Ari

When you say "Paris," BW, Tancos, and cargill, do you mean Paris in the 1840s or the 1910s?

Okay, here's a chance to catch those performances you've always wished you'd seen. A good fairy has granted you the right to travel back in time only once, to one of places and periods listed above, in order to let you see for yourself the things you've only read about. Which would you choose, and why? Note: I've limited this poll to the years BEFORE 1930, on the assumption that the death of Diaghilev in 1929 ushered in the modern era of ballet, the one we're still living in. If this poll attracts people's interest, we can have another one with choices ranging from 1930 to the present.

Okay, here's a chance to catch those performances you've always wished you'd seen. A good fairy has granted you the right to travel back in time only once, to one of places and periods listed above, in order to let you see for yourself the things you've only read about. Which would you choose, and why? Note: I've limited this poll to the years BEFORE 1930, on the assumption that the death of Diaghilev in 1929 ushered in the modern era of ballet, the one we're still living in. If this poll attracts people's interest, we can have another one with choices ranging from 1930 to the present.

I'm not a fan of the project either, Calliope. The idea behind it is good—after all, ballet cannot survive without the creation of new works—but this method of developing them seems to me to be counter-productive. The speed at which choreographers in the Project are expected to work may be possible for veteran dance-makers, but one of the Project's goals is supposed to be nurturing new talent. I'm not a choreographer, but I think that if I were, I'd be intimidated by the pressure to make a complete ballet in the allotted time, and that might result in the premiere of a half-finished work, which benefits no one. It also forces choreographers to work within a narrow stylistic mode, the Balanchine one, which may not be best either for them or for the company. It's been argued that Balanchine-style formalism is dead. That may or may not be true, but I think it is entitled to a rest now and then, especially for young choreographers that have been brought up in the NYCB tradition. They need to spread their artistic wings and try styles and approaches that may be new for them. Balanchine himself did that for several years, as a beginning choreographer, before returning to the Petipa tradition. If the new ballets were spread out among the company's seasons, more time could be spent planning the ballet, consulting with the music director and designers (yes, designers! :eek: ), and working with the dancers to achieve a more finished work of art. As it is, I think the Project exists because it has special funding and the donors want to see some Really Big Hoopla for their bucks, and because the company has a history of festivals (although none has been as successful as the first, the 1972 Stravinsky Festival). Still, the dispersal of ballets in this year's Project might bode well for spreading them out even more in the future.

Alymer, your post reminded me that ABT used to identify its corps in its printed programs as "Misses Bustillo, Cordell, Goldman, Hamel," and "Mssrs. Bager, Cordial, Hook," etc. The company continued this practice well into the 1980s, if I remember rightly.

Alymer, your post reminded me that ABT used to identify its corps in its printed programs as "Misses Bustillo, Cordell, Goldman, Hamel," and "Mssrs. Bager, Cordial, Hook," etc. The company continued this practice well into the 1980s, if I remember rightly.

Sylvia, the Kennedy Center's Opera House will be closed for renovation for one year beginning in December. Therefore, the ballet series is going to have to move to other venues. Most performances will take place at a smaller theater that would not house big ballets very well, so they can't present the big companies of the world in full force. As a sop to their subscribers' expectations, they are staging what they call a festival for two weeks in March that will feature dancers from a number of major companies performing chamber-sized ballets. In addition to the Royal (or three members of it), the "festival" will include dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet, ABT, Miami City Ballet, the Kirov, and another company whose name I've forgotten.

Remember Jeff Edwards and Cornel Crabtree? They've popped up in Providence, Rhode Island, and the local paper has published interviews with both of them. Interesting to see what they've been doing. After NYCB, Zurich, and Lyon, Jeff enrolled in Brown and is about to graduate with a degree in Modern Culture and Media. Read more about it: http://www.projo.com/yourlife/content/proj...y.3e7812d8.html Cornel (his first name is a diminutive of a Romanian name—his mother is Romanian) is a freelance dancer specializing in character parts. No surprise to those of us who remember his wonderful gangster in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. http://www.projo.com/theater/content/projo...i.24eb786d.html

I've never seen them, BW, but from what I've read about them it seems that the word "ballet" in their name is inaccurate. The programs they are presenting on their American tour, at least, appear to feature just about every kind of dancing except ballet.

Alymer, the converse (obverse? well, other side) of what you're saying is also true: it can be a way of boasting that you're close enough to the dancer to know their special nickname. When Elyse Borne was with NYCB, for instance, a few people I knew enjoyed referring to her as "Lisa Borne," as that was apparently the name she went by offstage. (The "Borne" was necessary to distinguish her from a couple of official Lisas in the company.)

Alymer, the converse (obverse? well, other side) of what you're saying is also true: it can be a way of boasting that you're close enough to the dancer to know their special nickname. When Elyse Borne was with NYCB, for instance, a few people I knew enjoyed referring to her as "Lisa Borne," as that was apparently the name she went by offstage. (The "Borne" was necessary to distinguish her from a couple of official Lisas in the company.)

I think it has to do with the personal feelings engendered when you watch a dancer perform many times. After all, it's live theater, you're both there in the "room" at the same time. When you watch a dancer over a period of time and follow their development, you come to think that you know them. I've noticed that I tend to refer to dancers I've never seen by their last names—Tallchief, Beriosova, Lopatkina.

I think it has to do with the personal feelings engendered when you watch a dancer perform many times. After all, it's live theater, you're both there in the "room" at the same time. When you watch a dancer over a period of time and follow their development, you come to think that you know them. I've noticed that I tend to refer to dancers I've never seen by their last names—Tallchief, Beriosova, Lopatkina.

Who do you think is the best composer of ballet music? (I'm talking about scores specifically written for dance.) Since I think most of us would vote for Tschaikovsky, I've left him out. But after him, who would you vote for? Since we're limited to six choices in a poll, I haven't had room for "Other," but if you think that someone not on the list is best, please name him and explain why in a post. And the rest of you who do vote, please tell us why you voted as you did.

Who do you think is the best composer of ballet music? (I'm talking about scores specifically written for dance.) Since I think most of us would vote for Tschaikovsky, I've left him out. But after him, who would you vote for? Since we're limited to six choices in a poll, I haven't had room for "Other," but if you think that someone not on the list is best, please name him and explain why in a post. And the rest of you who do vote, please tell us why you voted as you did.

Paquita, don't worry about adding a donation to your ticket order. I don't know anyone who does this. Not that it isn't a good idea—the company certainly needs the money, but then so do we! Other companies have the same line on their order forms. It's good of you to want to help them, but, believe me, they will be happy just to get your ticket order!

bijoux, you can discover information on all the New York City Ballet's repertory on their website. Here are the pages for the ballets you mentioned: Monumentum Pro Gesualdo: http://www.nycballet.com/about/rep_monumentum.html Movements for Piano and Orchestra: http://www.nycballet.com/about/rep_movements.html Ballo Della Regina: http://www.nycballet.com/about/rep_ballo.html Monumentum and Movements were actually created three years apart, but since Movements entered the repertory they have always been performed together. You're lucky to be able to see all of these ballets, since they're not often performed by other companies.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed report, colwill. It's interesting that the company has replaced some of the classical dancing and mime with character and folk dancing. Is there a strong tradition of such dancing in Latvia, do you know?

I wonder if the WSJ's increased arts coverage has anything to do with its ongoing competition with the Financial Times, which has had a highly regarded arts section for many years. By "competition" I don't mean a scramble for readers, because I agree with Kathleen that the number of those who value this kind of coverage is probably a miniscule part of their overall circulation. I'm thinking more in terms of "anything you can do I can do better."

I wonder if the WSJ's increased arts coverage has anything to do with its ongoing competition with the Financial Times, which has had a highly regarded arts section for many years. By "competition" I don't mean a scramble for readers, because I agree with Kathleen that the number of those who value this kind of coverage is probably a miniscule part of their overall circulation. I'm thinking more in terms of "anything you can do I can do better."

emhbunhead, are Eric and Alison Otto related to David Otto, a former NYCB corps member?

In this week's New York magazine, Tobi Tobias compares Susan Stroman's new choreography to Agnes DeMille's, and also reviews Christopher Wheeldon's work in Sweet Smell of Success:

One additional note: the opening performance on Tuesday, June 11, which will feature the Bolshoi Opera Chorus as well as the ballet, will begin at 7:00 pm, not 8:00 as originally stated. The KC took the trouble of phoning me (a subscriber) to let me know. Roma, the "Friends of the KC" (e.g., folks who give money) get first crack at advance sales, a month or more before the general public, which is why the tickets go so fast.

I didn't mean to imply that fairy tales or folk tales have no meaning or depth, BW. Obviously they do, as cargill and Helena have pointed out (and it's for this reason that ballets based on such works can be so moving). I was just trying to distinguish them from the kinds of literature that explore motivations and situations in depth and/or deal with a social, cultural, or historical milieu that is very difficult, if not impossible, to convey through dance and gesture. These were the problems that liebs had with Onegin, and that I've had too with some other story ballets. A good choreographer can take an ordinary moment in a story—say, a young girl meeting her suitors—and turn it into a poetic essay on growing up and a brilliant classical dance number at the same time. But I can't imagine how he'd have shown a hero with a complex personality challenging his best friend to a duel and then, defying convention, killing him.

Wasn't MacMillan's "Requiem" first made for the Stuttgart Ballet?