Ari

Donnelan had (has?) his own company, called Cheek By Jowl, that perform(ed)(s) Shakespeare. It was quite celebrated in London and made the trip to the Brooklyn Academy of Music five or six years ago. I saw Much Ado and remember it as a pretty conventional staging and not up to the hype, both good and bad. His most famous staging was, I believe, of As You Like It, performed entirely by men. I also saw his production of Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul a couple of years ago -- a boring play (except for the opening monologue) with, again, nothing startling about the direction. Perhaps there is someone else involved in this R&J? Is there a choreographer, or is Donnelan expanding his artistic range?

It was written during the 1979-80 or 1980-81 winter season and published about a year later. A lovely book.

From yesterday's Links, here is a story on the defection:

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...7/APN/310170601

Well, this was some time ago (1988), but I was in Amsterdam the night a new production of Swan Lake opened (I don't know if it's the same one they're doing now), and I waited on a line for returns and got a ticket. Why don't you call the theater and ask?

Good luck!

Lara, the Kirov always sells out in DC, so your best bet is to try for standing room. I'm not sure when it goes on sale, but you have to buy it in person at the box office.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, which gives very good accounts of Balanchine ballets, will be at the Kennedy Center in early December, and the Royal Danish Ballet, another world-class company (although not now very strong, from reports on this board) will be there from Jan. 13-18 with one of their signature works, Napoli.

I don't think anyone was implying that Boal has had a greater influence on the SFB than Farrell, citibob. His name came up in the discussion of whether Farrell's style has influenced her dancers, of which he is one. Leigh said he thought that Boal was more likely to influence other dancers than to be influenced by Farrell, that's all.

Boal is such a fully formed dancer that any influence Farrell (or anyone else) might have on him is likely to be less noticeable than it would be on a younger and less experienced dancer. But since he continues to work with her, it must be a rewarding relationship for him.

There tends to be more available on PAL, for ex. the POB is releasing a whole series of new discs of the company performing Nureyev's productions that include a featurette of them rehearsing etc.. with interviews. There are about 4 or so out now, but only Romeo and Juliet is available in the U.S.  Who knows if they're going to release the others here.  They released the POB Don Q. here earlier this year, but not the Sleeping Beauty.

The recent documentary about the POB, Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet, will be released on a Region 1 (North America) DVD on Oct. 21. Amazon carries it (hint, hint -- see banner at top of page).

Also, multi-region DVD players are available in the U.S. (and other countries). See my post here.

According to the Times, the Farrell company's Oct. 4 performance in Princeton is sold out. Perhaps that will lead to a spurt in sales in Newark.

Alexandra, I believe this is the same news that was released a couple of days ago, but many papers and other news organizations are just getting round to printing/running it. There appears to be a disagreement as to whether the Bolshoi has to comply with the Ministry's decision. Stay tuned, this show is far from over.

I may not be remembering perfectly well, but I don't think I ever saw pirouettes to the left in Balanchine's work at NYCB until after his death.

The danseur's solo in Theme & Variations calls for pirouettes to be done alternately to the left and right. In my viewing experience, Helgi Tomasson used to do them, but I can't think of a subsequent dancer who did.

Fille'smom, there have been a number of threads about this subject. The latest news (click here) is that Russia's Ministry of Labor has ruled that the Bolshoi's firing was illegal. However, it is not at all clear that this means that Volochkova will rejoin the company. See Alexandra's post towards the end of this thread.

LunaTick, Ash gave an interview to the Saratogian this summer in which she talked a little about her move:

Dancer Hangs Up Her NYCB Toe Shoes

I was pretty lucky -- my power only went out for 4 1/2 hours, but my cable service (both TV and internet) were down for over a day, which is why I haven't been posting. In my neighborhood, however, others were without power for much longer, as late as yesterday afternoon. A cafe on the next block was giving away free ice cream because it was already 2/3 melted. My office was closed for two days, unnecessarily on Thursday, I think. The local transit authority made the (bad, IMO) decision to close the metro (Washington-area subway) at 11:00 am on Thursday, meaning that there wasn't enough time to go into work and get home again.

But everything is creeping back to normal now.

Tessa, Dane La Fontsee was an adult in the 1970s, so you're probably thinking of someone else. But I believe he has a daughter -- is that whom you're remembering?

Somehow I scream that the ice cream must be only one flavor of this story....

Indeed. Since the Bolshoi just hired Svetlana Zakharova, another very big (well, tall) ballerina, I doubt that Volochkova's size was the moving factor here . . .

When I saw Volochkova with the Bolshoi a year and a half ago, my reaction was the same as Alexandra's. In Don Q she looked like everything I'd been lead to expect -- vulgar, and a performer for whom ballet was a means, not an end. But in Bayadere (I didn't see her Swan Lake) she was entirely different, a serious and disciplined artist. Whatever her excesses may be, there is something genuine and worthwhile there. It's too bad that she doesn't seem to have been able to find a company with which she can work.

Well, Alexandra, the Joffrey will be performing at Lincoln Center during the Ashton Festival. I don't know what they're bringing, but we can always keep our fingers crossed.

The library supply firm sounds promising, Koshka. Could you find out the name and contact information and either post it here or PM me?

Like many of us here, I have an enormous stash of old ballet programs. They are presently crammed into plastic egg crates and scattered loose around my apartment. I once tried to keep the boxed stuff in groups by seasons, but they've been moved around so many times now that there's not much order to them. And I'm beginning to worry about losing the uncrated programs.

What I would like to do, if possible, is to buy binders for these programs (yeah, I know, that's a lot of binders) and shelve them in chronological order. I'm talking now just about the conventional, Playbill-sized programs; the oddly sized ones will have to be handled separately. Playbill itself sells binders, but they don't hold many programs and they're expensive and not very attractive. I know that there are places that sell binders for paper products such as programs -- I once saw a catalog, a long time ago, but don't remember the company's name. Does anyone know of such stores or companies?

I'm not interested in tearing up my programs or putting the info into a database. I love the programs as artifacts; I like to look at the articles and even the ads. Part of the nostalgia.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thanks, Amy. We already have two other threads on this topic, so I'm going to close this one. The appropriate thread is in the Kirov forum, ready for more posts!

The Kennedy Center has announced that there will be four additional "events" featuring Suzanne Farrell and members of her company:

Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 2:00 pm: Open Rehearsal

Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm: "Exploring Ballet With Suzanne Farrell" (for adults) "From plies to pirouettes, discover how it feels to dance as Suzanne Farrell leads this unique and inspriational movement class for adult non-dancers. Please wear solid-colored, close-fitting clothing, such as yoga pants or leggings, and ballet slippers; a ballet skirt is optional. Space is limited."

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm: Coaching a Solo

Sunday, Jan. 25, 2004, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm: Pas de Deux

All but the second are available as a subscription for $40 (or $36 for subscribers or KC Members). "Exploring Ballet" is $35.

rg, try these sites:

WhatIs.com

Free On Line Dictionary of Computing

Their explanations of DVDs are pretty good.

Welcome to Ballet Alert, Iceflight! I look forward to reading you.

Yes, she is. See the following article from last December:

http://www.post-gazette.com/food/20021219c...ood1219fnp2.asp (scroll down)

Why is it, that while much of classical music came from German and Austrian composers, there are few German and Austrian ballets?

One thought that comes to mind is that German music tends to be heavy, and the best ballet music is light -- not light as in "frivolous" but as in "getting off the ground." The dance music I can think of in German works tends to be folk-based: a weighty kind of dancing. Of course, if there had been choreographers of real talent working in Germany and Austria at the time of the great composers, this might have been different.

I was one of those who didn't like her. To me, she was not a classical dancer in a company that had little to offer women who weren't. Balanchine partially solved the problem by making ballets on her in which he built on her strengths and hid her weaknesses, but she also danced repertory standards (Dew Drop, Titania, 1st movement Bizet, Liebeslieder Walzer, etc.) in which she -- and, consequently, the ballets -- did not look good.

She and Balanchine were close personal friends, and he appeared to use her to express a vision of mature womanliness that he couldn't with other ballerinas. But it was hard for me to watch her onstage.