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Director's Choice: March 16-17 and 22-25


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I saw on FB there will be 11 debuts in Red Angels over the run.  Eight are in the opening weekend.  Will be fun to see  who the other three are!

 

Also, didn’t Seth Orza dance Slingerland Duet with Carla Korbes?  That is my recollection and it looks like him in the trailer.  But there is an asterisk next to his name on the casting section of the website, denoting first time in role.

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According to the casting list from 2015, Korbes and Orza danced it Opening Night, followed by L. Tisserand (replacing Maria Chapman) and K. Cruz on the Saturday matinee before it was removed from New Suite, but Michael Upchurch reviewed what appears to have been Opening Night from the rest of the casting in his review, and he wrote about Tissearabd and Cruz in Slingerland (ID is the composer Byars):

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/dance/dancemaker-william-forsythe-gives-pnb-audience-a-thrill/

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Casting for second week is up:

https://www.pnb.org/season/17-18/directors-choice/

Link to the updated downloadable spreadsheet:

Directors Choice 15 Mar 18.xlsx

There's a fourth, all-debut cast for "Red Angels" second weekend Thursday and Sunday (matinee) with Cecilia Iliesiu, Dylan Wald, Amanda Morgan, and Christopher D'Ariano.  From Friday-Sunday, the couples get paired with other couples.

A new cast for Thomson's "The Perpetual State" performs on Friday and Sunday.

An all-but-one debut cast for "One Flat Thing Reproduced" performs first on second weekend Thursday-Saturday.

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Sorry, was distracted by the asterisks in One Flat Thing casting and the alphabetical order:  half of the first weekend cast dances second weekend Thurs-Sat, and half the cast is new.

Here's a mid-flight Lindsi Dec in Red Angels:

 

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In the OFTR casting, each time a dancer has an asterisk by his or her name, he or she is dancing in a new role. Several do two roles in OFTR, and the debuts in the second roles will be on Thursday. I know that's confusing when the roles aren't identified by anything other than dancer names and everyone is listed alphabetically.

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47 minutes ago, Helene said:

Thanks, Doug!  

I can't imagine remembering one of those roles, let alone more than one, and going back to the original one next Sunday afternoon.

 

And that's why you and I sit in the audience, instead of dancing on stage...

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A few short notes from last Saturday:

Leta Biasucci was a wonder in Thomson's "The Perpetual State," but that is no surprise, since she has carried ballets since her second or third season, including full-lengths, and that is not something that title/rank alone indicates.  The ballet has some lovely sections for the corps, which danced even more superbly for their colleague than their regular stellar level, depicting rituals of mourning.  I wish there had been more between Biasucci's character and Ricard Orza's and more of the third couple, the brilliantly matched Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan and Ryan Cardea, but, that in itself is a success, leaving the audience wanting more.  Ricard Orza proved again how moving she can be, just by walking on a stage.

Guillaume Basso was eye-catching in the corps, and he's been doing quiet, but stellar work all season.  

There were debuts in Red Angels on Saturday.  Dammiel Cruz and Elle Macy popped with their strong, dynamic dancing and rhythmic acuity.  I wish they had been paired together.   The evening couples -- Laura Tisserand and William Lin-Yee and Leta Biasucci and Benjamin Griffiths -- also were making debuts, but danced with authority and expert grasp of the subtleties and syncompation.

Lindsi Dec was awesome in Slingerland, with strength and a definite point of view, dancing with Miles Pertl.

If I had to describe "One Flat Thing Reproduced," before last Saturday, my memory of it from having seen it multiple times in both of its two runs was that at least 25% of the time, there were table legs raised and slammed down and tables slammed together.  I loved the movement itself -- it was like watching circuit boards light up, and patterns are my favorite thing about dance -- but I found it nearly unwatchable, wondering why they were trying to kill my dancers.

As it turns out, either my memory was wrong, or there was a reduction down to 5%, and I could love it like I wanted to back then.  It's a great piece to watch from various levels of the theater, since there's so, so much going on at once.  Christian Poppe was explosive, no matter where my vantage point was, but sitting on the Main Floor, I was mesmerized by Jerome Tisserand's and Lucien Postlewaite's interactions above and below a center front table.  To mention it again, Kyle Davis did an amazing short solo in which he used the table like a pommel horse.

 

 

 

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On 3/21/2018 at 11:11 AM, Helene said:

Leta Biasucci was a wonder in Thomson's "The Perpetual State...."

Amen to that!

Everyone raves about her technical skill, and as a CPYB trained dancer that is not surprising, but for me even more thrilling is the way Leta interprets dance. She does a million little things that create art out of steps and positions: there's a slight hesitation here before she moves on; an extra flex to her wrist there that conveys meaning when none existed before; a turn of her head that has me think "her character is remembering"; and most of all, her sheer abandon to the joy of dancing.

Leta is a treasure......and I treasure her.

P.S. BTW, all of this is evident even in the short video clip above.

Edited by SandyMcKean
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PNB just released a new video of the end of "One Flat Thing Reproduced" with the Opening Night cast.  You can see Kyle Davis' mini-solo in it.  If the still remains the same, from l-r I recognize the dancers facing front or sideways:  Lucien Postlewaite (blue shirt, brown pants), Steven Loch, maybe Claire Ruf Maldonado in the blue sleeveless shirt and light pants, Kyle Davis (green shirt), Noelani Pantastico (pink shirt, tan pants, leg up), Jerome Tisserand, and Dylan Wald.

I saw last night's performance with a half new cast, and six dancers from the Opening Night cast in different roles.  Maybe because I was watching different dancers, but it looked like a substantially different work last night, and the energy was quite different, with a stronger contrast of softness and aggressiveness.  Although it was a different part, at least I think it was based on stage area, it was William Lin-Yee who had intermittent flashes of gymnastics/martial arts like flare throughout.  It was Christopher D'Ariano and Ezra Thomson who did the front-and-center on and off the table parts, and it looked like a different conversation.

The second all-debut cast Red Angels was the most physically balanced of the ones I've seen so far.  Amanda Morgan alternated between softness and dynamism, and she and Dylan Wald in the second couple excelled in their solos in the last part.  Christoper d'Ariano and Cecilia Iliesiu blazed throughout, and Iliesiu's fire and Dylan Wald's cool style hit a sweet spot of contrast.  The best part of "Red Angels" for me is that the partnering demands allows for dancers who are closer in height than is possible in classical and some neoclassical partnering outside of Bournonville.

For me, between "Red Angels" and "In the Middle," Christopher D'Ariano went from "New Guy in the Back" to "Just Been Born."

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A couple of additions/corrections to the One Flat video:  Over on the far left, so that you can barely see him in the photo, is Christian Poppe (shirt is black in front and green in back) -- he bounces up and sits on the table only to bounce right off again several times, like a puppy.  Elle Macy is sitting with her back to the audience, long sleeve olive green shirt.  Kyle Davis' shirt is actually blue, with white stripes on the shoulders/sleeves (it's hard to see in this photo) -- the green long sleeve hoody is Ryan Cardea. 

I'm very sorry to have missed the debut cast in Red A.  It's a work that lets you really look at specific dancers, and it sounds like you saw a lot!

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I really like Slingerland but this time around it’s just not the same without live music.  Someone asked about the music and the skirt at one of the evening post-performance talks, first Saturday I believe. Forsythe wants this recording used. :( And I liked the former Pringle skirt (that’s what Peter Boal called it), I wish they still used it.

Also I would like to echo Sandy McKean’s praise of Leta Biasucci!!!  She is a very unique dancer, we are SO LUCKY to have her.  I’ve watched the Perpetual State videos (studio and in costume) several times.  Her phrasing is just to die for; her artistry continues to improve beyond my imagination.  I really hope she is promoted to Principal next season!

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13 hours ago, seattle_dancer said:

I really like Slingerland but this time around it’s just not the same without live music.  Someone asked about the music and the skirt at one of the evening post-performance talks, first Saturday I believe. Forsythe wants this recording used. :( And I liked the former Pringle skirt (that’s what Peter Boal called it), I wish they still used it.

Also I would like to echo Sandy McKean’s praise of Leta Biasucci!!!  She is a very unique dancer, we are SO LUCKY to have her.  I’ve watched the Perpetual State videos (studio and in costume) several times.  Her phrasing is just to die for; her artistry continues to improve beyond my imagination.  I really hope she is promoted to Principal next season!

I loved that costume as well -- it was on the same program as Vertiginous Thrill, with those flying saucer tutus, and they all made me very happy.

I remember when Biasucci came up here from Oregon Ballet Theater.  She was already very distinctive, and she just keeps growing.  It's a real pleasure to watch that kind of career trajectory.

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I saw the final performance. I enjoyed the Poulanc music, and the choreography was structured with similarity to Opus 19: The Dreamer.  I didn’t love it, though I was prepared to.  Angelica Generosa was effective, but it’s not a great work.  It’s just not.  

I like Slingerland, and Laura Tisserand and Karel Cruz danced well.  But the audience deserves live musicians.  

Red Angels was a mixed.  The concert master performed the violin solo, and the opening couple danced a not-quite-fully-baked version.  Sarah Pasch and Dammiel Cruz.   Things were neither authoritative, snappy, or breathtaking enough. 

The second couple - Cecilia Iliesiu and Dylan Wald - were perfectly baked Red Angel cakes.  Everything was spot on.  

The less said about the table writhing “ballet” the better.  I will never sit through this ballet again. 

Edited by Jayne
Corrections to cast names and spelling
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