sandik

[Admin note: Responses to a now defunct post disputing some historical claims that Mark Morris made in his new memoir. apologies for some lack of continuity to avoid losing the discussion.] I've only just started to read this, and so haven't gotten to this claim. Seattle is my home town, and many of my early ballet experiences were with the Joffrey. While Pas des Deesses is indeed an homage to the Romantic era (rather than a reconstruction), the company did stage many significant reconstructions, in some cases keeping dances from being lost altogether. I've always counted myself lucky that I was able to see as much as I did, considering how difficult it was back then to see foundational works.

And just after I heard about a site and organization representing Glen Tetley's work, the "de Mille Working Group" is launching a website. They're run by de Mille's son Jonathan Prude, and are licensing the works and supervising stagings. The listings of recent and future performances is pretty clear, which is a very useful thing.

It looks like the Fathom Events screening of Giselle in January will be of the new Ratmansky production. I don't know if they have a DVD in mind -- sometimes these screenings result in a DVD, and sometimes they don't.

This came to my inbox today -- it's pretty comprehensive and well organized. Tetley was indeed one of the first modern dance choreographers to work extensively with ballet companies, and helped to jumpstart many of the hybrid works we see in current performance. From the press announcement: November 2019 | Debut Issue Announcing the Launch of a New Website! We are thrilled to present to you the new digital home of The Glen Tetley Legacy! Dancers and audience members worldwide have not forgotten the impact Glen Tetley left on dance history with his innovative and provoking choreography marrying classical ballet with modern dance. We invite you to learn more about Glen Tetley's lifelong contribution to dance by viewing hundreds of archival and recent photographs of dance companies worldwide performing his choreography! For the first time, a comprehensive Index of Tetley Choreographic Works and information about Licensing a Tetley choreography are available online. Discover the monumental figures in dance, such as Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, and Robert Joffrey who were instrumental in Glen Tetley's dance education by perusing his pictorial biography! Thank you to the Glen Tetley Legacy Founders, Tetley Family, Board members, Dance Community, and Friends for your support in honoring and preserving the works and life of Glen Tetley.

No kidding -- that's some really wonderful stuff. There was a long (and sometimes cranky)m thread on Facebook a couple years ago that included Ratmansky, who was opposed to men "dancing like women" in ballet. I think that everyone involved got the period conventions mixed up with the kinetic possibilities, and tempers became a bit frayed, but right here he's managed several things that are stereotypically female-identified, and it all looks fantastic. This is both thoroughly classical (there are some moments here that could have been straight from Petipa) and absolutely modern -- what a thrill. Val Caniparoli made a work for PNB a few years ago, using this score -- I liked it very much, and wish that parts of it could come back, but this is ever so much more so (to quote Robert McCloskey). Now I really want to see the whole thing!

It sounds like it shares several elements with the Pacific Northwest Ballet production, which Doug Fullington and Marion Smith contributed to. The production ends with a forgiveness scene, as Helene mentions earlier in this thread, and restores some of the additional byplay (including a comic scene towards the beginning of act II where the village men find themselves in the forest after midnight.) The company will be performing it in the spring (April 9-19), which gives the opportunity for some compare and contrast fun. There's also a couple of educational events planned, including a symposium, during the second weekend -- if you're in the vicinity, it should be well worth the visit.

This came across my screen today!

The Vancouver Ballet Society announced that it is discontinuing the print edition of its long-term magazine, and shifting it to fully online. It sounds like they'll try to keep the same mix of coverage, but it's still a sad milestone. Here's the official notice. Dear Dance International Subscribers, These are hard times for print publications, as you all likely know, and Dance International is no exception. We have had several serious financial setbacks over the last couple of years, including the loss of our international distribution when our main newsstand chain cut smaller titles, such as ours, due to shrinking newsstand space. Printing and mailing costs have endlessly increased; advertisers have moved toward online opportunities; and there is more and more demand for online reading material, with its easy access and timeliness. With all this in mind, the Vancouver Ballet Society, which is the founding publisher of Dance International magazine, has made the heartbreaking decision to cease print publication. The Winter 2019 issue will be our last. There is good news. VBS will continue to support DI’s website. Kaija Pepper will stay on as editor, commissioning features, reviews and our popular city reports. I hope you will continue to read us there. After more than forty years, although the change is difficult, VBS is so pleased to have the online forum of www.danceinternational.org to continue our legacy of bringing dance without borders to readers around the world. All of us at VBS will definitely miss our beautiful print quarterly, which has been such a labour of love for everyone. We didn’t expect it to keep going as long as we did, but managed to stay afloat with the help of our loyal subscribers, advertisers and government funders. Very best wishes, Maureen Allen Board President, Vancouver Ballet Society Publisher of Dance International

The folks at Dance Books are selling some mixed ephemera on eBay -- there are some lovely photos, so go take a look. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/araf22/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from

Oh yes!

Friends of ours used this, and everyone was all misty

oh snap

Pacific Northwest Ballet had a go at this a few years ago, and it was just ravishing.

Ah, now that's something i can sympathize with. I'm a dance critic, and try hard not to read any of my colleague's commentary before I finish my own work -- I'm a real sponge.

I'm so sorry that you're having ankle troubles, especially if it leads to surgery. But I think that bingeing on Apollo is an excellent treatment, at least intellectually!

What she said! I love Saura's flamenco films, especially El amor brujo. And yes, people here in the neighborhood talk about works-in-progress a lot!

Thanks for the heads-up!

Kurt Anderson of Studio 360 has an interview with MM here.

I've been watching rehearsals, and I think this is going to be an exceptionally varied program. A really nice dose of contemporary work before Nutcracker season sets in.

My daughter and I loved Coco -- she's in her 20s, so maybe not a good gauge of the child audience, but we saw a lot of kids there and they seemed receptive.

I can only imagine how difficult it is to organize 24 hours of moving target live "television" I do love the idea that somewhere, someone is always taking morning class, but it's also interesting to see what companies decide to feature in the pre-recorded sections. (a tiny plug for Pacific Northwest Ballet's video of their Dance for Parkinson's project!)

Absolutely. Buffy the Vampire Slayer reminded me of DS in an odd way, and look at the traction it had.

I hurried home from school to watch the original version back in the day -- most of us were familiar with our mother's soap operas (long summer holidays and sick days from school) and we all thought that DS was ever so much more sophisticated!

Do you watch much work made with pedestrian movement? MM's work can be deceptive -- it's very hard to do those phrases with that intensity and clarity, but they are very clearly derived from material that we all do. Is that what's troubling you?

I'm sorry -- that kind of glitch is such a frustration. Looking at your truncated comments, though, makes me think that you really do miss the ballet vocabulary when you're watching Morris. While I love ballet, my movement world is full of other stuff as well, which might account for the difference in our experience. I did want to add, though, that I think MM's best works are for a group of people, rather than a solo or a duet. I love the opening duet from Balanchine's Chaconne (and thanks for linking it!), and I likely wouldn't see something like that from MM, but there it is -- he's as much a decendent of Jose Greco and Doris Humphrey as he is of Balanchine and Petipa.