudor bill of ECHOING OF TRUMPETS, CONTINUO, DARK ELEGIES, and LEAVES ARE FADING.

Looking ahead, in about a year's time I'll hope having a ticket & getting ready to see the Balanchine DON QUIXOTE @ the Kennedy Center. :rolleyes:

Lately, the world's been coming to me with the upcoming Ashton celebration @ the Met and Tom Stoppard's JUMPERS transferring from the West End to Broadway.

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I quote Nanatchka:

I adore Silvy's travelogue, too. So dashing---Montevideo to Buenos Aires. (Such wonderful names.) Makes the train trip from NYC to Washington DC seem exceedingly dull....

Well,it is actually only a 50 minute flight!!!! (and almost 3 hours ferry) - not that far!! :D

Silvy

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