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ABT 2016 Le Corsaire


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Adding to this discussion - change in a dancer's career is inevitable - some dancers who have waited years for their "turn" then find that a new artistic director decides to take the company in a completely different direction or, that their turn never "arrives" because better and harder working dancers are hired from outside the company - unsettling the ranks of supposedly "secure" dancers.

Both Whiteside and Cirio come from an experienced background at Boston Ballet, having danced many principal roles with much partnering experience and they have a strong work ethic. My point being that dancers aren't victims - they are artists and athletes and in charge of their career. Work harder. Move to another company. Just as artistic directors are responsible for the end result of their decision making (are more tickets sold? is the company losing money or making money?) - so dancers are responsible for their decisions (are they progressing as artists and athletes - are they dancing the rep that they want to dance?) The career path of Matthew Golding is a case in point - ABT to one season at Corella Ballet which was a quick stepping stone to the reknowned Dutch National Ballet, and then to principal at Royal Ballet. Hopefully, each dancer can depend on their own logic and intuition to find that unique path.

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I know there were mixed reviews on Le Corsaire and opening night.

Danceviewtimes has several reviews of the ballet. The one of opening night is below.

I like his final paragraph, as I felt the same way.

"So thus, at the end of the performance, one asked oneself once again whether this ballet, so denigrated as mere entertainment and a fouetté-fest over the years, might even be real art? The circus-like atmosphere that so often surrounds the presentation of Petipa’s variations (with which this work is packed) in general as gala and competition fare makes it difficult to see it that way. The entire modern development of classical ballet in New York since the 1950’s with its Balanchine triumphant historical narrative also makes seriously arguing for this conclusion nearly heresy. But on this night, the sheer power of the dancing, restraint of technique, and dramatic viability of “Corsaire” indicated that the answer to the question is yes: an artistic pleasure nearly different in kind and quality from that of, say Balanchine’s “Agon” on the one hand or “Raymonda Variations” on the other, but truly an artistic pleasure nonetheless."

http://www.danceviewtimes.com/2016/06/chestnut-parfait-no-nutcracker-required.html

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